Smart Grid or DIY power usage monitoring?

When energy prices go up, it piques my interest in Smart Grid technology and energy consumption monitoring, etc. I think "Smart Grid" technology is ironic, because the devices collect power statistics to control consumption while consuming power themselves. Conversely, you can't manage what you can't measure, and your dryer, water heater, hair dryer, and HVAC use a lot more juice than some small electronics. Also, there are some nifty devices available to do this without interfacing with your provider's meter, and they provide more detailed information. Folks are saving hundreds by finding energy waste by proactively looking at usage data and accordingly unplugging things or changing usage habits, water heater and thermostat settings, etc.

In Texas (among other places), the utilities have been replacing meters on houses with ones that use a 900MHz mesh network protocol (IEEE 802.15.4). The providers can do remote connect/disconnect and automatically read the meter without tromping into your yard and upsetting your pets. In fact, they are collecting and storing smart meter usage data at 15 minute increments, which is sort of creepy in a 1984 kind of way. They know when you run your dryer or when your A/C kicks on and possibly the size of the compressor on your fridge and how often it cycles. If you want to know what they know, there are devices you can connect to your home router that can participate in this network, gather your power usage info and upload much more detailed data to web sites, like Microsoft Hohm or Google Powermeter. These web apps can show graphs of your power usage on your computer or smartphone. These may be unnecessary in Texas, because there is a Smart Meter Texas Portal which is a joint project by Oncor, CenterPoint, and AEP Texas under the direction of the Texas Public Utility Commission. It's publicly funded, probably by federal stimulus money, and available for free by signing up here using info from your power bill:
https://www.smartmetertexas.com/smt/jsp/register/rc_person_create.jsp?personType=0

If you live in Oncor territory in North Texas, they use ZigBee Smart Energy Protocol 1.0. I found a variety of in-home displays (IHDs) to show your current power usage and hourly/weekly/monthly cost. There should be a way to get an in-home display for cheap or free, because in 2009 the Department of Energy allocated $3.4 billion in stimulus grants for smart grid projects, including the deployment of over a million IHDs. (Sidenote: It appears that Cisco is getting their money back for contributing $187,472.00 to the Obama Campaign and about $2 million a year for lobbying. See Cisco HEM for home energy monitoring and Cisco HEC for home energy control devices.)

Here's a ZigBee to IP/Ethernet bridge to connect to your home network. You can connect thermostats, meters for individual appliances (freezer, hot water heater, etc.), displays, and TV-connected controllers and other things once you have a ZigBee home area network (HAN).

I'm not sure that most of this Smart Grid stuff the utilities are doing is ready for prime time. ZigBee SEP 1.0 is being supplanted by a more capable and IPv6 compatible SEP 2.0 protocol, which is not backwards compatible. So, you have to buy devices compatible with (or upgradeable to) whatever version your meter is. Here's Oncor's take on that. Besides, if your house doesn't have a smart meter, or you don't know which protocol it's using: AMR-ERT(old), AMI/ZigBee 1.0(new), ZigBee 2.0(newest). That's necessary information to buy the right interface, you can capture the data yourself with some cool new products. I haven't found a gateway that is compatible with all of them, probably because they're so different.

Of course, there's more than one way to do that. There is a meter you can clamp around your breaker panel wires yourself and a WiFi gateway to push data to Microsoft-Hohm or Google Powermeter. Here's a comparison of Envi by Current Cost and Blueline products. The PowerHouse eMonitor works with Google Powermeter and monitors each circuit in your breaker panel, which lets you pinpoint what's sucking up the juice and costing you money.

Pricewise, the cheapest way to go is to just get a government subsidized IHD that works with your meter to see your electricity spend in real time. The next cheapest solution, which gives you historical usage info, is to get the smart meter interface (iTronERT or ZigBee to IP/Ethernet gateway) for about $200. No smart meter? Not smart meter smart? The other solutions involve metering it yourself at the breaker panel and sending the data to the cloud via WiFi. These kits start at around $300 for the meter and the network interface. You can also get an IHD or access it with a browser or an iPhone or Android App. I suppose it'll pay for itself over time if you can find when, and therefore what, is wasting power.

I'm guessing these things will be mainstream in a year or two when the industry standardizes on the best protocols and the price comes down on the hardware.

My Review of Roku HD Player

Originally submitted at Roku

The new HD, with built-in wireless, delivers top value in high-definition streaming.

Roku HD Player

Music, movies, NHL, YouTube, etc.

By Charles H from Irving, TX on 12/16/2010

 

4out of 5

Pros: Easy to set up

Cons: Needs a keyboard, Needs faster menus

Best Uses: Media Room, Compliments a projector

Describe Yourself: Technophile, Early adopter

I really love this thing. The most surprising thing is the radio choices. The audio is excellent, and the amount of selections is absolutely vast. I put one in my media room and had to get another one for the living room. In addition to instant movies, this is a great way to enjoy NHL GameCenter. Every hockey fan should know about this. I hope other sports leagues get on board. Fourthly, I don't have to sit at the computer to surf YouTube.

