Utility Meter Question

[Sunking]

Isn't this the same Prepper on another thread who claims he has everything planned out? Silly things like a T-105 will last 5 years in storage with his magic secret electrolyte?

[foo1bar]

Silly things like a T-105 will last 5 years in storage with his magic secret electrolyte?

That "whooosh" sound you heard was his joke about Dihydrogen-monoxide (dhmo.org) going over your head.

(Or you successfully trolled me and got me to look for what thread you were talking about.)

[Sunking]

That "whooosh" sound you heard was his joke about Dihydrogen-monoxide

Yes I know what it is and the hoax behind it.

[Mike90250]

Dihydrogen-monoxide is not a joke. One of the most dangerous substances on earth.

[Murby]

A couple decades ago, I could come home, and the meter disc was stationary. That when
the frige or furnace weren't cycling. After I got settled here, that disc was just sailing around,
never below 300W. After a year or so I got the min down to 60W. If you are really running
400W, it would be good to know exactly what it is (a hundred small things here). Bruce Roe

Oh ya.. This whole solar thing has lit a fire under my butt and I'm getting on top of this stuff quick. I downloaded DTE's energy app that allows a smart phone to connect (bluetooth) to my meter to see my energy use.. The only drawback is it only shows what I used before today.. Its not real time and doesn't show the current day but it does show yesterday in something like 5 minute increments or something.... and it shows daily, weekly and monthly histories...

So I got on DTE's (detroit edison) website and found something called an "energy bridge".. its a box you plug into the wall and set within 15 feet of your utility meter.. it connects to the meter via bluetooth and then connects to your home network via wifi (or I think I can use an ethernet cable if I want).. The energy bridge will give you real time power usage stats, graphs, charts, and allow me to set alarms for energy usage. Best part is that DTE will send it to me for free.. which worries me a bit.. what are they getting out of it? I'll have to go into my firewall and block the energy bridge's IP address from accessing the gateway so it can't communicate out of my network.

We have three PC computers that are almost always on.. Mine alone has three 27 inch monitors.. (I'm an engineer and I design stuff for a living).. My wife has a 25" and my 4 year old is always on her computer doing math and spelling stuff and learning about atoms.. (she's going to be a geek like daddy!).. Then there's the two dozen or so wall transformers for cell phone chargers, firewall, modem, smoke alarms, powered pc speakers, ethernet switches, laser printer, two refrigerators, two freezers (three during hunting season).. ceiling fans, television, basement dehumidifier, water softener, and a powered anode in my water heater... YIKES!! I think 400 watts isn't so bad with all that crap plugged in..

Probably the biggest energy hog is the dehumidifier in the basement.. 785 watts! It turns on and runs for 10 minutes and then turns off for 10 minutes... I'm thinking about installing a cycle timer on its power plug so it turns off for 4 hours and then turns on for two or something. Dehumidifiers are just basically air conditioning units that simply pump the heat back into the house instead of expelling it.. Everything else is the same.. and what I know about air conditioners is that they are horribly inefficient when they first start up and the longer they run, the more efficient they are.. err.. more or less.. there is a plateau.. but its not 10 minutes.

Once I can see the energy coming and going, I'll get real motivated to come up with solutions that save energy without interfering with lifestyle.

[AzRoute66]

I hope it (energy bridge) doesn't tell them what type of beer you drink. I have just now emailed my power company insider to ask if they have an unadvertised capability like that that I could borrow for a week.

[ButchDeal]

We have three PC computers that are almost always on.. Mine alone has three 27 inch monitors.. (I'm an engineer and I design stuff for a living).. My wife has a 25" and my 4 year old is always on her computer doing math and spelling stuff and learning about atoms.. (she's going to be a geek like daddy!).. Then there's the two dozen or so wall transformers for cell phone chargers,

might help to invest in LED monitors.

for wall transformers. I have found that many of them, particularly the smaller ones are not very efficient. I have taken to using 6 port chargers like this as a bit more efficient and you can charge more than one item.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6MYZL4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[max2k]

my 4 year old is always on her computer doing math and spelling stuff and learning about atoms..

at 4 years? I don't think I could read at that age

.... Once I can see the energy coming and going, I'll get real motivated to come up with solutions that save energy without interfering with lifestyle.

