fmk2

Hi Teken; Yes, the house walls are exactly as you described -- stucco on the outside, with chicken wire, a vapor barrier, the wood frame and then drywall. We have mostly windows on the west wall (double-pane energy efficient), and part of that wall was insulated during a remodel we did 8 years ago, but there is still some uninsulated area. The remaining walls are virtually uninsulated. The South wall is on the short side of the rectangular house, but is probably the worst problem because of the sun exposure it gets. The front is again largely windows plus the garage, so perhaps not as much impact there. The north sees little or no direct sun, of course. We not only live in an oven, we also live in a Faraday cage. Between the metal roof and the chicken wire behind the stucco, getting a cell signal in the house can be a challenge -- you have to know where to stand. I'm also a ham radio operator, and using a handheld radio ("walkie-talkie") from inside the house is impossible. But yeah, insulation is our next energy saving move. It seems to be the one thing that could have a significant impact on our energy bill. Frank

Sorry for not responding sooner to some of the questions that were asked of me. The day job has been running me ragged lately, so I haven't had any time to play. Michel, thanks for the explanation of the messages I've been seeing. That makes sense. Regarding our rate plan, I selected this "SmartRate" plan that PG&E has because it was cheaper than the standard tiered plan that we were on. All of the PG&E plans are expensive -- that's just a fact of life if you live in Northern California, and especially so if you're a geek like me with lots of electronic toys. But the "SmartRate" plan at least gives us some modest level of control over our own destiny in that there are designated Peak, Partial Peak and Off Peak hours each day, and the cost per kWh varies by those periods. If you keep your usage to a minimum during the Peak hours, your overall bill is substantially lower. We've been able to do that to a reasonable extent, and we are seeing lower bills than in the past. As for the very high rate that I mentioned earlier, it is in effect for no more than 15 designated "SmartRate" days per summer. On those days, the rate goes to $0.60/kWh between 2:00 and 7:00 PM. PG&E announces these days in advance, so you can be extra careful of your electric usage during those periods. This has been fine for us; our charges during the 4 "SmartRate" periods we've had so far this year have been insignificant because we've used very little electricity during those times. All that said, we're looking at what "macro" changes we can make to lower the overall electric usage. For example, our house attic is insulated, but only with about 6-8 inches of spay-in insulation. We have a sheet metal roof (formed and textured to look like Spanish tile), so the attic gets very hot on summer afternoons, and in turn keeps the house warm well into the evening. I don't know exactly how to quantify it ahead of time, but I suspect we would be able to run the air conditioner less during evening hours if we doubled the attic insulation. Our walls (stucco) are not insulated at all, so that's an area worth investigating as well. The bottom line is that California has some of the highest electric rates in the country, and it's just one more "feature" of living here. [sigh] Frank

Hi Michel; Thanks for the response. Here are the answers to your questions: 1. The ISY firmware, according to the Dashboard, is "Insteon_UD994_OADR | v.4.4.6 | 2016-03-24-09:28:28". 2. As for the log, I see thousands of messages, one every few minutes. I guess that must be why I'm continuing to see them pop up. Here's an example of one of them from a couple days ago, selected at random: A 2016/06/02 4:53:52 AM Log M 923281 Running Unconfirmed 2016/06/02 4:30:00 AM 5400 Low false N/A 06/01: Estimated Electric Bill to Date: $207.81, Forecasted Electric Bill: $216.24. Any idea why those are being generated continuously? 3. The Dashboard info seems to be accurate, and I don't get popup messages at all there. The only question I would have about that information would be why the current Price is blinking yellow. Is that just to highlight the current rate, or is there some other meaning? Thanks again. Frank

We're on a special rate plan that has lower than average kWh rates except for 10-15 days a year during the summer months when we are charged $0.60 kWh for up to 6 hours during peak demand on that day. We're notified in advance, and the expectation is that you keep your usage low during those hours. The rest of the time, our rates are much lower than they were before we went onto this plan. The screenshot I sent included the notice for one of those special high-rate periods. The date and times it specified were correct, so that much is working.

