Enery Smart

A couple of days ago our solar system came online when the electrician came to install the new 'smart meter' and solar meter. From that point on our electricity is charged at the PowerSmart rates: peak 40.26c, shoulder 14.9c and offpeak 8.8c and an increased daily connection fee of 52.8c. This new scheme is bad if we continue to use the power the same way we'll be charged through the roof (as mentioned in many new stories), although it is good if we can alter our usage to be done in more offpeak and shoulder periods.

Sometime ago I remember some guy making a website which shows his electricity usage via a smart meter and putitng it online for all to see. The website escapes me, but it's sometihng that I want to do as well in the future (privately).

At first I thought I could easily get data out of our inverter, an SMA1700 but without a sunnywebbox or some other way to interface with the serial port + a computer, it wouldn't work.

Searching further online I found there to be a few meters out in the market that can monitor your usage from the meter box and even see solar output.

The following links are my current research sources:

Wattson
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum/?action=google_search&q=wattson&f=83


Envi / R
http://steplight.com.au/education/monitor-energy/wireless-real-time-home-electricity-display/
http://www.currentcost.com/product-envir.html
http://www.smartnow.com.au/support.php#faq23
http://www.smartnow.com.au/current_cost_ENVIR.html
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1413064&p=4

Jet Lun
http://www.smarthomefamily.com.au/keeping-an-eye-on-electricity-use
http://www.jetlun.com/75613.html

Efergy
http://www.efergy.com/
http://www.multipoweredproducts.com.au/products/Efergy-Elite-Wireless-Electricity-Monitor.html

TED 5000
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1298573

Overview of meters
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1527637
http://www.zigbee.org
http://smartnow.com.au/advancesolutions.html

Solar Stuff:
http://www.pvoutput.org/help.html#live-list
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1558447