I'm a little lost how meter info would help you with that- without solar you'd get to see your loads alone. With solar you'd see (loads - generated power) that also cloud dependent etc. When I was trying to identify where energy goes I didn't have solar (and I'd disconnect it anyway) and I had to turn off 90% of the MSP breakers to track some of them down. There was recommendation to get a device called KillaWatt or something like that which would allow you to collect consumption of individual loads. I didn't go that far as pump + lights already provided enough improvement and the difficulty increases exponentially with each new optimization as there won't be any 'low hanging fruits' left.

[J.P.M.]

at 4 years? I don't think I could read at that age



I'm a little lost how meter info would help you with that- without solar you'd get to see your loads alone. With solar you'd see (loads - generated power) that also cloud dependent etc. When I was trying to identify where energy goes I didn't have solar (and I'd disconnect it anyway) and I had to turn off 90% of the MSP breakers to track some of them down. There was recommendation to get a device called KillaWatt or something like that which would allow you to collect consumption of individual loads. I didn't go that far as pump + lights already provided enough improvement and the difficulty increases exponentially with each new optimization as there won't be any 'low hanging fruits' left.

Max: On the Kill-a-Watt meter: costs ~ $20 - $25 or so and is as easy to use as plugging in a clock. I've got 4 of them, one on the motor for the A/C air handler, one on the fridge and 2 others for random use. I've found them very useful for chasing phantom loads. Also, with a bit if thought and a minimum of ingenuity, they're a lot easier to use to wring information out of a device (how much electricity a 240V central A/C unit uses/day/month/yr. for example) than other monitoring schemes/methods. As a use reduction tool, I've got phantom (unknown) loads down to about 25 Watts or so, with the daily "idling " or baseline load of ~ 80 Watts or ~~ 1.9 kWh/day, with ~28 of those Watts going to 2 cable boxes and 10 Watts to a router, the rest to nite lites, clocks and other appliances that have lites/clocks.

[bcroe]

Max: On the Kill-a-Watt meter: costs ~ $20 - $25 I've found them very useful for chasing phantom loads.

Thats a fact; the essential tool here. The later ones have finer resolution. Two BIG advantages
they have have over my lessor stuff: Kill-a-Watt deals accurately with power factor; and it can
integrate the energy over time. Bruce Roe

[Murby]

might help to invest in LED monitors.

for wall transformers. I have found that many of them, particularly the smaller ones are not very efficient. I have taken to using 6 port chargers like this as a bit more efficient and you can charge more than one item.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

They are LED.. Samsung's... Super high resolution I have to drive with a GeForce GTX video cards.. My video card has 3 cooling fans on it.. It doesn't usually run in high gear but when I use all three monitors those fans kick in and I know that card is drawing a lot of juice..

[Murby]

at 4 years? I don't think I could read at that age

She can count to 40, do basic addition up to the number of her fingers (lol), and use an abacus to do the higher numbers.. Writes all her letters and numbers, an kill me because I have no idea how, but she's able to find games and stuff on the internet that I never bookmarked for her... She recognizes a hydrogen atom and helium, can count the electrons, knows the nucleus with protons and neutrons... but doesn't quite understand what it all is yet.. conceptual understanding doesn't extend that far at this point.

I'm a little lost how meter info would help you with that- without solar you'd get to see your loads alone. With solar you'd see (loads - generated power) that also cloud dependent etc. When I was trying to identify where energy goes I didn't have solar (and I'd disconnect it anyway) and I had to turn off 90% of the MSP breakers to track some of them down. There was recommendation to get a device called KillaWatt or something like that which would allow you to collect consumption of individual loads. I didn't go that far as pump + lights already provided enough improvement and the difficulty increases exponentially with each new optimization as there won't be any 'low hanging fruits' left.