Since PG&E's last update to their SmartRate plans, I'm seeing more and more information in both the ISY Dashboard and Admin Console. That's a good thing. But I'm also getting some rather bizarre notifications from the ISY and MobileLinc. The notifications I get are whenever I change Tiers in my energy plan, and that's a good thing. But the info isn't correct. Here's what I'm seeing: The popup messages in the Admin Console (like the one I've attached) continue to pop up every few minutes. I dismiss them, but they pop back up again and again. The information in those popups isn't accurate. For example, the "Duration" in the attached image says the current rate will last for 2016 minutes -- or just over 33-1/2 hours -- but I'm pretty sure that's not correct. (The "SmartDay" notification at the bottom of the window is correct -- we are scheduled to have a "SmartDay Event" tomorrow afternoon.) Finally, I now see rate notifications in the MobileLinc Pro app, but they are also wrong. They contain information like, "Price has changed to $0.53 USD/kWh. This price is active for 360 minutes." That's almost accurate, except that the temporary rate increase was to $0.60 USD/kWh for 5 hours (600 Minutes), and it was yesterday. I'm seeing this popup in the app repeatedly today. Anyone else seeing behavior like this? Any suggestions for getting a handle on it? Thanks, Frank

Hi All; I've searched through the various forums and I see a lot more information about Z-Wave thermostats than Zigbee, but my ISY has the Zigbee board (so that I can also connect to my house meter) and so I'd like to take advantage of that and get a Zigbee thermostat. I see comments that the RCS TZB45 works well, but no one seems to sell it. Does anyone know if it's available? And are there other Zigbee thermostats out there that work well with the ISY? Thanks.

I tried once again to connect my ISY with PG&E, but despite the fact that it is visible on my "My Energy" page, it fails to connect. And I have once again (this is the 3rd time) called PG&E HAN services to get them to help me, but they can't get it to connect either despite the fact that they can verify that it is there. And once again, a day later I get a call from the now infamous "Dan" at PG&E telling me that the ISY is not an authorized device, and PG&E does not support it. So is the ISY approved by PG&E? Michel posted on 2/19 that it was going through the authorization process with PG&E. Was that ever completed? Frank

My ISY is listed as well, and the install code matches what I have in the ISY. I tried once to pair the ISY with PG&E but it timed out. The web page says I have 3 attempts remaining. I didn't have time to give it another shot, so I'll do it tomorrow. If it continues to fail, I too will call PG&E. Frank

Thanks, Michel & Craig. It's good to hear that certification is in process! Cheers. Frank

Hi Michel; Sorry for the delay in getting back to this, but the day job keeps getting in the way of the fun stuff, and I haven't had time to follow up... I got a call from a PG&E Supervisor this afternoon (Dan - didn't get a last name), and he wanted to let me know that the reason my ISY is not working is because the Universal Devices ISY-994 is not a PG&E approved device. I explained that I had registered it months ago, that the PG&E people I talked to at the time helped me register the device, and that it worked fine for a few months -- and he admitted that he didn't know why it would work for a while and then stop -- but he insisted that the Universal Devices product was not approved by PG&E. So... any chance UDI is working with PG&E to get the ISY authorized? Thanks, Frank

Hi Michel; Sorry, I meant that they can see the ISY. They found it within a minute or so of my providing the EUID. When I mentioned others with PG&E issues, I was referring to the comments from cmccartney and GuitarBuilder that were just posted on Tuesday and Wednesday. I assumed their issues were still open, but perhaps you've been able to resolve their problems already. I will give PG&E HAN support another call -- hopefully tomorrow morning -- and ask if they can verify that the Zigbee board in my meter is functioning correctly. I'll let you know what they say. Thanks again for the support. Regards, Frank

Hi Michel; Regarding your two questions: 1. Is ISY registered in the meter (do they see it) - Yes, they do see the meter. They found it almost immediately once I gave them the EUID. 2. Is the meter's Zigbee board working properly - I didn't ask them if the meter's Zigbee board was working properly because I thought they would know if it wasn't. Is there something specific I can ask them that will help them determine if it's working correctly? If it's the Zigbee board in the meter, then it looks like others on this thread have faulty meters as well. But if the Zigbee board wasn't working, wouldn't that also prevent them from reading my meter and properly billing me? Thanks again for your great support. Regards, Frank

