Brultech Electrical Power Monitoring for your Home

Originally posted by RonX in the TED Thread and moved to this one:

What alternatives are there to whole house power consumption monitoring other than TED? I'm looking for somethign to give me at least amps or kwh used but preferable also line voltage.

It shoudl either integrate with ELK or CQC...

Any suggestions?

Brultech ECM-1220.H http://www.brultech.com/HomeEnergy/HomeEnergy.html, they can provide the API to interface it with a PC. I don't think you can interface it directly with ELK
 
Originally posted by personalt in the TED thread and moved to this one:

How does the software work as far as passing the data to the PC? the unit seems to store the data in real time so can you hook it up to a pc and dump out a months worth of data or does the PC need to be up 24-7 to get a full set of data?
 
Originally posted by dBeau in the TED thread and moved to this one:

How does the software work as far as passing the data to the PC? the unit seems to store the data in real time so can you hook it up to a pc and dump out a months worth of data or does the PC need to be up 24-7 to get a full set of data?

I installed an ECM1220 a couple of months ago. It's a great device. They have some software for windows that allows both realtime readings as well as downloading of history. The device protocol is very simple to work with. It took me less than an hour to put together a python script that would run from my SuSE box and grab the realtime samples so I havnt used their software much and cant comment on it. Their protocol docs arent complete but they claim they are working on it. One of these days I'll write and bug them for an update on how to set the history sample period. But since I am constantly sampling I really dont need the feature. The sample rate is about once per second with a 1 joule (watt/sec) resolution from each of the two channels.

My biggest complaint is that they only have a usb interface. When plugged in, it appears as a serial port so programming is not a problem, it's just a bit limiting in that the device you connect it to needs to support usb and have a driver for the serial chipset. Anything I have with a 2.6 kernel or better has worked, and this includes my nslu2. I'd would have preferred ethernet or straight rs232 for more flexibility.
 
Originally posted by mdonavan in the TED thread and moved to this one:

What alternatives are there to whole house power consumption monitoring other than TED? I'm looking for somethign to give me at least amps or kwh used but preferable also line voltage.

It shoudl either integrate with ELK or CQC...

Any suggestions?

Brultech ECM-1220.H http://www.brultech.com/HomeEnergy/HomeEnergy.html, they can provide the API to interface it with a PC. I don't think you can interface it directly with ELK


RonX - Is there a link on Brultech's home page to the protocol they use? I have been looking for it without success. I see it mentioned several places, along with sample code, but I cab't seem to find it to download. It's probably right in front of me, but I'm just not seeing it. Right after I post this I'm going to look again. I usually find things right after I ask where it is ;)

Matt
 
Originally posted by dBeau in the TED thread and moved to this one:

RonX - Is there a link on Brultech's home page to the protocol they use? I have been looking for it without success. I see it mentioned several places, along with sample code, but I cab't seem to find it to download. It's probably right in front of me, but I'm just not seeing it. Right after I post this I'm going to look again. I usually find things right after I ask where it is ;)

Take a look here:

http://www.brultech.com/HomeEnergy/computerConnection.html
 
Originally posted by mdonovan in the TED thread and moved to this one:

RonX - Is there a link on Brultech's home page to the protocol they use? I have been looking for it without success. I see it mentioned several places, along with sample code, but I cab't seem to find it to download. It's probably right in front of me, but I'm just not seeing it. Right after I post this I'm going to look again. I usually find things right after I ask where it is ;)

Take a look here:

http://www.brultech.com/HomeEnergy/computerConnection.html

I did see that rage but I don't see anywhere to download anything. I just emailed the company.

Matt
 
Originally posted by RonX in the TED thread and moved to this one:

What alternatives are there to whole house power consumption monitoring other than TED? I'm looking for somethign to give me at least amps or kwh used but preferable also line voltage.

It shoudl either integrate with ELK or CQC...

Any suggestions?

