Special Brultech ECM-1220.H offer to cocoontech members.

[IVB]

I bought one too, but will need to wait 2-3 weeks before scheduling the electrican due to real life getting in the way of me working from home to oversee the various things i'm having him (or her) do.

 

[dem5867]

Were is the link to order ???

There seems to have been much interest in Home Energy Monitoring as of late. Perhaps the most popular product in this field is the TED. At Brultech, we feel that our ECM-1220.H is a superior product in performance, options and versatility. We have been designing and manufacturing energy monitors since our ECM-200 release in 1992 and sold to power companies and co-ops across North America.

I was approached by a cocoontech member today, asking to justify such a price difference between the two systems. I responded in two ways:

1. I have compiled a list of features and functions the ECM-1220.H can do which are not available with the TED. This is not to put down the TED, this is simply to point out the advantages of the Brultech over the TED.

2. I have provided the cocoontech members with a special offer which lowers the cost of the ECM-1220.H down within $10 of the TED system with software.

Some of you may be interested in knowing that someone will soon be developing a CQC driver for the ECM-1220.H.

Below is my response to the cocoontech member's question:






I thank you very much for your honest, to the point question.

You are right in that the TED is our main competitor. We offer similar systems however the ECM-1220 does offer several advantages which I

will elaborate on shortly.

We have a "Lite" version of our software which we are currently beta testing. It will come free with our monitors very soon. In fact it will

be posted on our site(free) for any ECM-1220 owners to download and use. This software has the ability to download, display realtime,

change ECM-1220 settings and write to our web server, all in one. This free "Lite" version is intended to soften the price issue. Software is not our strength, hardware is. Many people elect to custom write their own software and that is why we make the protocol available to our customers.

I was thinking about a special offer for coccontech members. I don't want to get in trouble with any distributors over pricing, however, I

would consider this a private group.


Read the Brultech/TED comparison then look at the special offer we are now offering:


Advantages of the ECM-1220.H over the TED:



The ECM-1220 is a two channel unit which allows monitoring of two seperate loads if desired. We have a solution for connecting both phases

of a 120V/240V panel to a single channel if desired, leaving the other channel to monitor a secondary load. The TED is a single channel

unit.


The ECM-1220 does not require actual electrical connection inside the panel for the 120V supply, ours is done via wall transformer plugged

in a local outlet. The TED requires connecting to one of the circuit breakers inside the panel.


I don't know if TED offers downloading of data, but the ECM-1220 can store and download 13.080 records (non-volatile) of 1 minute interval

for download (interval is selectable with a 1 minute res. up to 255). The memory can be expanded (optionaly) to 50,000 + records.


The ECM-1220 provides robust communication via a USB cable directly to the metering device. The data for the TED has to make its way to the

USB port using PLC which is undependable. The ECM-1220.H wireless option is also robust as it is on a mesh network and its range can be

extended by adding a node. I'm sure you have heard about some of the powerline carrier (PLC ) horor stories typical of X-10 and other

devices.


The ECM-1220 CT cables are easily extended using Cat5 or shielded cable if desired, allowing the metering unit to be mounted away from the

electrical panel if desired. This is not the case with the TED.

Load changes are much more easy to analyse with the ECM-1220 since using the two channels will quickly indicate if the load is a 240V load

or if it is a 120V load and which phase it is on. This further narrows the load source. The TED is restricted to all loads represented by a

single total.


A wide selection of CTs providing increased accuracy should a low amperage panel or load be monitored is offered with the ECM-1220. As far

as I know, the TED uses 200A CTs only.


The ECM-1220 is user flash upgradable with free upgrades available on our site. I dont believe this is the case with the TED.


The ECM-1220.h now provides the capablity of "net metering" for wind and solar systems selling power back to the power company. The TED

requires two TED units to accomplish this and I'm not sure how well both units would synchronise its communication doing this.

The ECM-1220.H compiles all of the samples taken during a given second and imediately sends it out the port for an instant update of the

power used. Although the TED sends information at 1 second interval as does the ECM-1220, the TED claims a two second response time to a

change in load. Ours is immediate.


The ECM-1220 is capable of monitoring a 120V/208V panel fed from two phases of a three phase system. The TED cannot do this.


Our power resolution is in 1 Watt increments. I believe this to be 10W resolution for the TED. I don't see this spec anywhere on their site

but they do mention that it is sensitive to a 10W difference.




I would consider a special offer to cocoontech members of:

1- ECM-1220.H-PL pkg
2- Split-Core CTs of choice
1- USB cable
1- Lite software

$199.00 for Coccoontech customer. ($10 more than the price you would pay for the TED and software)



A zigbee version of the same pkg which also includes a zigbee dongle similar in function to : XA-B14-CE1R
which sell for $70 and the installed zigbee ZNET2.5 radio module which sells for $21.00 from the same site.

http://www.digi.com/products/wireless/zigb...es2-adapter.jsp
http://www.digi.com/products/wireless/zigb...ies2-module.jsp

We would charge an additional $99 for this option. These modules, I am told, can be flash upgraded to the new Zigbee spec, making them

compatible for communicating with all of the zigbee home devices using the new zigbee standard. We have not experimented with this and are

going by the digi.com statements.

