Software for Recording Power Outlet Loads and Distribution

Excel seems the easiest way and it is the tool I use when I have to do this sort of thing.

If there is a software package that can do what you want I don't think it is going to save you much if any time as you still need to enter the data in manually.

This is my recommendation:

Automate a little and get the results while you sleep. (I tried plenty of meters, also EKM metering and this I use now for about 6 months.)

Why put a lot of energy in all that excelling, when a set of TED5000 does an excellent job for you. Just clip some pairs of CT's over the wires and start recording. One thing I have read > UPS < This means that PLC communication can be difficult - read blocked because of the filtering used in the UPS.

The worst scenario means a isolated separated power supply for the "wireless CT units AND the interface". powered over a simple HF blocking coil.

Roughly you will get all information (by the second- real time) for about 1 month by the TED software.

TED can export to whatever spreadsheet or graphic program or better: get a free account at BIDGELY.COM and they do the statistics for you for free.(for years)

Take a look at TED - theenergydetective.com and bidgely.com. When you feed your dedicated loads into a ready to use tabel, you will be surprised of what you get. I am talking about loads of a few Watts up to kWatts.

Bidgely also works with different energy meters and even some of the Power Company's Smart meters. If you need more info PM me.

Interesting! I assume this TED5000 is a software/hardware package including some form of computer interface. Can you tell a bit more, including some idea of cost, and which type of clamp-on current transformers you use?

To Tom Graham22: Welcome to CR4!

sorry I am that late.

The simplest TED is 2 CT clamps, a interface and a display. If you look around it is sold for $120.00.

More interesting is the software version with 1 to 4 sets of clamps. The display is like a dashboard and shows all the results you want from about 2 Watts up to many kWatts.

The graphics and autocalculator is its best asset. I can monitor each CT, real time on graph, results per hour, day or months. When you input the price per kW it predicts even your power bill on the date of meter reading.

It can display the Carbon print, of course also the date and it has also a list of loads that it can identify.

I paid $380.00 for 4 sets of CT's, 4 transmitters (PLC) and one internet interface with dedicated address. Worth every cent of it.

It also can export and also the results can be read by bidgely in case you want history over years (back)

You can download a demo software and also the manual - all for free. What I explain now is only a small part of its possibilities.

It works pretty accurate. when I know the start meter reading, I can calculate backwards and forward what the meter reads @ about 10 kW accuracy (the meter has a 10 times multiplicator)

Thanks! I see your reply is dated 6/21, but for some reason I didn't get notification 'till this morning 6/26.

I will definitely get some form of TED; I'll have to research a bit more to decide which...

TED = The Energy Detective. Your favorite search engine will find it. Pretty good product, but not cheap, they start at around $200, and you need access to individual wires going to a specific outlet. That's not always possible.

Cheaper solution:

The spreadsheet you already have + a Kill-A-Watt unit. This is a little device that you plug into the wall, then you plug your unit / appliance into the Kill-A-Watt and it shows you the energy being consumed by that unit. You can find these on-line for anywhere from $18-35.

My exposure to this problem indicated to me that the primary cost was the monitoring of the individual loads, both time on and power consumption, since some loads are constant when on (and zero when off) and some loads are variable when on. The amount of load can vary with the line voltage, which I found to be significantly variable, both at each individual site, and at different sites (at grid distances up to 60 miles). This monitoring was for the purpose of controlling emergency power usage and generation during brownoouts or blackouts. The ad hoc solutions were arbitrarily testing each load, some circuit by circuit, some item by item. My personal preference for this general kind of problem is to have a monitor installed at each location, even if the data must be manually read. Do you know of computer accessible monitoring systems for automatic data acquisition? (dare I say it- at reasonable cost?)