Energy Management and Monitoring

[WasntMe]

I have 2 engineering degrees & work in the home electronics industry and we recently have been doing a lot more energy management and monitoring for our client's homes.
With the introduction of smart grid components, prime time electrical usage charges and the ridiculous amount of vampire loads we now have in our homes (plasmas, phone chargers etc) ... it has become quite lucrative for many of our clients to have management and monitoring implemented into their smart homes.

This got me wondering how many of you larger scale growers, especially in areas like Cali where the electrical charges/rules can be strict, are using any of these products/techniques to save $$$


any of you using Google power meters or even a Ted 5000?
any of you using home lighting systems? Homeworks QS? RA2?
Crestron, AMX, RTI, Savant, Control4 to tie in and control management?
any of you using a Solar or Wind to supplement your grid costs?

I do this type of work on a daily basis but have yet to do this for anyone else in this industry which is actually quit surprising to me.

anyone else out there? Buellar?

 

[WasntMe]

wow, no one yet?

Really surprising to me!!!

For a community which typically has people that are energy usage/cost conscious, I am surprised that energy management is not a hot topic let alone not implemented by more then a few of you.

seriously floored that there has been no interest to this thread yet considering, especially in Cali, the newest changes in billing by lots of electrical companies across the world.


simply WOW!

 

[zenoonez]

Perhaps writing up a guide might be a good first step. I am interested but you have to explain how it could help. Lol.

 

[WasntMe]

yeah, I guess an intro guide would help those of you that this is a new concept for... I'm just surprised there aren't people all over this with full implementation in this industry.

are there any of you that are using any form of home automation in other parts of your homes?


for those that don't even know what home automation is here is some info on a Savant based system and some of what it can do as far as house control:
http://livewellnetwork.com/Gotta-Know/episodes/Savant-Home-Automation/7706933
now, also realize that these same control concepts can easily be converted to also control a grow op with 2way feed back and energy management with priority loads for your whole home.

 

[Pebbles]

In my state (non med) we don't yet have smart meters rolled out. They are working on it though, with pilot programs coming in the next year or two. I think that is why there is not a focus on energy management at the home and business level since the power companies here tend to take advantage of the state rules and hold off on such roll-outs. Our state was listed as # 43 on the energy efficiency list recently.

However, I am totally with the OP here. A little foresight and management will reap paybacks soon.

 

[Bigrick31]

Currently I just check out my smartmeter readings on PG&Es website. Its about 2 days behind but its allowed me to make changes and see how the effected my usage although I have to wait 2 days. I considered installing an E-mon D-mon to monitor my usage but I am now looking for something that I can use to monitor energy usage on my computer. I currently use a growtronix system to automate a lot of things that go on in my grow room. One of the things that has helped is using my computer to kill power to my AC units when they are not needed. I do this with a growtronix switching relay that switches a relay that has a 12vdc coil and supplies power to my AC and even my exhaust fans and other equipment. An ac unit still uses a decent amount of power even when its not cooling but still running turning such appliances off can really help especially if your on the boarder of different tiered energy costs.

 

[Lazyman]

No I don't use any power management, I'd be curious what the ROI is on something like that. The ROI on solar is still a 5-7 yr payback, even with the federal credits/rebates, so I don't advise people to go solar as it's not smart to grow in one place for that long. Also, to offset my energy usage I would need a $400K panel array, which is not chump change.

 

[Graham Purwatt]

you seem like the guy to ask,is the smart meter the end of the indoor grower or are some of just being paranoid?

 

[Dislexus]

Solar/wind to offset usage is a different category than home automation. That I'm interested in.

But home automation... really no thanks. When I get home I want to relax I don't need a dozen more completely nonessential functionalities that crap out requiring me to waste my fucking time on the phone with tech support. I won't even install an alarm system, bunch of useless bullshit compared the elegant simplicity of burglar bars and a dog.

As for grow automation its only really worth it on the high end large grows... but is it worth the extra hassle, logistics, time lost for installation. Especially since you may need to tear down at any moment.

 

[Bigrick31]

Growtronix is stupid simple to use and set up. Al you do is plug in cat 5 cables basically and its not that expensive I paid about $1300 for the whole set up with extra sensors ive got and it controls AC units fans CO2 lights pumps everything plus data logging. I wouldnt consider my op to be a big one but for what I spent on growtronix I probably would have spent just as much if not more on other controllers to do the same things as in c02 controller thermostats recycling timers ect. Also if someone goes wrong while im away I can get a text or email alert. I then pull out my iphone and log into my computer through the iphone and I can turn things on or off according to what has happened like say my AC fails I can turn my grow lights off from anywhere in the world where I have a cell phone signal.

 

[Dislexus]

So growtronix runs on your PC?

Well if that's the case.. it is much more common for PCs to fail than an AC unit.

So if your PC's power supply blows out, are you fucked?

 

[dunkydunk]

Growtronix? Home Automation? In the mid-Atlantic where I am, I believe we pay the same per kw any time of the day, so I don't factor in power consumption for my grows.

But Growtronix? I gotta google that.

 

[Bigrick31]

So growtronix runs on your PC?

Well if that's the case.. it is much more common for PCs to fail than an AC unit.

So if your PC's power supply blows out, are you fucked?

The last time I had a pc power supply go out was about 4 years ago I have had many more power outages than that but either way backup power will save you. What I use for my growtronix PC is a mini car PC it has a DC power supply so its really tiny and I run it off of an optima 12v battery thats connected to a battery charger at all times. This same system also runs my pumps but goes through an inverter before powering the pumps. This way if power fails all my equipment still runs off of the battery until the battery power is drained. Even if the computer crashes the way growtronix works everything that is turned on will stay on and the things that are off will stay off for example if my ac was on and my computer blew up my ac would remain on the state of the growtronix devices dosnt change when power is removed. Im sure there are other ways to set up a fail safe computer automated system there are tons of companies that are doing it right now every day it tons of different industries it can be confusing and daunting at first but once you get the hang of the system its really quite simple and you can accomplish just about anything you can think of growtronix just released new peristaltic pumps so it can mix your nutrient ratios for you at a fraction of the cost of mini fertigator systems.

heres the link to their website if anyone is interested they also have a sale going on right now as they are moving from CA to NV

http://growtronix.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1

 

[Dislexus]

Nice set up Bigrick... Is it scaleable? Also could it handle two flip-flopping rooms?

 

[Bigrick31]

Absolutely! When you buy the base system you can run 12 sensors or other devices. If you want to run more they sell extra power injectors that install just like the other sensors except they take actual 120v power and transform it to 12vdc to power more sensors or switches ect. Growtronix can handle the smallest to the largest ops no problem and you can set it up to do the flip flopping for you with their switching modules coupled with a standard relay that has a 12v coil I am nothing short of thrilled with my growtronix system all they need now is a module that can take cuttings for you and trim your bud and youd almost never have to do anything in your grow room if you set it up right.

 

[Surrender]

Brultech makes some workable home energy monitors. The Windows software isn't quite mature yet but the standalone hardware performs fine. Great software would be cool but simply having a device on the wall that shows how many gigawatt/hours your whole home is using is a giant leap forward that any homeowner should be considering.

http://www.mymeterstore.com/p4724/eml_2020-h.php

I want someone to make residential wall outlets that have built-in voltmeters and 80211.g wifi with a web interface and API.