NOTE:

Brultech Research Inc reserves the right to cancel this offer at any time.
Brultech Research Inc limits the sale of one unit per member only unless given specific permission by Brultech
The ECM-1220 may not be purchased for resale.

A dedicated Online page will be setup by Aug 22, 2008.



The comparison to the TED is from information found on their site and their User's manual. Should I have misrepresented any information here, please feel free to correct me.

Paul

 

[Steve]

Were is the link to order ???

Here

Please email [email protected] with your cocoontech.com member name for the link.

 

[dem5867]

BtechRep;
The unit appears to use the ac adapter as a 120 volt referance ,, that is only one half of the 240 volt split to get accurate readings would you need to referance the 240 volt or both parts of the split ?? I guess what I'm asking is if the non-referance side heavyly loaded it may read lower that the referance side would this not create a measurement error ?? Where referancing the 240 volt would null out any error ??

TIA

 

[BrettS]

BtechRep;
The unit appears to use the ac adapter as a 120 volt referance ,, that is only one half of the 240 volt split to get accurate readings would you need to referance the 240 volt or both parts of the split ?? I guess what I'm asking is if the non-referance side heavyly loaded it may read lower that the referance side would this not create a measurement error ?? Where referancing the 240 volt would null out any error ??

TIA

Actually, the BT unit calculates watts on each phase independantly, so technically you would need to measure the voltage on both phases. That said, however, I asked the same question a week or two ago and the BT rep said that they did some testing and determined that the voltage on both phases is usually very close and although it is sometimes slightly different it's not always the same phase that's higher or lower, so in the end it averages out and stays accurate.

I did a small amount of testing myself and checked the voltage on both of my phases several times over a two day period and saw the same thing... they seemed to be within about .2 volts of each other each time and the phase with the higher reading wasn't always the same one.

Also, remember that if the phases are not balanced correctly and one has more of a load then that phase will have a higher current draw, but the voltage should remain the same. Because the BT device does measure the current of each phase independantly it will provide accurate readings even if the phases are not balanced.

Brett

 

[ano]

Actually, the BT unit calculates watts on each phase independantly, so technically you would need to measure the voltage on both phases. That said, however, I asked the same question a week or two ago and the BT rep said that they did some testing and determined that the voltage on both phases is usually very close and although it is sometimes slightly different it's not always the same phase that's higher or lower, so in the end it averages out and stays accurate.

I did a small amount of testing myself and checked the voltage on both of my phases several times over a two day period and saw the same thing... they seemed to be within about .2 volts of each other each time and the phase with the higher reading wasn't always the same one.

Also, remember that if the phases are not balanced correctly and one has more of a load then that phase will have a higher current draw, but the voltage should remain the same. Because the BT device does measure the current of each phase independantly it will provide accurate readings even if the phases are not balanced.

Brett

In real life, it even gets more complex than that. Most people here are assuming that power = voltage X current, but its not. There is a third component called powerfactor that can make power significantly less than voltage X current. The Bruitech is like most that measure voltage on one phase and current on both phases. In fact the Bruitech only gets some of the voltage to measure since its powered with a stepdown transformer. So the Bruitech can approximate the voltage, and measure the current, but it likely ignores the powerfactor calculation and certainly can't perform the calculation on the side where it doesn't measure the voltage.

Does all this matter? Probably not. Powerfactor is probably a larger error than voltage, especially if there are many inductive loads in your house, like CFL, motors, appliances, etc. So there will be error, but that's life. Its pretty rare to find a consumer home power meter that compensates for all these errors. Hey, if I can find one which I can input my AZ rate plan, I'll be very happy. I have a very cheap rate, but pay a charge of over $10 per KW of the highest peak usage I have during the month during the peak rate period. That charge alone is almost half my bill.

 

[BrettS]

In real life, it even gets more complex than that. Most people here are assuming that power = voltage X current, but its not. There is a third component called powerfactor that can make power significantly less than voltage X current.

I think most of the people on this forum understand that watts = volts x amps x powerfactor and that watts can be considerably less than VA. At least I hope so... I've stated it several times recently on several different posts... they certainly should understand by now

In fact the Bruitech only gets some of the voltage to measure since its powered with a stepdown transformer.

The transformer's output voltage will be directly proportional to the input voltage, so it should be able to accurately measure the voltage despite the transformer.

So the Bruitech can approximate the voltage, and measure the current, but it likely ignores the powerfactor calculation and certainly can't perform the calculation on the side where it doesn't measure the voltage.