Hi Michel; I just spent the better part of an hour on the phone with PG&E HAN support. Talked to 2 different people and a supervisor, and they couldn't get the ISY994i working with my meter. They say that, at their end, the system is telling them that the device (the ISY) is not compatible. Of course, we know it is compatible because others have theirs working, and mine was working in the past. So... any suggestions? Is there any information I can provide to you that might help you come up with ideas? Are there any settings in the ISY that I can double-check to make sure I have things set up correctly on my end? Here's what I know: It appears that the ISY sees the meter. If I look on the AMI Meter section of the Electricity tab in the Admin console, the Network Status shows as "Established | Node:FA32 | Channel:25 | Power:-11". But the Time Status never synchronizes, and I never get any usage data from the meter. By the way, everyone I talked to at PG&E is being very nice about this. They admit that the HAN stuff is new for them and that they are still learning, so if I can go back to them with any suggestions for what might be wrong, I expect they'll be cooperative. Thanks for any help you can provide. Regards, Frank

Hi Michel; Not sure what happened, but if re-registering with PG&E will fix it, that's what I'll do. Thanks very much for the help. Frank

Hi Michel; No, I see a red exclamation point ( ! ), not yellow. I've also responded to the email you sent and included a screenshot of the My Electricity panel, so you should be able to see what I mean in that screenshot. If the ISY is not connected to the meter, what do I need to do to re-establish the connection? Thanks, Frank

Hi Michel; I sent a copy of the log to the email address. Let me know if you find anything that might help me figure out what the problem is. Thanks, Frank

Michel (or anyone else); Any thoughts on what's in the log entry that I posted last week? If I had to guess, I would say that it looks like there's no communication with the meter but, as I mentioned earlier, I don't really know how to read the log so I'm not sure what I'm looking at. Thanks, Frank

