TED5000 Questions

[RobbW]

Moderators please move this thread if it is in the wrong forum. I wasn't sure where I should post these questions.

Over the weekend, I installed a TED5000 electricity metering system I purchased from olagon. (Thank you!) I have some questions about how other TED5000 users use their system.

1. Which app do you prefer to use on your smart device? I have an iPod Touch 5 and an iPad 3. I downloaded and installed People Power on both. It is okay, but very limited in the information it provides. Also, there is a LOT of lag time between real-time readings on my TED display and the People Power app. The lag is upwards of one minute.

2. Other than your smart device, how else do you connect remotely to your TED data? The TED website lists several web browser-based offerings. Is there any one that most of you prefer over the others?

3. For those that use a second MTU to specifically capture electricity use by your iMiEV (if using an L2 240V EVSE), how do you have your second MTU connected? And are there any special settings you use in the TED Footprints software for the 240V line?

4. For my 240V circuit, I have one CT from the second MTU attached to each of the two legs coming out of the double-pole circuit for the 240V EVSE. The MTU is powered with only the black wire attached to the same circuit breaker that the gateway is on and the white wire attached to the neutral bus. Would I get more accurate readings if I used the red wire, too?

5. Do I need to tell the Footprints software that the second MTU is monitoring a 240V circuit? How do I do that?

6. And finally, how do you use your TED system to make energy efficiency decisions in your home? Is there anything cool you do with your TED data other than just watching the real-time gauges on the TED display or the Footprints software? I'm a data geek and would like to put this information to as much good use as possible!

 

[RobbW]

Another question: does anyone use one of those fancy-schmancy wi-fi thermostats in conjunction with their TED monitor (or any other electricity monitoring system)? How do you like it? Which thermostat do you use?

 

[siai47]

I only use the TED5000 footprints for monitoring (except the device that comes with the -C). For a sub load off the main panel (2nd MTU) put the two CT's on the wires running from the breaker for your EVSE. Make sure both polarity dots are the same direction. Set that MTU as a "stand alone" device in the software. Set the device as 240 volts. Make sure the black lead on the MTU is on the same leg as the other MTU. If everything is correct you should see the 2nd MTU show up on various screens in the footprints software. It should show the load on the EVSE breaker and you should also see the load increase the same amount on your primary MTU. In the upper left box on the footprints software you should be able to select #1 and #2 MTU and look at the readings. If you have a load on the EVSE and everything is correct, the #1 load and the "net" load should be the same.

 

[RobbW]

Thank you. That's exactly how I now have my 2nd MTU setup after trying a couple different configurations when I first installed it. The only thing I don't have the same as you described is setting the 2nd MTU as 240V in the Footprints software. The only reason I haven't changed this yet is because I'm still slightly confused about how the 2nd MTU should be wired in the panel. In the Footprints software, when you click the dropdown box to select 120V vs. 240V for a specific MTU, the description next to 120V reads "(Black/White Wires)" or something to that effect, and the 240V description reads "(Black/White/Red Wires)". This is what's confusing me. Should I be using the red wire on my 2nd MTU for something if I am monitoring a 240V circuit? If so, what do I attach the red wire to? The black wires from both of my MTUs are already attached together on the same circuit that is powering my gateway.

 

[siai47]

If you want to use the red wires, you need to put a 2 pole breaker in the panel for the purpose of supplying a voltage reference to both legs of the circuit. If the load on each leg is fairly well balanced and the voltage on each leg is equal, there is no need to connect the red wire on the MTU to anything. Just make sure the little cap is in place on the end of the wire. Also, the footprints software needs to know if you are monitoring a 240 volt (you are) circuit or a 120 volt circuit regardless of the use of the red wire. Your house is wired with two 120 volts "legs" that when combined can provide 240 volts. The neutral (white) wire is actually a center tap on a 240 volt output stepdown transformer which is outside your house. Electricians try to balance the loads on each leg to keep the 120 volt level stable and to reduce the amount of current flow in the netural wire. If your leg voltages are the same, the MTU can guess that the other leg will have the same voltage as the leg it is monitoring but it needs to know that you are actually connected to a 240 volt breaker.