Brultech ECM-1220.H http://www.brultech.com/HomeEnergy/HomeEnergy.html, they can provide the API to interface it with a PC. I don't think you can interface it directly with ELK


RonX - Is there a link on Brultech's home page to the protocol they use? I have been looking for it without success. I see it mentioned several places, along with sample code, but I cab't seem to find it to download. It's probably right in front of me, but I'm just not seeing it. Right after I post this I'm going to look again. I usually find things right after I ask where it is ;)

Matt

They can provide it to you if you request it, I received the following response when I was asking them some other questions:

"...I spoke with support and they said that they can email you the software protocol.

Thanks

Tammy

Brultech Research Inc."

In a related topic, it seems that someone already interfaced the ECM-1220 with Mainlooby by their own: http://www.electronichouse.com/article/aff...monitoring/C212
 
Originally posted by mdonovan in the TED thread and moved to this one:

What alternatives are there to whole house power consumption monitoring other than TED? I'm looking for somethign to give me at least amps or kwh used but preferable also line voltage.

It shoudl either integrate with ELK or CQC...

Any suggestions?

Brultech ECM-1220.H http://www.brultech.com/HomeEnergy/HomeEnergy.html, they can provide the API to interface it with a PC. I don't think you can interface it directly with ELK


RonX - Is there a link on Brultech's home page to the protocol they use? I have been looking for it without success. I see it mentioned several places, along with sample code, but I cab't seem to find it to download. It's probably right in front of me, but I'm just not seeing it. Right after I post this I'm going to look again. I usually find things right after I ask where it is ;)

Matt

They can provide it to you if you request it, I received the following response when I was asking them some other questions:

"...I spoke with support and they said that they can email you the software protocol.

Thanks

Tammy

Brultech Research Inc."

In a related topic, it seems that someone already interfaced the ECM-1220 with Mainlooby by their own: http://www.electronichouse.com/article/aff...monitoring/C212

Great, thanks. I'll wait to hear back from them.

Matt
 
Originally posted by dBeau in the TED thread and moved to this one:

RonX - Is there a link on Brultech's home page to the protocol they use? I have been looking for it without success. I see it mentioned several places, along with sample code, but I cab't seem to find it to download. It's probably right in front of me, but I'm just not seeing it. Right after I post this I'm going to look again. I usually find things right after I ask where it is ;)

Take a look here:

http://www.brultech.com/HomeEnergy/computerConnection.html

I did see that rage but I don't see anywhere to download anything. I just emailed the company.

Matt

Oops... sorry about that. I should have clicked before I posted. That link was part of an email exchange I had with Brultech. I thought it pointed to the protocol. I just reviewed my emails and found that they actually sent me an attachment with the protocol spec included. I'm sure they'll do the same for you.
 
Originally posted by jharrell in the TED thread and moved to this one:

On the BrultTech PC connectivity options:

"OPTION 6: (Coming soon) ECM-1220.H to Ethernet Adaptor

This option will allow the ECM-1220.H to be connected directly to a LAN or router (internet). "

This is perfect, I was seriously considering buy the ZigBee version, but this is what I want, wired ethernet, forget power line or wireless. Hope they can deliver in a reasonable time.
 
Good call, BSR.

On a somewhat related note, I can say that I am considering this monitoring system for my home, and should that happen, then of course that means a CQC driver for it would be imminent.
 
Good call, BSR.

On a somewhat related note, I can say that I am seriously considering this monitoring system, and should that happen, then of course that means a CQC driver for it would be imminent.
Hurry up and decide which one you are getting so I know which will have a CQC driver. :P
 
One thing I noticed was this unit and the TED device only measure voltage on one phase (via a plug in transformer). I wonder how much of a voltage difference/measured energy error there is between the two phases, especially if you have a heavy current load on one and not the other.
 
One thing I noticed was this unit and the TED device only measure voltage on one phase (via a plug in transformer). I wonder how much of a voltage difference/measured energy error there is between the two phases, especially if you have a heavy current load on one and not the other.

I noticed the same thing, and I was planning to take two voltmeters and put one on each phase to see how close they were. I was actually planning to do that last night, but I would up spending all night trying to get my new router to work. Hopefully I'll have a bit of time this evening to test. I'll let you know what I find out after I try it.

Brett
 
Back
Top