Category Archives: General

Current Cost – watt hours and pachube

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This is an email i sent to JT  so I apologise if it doesn’t make sense to y’all. Please ask questions if you don’t get me!

So we have this ‘Current Cost’ meter thing (free from Southern Electric) at the house. It’s a small wireless electricity meter. Well it’s more of a monitor or display actually but you get me….[insert pic].

Long story short, I’d noticed the RJ45 on the bottom and it’d got me wondering. A few google searches later and whammo i’d found what I needed. A bit of hardware, a bit of software (links on manyfacturers website!) and whammo….

I wired up the current cost (enegry meter) at the house to my laptop and it’s uploading to this Pachube (bless you) website:
http://www.pachube.com/feeds/2196

The graph is a bit useless atm (no history or dates on it 🙁 ) but the program here:
http://apps.pachube.com/google_viz/
Could probs snazz it up a bit.
There seems to be a binary pattern from some device that is turning on and off at regular intervals and using ~100w… i wonder if it’s the compressor on the fridge/freezer as it goes on thru the night lol.

Graph of peak watts and temperature from current cost and excel

Graph of peak watts and temperature from current cost and excel

The long jittery spikes are the washing machine/dishwasher/tumble dryer (the last being the biggest draw lol).

One guy is even trying to record signatures for each appliance and then work out from the data which appliance is causing the spikes.
http://chrishodgins.tumblr.com/post/33810511/via-chart-apis-google-com-so-its-the-bank
The idea behind this is if you can work that out, you can make a pie chart of the biggest consumers…

I have more results than are uploaded; i created a funky excel file which Should update from the mdb created from one of the apps i’m using but atm i think the file is locked or summat :(. Made a pretty graph to! Also predicting the future temperature based on a polynominal curve or something lol.

All gd fun. Now i jus want one of these tiny minuture computers:
http://www.fit-pc.co.uk/fit-pc-slim.html
or this awesome plug pc:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/258238/plug-sized-pcs-arrive-in-uk.html (sweet) (Ubuntu on a plug [ via Youtube])
to record/upload the results, although it would make more sense to use the ipcop or home server since they are always on and the current cost device is wireless. (unfortunately our model does not have internal data logging 🙁 ). Don’t know how to work out kwh from current usage of watts every 3 seconds… i might be able to put something from averages tho. Any suggestions  anyone? I might just be being dumb lol.

Now all we need is the x10 plug thru devices to monitor electricty usage (by appliance) and bobs your uncle – we know exactly where the electricity is going.

IMO  (as a soon to be Building services engineer in training) this technology should be wired into all new houses in the actuall plug sockets. Want to know which of your kids (or indeed partner) is using the most electricity? 😉

The trickle usage these measuring devices could be designed to run on could easily be offset by a small(ish) solar pv installation too! (i’m talking around 10-30wh/day here 😉 ).

Oh and here’s how to connect the current cost to pachube:
http://community.pachube.com/?q=node/100

On the upside i’ve also unplugged the fancy pants MPPT  solar charge controller and hooked the install back up to the basic on/off controller, and now it’s definetly shifting amps! I was a bit worried that in full sun 53watts of panels was ONLY putting through 0.3-0.1a @11.7 (i know, discharged). Hmm gonna have to find out whats wrong with fancy pants, he wasn’t cheap! :'(

Youtube Comments…

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Johnathon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqUfPhMxmAg&feature=related
Paul: Q Ruled
Paul: There’s something very impressive about that clip
Paul: read the comments.
Paul: they’re youtube belmer free!! That’s stunning no “WAT IS THIS? THATS GAY!”
Johnathon: Probably the vidoes uploader has been doing some filtering
Paul: maybe
Johnathon: well, what’s the likelyhood that youtube has suddenly become a haven for well-spoken, well-mannered individuals? 😉
Paul: Some combination of incredibly unlikely events
Paul: a pig flying through hell as it freezes over during a blue moon at midnight
Paul: on feb 30th during a centenary leap year
Paul: the last bit is only once every 400 years

Red Alert 3

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My new computer’s been running for a couple of days now, and its very nice. CPU’s running cool (26 degrees C, all 4 cores flat out and over-clocked.) Still, the main reason I caved into building it, was so that I could resume playing RTS’s. (The interface is a bit too sluggish on the 360…)

Red Alert 3: Got to the allies campaign… to hear a lot of (mostly) fake British accents. We’ve got a cockney tank, posh British spy (as normal), American commando and French laser-artillery (inference much?!). The standard ‘posh fake British accent’ that hollywood seems to think we Brits all speak provided by ‘Eva’, the lieutenant who gives you your orders. Which reminds me: EA Los Angeles – We don’t say ‘bloody’ that much. Leave off on them next time, please?

Just as well I’m just playing it to blow stuff up, rather than for the (bad) plot and (atrocious) acting. I wish it was made by westwood 😉

Strange contrasts

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Went out after work today to go to a bible study, in Soho, London. To get to the study, I walked through one of the red light districts, my first time anywhere near one. After the lights, obvious moneyed chain stores and almost permanent daylight of the area just outside the tube station, the red light district was a massive contrast.

Reminds me of a conversation I had with a taxi driver yesterday evening. He was amazed that I refuse to have sex before I get married, even wanted to take me to a red light district, and not with the purpose of walking through it.