 

[RobbW]

Okay, so I know this next question of mine is going to be off-topic for an EV thread, but I'm curious about other people's experience with monitoring their energy. The past two days I have been remotely monitoring my home's electricity usage while everyone is away at work/school. I have noticed that all day long, there is a continuously repeating cycle, and I'm trying to figure it out. Something in my home is cycling on and off every 15 minutes. My real-time energy usage will be around 680 watts for 15 minutes. Then it will instantly jump up to 980 watts for 15 minutes. And then back down to 680 watts for 15 minutes. This cycle is repeating all day long.

What appliance in my home uses 300 watts of power and consistently runs for 15 minutes every 15 minutes? My hunch would be the refrigerator as that's the only thing that is on 24-7-365 in my house and would cycle. But does a fridge cycle that consistently? Both my water heater and furnace are gas. So, it isn't those.

 

[RobertC]

What appliance in my home uses 300 watts of power and consistently runs for 15 minutes every 15 minutes?

Could be the blower fan on your gas furnace.

 

[RobbW]

What appliance in my home uses 300 watts of power and consistently runs for 15 minutes every 15 minutes?

Could be the blower fan on your gas furnace.

Most likely not. I also installed a wi-fi thermostat. So, I'm able to monitor the home temperature and adjust settings as needed remotely. My heat is on auto and is set to 62° during the day while no one is home. However, the ambient temperature has been well above 65° all day. So, the heat shouldn't be kicking on.

 

[Don]

It's probably the fridge - 300 watts (2.5 amps) and on about 50% of the time sounds about right. Check the plate on it and see what it says it draws

Don

 

[olagon]

Thanks for moving this thread...just got back from a few days of r&r. Sounds like answers are already here. I've found the tech support at TED to be really good too if you have specific questions.

 

[olagon]

Okay, so I know this next question of mine is going to be off-topic for an EV thread, but I'm curious about other people's experience with monitoring their energy. The past two days I have been remotely monitoring my home's electricity usage while everyone is away at work/school. I have noticed that all day long, there is a continuously repeating cycle, and I'm trying to figure it out. Something in my home is cycling on and off every 15 minutes. My real-time energy usage will be around 680 watts for 15 minutes. Then it will instantly jump up to 980 watts for 15 minutes. And then back down to 680 watts for 15 minutes. This cycle is repeating all day long.

What appliance in my home uses 300 watts of power and consistently runs for 15 minutes every 15 minutes? My hunch would be the refrigerator as that's the only thing that is on 24-7-365 in my house and would cycle. But does a fridge cycle that consistently? Both my water heater and furnace are gas. So, it isn't those.

680 seems like a lot too. Do you have DVRs? Sometimes they use 100 watts in the "off and waiting" position. Hungry vampires can be reduced by adding $5 mechanical timers to shut those devices off when not needed (routers, TVs, gaming systems, etc.).

 

[RobbW]

I'll tell you, Olin. I've become OCD obsessive with energy ever since installing my TED 500! I'm running around the house like a maniac trying to find anything and everything I can unplug or turn off. I have unplugged any unused charging cords and even small appliances that only get used once or twice a day, like my electric water kettle.

Last night, I bought three packs of those remote-controlled power strips that allow you to turn on and off everything that's plugged into them using a remote. In our master bedroom, our family room, and the entertainment area in our basement, I plugged all the A/V electronics into one of those power strips. Now I keep it all turned off all the time. When we want to watch TV, we just push "On" on the remote. Of course, we have to wait the obligatory 5-7 minutes for the cable boxes to completely boot up, but it's a small price to pay.

My computer in my home office is plugged into a "master" power switch. At night before bed, I am getting myself into the habit of shutting down my computer and then turning off the master switch so that nothing is sucking any power.

The only problem I'm having with my TED 5000 is that I really want to walk around with the wireless display try turning different things on and off to see how the affect my overall usage. Unfortunately, my display won't hold a charge. I have to keep it in the charging cradle all the time. It has been in the charger for three days now. Within two minutes of removing it from the cradle, it flashes "Return to charger" and then blanks out. I'm probably going to take it apart and see if I can replace the rechargeable battery.

Last night, I also bought a hot water heater blanket and finally insulated my HW heater. Granted, it's gas and doesn't affect my electricity usage, but it's another step in reducing my energy use.