I realize when I start tracking down loads that I can't have the solar system connected. that would screw me up... I have a Kilowatt meter.. they're good for some things but don't read really small devices very accurately... and they're only good for one outlet at a time.

Let the battle begin...

[max2k]

She can count to 40, do basic addition up to the number of her fingers (lol), and use an abacus to do the higher numbers.. Writes all her letters and numbers, an kill me because I have no idea how, but she's able to find games and stuff on the internet that I never bookmarked for her... She recognizes a hydrogen atom and helium, can count the electrons, knows the nucleus with
...

Off topic but since it's your thread feel free to stop this: are you sure you haven't missed '1' in front of her age ? Not all 14 yo can do all that . I hate to ... on your parade but contrary to popular beliefs such talented kids are more problematic to bring up unless you have good plan for her school education: they need to be constantly challenged to keep their interest and conventional public school fails miserably in that regard . It is designed as 'extended day care' focused mostly on the needs of the least performing students so we get evenly dumb crop at the end. Such kids get quickly bored there leading to all kind of problems and often unable to produce BS results school expects them. Public system kills such bright minds. Private schools have their own issues that's why I say you better have very good plan. One math teacher from a private school once tried to prove to me that comparing 2 numbers with simple fractions one greater than 1 and another less than 1 requires putting them over common denominator first. His claim was that result of comparison: 1 1/3 and 3/5 depends on the way you go about it. I let him work it out to his shame. Math teacher in my own school would lower my mark if I'd go that way missing simpler solution.

[SunEagle]

Off topic but since it's your thread feel free to stop this: are you sure you haven't missed '1' in front of her age ? Not all 14 yo can do all that . I hate to ... on your parade but contrary to popular beliefs such talented kids are more problematic to bring up unless you have good plan for her school education: they need to be constantly challenged to keep their interest and conventional public school fails miserably in that regard . It is designed as 'extended day care' focused mostly on the needs of the least performing students so we get evenly dumb crop at the end. Such kids get quickly bored there leading to all kind of problems and often unable to produce BS results school expects them. Public system kills such bright minds. Private schools have their own issues that's why I say you better have very good plan. One math teacher from a private school once tried to prove to me that comparing 2 numbers with simple fractions one greater than 1 and another less than 1 requires putting them over common denominator first. His claim was that result of comparison: 1 1/3 and 3/5 depends on the way you go about it. I let him work it out to his shame. Math teacher in my own school would lower my mark if I'd go that way missing simpler solution.

I don't know if the grammar and high schools where I grew up in NJ are any better or worse then they were back in the 60's & 70's but I feel I got a pretty good enough education that got me accepted into a number of prestigious Engineering colleges.

It is hard to say if any public school system has kept the quality it once was.

[max2k]

I don't know if the grammar and high schools where I grew up in NJ are any better or worse then they were back in the 60's & 70's but I feel I got a pretty good enough education that got me accepted into a number of prestigious Engineering colleges.

It is hard to say if any public school system has kept the quality it once was.

it deteriorated a lot since then- one can just go to their respective education department site and take a look at curriculum published there. Math and other exact sciences are particularly problematic starting from overall structure, through low quality study books to even philosophical goals. It is seriously considered nowadays that we teach kids Math so they could count money or calculate materials required to build a fence for example. This approach misses the main point of Math education that is to develop abstract thinking ability. Geometry is not present as standalone subject anymore as someone determined it doesn't have 'practical value'- who needs formal proof that sum of internal angles of a triangle is 180 deg when anyone can cut that triangle from paper, tear off its corners and make up straight line out of them. In some modern curricular this tearing off corners is considered as acceptable proof. What are they going to do with n-dimensional spaces or kids are not supposed to get there ever?