(legalese)

Culture Export

This news story caught my eye, but mainly because I was entranced by the video at the bottom. It was far cooler than I expected.

When I think of double dutch, I think of kids passing time in the Bronx or Brooklyn and skipping rope to some sing song playground rhyme like "Mama called the doctor, The doctor called the nurse, The nurse called the lady with the alligator purse." Nowadays, it's a varsity sport in New York City high schools, but that's not where it ends. Now it's a combination of acrobatics, dancing, and some pretty advanced choreography to techno and hip hop music. And it's international.

The Japanese have traveled to Harlem and won the 18th *AND* the 19th Annual Double Dutch Holiday Classic at Harlem's Apollo Theater. We have clearly exported a piece of American culture. Here's the winning team this year from Chiba, Japan:



And this video sort of blew my mind:

It's Definitely Election Season

All the local advertising is full of mud slinging, name calling, and false associations so it's definitely time for an election. Some things are different this time. The language is very divisive. Every politician is wearing the flag lapel pin. It's somehow a requirement ever since Obama was heavily criticized for not wearing one to protest war. The Tea Party has changed from a protest of bank bailouts, mortgage derivatives mess, and debt monetization into some sort of brand. TeaParty.org doesn't say what the Santelli rant did, and people are noticing.



And this song, "My Country, My Ass" expresses the general sentiment, and it's angry. . . with a country rock twang.

To configure a new Cisco switch via neighbor switch...

This is a technical note to myself, so if you're not installing Cisco switches, you can stop reading here. Otherwise, it may be of interest. If a new switch is connected to the network and you need to configure it, but don't have a console connection. . . read on.

When you plug a new Cisco switch into the network, it will acquire an IP address via DHCP, by default. From there, this command list should allow you to access it without a console connection.

Log in to one of the other Catalyst switches already running on the network.

show cdp neighbors (Optional) – If CDP is running (you could turn it on temporarily) and you’ve chosen to start from a switch that is connected to the new switch, you should see a neighbor named “Switch”. This isn’t really a necessary step, but it’s useful to know things are working.

cluster enable WORD – The cluster commands require you to be in configuration mode. You must give the cluster a name.

show cluster candidates – Get out of configuration mode (or prefix this command with do) and see if you can see the new switch as a cluster member candidate. Remember it should be called “Switch”.

cluster member mac-address H.H.H – Back in configuration mode, this will add the new switch as a member of this cluster. The mac-address should be part of the information shown in the previous step.

show cluster members (Optional) – Exit out of configuration mode. This command should list the command switch (the one you are on), and a member switch. The member switch is the device you are planning to configure and should be designated as member 1.

rcommand 1 – This will log you into the new switch. You shouldn’t need a password.
Configure the the new switch.

no cluster member 1 – Log off the new (and now configured) switch and remove it from the cluster. This step may not be really necessary, but better safe than sorry. It will remove the new switch from the temporary cluster.

no cluster enable – This will remove the cluster and end the process.

At this point, you should be able to SSH or telnet into the new switch. The mistake I’ve made most often at this point is forgetting to set an enable password. Without both login (whether telnet or AAA) and enable passwords, the switch won’t let you in.

If an enable password has already been set, you’ll have to add “password the_enable_password” to the command “cluster member mac-address H.H.H”. And if you're nervous about how easy it is to configure a neighbor switch from, say, a compromised or rogue switch, consider "no cluster run" in all of your switch configurations.

Mornings

One of the highlights of my day is seeing the sunrise over Lewisville Lake during my morning drive to work. Now that the days are starting to get shorter, the sun is not quite up yet when I drive over the bridge. It also is far from setting when I cross the lake in the evening, but unless it's overcast, it looks something like this almost every day (pardon my crooked cell phone shot through a dirty window):



https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie3kN2-pWpVTMc-gmd2dyxufwja1NqZYi-J9yukqNAGCK__ZJ-W-vEe0vAQsc1Y6kKNii-bLHf2WYa19BPgU1SIaGwWlcbr1hlxiF6VWHkVc3ixTYA3vhYtusA6eq91zhdHjGzp-0gfLB2/s1600/LewisvilleLakeAug2010.JPG

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3188/2856949962_d510e36f7b.jpg

What's happening in Pakistan?

How is it that we are giving the Pakistan government over a billion dollars a year, then firing missiles in Pakistan, a sovereign nation, and killing people? How can we legally do this without a declaration of war? And how can we afford just giving Pakistan nearly 3 million dollars a day while spending ourselves into deficit oblivion?