I've been remotely monitoring my home's electric usage during the day from work. I was eager to see what kind of effect all the changes I made yesterday would have on my home's "idle" usage during the day today. Unfortunately, my wife decided to work from home today. So, the house isn't empty. Guess I'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see how things have changed. Our electric company has a website that lets you compare your electric usage to other homes in your neighborhood. I was SHOCKED by our results when I checked it out. For our August-September billing period, our total usage was 1,370 kWh. The average for all my neighbors was 683 kWh for the month. We used TWICE as much electricity as most everybody else in our neighborhood!!! WTF?!?!

I really need to get down to the bottom of this and find out where all this electricity is leaking!

 

[BarryP]

“I really need to get down to the bottom of this and find out where all this electricity is leaking!”
Well, here’s some more wild guesses of phantom electric suckers:

1. Your laser printer is not going into a hibernate state.
2. Like mentioned before, a fridge could do that (or a freezer). And it gets worse as the Freon leaks out.
3. Hidden electric heater somewhere kids did not tell you about.
5. Old fluorescent starter circuits giving up the ghost—like internal coils shorting (switch to all LEDs)
6. Heater in the garage bathroom turned high (that happened to me when I lived in IL).
7. Air conditioner needs cleaning
8. Heater needs cleaning. Along the same lines, if all the ducts aren’t open, the fan needs to work harder.
9. Did someone or something else tap off your house power meter?
10. Are all the lights on a lot (even security lights)? There’s an amazing drop when you switch from fluorescent down to LEDs. And the house gets brighter at 3x less power!
11. Your kids or wife running the electric dryer more than you thought. There’s 6-8KW right there!
12. Does someone like to run that 12A vacuum a lot (yea I’m pulling straws here)?
13. Are all the meals cooked via the microwave? Or the George Forman grill used for everything?

It’s tricky to unplug everything since there are clocks and phone chargers going.

Good luck on the mystery.
-Barry

 

[RobbW]

Barry, that's a great list for me to consider. Now that I've had a few more hours to think it over, I can probably come up with a few good ones without even being home at the moment. First, I have a 55 gallon saltwater aquarium with a 30 gallon sump. So, I have at a minimum a return pump, 3 water circulators, and a protein skimmer going 24/7. Then there is a 200-300 watt heater that kicks on intermittently, and then 240 watts of T5 lighting that runs 6+ hours a day. My daughter has a terrarium for hermit crabs. It has a heating pad that runs 24/7 and a 60 watt incandescent light that runs 10+ hours per day. She also has a green tree frog terrarium that has a heating pad and a fluorescent light that runs 10+ hours. Also, we have 3 cordless phones on chargers. The main cable gateway that acts as our phone switch, internet router, and DVR. We also have 5 routers throughout the house, two of which are wireless. There's also the baby's monitor. And who knows what else I'm missing.

 

[Don]

“There’s an amazing drop when you switch from fluorescent down to LEDs. And the house gets brighter at 3x less power!

LED's are great (I have several in my house) but they're nowhere near 3 times more efficient than modern compact fluorescents

A typical 60 watt incandescent replacement LED uses 12.5 watts and produces 800 lumens (64 lumens/watt) while a comparable CFL uses 13 watts but produces 825 lumens (63.5 lumens/watt) so there's frequently little to no energy savings to be had when switching from CFL's to LED's

I replaced the two CFL bulbs in our bathroom ceiling fixture with these type of LED's. They don't use any less energy nor produce any more light, but it is a brighter, whiter light and excellent for use in a bathroom. Even considering the cost, ($12 each) I'm happy.

Even if you save *something* it's only a few percentage points and nothing like 3X . . . . and you'll need to run that LED for many years to make up for it's initial high cost.

http://www.p-2.com/helpful-information/blog/370-is-led-the-most-efficient-lighting-technology/

I have a pair of 48" by 6" 40 watt LED fixtures (similar to Shop Lights) which are excellent work lights. They produce 3200 lumens (80 lumens/watt) from 480 LED's. $80 each at Lowes

Don

 

[olagon]

The only problem I'm having with my TED 5000 is that I really want to walk around with the wireless display try turning different things on and off to see how the affect my overall usage. Unfortunately, my display won't hold a charge. I have to keep it in the charging cradle all the time. It has been in the charger for three days now. Within two minutes of removing it from the cradle, it flashes "Return to charger" and then blanks out. I'm probably going to take it apart and see if I can replace the rechargeable battery.

