New Brultech Energy Monitoring Model (ECM-1240) due in 2009

[BDHall]

I have a few questions perhaps someone who has received an ECM-1240 recently could help with.

How long are the split CT leads?

How long are the micro CT leads?

Is the wall wart power supply very large in size?

I assume that there is no RS-232 cable supplied, correct?

Thanks!
Brian

 

[tenholde]

I have a few questions perhaps someone who has received an ECM-1240 recently could help with.

How long are the split CT leads?

How long are the micro CT leads?

Is the wall wart power supply very large in size?

I assume that there is no RS-232 cable supplied, correct?

Thanks!
Brian

The micro CTs have 58" leads. The split CTs look about the same (installed and hard to measure). The power plug is about 1.5" all around. No RS-232 cables.

tenholde

 

[BDHall]

Thanks.

 

[lmamakos]

Good question Wayne...

I was just going through my circuits in the basement...and I had the same question.

The 40A guys are perfect for most of my loads (15's and 20's). Then there is the occasional 50 and 60 in there.

Does anyone recommend doubling the loop through the 40's to get higher resolution? Or does the 40CT produce enough resolution on a 15A branch?

--Dan

The current transformer 40A rating means that the CT accuracy decreases if you exceed the rated current. Now, if you loop the primary wire more than once, the effective error will decrease due to increased core efficiency at the expense of decreasing the rated current by the same number of times. However, I do not know if you can recalibrate Brultech so that it took into account the increased signal from the CT.

Gotcha...

So, looks like for 15A circuits, I'll just put the 40A guy on there. As for the larger circuits...I can't imagine running 50A through the 40 is going to be that bad...but I can always supplement with my custom system...

I think I only have 1 50A that I want to watch...Everything else is 30 or below.

--Dan

Beware, you might have a problem with the size of the wire on the 50A branch circuit. I was originally going to monitor the power consumed by my fancy electric double-wall-oven, but found that the conductor was too large to fit through the 40A micro-CT.

Louis Mamakos

 

[drozwood90]

Louis, thanks for the tip!

Last night I went and looked in my panel. Most circuits are 15 and 20's. The two that are not, are my 30A for the dryer (10AWG...so no issue), 50A for the stove (not hooked up...so I'm not worried about it at the moment!!).

I WILL look at the wire AWG...as I think it's 6...so I'll have to get the diameter for future reference.

--Dan

 

[gzub]

Someone created a firefox addon to monitor the ECM-1240:

ECM Toolbar 1.3
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/11465


Geoff

 

[brownsl]

This may be a really silly question; however, here goes. I am installing my 1240 and I noticed the exposed ends of the CT wires came with a silver-colored coating on them. The exposed ends are quite short. I started to strip some more sheathing off of the wire and noticed that the silver-coating comes off when stripping. Is this OK? Not sure what the purpose of the coating is and whether it is OK if it comes off.

Thanks,

Shawn

 

[Macca]

I'd say that the "silver coating" is just solder, which has been tinned on to the copper conductors to stop it from fraying. No problems removing it at all.

Macca

This may be a really silly question; however, here goes. I am installing my 1240 and I noticed the exposed ends of the CT wires came with a silver-colored coating on them. The exposed ends are quite short. I started to strip some more sheathing off of the wire and noticed that the silver-coating comes off when stripping. Is this OK? Not sure what the purpose of the coating is and whether it is OK if it comes off.

Thanks,

Shawn

 

[mdiehl]

Net metering connections...

Anyone else getting a bit puzzled when looking at the documentation for CT wiring? I'm using the two split 100 CTs for the service entrance feeds to the main breaker, and two of the mini donuts on the leads from my grid tied inverter input. The documentation seems to show the two donuts connected in parallel as opposed to the two splits on ch 1(series). Should the mini CTs be connected the same way as the split CTs on channel 1 or parallel connected? I have the 20 ohm resistor connected across the common and "dual" connection.

One other question is in the ECM config software there seems to be a field to fill in under "other" when choosing the CTs asking for "Type" and "Range", so is this given for the "mini donuts"?

Haven't got an email response from Brueltech yet so thought I'd throw these questions out in the meantime...

 

[Btech]

Net metering connections...

