TED!

[greenleaf]

Only one breaker space is needed but you need to make sure your gateway is plugged into the same leg. I installed the system myself this way.
To eliminate PLC problems, minimize the distance between the gateway and the MTUs, and run CAT5 wiring from the gateway to the router. I never have any trouble with this setup.
Save your money on TED's display unit -- it is not worth the money.

 

[mgoleta]

To eliminate PLC problems, minimize the distance between the gateway and the MTUs, and run CAT5 wiring from the gateway to the router. I never have any trouble with this setup.
Save your money on TED's display unit -- it is not worth the money.

Exact same setup. The TED display is marginally useful in that it will tell you what your instant usage is. Display screen brightness is too bright for nighttime even when you turn it down. The batteries don't last very long (30 minutes). I initially thought the batteries were defective in the display. They are meant only to last long eneough for you to be able to walk around and turn appliances on/off to see what effect they have.

 

[AndyH]

Cool! I had Prime Electric install the MTU side of my new TED when they dropped in the breaker for Blink. Been a real eye-opener. Had no idea how much juice the clothes dryer was sucking. How do you like that LG dryer, Andy?

By the way, if you have any flakiness with your TED gateway talking to the MTU, a really helpful page is http://ted/stats.htm (or replace "ted" with whatever hostname/IP you're using for your TED gateway). Look at MTU skp vs. MTU Rec. TED's using Powerline for MTU<->gateway comms, and if the gateway's on a noisy circuit, you'll see a high Rec:Skp ratio which I assume means lots of packet loss (received vs. skipped).

Thanks very much for the stats link!

The dryer is about 4 years old now and hasn't missed a beat. The high-speed spin from the front-loading washer is very effective and eases the load on the dryer. The pair is much easier on water and electricity than my old washer/dryer combo.

I've worked with X10 power line comms in the past and wasn't expecting great reception in the office considering the 2x UPSs, router/VoIP/cable boxes, and laser printer. One outlet only worked when the overhead light was on - that was...interesting... But the best outlet in the room is the one that all the equipment is feeding from. :?

Gotta love that 10kW surge when the AC kicks on... :shock:

 

[AndyH]

Are you using the TED as it came out of the box, or have you had to calibrate it to match your meter and/or electric bill?

Thanks!

 

[Jimmydreams]

Are you using the TED as it came out of the box, or have you had to calibrate it to match your meter and/or electric bill?

Thanks!

Zero calibration for me.

 

[palmermd]

Zero calibration for me.

x2

 

[DrPowell]

Same, no calibration but have no way to validate the accuracy of the results it's showing me.

Andy, wish I had your dryer. Mine's a pig by comparison, even though it was paired with an HE washer.

 

[palmermd]

You should be able to set the monthly usage to change months on the same day as the meter readings, but it still might not be exact, but fairly close. But better than that, you can take a meter reading yourself and look at the usage and then track it yourself to compare the meter increments with TED. I've found them so close that there was not any calibration necessary.

 

[AndyH]

Same, no calibration but have no way to validate the accuracy of the results it's showing me.

Andy, wish I had your dryer. Mine's a pig by comparison, even though it was paired with an HE washer.

You can have the dryer but you have to take my air conditioner with it.

90-95 these days outside - 78° upstairs on the inside. It'll be 'more fun' when either summer hits or the fires get here...

Calibration...Thanks very much! I'll check a couple of meter readings and see how it looks.

 

[mgoleta]

You should be able to set the monthly usage to change months on the same day as the meter readings, but it still might not be exact, but fairly close. But better than that, you can take a meter reading yourself and look at the usage and then track it yourself to compare the meter increments with TED. I've found them so close that there was not any calibration necessary.

x2

 

[driveleaf]

Ok, I'm sold. This device looks fantastic.

I have two quick questions I'm hoping my fellow electrical fanatics can help answer.

1. Does it interfere with, or work around a house full of Insteon devices? They use power line communication similar to the x10, so I'd hate to plug this thing in, and discover I can't have both in the house at the same time.

