Slashdot Mirror
Home Power Monitoring Hack
dvogt writes "You think your power bill is bad? I built a power monitoring system to monitor every circuit in my house with three second resolution for over a year. And while I had to rewire all my electrical to do it, I can now reconcile my electricity bill down to the penny... Of course when my wife figured out most of the bill was because of my computer gear I had to build her a dome, so reader beware!" From the article: "About a year ago I developed a web based power monitoring application for data centers. The application was designed to monitor thousands of individual branch circuits using current transducers at the breaker panels. Among other things, the data logging requirements were to provide one year of min/max/mean measurement data with one minute resolution per circuit. Since I had all the hardware for testing, I figured what better way to test things than to install it in my own home."
great, you do all this to minimize your bill, then post on slashdot?!?! server is already slow, I imagine the meter is spinning like a top right now...
With the server already grinding to a halt and the "dome" left unexplained in the summary (is it some sort of euphemism?), I'll spoil the ending:
His wife got ticked off, so to apologize he built her a ceiling dome (a recessed dome built into the ceiling, with a light fixture suspended from the peak). It looks nice.
another piece of hardware looking to kill the meter reading industry!
- Meter Reader
Seems to me that this kind of application should be integrated with "Power Over Ethernet" (PoE). Since every node on the network gets its power from the network, the adapter should collect this kind of data, perhaps in an embedded device with its own IP#. The same design logic for DC PoE seems like it should be true about AC "BPL", Broadband over Power Lines. In fact, those power/packet sockets should have cheap little embedded devices that not only report power consumption, but allow control of it via TCP/IP. Isn't there such a network/power platform available COTS?
--
make install -not war
Yeah, tell me about it! My girl gets absolutely furious when I spend all our money on working girls. Stingy bitch.
You don't mess with a woman with a Power Management System...
(ducks)
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Power over Ethernet is not necessary, use the electricity in the TCP/IP connectivity.
See RFC3251, Electricity over TCP/IP. It's a very interesting read if you're not familiar with it.
I've been married for 28 years, largely by studiously avoiding that sort of behavior. I'm frankly surprised the guy is still alive, let alone still married.
getting off topic here, but what happens to your "modifications" when you sell your house?
Caveat emperor?
I think that if an emperor were to buy your house, he could afford to perform his own inspections and rewiring.
Perhaps you meant "caveat emptor".
All employees must wash hands before seeking equitable relief.
Hardware: Zero dollars
Software: Zero dollars
Linux box: Zero dollars
Explaining to your wife that after hours of development you've built a device that proves the most power hungry appliance in your house is the damn power monitoring system itself: Priceless