Getting power usage information directly from Smart Meter

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Getting power usage information directly from Smart Meter - EDMI Mk7C

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#1317595 4-Jun-2015 22:21

I was told by a technical source that the meters use a Zigbee network to upload data to a base station in your neighbourhood about once a day, and the base station uploads the data to the server over 3G. There is virtually no chance you will ever be able to tap into the Zigbee data packets, it is encrypted.

The IR port and/or the flashing LED is the only viable interface. The LED can easily be monitored with an Arduino board or Raspberry Pi. The protocol for the IR interface should not be too hard to track down (I have not checked the above links/comments, time to go to bed).

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lxsw20

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#1317613 4-Jun-2015 22:45

richms:
lxsw20: All you need to know about smart meters right here: http://www.stopsmartmeters.org.nz/

Only if you're a bit weird. A cellphone outside and a small power supply. Nothing to worry about there. One of probably about 200 small power supplies in the house.

Maybe I was being a bit dry.

KShips

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#1331951 26-Jun-2015 10:46

If you want a bit of DIY, I setup My Sensors Pulse meter last week and it was reporting pulses to AgoControl to graph power usage. My plan is send live updates to an LCD http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/149/requesting-a-sensor-value-from-a-different-node/10

Due to the storm I had to take it off since I hadn't weather proofed it but seemed to be reporting well for the night I had it running.

timmmay

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#1331952 26-Jun-2015 10:52

KShips: If you want a bit of DIY, I setup My Sensors Pulse meter last week and it was reporting pulses to AgoControl to graph power usage. My plan is send live updates to an LCD http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/149/requesting-a-sensor-value-from-a-different-node/10

Due to the storm I had to take it off since I hadn't weather proofed it but seemed to be reporting well for the night I had it running.

I like the idea, but tbh unless there's a commercial product I can just buy I probably wouldn't bother.

KShips

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#1331966 26-Jun-2015 11:07

timmmay:
KShips: If you want a bit of DIY, I setup My Sensors Pulse meter last week and it was reporting pulses to AgoControl to graph power usage. My plan is send live updates to an LCD http://forum.mysensors.org/topic/149/requesting-a-sensor-value-from-a-different-node/10

Due to the storm I had to take it off since I hadn't weather proofed it but seemed to be reporting well for the night I had it running.

I like the idea, but tbh unless there's a commercial product I can just buy I probably wouldn't bother.

Yeah I was in similar boat although didn't see any point in spending much money on it since power company has pretty good info on their portal. I already run MySensors and Agocontrol and had the sensors lying around :)

timmmay

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#1331967 26-Jun-2015 11:13

My power company (Flick) takes two days to get usage data back to me.

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#1332134 26-Jun-2015 14:34

Niel: I was told by a technical source that the meters use a Zigbee network to upload data to a base station in your neighbourhood about once a day, and the base station uploads the data to the server over 3G. There is virtually no chance you will ever be able to tap into the Zigbee data packets, it is encrypted.

The IR port and/or the flashing LED is the only viable interface. The LED can easily be monitored with an Arduino board or Raspberry Pi. The protocol for the IR interface should not be too hard to track down (I have not checked the above links/comments, time to go to bed).

Depends on the company I think.

I'm with Contact Energy, and the meter has a sim card to send he data back, not the radio mesh network which Vector / Mercury are using.

robertsona

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#1332196 26-Jun-2015 15:47

lxsw20:
richms:
lxsw20: All you need to know about smart meters right here: http://www.stopsmartmeters.org.nz/

Only if you're a bit weird. A cellphone outside and a small power supply. Nothing to worry about there. One of probably about 200 small power supplies in the house.

Maybe I was being a bit dry.

Oh God, there's a period of my life and calmness lost!

Bee

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#1332216 26-Jun-2015 16:09

2 days seems to be a minimum time for power company reports... some are up to a week. Contact is one of the better ones and their website is pretty good, but yes Something more immediate would be more useful.

Doing your best is much more important than being the best.

graemeh

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#1332255 26-Jun-2015 16:30

JonnyCam:
Niel: I was told by a technical source that the meters use a Zigbee network to upload data to a base station in your neighbourhood about once a day, and the base station uploads the data to the server over 3G. There is virtually no chance you will ever be able to tap into the Zigbee data packets, it is encrypted.

The IR port and/or the flashing LED is the only viable interface. The LED can easily be monitored with an Arduino board or Raspberry Pi. The protocol for the IR interface should not be too hard to track down (I have not checked the above links/comments, time to go to bed).

Depends on the company I think.

I'm with Contact Energy, and the meter has a sim card to send he data back, not the radio mesh network which Vector / Mercury are using.

You are right, it depends on the metering company and the area you live in.

A lot have SIM cards and just use GSM data to communicate. Some use a radio mesh network. It really doesn't matter how the meter communicates, you will not be able to easily intercept and use the data being communicated.

If you want timely data (i.e. see what is happening now) you must get it directly from the meter, nothing else will meet your needs. The meters are not configured to do this in NZ.

Any data from the retailer will always be dated. A lot of the meters communicate daily so the data can already be 24 hrs old by the time it is sent, then the metering company has to process it and send it to the retailer to process so 48hrs is about the best you will ever get with the current environment.

graemeh

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#1332256 26-Jun-2015 16:36

timmmay: I had a smart power meter installed recently, it appears to be an EDMI Mk7C. Flick reports usage information at the half hour level, two days in arrears. Is there any safe, legal, practical way to get finer grained information from it more quickly? Does it do wifi, bluetooth, anything like that?

NB: I will of course not be altering, touching (other than the marked buttons), or modifying anything to do with mains power.

I can't see that anybody has directly answered your questions. I used to work for a company that deploys and manages smart meters (but not Metrix).

To answer your question in a word "No". The meter records in half hour intervals so it can't provide finer grained information. To do what you want would require Metrix to add in a comms board to send you the data.

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#1332331 26-Jun-2015 19:52

lxsw20: All you need to know about smart meters right here: http://www.stopsmartmeters.org.nz/

Web sites like that are always good for a laugh!

Mark

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#1332333 26-Jun-2015 19:54

lxsw20:
richms:
lxsw20: All you need to know about smart meters right here: http://www.stopsmartmeters.org.nz/

Only if you're a bit weird. A cellphone outside and a small power supply. Nothing to worry about there. One of probably about 200 small power supplies in the house.

Maybe I was being a bit dry.

You did put on a rolling around on the floor emoticon on the topic, bit of a give away you were not being that serious :-)

gzt

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#1332389 26-Jun-2015 21:13

gzt: Heres the envi one avail nz

http://www.smartnow.co.nz/products/envir-energy-monitor/optismart-have-arrived/

I'm surprised it wasn't easy to get one of those. Importing from uk is the other option there.

There is an alternative free shipping in USA from the supplier atm:

http://www.bluelineinnovations.com/

But the envi is the more flexible system by a long way.

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gzt

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#1332514 27-Jun-2015 05:29

The open energy monitoring project has an optical option available with a fully built pi node. Optionally can use own pi. Imho extending the RJ45 sensor signal (TTL) cable should work ok to bring the node inside.

http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/buildingblocks/opticalpulsesensor

Has both WiFi and ethernet available. Flexible solution (additional sensors of many kinds can be added) but expensive all up at close to NZD$400.

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