Was interesting standing outside after the study, handing out ‘tracts, watching the people hurry past. You get a lot of different types of people  using the shortcut through the red light district, as well as people going into it to use it. Money, hard-worker, foreign, prostitutes, friends, family, partners. A real mix. Kind of describes london – a melting pot, but one that is more segargated by cultures than the words ‘multi-culturalism’ suggest, even in our own, existing class boundaries.

Day 17 – Failed

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Argh! I failed the challenge. Managed to get caught up watching a film last night, and before I knew it, it was past midnight.

Had a good day yesterday though. Apart from someone’s computer refusing to install / run Ubuntu (looked something like memory errors. Should probably do a memtest on it).

I probably will drop my posting now – there’s not much point now that I’ve failed. I can’t belive I failed over half way through. So frustrating 🙁

Day 15 – Photo-Journey

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To the Ubuntu-UK Planet folks: This post has nothing to do with Ubuntu! Someone once mentioned that it was nice having photos come up on the planet, so I’ve directed this post there. If you don’t want me to send these posts, mail me. If you don’t get the “Day 15” thing, read this.

As my brother mentioned, today I headed back to London, ready to go to church tomorrow. I decided to take photos of my journey, in the middle of it.

I got to Victoria, and then I need to make my way across London to Paddington Station. Circle Line (My normal method) was closed, so I travelled across on the Victoria and Bakerloo lines.  By the time I got to victoria, I was feeling realy rough, and almost ready to throw up. I probably have a bug 🙁

Here begins the photos:

Regents Park tube station

Regents Park tube station

Apparently, we should “Trust our senses”. Almost feels like a war-time poster (one on the right). Anti-terror gone mad. (Remember those classics, “Your country needs YOU!” and “Loose lips sink ships”?)

Lunch-keeping water.

Lunch-keeping water.

Water bought at Victoria station, helped me keep my lunch where it belongs, as did:

Yum

Yum

Well, its an interesting way to keep your lunch, but it works, thankfully. Now I just hope that this bug is defeated by the end of Monday – ready for work on Tuesday!

I did see one interesting advert. Seems Mr Obama (President Elect of the United States of America) is on adverts on trains in London, UK. Strange!

Still, I was very happy when I saw my employer’s logo – journey almost over!

As usual, click on any image to see it in a higher resolution. If you want me to post any on flikr (in full resolution from the camera) let me know.

New Keyboard

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Ok, so Kirrus has just left – he was visiting home for a break and to get Christmas pressies lol.

He’s taken with him his Microsoft keyboard which I was using with my laptop and a second monitor, so now I need a new keyboard.

So I’ve looked around, and the best keyboard I could find quickly is made by…you’ve guessed it, none other than our arch nemesis – Microsoft. It’s a Microsoft Natural 4000 in actual fact (to save you having having to google the reviews).

Now I don’t mind buying a Microsoft keyboard if it is the best available, but I’m not so happy that my money is going to them – surely they have plenty already and they don’t seem to be using it to develop excellent operating systems.

So my point to you Ubuntu (Canonical) folks – Please start making (good, obviously) keyboards! I would much rather my money going towards the development of a competitor; into the development of Ubuntu!

And since I have made so many mentions of them, I feel I must balance it up. Every time any of the staff or students at the school I work complain of Viruses, I always suggest they would be better off using Ubuntu, from Canonical and many other individuals. Ubuntu is certainly maturing very nicely. I think it’s nearly ready. If only Ubuntu had an alternative Desktop management configuration system like it’s competitor. That would really make Ubuntu Rock.

Thanks Ubuntu and Cannonical, and all you ‘others’!

Day 14 – Nothing much of a day

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Didn’t do too much today. Rolled a couple of things into it. Caught up with my rss feeds, updated my laptop. Switched the theme this blog is running on last night – someone complained that it was hard to read. I did mean to use the K2 framework to build a theme myself, but I’ve just not got round to it.

Sitting down to watch Borne Identity now… 🙂

.. Some time later..

Just went and had a look at my Google Reader’s trend data. I’ve read 59 items today, of which 41 was posted today. I’m subscribed to 72 feeds. but by far the noisiest (at 18 items per day) is Planet Ubuntu.

.. even later ..

Upgrading twitter tools appears to have broken stuff. Its too late to fix it now, I’m off to bed.

Day 13 – On Holiday!

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I’m off work today, and for the next few days. Trying to recover a bit from the move. Spent a bit of time at home, not doing much, and returned to my families home for a couple of days as a way to get out of London. (As much as you can when you get BBC London on your TV, and freeview from the transmitters at Crystal Palace…)

Its amazing how quite it is compared to there. I’ve had to put music on – I’m not used to it being so quiet all the time. I still wish I was back in Wales though… its so peaceful there. That country feels like it’s imprinted on me, the little I saw of it. I’ll probably never be free of it totally now.

Computer’s still in bits. May not be the motherboard at fault, but the PSU (unless they’ve sent me 2 dodgy Motherboards in a row.) I should probably look at RMA’ing my current one, but I’m more inclined just to order a new one. Not sure yet. Still, yoyotech have done nothing to improve my mood towards them. Shame. Maybe I’m just too picky…

Fable 2 & Firefly

I was playing Fable II last night, and got to a point where you rescue someone. The guy you rescue, looks exactly like Shepard Book out of Firefly & Serenity. In fact, he’s got almost exactly the same haircut as Book from the film. Not too much of a surprise, then, to find out the voice for that character is provided by Ron Glass, the guy who plays Shepard Book.

I am a fan of Firefly / Serenity. Not quite a browncoat, but not far off 😉