2. Does it interfere with, or work around a Boltek lightning detector? This thing hunts for spurious emissions, and sometimes gets faked out by the insteon communications.

I can't wait to hunt down the source of my $300-$500 Florida electrical bill. (It's not my EV, because it was that high before I had the car. And it's not me, because in California my electrical bill averaged $60/month.)

-Driveleaf

 

[Boomer23]

Gotta love that 10kW surge when the AC kicks on... :shock:

Ouch! And I've been fretting about the 800 W that my forced air furnace fan draws. It doesn't sound so bad now. :lol:

 

[Boomer23]

Are you using the TED as it came out of the box, or have you had to calibrate it to match your meter and/or electric bill?

Thanks!

I have two calibrations in place.

I have a small factor applied to my solar PV generation measurement MTU to make my TED readings match my inverter and utility meter readouts.

And I'm using a coefficient of 2.0 on my main power feed MTU because my power panel has a split feed-in from the meter to the main breaker. I could only clip my CTs around one each of the two red and black leads. So I compensate for only measuring half of the current by multiplying the readings by 2. It works quite well, as compared to my utility meter readings and billings.

 

[HighDesertDriver]

The planets have aligned (our SMA Sunny Beam monitor is becoming intermittent and new 64-bit drivers for heritage equipment seem questionable, and SCE is planning to upgrade our meter "soon") so I have dropped an order for a TED with 3 MTUs to be installed pretty much along the general lines of Boomer23's system, less the split feeds. With no remaining slots on our main service panel for dedicated MTU breakers, I called the company and they confirmed that piggy-backing onto existing breakers would be fine, just not optimum.

Any pointers from you more experienced users on installation, setup, etc? I'm especially looking forward to getting the data directly into our PC (instead of via USB every 30 days or less) and having much better insight into our usage habits. Mid-term, this will also help us decide if we should eventually switch from standard NEM to some flavor of TOU. Adding the LEAF this year has thrown a new -- but not unwanted -- wrinkle into our established usage patterns.

Thanks in advance!

 

[greenleaf]

The planets have aligned (our SMA Sunny Beam monitor is becoming intermittent and new 64-bit drivers for heritage equipment seem questionable, and SCE is planning to upgrade our meter "soon") so I have dropped an order for a TED with 3 MTUs to be installed pretty much along the general lines of Boomer23's system, less the split feeds. With no remaining slots on our main service panel for dedicated MTU breakers, I called the company and they confirmed that piggy-backing onto existing breakers would be fine, just not optimum.

Any pointers from you more experienced users on installation, setup, etc? I'm especially looking forward to getting the data directly into our PC (instead of via USB every 30 days or less) and having much better insight into our usage habits. Mid-term, this will also help us decide if we should eventually switch from standard NEM to some flavor of TOU. Adding the LEAF this year has thrown a new -- but not unwanted -- wrinkle into our established usage patterns.

Thanks in advance!

TED 5000 comes with web interface. You can download the values (CSV format) from the web interface.

 

[greenleaf]

Ok, I'm sold. This device looks fantastic.

I have two quick questions I'm hoping my fellow electrical fanatics can help answer.

1. Does it interfere with, or work around a house full of Insteon devices? They use power line communication similar to the x10, so I'd hate to plug this thing in, and discover I can't have both in the house at the same time.

2. Does it interfere with, or work around a Boltek lightning detector? This thing hunts for spurious emissions, and sometimes gets faked out by the insteon communications.

I can't wait to hunt down the source of my $300-$500 Florida electrical bill. (It's not my EV, because it was that high before I had the car. And it's not me, because in California my electrical bill averaged $60/month.)

-Driveleaf

I have read that there is possible interference. But I don't have any other PLC in my house so I don't know for sure.

 

[Boomer23]

The planets have aligned (our SMA Sunny Beam monitor is becoming intermittent and new 64-bit drivers for heritage equipment seem questionable, and SCE is planning to upgrade our meter "soon") so I have dropped an order for a TED with 3 MTUs to be installed pretty much along the general lines of Boomer23's system, less the split feeds. With no remaining slots on our main service panel for dedicated MTU breakers, I called the company and they confirmed that piggy-backing onto existing breakers would be fine, just not optimum.