I can assure you that this device definitely measures true watts and not just VA. As I said above, based on my (very limited) testing as well as BT's more extensive testing, the voltage differences between the two phases tends to average out over time, so while it may not be as accurate as a device that measures the voltage of both phases it is still very accurate.

Brett

 

[dem5867]

It's my understanding that most power companies don't use PF for home rates. I would guess that loading (put one for those 5000 watt heaters on one side. See what happens to the voltage..) and feed distance (if you have a long run of wire from the street transformer or if you are at the end of a run..) have a effect on the phase voltage..

One other question are the CTs the standard 5 amp. output or stated correctly 200:5

TIA

 

[ano]

The Brultech ECM-1220.h is powered from a 12VAC transformer which in itself induces some phase shift, so the task of computing actual power on the leg monitored, let alone the opposite leg with unmonitored voltage would be challenging. I have one on order, and I will test it out when I receive it. I have a TED as well, and will include that in the test in addition to a Kill-O-Watt. The question, how well does each measure/calculate real power vs. apparent power? Home electric meters should calculate power correctly, but even with those, a few percentage points of error isn't unusual.

 

[dem5867]

It appears to me that if the unit uses 12vac as it's refferance than the easy cure for any phase error would be to supply a 240 volt inputed wall wart that way if one phase is lower or higher it will be refectted in the 12 vac..

 

[Btech]

It's my understanding that most power companies don't use PF for home rates. I would guess that loading (put one for those 5000 watt heaters on one side. See what happens to the voltage..) and feed distance (if you have a long run of wire from the street transformer or if you are at the end of a run..) have a effect on the phase voltage..

One other question are the CTs the standard 5 amp. output or stated correctly 200:5

TIA

:blink: :blink:

Dem,

Your statement "It's my understanding that most power companies don't use PF for home rates." is correct, but if you don't mind, I would like to clarify this a bit.

Whether residential, commercial or industrial, true power is used for billing purposes, which means that power factor is part of the equation:

Power(watt) = Volt x Amp x PowerFactor (PF)

Since PF can never be greater than 1 and is generally less than 1 (depending on the type of electrical loads), it stands to reason that true power will ususally be less than V x A but never more. PoCos charge for true power but they dis-like customers with poor(low) PF, the reason being:

customer A uses 1200W: 120V x 10A x 1.0(PF)
customer B uses 1200W: 120V x 20A x 0.5(PF)

Both customers are billed the same amount in this example however, the PoCo must supply 20A to customer B instead of 10A. This is where the difference between industrial and residential billing comes into play. Industrial customers get penalysed for poor power factor in the form of increased rate based on the PF value. This is not the case for home rates as you stated earlier. (Unless some PoCos have changed this policy in recent years.)

I just wanted to make sure someone didn't interpret your statement thinking that power factor does not play a role for home billing. PF needs to be part of the monitoring process to obtain true power.

The BT energy monitors use 120V from one phase for calculating true power. The 120V from the unmonitored led will be 180 degrees out of phase and of very similar amplitude. An inverted (180 degrees) value of the monitored side is used to calculate TRUE power for the un-monitored phase.

 

[personalt]

Has anyone gotten theirs yet. I am very interested but was wondering

1. What software is in the deal? the offer page has a 'lite' version mentions a download and real time package.
2. If I buy the wired(not plug in) version how far can the CTs and the unit be? I need to go about 40-50 feet.
3. In the wired version is the USB in the back? My plan was to install it on a wall that backs up to the computer closet
4. For the Zigbee version what exactly is wireless. The unit to the PC or the uinit to the CTs?

 

[electron]

I'll be posting a review soon, I am just trying to put together a quick project showing what you can do with it.

1) The 'Lite' version of their ECM software (can be found on their site)
2) not sure
3) USB port is accessible, even when mounted on a wall
4) ZigBee adds a USB dongle, which you plug in to your PC. The transmitter is in the display unit, so you don't have to worry about that. The USB dongle requires a driver, but once the driver is installed, it shows up as a regular serial port. I am getting a pretty good distance with it too.

 

[Steve]

2. I believe Paul said you are good to about 100' over Cat5. The cables come with I believe 9.8' Another option is to put the ECM within the 9.8' and use either the Zigbee or a regular USB extender back the pc.

 

[beelzerob]

Has anyone gotten theirs yet. I am very interested but was wondering

Woot! CT's installed! Geez, this guy was fast and FEARLESS....poking his metal pliers in there, no gloves, no faceshield, nothing. Maybe fearless isn't the right word...but anyway, still some of the best money I've spent.

The only thing I was disappointed in...he's like the first guy that's gone down there that didn't ask what all the wiring was for. You get bonus points if you impress an electrician.

Anyway, I had to get to work, so I didn't have time to play with it yet. First priority is the CQC driver anyway, which begins in earnest tonight.