Hi Michel; Thanks for responding to my message. As for checking http://your.isy.ip.address/emeter/metering/log, I get a message that the log is not found. I can see a lot of Errors in the Event Log, but I'm not sure what I should be looking for. So here's a cut/paste of from the log: Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:06 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:34:52 PM Erorr M instantaneousDemand Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:06 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:34:57 PM Erorr M currSumDelivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:06 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:35:02 PM Erorr M currDayDelivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:06 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:35:07 PM Erorr M previousDayDelivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:25 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:35:12 PM Erorr M maxCurrTier1Delivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:25 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:35:16 PM Erorr M maxCurrTier2Delivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:25 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:35:21 PM Erorr M maxCurrTier3Delivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:25 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:35:26 PM Erorr M maxCurrTier4Delivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:30 PM : [MOD-OADR] Sending Telemetry Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Connecting to http://192.168.1.88:5508/OpenADR2/SimpleEiEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Starting parser! Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2]Error/Root: Missing root: oadrDistributeEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Stop : Bailing out! Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Parsing failed! Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2-PN] Error Parsing Response Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2] No Response from http://192.168.1.88:5508/OpenADR2/SimpleEiEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:30 PM : FYP: Connecting to http://flexyourpower.s3.amazonaws.com/bannersstatus.xml Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:34 PM : [MOD-OADR] Sending Telemetry Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:34 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Warn: Current Event is null Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:39 PM : [MOD-OADR] Sending Telemetry Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Connecting to http://192.168.1.88:5508/OpenADR2/SimpleEiEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Starting parser! Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2]Error/Root: Missing root: oadrDistributeEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Stop : Bailing out! Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Parsing failed! Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2-PN] Error Parsing Response Sun 01/12/2014 02:35:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2] No Response from http://192.168.1.88:5508/OpenADR2/SimpleEiEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:02 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:35:31 PM Erorr M numPeriodsDelivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:02 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:35:52 PM Erorr M instantaneousDemand Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:02 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:35:57 PM Erorr M currSumDelivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:02 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:36:02 PM Erorr M currDayDelivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:21 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:36:07 PM Erorr M previousDayDelivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:21 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:36:12 PM Erorr M maxCurrTier1Delivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:21 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:36:16 PM Erorr M maxCurrTier2Delivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:21 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:36:21 PM Erorr M maxCurrTier3Delivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:30 PM : [MOD-OADR] Sending Telemetry Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Connecting to http://192.168.1.88:5508/OpenADR2/SimpleEiEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Starting parser! Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2]Error/Root: Missing root: oadrDistributeEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Stop : Bailing out! Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Parsing failed! Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2-PN] Error Parsing Response Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:30 PM : [MOD-OADR2] No Response from http://192.168.1.88:5508/OpenADR2/SimpleEiEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:30 PM : FYP: Connecting to http://flexyourpower.s3.amazonaws.com/bannersstatus.xml Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:33 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 14.1B.14 00.00.01 CB 13 01 LTOFFRR(01) Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:33 PM : [std-Group ] 14.1B.14-->Group=1, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=2 Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:33 PM : [ 14 1B 14 1] DOF 1 Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:33 PM : [ 14 1B 14 1] ST 0 Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:33 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 14.1B.14 00.00.01 CB 13 01 LTOFFRR(01) Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:33 PM : [std-Group ] 14.1B.14-->Group=1, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=2 Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:33 PM : [iNST-DUP ] Previous message ignored. Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:33 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 14.1B.14 24.1C.93 41 13 01 LTOFFRR(01) Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:33 PM : [std-Cleanup ] 14.1B.14-->ISY/PLM Group=1, Max Hops=1, Hops Left=0 Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:33 PM : [iNST-DUP ] Previous message ignored. Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:34 PM : [MOD-OADR] Sending Telemetry Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:34 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Warn: Current Event is null Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:39 PM : [MOD-OADR] Sending Telemetry Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Connecting to http://192.168.1.88:5508/OpenADR2/SimpleEiEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Starting parser! Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2]Error/Root: Missing root: oadrDistributeEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Stop : Bailing out! Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2] Parsing failed! Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2-PN] Error Parsing Response Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:39 PM : [MOD-OADR2] No Response from http://192.168.1.88:5508/OpenADR2/SimpleEiEvent Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:57 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:36:26 PM Erorr M maxCurrTier4Delivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:57 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:36:31 PM Erorr M numPeriodsDelivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:57 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:36:53 PM Erorr M instantaneousDemand Sun 01/12/2014 02:36:57 PM : A 2014/01/12 2:36:57 PM Erorr M currSumDelivered Sun 01/12/2014 02:37:05 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 14.1B.14 00.00.01 CB 11 01 LTONRR (01) Sun 01/12/2014 02:37:05 PM : [std-Group ] 14.1B.14-->Group=1, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=2 Sun 01/12/2014 02:37:05 PM : [ 14 1B 14 1] DON 1 Sun 01/12/2014 02:37:05 PM : [ 14 1B 14 1] ST 255 Sun 01/12/2014 02:37:06 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 14.1B.14 00.00.01 CB 11 01 LTONRR (01) Sun 01/12/2014 02:37:06 PM : [std-Group ] 14.1B.14-->Group=1, Max Hops=3, Hops Left=2 Sun 01/12/2014 02:37:06 PM : [iNST-DUP ] Previous message ignored. Sun 01/12/2014 02:37:06 PM : [iNST-SRX ] 02 50 14.1B.14 24.1C.93 41 11 01 LTONRR (01) Sun 01/12/2014 02:37:06 PM : [std-Cleanup ] 14.1B.14-->ISY/PLM Group=1, Max Hops=1, Hops Left=0 Sun 01/12/2014 02:37:06 PM : [iNST-DUP ] Previous message ignored. Let me know if you see anything that would help determine what the problem is. Thanks, Frank

I was able to successfully provision my PG&E meter in September, and it's been working OK. But for some reason, it has stopped. I'm now seeing something similar to what Roger has reported; - the Network shows as "Established | FA32 | 0013500100CBE43C | 25" - the Time shows as "Sat 2014/01/11 03:19:25 PM | Unsynchronized" - Meter shows as "All OK" Does anyone know how to fix this? Should I try to reprovision the meter by erasing the install code and generating a new one as Roger did? Thanks, Frank