Anyone else getting a bit puzzled when looking at the documentation for CT wiring? I'm using the two split 100 CTs for the service entrance feeds to the main breaker, and two of the mini donuts on the leads from my grid tied inverter input. The documentation seems to show the two donuts connected in parallel as opposed to the two splits on ch 1(series). Should the mini CTs be connected the same way as the split CTs on channel 1 or parallel connected? I have the 20 ohm resistor connected across the common and "dual" connection.

One other question is in the ECM config software there seems to be a field to fill in under "other" when choosing the CTs asking for "Type" and "Range", so is this given for the "mini donuts"?

Haven't got an email response from Brueltech yet so thought I'd throw these questions out in the meantime...

If you are using the MicroCTs on CH1 or CH2, they must be connected in parallel with the 20 ohm burden in the parallel circuit also. This will require a specific CT setting. I don't have the values for the CT settings since I dont have access to my computer right now, but i will look it up and get back to you.

Paul

 

[mdiehl]

Net metering connections...

Anyone else getting a bit puzzled when looking at the documentation for CT wiring? I'm using the two split 100 CTs for the service entrance feeds to the main breaker, and two of the mini donuts on the leads from my grid tied inverter input. The documentation seems to show the two donuts connected in parallel as opposed to the two splits on ch 1(series). Should the mini CTs be connected the same way as the split CTs on channel 1 or parallel connected? I have the 20 ohm resistor connected across the common and "dual" connection.

One other question is in the ECM config software there seems to be a field to fill in under "other" when choosing the CTs asking for "Type" and "Range", so is this given for the "mini donuts"?

Haven't got an email response from Brueltech yet so thought I'd throw these questions out in the meantime...

If you are using the MicroCTs on CH1 or CH2, they must be connected in parallel with the 20 ohm burden in the parallel circuit also. This will require a specific CT setting. I don't have the values for the CT settings since I dont have access to my computer right now, but i will look it up and get back to you.

Paul

Thanks Paul,

I have the 20 Ohm in Parallel with the MicroCTs (although I presently have the MicroCTs in Series like the two split-CTs on Ch1). So I need then to Parallel the two MicroCTs (matching polarities), still with the 20 Ohm load in Parallel with that combination?

 

[drozwood90]

Curiosity...

Can this meter "understand" negative power loads? That is...if I hook up a set of solar panels...or Wind Mill...will it understand the "negative" load that I am putting on it?

I was thinking about this, and since the power that is "grid-tied" would go through a branch...I would be able to predict how much of a savings I am getting by monitoring the output of the grid tied inverter.

It would help with quite a few metrics of the alternative power system.

--Dan

 

[tenholde]

Curiosity...

Can this meter "understand" negative power loads? That is...if I hook up a set of solar panels...or Wind Mill...will it understand the "negative" load that I am putting on it?

I was thinking about this, and since the power that is "grid-tied" would go through a branch...I would be able to predict how much of a savings I am getting by monitoring the output of the grid tied inverter.

It would help with quite a few metrics of the alternative power system.

--Dan

Yes it can, although I do not understand the details of how to do it. Several here are doing it. Ch1 and Ch2 have 'Polar' measurements that measure the energy in a single direction. I believe you can calculate energy IN vs OUT by looking at the difference between the total energy for the channel and the polar energy for the channel. Many others here can explain this better, but you can easily do what you want.

tenholde

 

[brownsl]

OK, thanks!

Shawn

I'd say that the "silver coating" is just solder, which has been tinned on to the copper conductors to stop it from fraying. No problems removing it at all.

Macca

This may be a really silly question; however, here goes. I am installing my 1240 and I noticed the exposed ends of the CT wires came with a silver-colored coating on them. The exposed ends are quite short. I started to strip some more sheathing off of the wire and noticed that the silver-coating comes off when stripping. Is this OK? Not sure what the purpose of the coating is and whether it is OK if it comes off.

Thanks,

Shawn

 

[Btech]

Curiosity...

Can this meter "understand" negative power loads? That is...if I hook up a set of solar panels...or Wind Mill...will it understand the "negative" load that I am putting on it?

I was thinking about this, and since the power that is "grid-tied" would go through a branch...I would be able to predict how much of a savings I am getting by monitoring the output of the grid tied inverter.

It would help with quite a few metrics of the alternative power system.

--Dan

The data from the ECM-1240 (CH1 & CH2 only) provides enough information to determine:

Energy generated
Energy to & from the grid
Energy sold/returned to the grid
Total Energy consumed


Hope this helps.

Paul