Airtricity danger with energy monitor

M cebee

Solair wrote: »

As far as I am aware, ESB Networks specifically forbids anything other than ESB equipment being installed in a metering cabinet.

Check their requirements...

in fairness not quite

the consumers main ocpd is usually fitted in cabinet now

Solair

At the very least it should contain a warning that you should absolutely NEVER cut or remove insulation from any of the tails in the metering installation.

If you can't find a wire to clamp it onto, consult an electrician and DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, tamper with or modify any of the wiring or cable sheaths.

Bruthal

Solair wrote: »

At the very least it should contain a warning that you should absolutely NEVER cut or remove insulation from any of the tails in the metering installation.

If you can't find a wire to clamp it onto, consult an electrician and DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, tamper with or modify any of the wiring or cable sheaths.

Yea they should have that warning alright, with clear illustrations.

elec

robbie7730 wrote: »

Solair wrote: »

At the very least it should contain a warning that you should absolutely NEVER cut or remove insulation from any of the tails in the metering installation.

If you can't find a wire to clamp it onto, consult an electrician and DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, tamper with or modify any of the wiring or cable sheaths.

Yea they should have that warning alright, with clear illustrations.

If Airtricity are serious about avoiding a fatal electrical accident their instructions should be " Get your electrical contractor to fit this device at your distribution/fuse board"

stimpson

Airtricity are sending me one of these devices today. I'll report back once it arrives.

If you haven't heard from me within a couple of days you can assume I have died from electrocution.

stimpson

So it took me less than 20 seconds to fit the clamp part of the unit. It's pretty small and it can be easily attached where the cable goes into the big 60 amp fuse. No pulling at wires required. No risk of electrical shock. Here it is in place:







What I do have an issue with is the LCD readout device. It refuses to let me set it to Euro. It's probably going back tomorrow if I can't get it sorted. It does show the watts consumed and the missus now believes me when I say halogens eat electricity. It will be a cool device when I get it to work.

Bruthal

stimpson wrote: »

So it took me less than 20 seconds to fit the clamp part of the unit. It's pretty small and it can be easily attached where the cable goes into the big 60 amp fuse. No pulling at wires required. No risk of electrical shock. Here it is in place:



What I do have an issue with is the LCD readout device. It refuses to let me set it to Euro. It's probably going back tomorrow if I can't get it sorted. It does show the watts consumed and the missus now believes me when I say halogens eat electricity. It will be a cool device when I get it to work.

Im surprised it reads anything, as it looks like its fitted around the concentric supply cable in them photos. Wont work properly around that. Maybe im looking at it wrong.

stimpson

robbie7730 wrote: »

Im surprised it reads anything, as it looks like its fitted around the concentric supply cable in them photos. Wont work properly around that. Maybe im looking at it wrong.

Uhhh...well done - you spotted the deliberate mistake You win 100 internets.

So I fitted it properly this morning and the readings shot up. Oh well. I did get the cost per unit and currency set up correctly last night. The buttons were a little sticky and just needed a little persuasion.

There is an RJ45 on the back and I did some research last night - it outputs it's readings in XML format over TTL. You can buy (or build) a USB -> RJ45 cable, connect to your PC and record the data. There are scripts available to upload the data to websites that give you pretty graphs. And a small community built up around it. Apparently the company that makes them (www.currentcost.com) support hacking of the device on their forum. I think I'll be spending some quality time with it over the coming weeks.

Bruthal

stimpson wrote: »

So I fitted it properly this morning and the readings shot up. Oh well. I did get the cost per unit and currency set up correctly last night. The buttons were a little sticky and just needed a little persuasion.

It would probably read a small amount when fitted around the concentric cable alright, as the neutral conductor strands are wrapped around the outside of the phase (live), where as a standard cable would have the live and neutral side by side and so has identical magnetic fields in opposite directions, which cancel each other completely if the clamp is around the live and neutral together.

Solair

In this day and age you'd think we could just have a device like that built into every distribution board (fuse board) with a display in the house.

BostonB

Solair wrote: »

In this day and age you'd think we could just have a device like that built into every distribution board (fuse board) with a display in the house.

+1 Every device should have some sort of power usage indicator.

loyatemu

just got my Airtricity meter "installed" tonight (installed is a bit of an exaggeration, it was a 2 minute job, which included removing a spider I reckoned was a false widow :eek:)

Anyone who is an existing Airtricity customer, just ring them and ask for one, they sent me out one without quibble, no contract extension or anything. I'm now going to turn into my dad and become obsessed with turning off lights.

(on the subject of Airtricity breaching ESB's regulations, I'm sure ESB Networks are aware Airtricity are sending these things out, there doesn't seem to have been any effort to stop them...)