[OSX-Users] Re: anyone use "alertme energy" power meter?

[Terry Payne]

I do have to agree with Nick on some of his points... however...

On 8 Jan 2010, at 14:22, Nick Gibbins wrote:

> Looking through their website, I'm more than a little underwhelmed. They're cagey about the protocols they're using (specifically, the Zigbee profile - they're not using the standard home automation profile)...


although I'm not sure what solutions exist that *do* publish their protocols.  Looking at other wireless monitors (i.e. with a display that can be put somewhere), such systems seam to be closed (i.e. you live with the details and that is it).  To be honest though - I don't see myself writing any software to exploit this data anyway, but I understand why some would!

They *could* however, give more technical information on their web page, I agree!

> What rankles most is that you need to connect to *their* website to get your usage data; you can't talk to your hub directly. Not good design.

Actually, I would appreciate the convenience of going to a central point (via a browser or the iPhone web app) to get the data.  It would be nice if it were possible to retrieve the raw data from their site (I assume PowerMeter does this), and nicer still if it could be archived locally.  I guess having it local could put less tech-savvy consumers off, and the remote access approach is very convenient.  It's getting damn difficult to avoid the "cloud" these days!

> ..., and the ongoing running costs of GBP36pa make it significantly less attractive from a saving money perspective.


Hmmm, not bowled over by that, I admit.  Cost effective?  Dunno - but right now I'm more interested in where I'm being wasteful, and how I can reduce usage from a footprint perspective, especially as I'm days from moving into a new house (hence my interest). Still no idea if that ol' US transformer for my stereo is efficient or eating through kilowatts...!

What I find compelling is that we the AlertMe stuff, you can get additional usage details from the additional plug monitors (not cheap, but the fact that you can allegedly define rules to control these - or control these remotely is some compensation).  Also, because the data is being archived (admittedly at their site - I would also prefer to archive it locally), this allows for updates to the software (and potentially new tools) to come out and be used, rather than (again) being tied to a closed system.

Finally, the powerMeter link looks very interesting.  Take a look at:

http://www.which.co.uk/reviews-ns/alertme-energy-monitor-and-google-powermeter/index.jsp


	Terry


> 
> Nick
> 
> 
> On 8 Jan 2010, at 12:12, Terry Payne wrote:
> 
>> Les,
>> 	not yet, but I've been reading around, and it *looks* good.  There is a Which article which seams to like it, and the recent Guardian article seamed impressed.  If you hear more, or if anyone else tries it, then I'd like to know more...
>> 
>> ... have you heard about the 10:10 initiative???
>> 
>> 	Terry
>> 
>> On 8 Jan 2010, at 11:55, Leslie Carr wrote:
>> 
>>> Does anyone have any experience of the "AlertMe Energy" remote power meter that interfaces with Google's "powerMeter" software?
>>> 
>>> http://alertme.com/products/alertme-energy/
>>> --
>>> Les
>> 
>> 
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> -- 
> Dr Nicholas Gibbins                                     nmg at ecs.soton.ac.uk 
> Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group     http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~nmg/ 
> School of Electronics and Computer Science         tel: +44 (0) 23 80598879 
> University of Southampton                          fax: +44 (0) 23 80592865 
> 
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> 


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