That doesn't sound right. These are brand new. Maybe you can email support at TED to have them send new batteries? I haven't seen that problem yet :-(

Also, at your local hardware store you can look in the lights section and buy $5 or so mechanical timers. These are PERFECT for putting on DVRs, routers, etc. You can set the times for the units to shut off and shut on. So boot up times of 7 mins are no problem at all.

 

[olagon]

“I really need to get down to the bottom of this and find out where all this electricity is leaking!”
Well, here’s some more wild guesses of phantom electric suckers:

1. Your laser printer is not going into a hibernate state.
2. Like mentioned before, a fridge could do that (or a freezer). And it gets worse as the Freon leaks out.
3. Hidden electric heater somewhere kids did not tell you about.
5. Old fluorescent starter circuits giving up the ghost—like internal coils shorting (switch to all LEDs)
6. Heater in the garage bathroom turned high (that happened to me when I lived in IL).
7. Air conditioner needs cleaning
8. Heater needs cleaning. Along the same lines, if all the ducts aren’t open, the fan needs to work harder.
9. Did someone or something else tap off your house power meter?
10. Are all the lights on a lot (even security lights)? There’s an amazing drop when you switch from fluorescent down to LEDs. And the house gets brighter at 3x less power!
11. Your kids or wife running the electric dryer more than you thought. There’s 6-8KW right there!
12. Does someone like to run that 12A vacuum a lot (yea I’m pulling straws here)?
13. Are all the meals cooked via the microwave? Or the George Forman grill used for everything?

It’s tricky to unplug everything since there are clocks and phone chargers going.

Good luck on the mystery.
-Barry

Great list!

 

[BarryP]

"LED's are great (I have several in my house) but they're nowhere near 3 times more efficient than modern compact fluorescents"

Maybe it's closer to 2x. Sorry about that. Here's why: The 60W equiv LED is 9.8W (more efficient). I only use 3000K temperature. 2700K is too yellow; >3300K is too blue and 5000K gives me headaches. By they time you find a 800 lumen CFL at 3000K in the store, they're approaching 18W. The lower wattage [versions] is too high in temperature color.

Also it has been a pain waiting for these CFLs to turn on (the 3000K versions). And they don't last their advertised 8000 hours (more like 1000 hours). And their life is even shorter outdoors in our colder Idaho weather.

If you do like CFLs, go for higher quality (instead of the $1 versions). They'll last a little longer.
Anyway, sorry for the big thread drift.

-Barry

 

[Don]

"LED's are great (I have several in my house) but they're nowhere near 3 times more efficient than modern compact fluorescents"

Maybe it's closer to 2x. Sorry about that. Here's why: The 60W equiv LED is 9.8W (more efficient). I only use 3000K temperature. 2700K is too yellow; >3300K is too blue and 5000K gives me headaches. By they time you find a 800 lumen CFL at 3000K in the store, they're approaching 18W. The lower wattage [versions] is too high in temperature color.

The best 800 lumen, 3000K LED I could find is 10.5 watts and the equivalent 800 lumen, 3000K CFL is still 13 watts, so the efficiency increase is not even close to 2X - Closer to 1.25X

http://www.1000bulbs.com/product/6226/FC13-29376.html

As I mentioned earlier, there's little energy savings to be gained switching to LED's and their considerably higher initial cost would require you to use them for many years to break even

Don

 

[jray3]

"Also it has been a pain waiting for these CFLs to turn on (the 3000K versions). And they don't last their advertised 8000 hours (more like 1000 hours). And their life is even shorter outdoors in our colder Idaho weather.
If you do like CFLs, go for higher quality (instead of the $1 versions). They'll last a little longer.
Anyway, sorry for the big thread drift.
-Barry

+2 LEDs really shine in cold conditions, and last their longest that way. I love retrofitting them in walk-in freezers, where you get 2x the savings via less waste heat to extract, and I've got a set of all-light coachlights going into their fourth LED year that were going through even cold-cathode CFLs in less than a year.