Any pointers from you more experienced users on installation, setup, etc? I'm especially looking forward to getting the data directly into our PC (instead of via USB every 30 days or less) and having much better insight into our usage habits. Mid-term, this will also help us decide if we should eventually switch from standard NEM to some flavor of TOU. Adding the LEAF this year has thrown a new -- but not unwanted -- wrinkle into our established usage patterns.

Thanks in advance!

Just expect some challenges in finding an outlet in your house to plug your gateway into that a) has a clear PLC signal without interference from CFLs or power supplies and b) is close enough to your router to run a network cable to. I got lucky and found an outlet in my home office that worked, though two others didn't, and was within 15 feet (around the edges of the room) so that I could buy a longer network cable to reach my router. The TED handheld remote helped in this part of the setup because the (ZigBee) signal for the handheld comes directly from the gateway without needing to have the router set up. So you can go around the house with the gateway and the TED handheld and see when you have a good signal from the MTUs in your power panel.

Good luck with your setup and tell us all about it! Oh, and be careful in your power panel and don't shock yourself.

 

[Nekota]

Ok, I'm sold. This device looks fantastic.

I have two quick questions I'm hoping my fellow electrical fanatics can help answer.

1. Does it interfere with, or work around a house full of Insteon devices? They use power line communication similar to the x10, so I'd hate to plug this thing in, and discover I can't have both in the house at the same time.

2. Does it interfere with, or work around a Boltek lightning detector? This thing hunts for spurious emissions, and sometimes gets faked out by the insteon communications.

I can't wait to hunt down the source of my $300-$500 Florida electrical bill. (It's not my EV, because it was that high before I had the car. And it's not me, because in California my electrical bill averaged $60/month.)

-Driveleaf

I have read that there is possible interference. But I don't have any other PLC in my house so I don't know for sure.

There are other systems for energy monitoring but the TED seems to have the most features. Two systems I have used are Current Cost (up to 3 current transformers) with IAM for expansion and WattVision that connects to the wattmeter. The wattvision has a free API for 3 months data storage. I'm visible to the public as LEAF House using a Current Cost data stream into the wattvision data source. My X10 system is reported to have interference issues with TED so that's why I didn't use that solution.

 

[HighDesertDriver]

Just expect some challenges in finding an outlet in your house to plug your gateway into that a) has a clear PLC signal without interference from CFLs or power supplies and b) is close enough to your router to run a network cable to. I got lucky and found an outlet in my home office that worked, though two others didn't, and was within 15 feet (around the edges of the room) so that I could buy a longer network cable to reach my router. The TED handheld remote helped in this part of the setup because the (ZigBee) signal for the handheld comes directly from the gateway without needing to have the router set up. So you can go around the house with the gateway and the TED handheld and see when you have a good signal from the MTUs in your power panel.

Good luck with your setup and tell us all about it! Oh, and be careful in your power panel and don't shock yourself.

Many thanks! I'm crossing my fingers that the outlets in the office will be sufficiently clean so extraordinary measures can be avoided. As for the power panel, I will be using my electrician gloves, but in case you don't hear back on the results before Christmas . . . :shock:

 

[greenleaf]

There are other systems for energy monitoring but the TED seems to have the most features. Two systems I have used are Current Cost (up to 3 current transformers) with IAM for expansion and WattVision that connects to the wattmeter. The wattvision has a free API for 3 months data storage. I'm visible to the public as LEAF House using a Current Cost data stream into the wattvision data source. My X10 system is reported to have interference issues with TED so that's why I didn't use that solution.

A note on the CurrentCost unit. It measures VA, not watts. So your readings could potentially be very inaccurate (depending on the power factor of your house load).

In addition, if you have solar, it cannot differentiate between whether the meter is spinning forward or backwards.

I know because I had such a unit before I switched over to the TED 5000.