Two 1240 questions

[gregoryx]

1- are they working with ISY currently? if so, which version (Etherbee / Etherport / ???)

 

2- with the Brultech software, can I see individual devices like "refrigerator" without having a dedicated circuit for them? IOW, does it have "signature" based stuff like some other systems?

[bpwwer]

1- are they working with ISY currently? if so, which version (Etherbee / Etherport / ???)

 

The 1240 isn't officially supported with the current ISY firmware (2.7.6). However, the 1240 can be configured to output the same packet format as the 1220 so it should work in that mode. Although you'll be limited to only two channels of data.

 

The ISY firmware can only communicate with a Brultech monitor over the ethernet so either the Etherport or Etherbee should work. I have an Etherport but haven't tried it yet.

 

2- with the Brultech software, can I see individual devices like "refrigerator" without having a dedicated circuit for them? IOW, does it have "signature" based stuff like some other systems?

 

No. Not to the ISY anyway. The ECM-1220/1240 monitor firmware is pretty basic. It mostly just outputs the raw utilization data. The current ISY firmware reads that raw data. It sums the data from both channels and then makes that summed data available for use in programs. So you can get current utilization of channel 1 + channel 2, total utilization of channel 1 + channel 2, current current draw of channel 1 + channel 2, and current voltage.

 

Do you have some specific usage models in mind?

[gregoryx]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

On the first question, if the 1240 is configured to the 1220 mode, does it lose other native features?

 

On the second question, I wasn't clear: can we get that data from the Brultech software? I realize we can't get it from the ISY interface.

[bpwwer]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

On the first question, if the 1240 is configured to the 1220 mode, does it lose other native features?

 

Sort of. The 1220 packet format only has 2 channels of data in it so that's all you get. The monitor still collects data for the other channels and you can still get that data out of the internal data logger, but when you query for real-time data, all you'll get is the 2 channels.

 

On the second question, I wasn't clear: can we get that data from the Brultech software? I realize we can't get it from the ISY interface.

 

Brultech supplies software to configure the device and that's really about it. There are some third party programs that can collect the data and do various things with it like put it in a database or chart it. There are also ways to get the data into on-line services. There's at least one of those on-line services that can look for device signatures and split out the data that way.

 

This thread http://www.cocoontech.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13060&hl=1240 on Cocoontech has a lot of information on the various third party efforts.

[RatRanch]

Despite the limited (and unofficial) current support for the 1240, I've managed to do some useful stuff with the total utilization data that the ISY collects from the meter:

 

 

 

This is a screenshot from a portion of our internal homepage. The gauges, which dynamically update, are created by polling ISY's REST interface to get the current wattage consumption and line voltage plus presenting current cost. This uses an excellent charting tool that the author generously provides free for personal use. The bottom graph--which isn't too exciting because neither heat nor air conditioning has run lately--is rendered by the free web service pachube.com.

 

I find that having the consumption and cost data readily available has really encouraged us to more actively work to conserve power.

 

Cheers,

-Jim