New Microsoft Hohm compatible power monitoring device

[brad77]

Well this is clever. A company called Blue Line Innovation has created a home power monitor that is easy to install and streams its data directly to Microsoft Hohm.

 

The device measures power consumption optically directly from the meter, so you don't need to crack the meter open to get it installed.

 

It streams data to Hohm, which itself has an SDK. Unfortunately, after looking at the documentation for it, the SDK is meant to be used to send data to Hohm. Perhaps a query interface would be available at a later date.

 

Without the query interface, it may have limited possibilities for the ISY, but it may be of interest to some.

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Brad,

 

This is quite interesting. Long ago we had a meeting with Microsoft ...

 

Do you know if the meter has an SDK? i.e. can we use it instead of Brultech? If so, I think we can implement a module for it.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[brad77]

I spoke with someone in tech support at Blue Line Innovations this morning, and I'm expecting a call back from one of their engineers/developers in the next day or two.

 

Hopefully that brings good news! It would definitely be a compelling way for the consumer to get smart meter info independent of their utility.

[jweek]

Is there any update on this? I have the Blue Line power monitor up and running and would love to integrate it with my ISY-99i\

 

Thanks,

 

John

[brad77]

What do you think of it so far?

 

Unfortunately, I heard back from Blue Line Innovations and they do not have any sort of public SDK or mechanism to talk to their power monitor or gateway device. That, along with MS Hohm's SDK being one way (input only), it seems that all data flows upstream and is stuck in its silo.

 

Perhaps MS will enhance their SDK at some point or perhaps Blue Line will provide a mechanism for access. Until then, I don't think that there's much that you can do.

[jweek]

What do you think of it so far?

 

 

It works well and gives me nice graphs to see my energy usage, too bad it appears that it won't be usable for the ISY.

[brad77]

too bad it appears that it won't be usable for the ISY.

At least not yet!

[paulbram]

Has anyone tried to contact MS? If not, I might be able to help out with that part...

[zmzmzm]

I have one of these devices now. While I agree that it does not have a method to "push" the data anywhere but microsoft hohm or google powermeter, you can go to it's internal web page and get most of the relevant information through polling. I think that the ISY could do this but I have not powered my ISY up yet... it's still fresh in the box.

 

I am using bluelineinnovations meter with google powermeter and the PCMWifi adapter shows the following info when to point your browser to it (along with simple graphics):

 

----------------------

 

DEVICE STATUS

 

Sensor Status

 

 

 

Sensor Temp

 

3 C/ 37 F

 

 

 

Sensor Battery

 

Normal

 

 

 

Signal Quality

 

140%

 

 

 

Last Reading

 

25 seconds ago

 

 

Wi-Fi Status

 

 

 

Network Address

 

192.168.61.30

 

 

 

Power Meter Status

 

LINKED

 

 

 

Last Upload

 

18 seconds ago

 

 

Energy Usage

 

 

 

Present Demand

 

2.200 KW

 

 

 

Total Consumption

 

603.8 KWHrs

[mmknox]

I used one of these devices and they are probematic for the following reasons:

 

The sensor often has trouble "seeing" the black mark on the mechanical meter disk as it turns, especially in bright sunlight.

 

On electronic meters (including smart meters) it reads "pulses" coming from an IR port on the face of the meter. Unfortunately, not all makes and models of meters actually provide these pulses from the optical port. On the ones that do, the pulse weight factor can vary from model to model.

 

Not all utilities want you clamping devices to their meter (yes, in most cases the meter is owned by the utility, not the customer).

 

When the batteries in the transmitter dies, it is a huge pain to re-syncronize with the in-home display.

 

I gave up and replaced it with a display that employs CTs in the breaker panel and is ac powered. Much more reliable and no batteries to replace.

[brad77]

I am using bluelineinnovations meter with google powermeter and the PCMWifi adapter shows the following info when to point your browser to it (along with simple graphics)

That's interesting. It looks as if one could get real-time consumption data from this device with a little screen scraping.

[zmzmzm]

I am using bluelineinnovations meter with google powermeter and the PCMWifi adapter shows the following info when to point your browser to it (along with simple graphics)

That's interesting. It looks as if one could get real-time consumption data from this device with a little screen scraping.

 

I think that's likely true. Do you have any scraper recomendations (or could the ISY-99 do it)?

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello garystevens,

 

Is there an app for what?

 

You do not need MS Hohm (which is now defunct) to control your thermostats remotely. And, there are many apps for ISY both on Droid as well as iOS platforms.

 

With kind regards,

Michel

[LeeG]

garystevens

 

The local eclectic coop did that very thing. The meter connected to the phone line with the monthly reading going directly to the utility. After a year or so they pulled them because they caused more problems than they solved. They would hang up the phone line such that calls could not be made. They tried to get the reading over night but some folks use the phone at night. A technology problem for sure but apparently there were no alternatives at the time so they went back to conventional meters.

 

Lee