If, after installing the Current Cost Data Cable on a Windows 7 64bit PC, there is a code 10 error showing in device manager, follow these steps to resolve the issue.

Follow the 2 stage uninstall process:

Stage 1:

• With the Data Cable plugged in to the PC, go to Control Panel -> Device Manager. 
• Expand the Ports node. Select the "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port". 
• Right click - uninstall.
• When the uninstall is complete, unplug the Data Cable from the PC. 

Figure 1

Stage 2

• Go back to Control Panel -> Programs and Features.
• Select the item called "PL-2303 USB-to-Serial" and click "Uninstall"
• Follow the wizard to complete the uninstall process.
• Reboot the computer.

Installing the Drivers

• Connect the Data Cable and let the drivers install automatically
• Go to Control Panel -> Device Manager
• Expand the Ports section
• Inside Ports, there should be an entry called “Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port” (Figure 1)
• Right click the Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port and click “Update Driver Software”.
• Click “Browse my computer for driver software”.
• Click “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer” (Figure 2).
•  

Figure 2

 

• Select the available Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm  port and click “Next” (Figure 3).

Figure 3

• The drivers will install and you should then see a “Windows has successfully updated your driver software”.

 

New Analogue Dev Boards are now in stock.  Here is a simple wiring diagram if you wish to roll your own sensor.

The Current Cost Facebook app is a convenient way for customers to access the my.currentcost.com dashboard from within Facebook.  We would now like to open this up to more users for further testing before we make the app more widely available.  

You can install the app from here: https://apps.facebook.com/mycurrentcost/, and as always we welcome feedback and suggestions.

The Facebook app does not instantly share your energy graph to your friends network on Facebook. It is simply another way to view the my.currentcost.com dashboard.  However you can choose to share your energy graph to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or Google+ if you wish.

The Envi and EnviR store historical energy usage for all appliance sensors.  This is stored in the following resolution:

1. Two-Hourly History Store - the last 31 days as two hour aggregates
2. Daily History Store - The last 90 days as daily aggregates
3. Monthly History Store - The last 84 months as monthly aggregates

The full history XML specification can be seen here: http://www.currentcost.com/cc128/xml.htm

Passive History Output

A full cycle of History messages are output starting at 1 minute past every odd hour, ie 17:01, 19:01 etc. A burst of data is sent once every 10 seconds. History Data is sent for all 10 sensors regardless if they are now present or not.

"Sensor 0" refers to the "Whole House" and Sensors 1 to 9 are Appliance Sensors. Where sensors have more than one channel, for instance 3 phase monitoring, the value presented is the total of all channels.

Four items of sensor data for each of 10 sensors are sent each xml burst, ie 40 items. When the data from one store is completely sent, the data from the next store is sent. When the cycle is completed, the wire is quiet of history data until the start of the next cycle.

Manual History Output

A full cycle of output can be initiated for download on demand by pressing and holding the Down and OK buttons together until the LED flashes. Real-time XML output and all on-screen update including the time stops while this is happening.  During the manual history output, all processes are halted, including the clock.

Two-Hourly History Store

The last 31 days Energy Usage is output as 2-hour aggregates of KWHr (3720 values covering 9 Appliances plus Whole House), the data being aggregated starting at odd hours, eg 23:00 to 01:00, 01:00 to 03:00 etc. This accommodates industry requests to view evening and night data segments distinguished at 23:00.

Daily History Store

The last 90 days Energy Usage is output as daily aggregates of KWHr (900 values covering 9 Appliances plus Whole House).

Monthly History Store

The last 84 months Energy Usage is output as monthly aggregates of KWHr (840 values covering 9 Appliances plus Whole House).

I regulary hear from customers how they would like the person responsible for packing and mailing out items to wrap Christmas presents for them.  So neatly wrapped, Olly does have a special knack.

I thought I would put a face to the packing, so meet Olly Micko, Logistics Manager at Current Cost. Olly packs or oversees packing of all the items mailed from our warehouse: pallets, boxes, envelopes etc.

The new OptiSmart monitor from Current Cost represents 100% accuracy* for monitoring and opens capabilities to monitor whatever sensor type you wish.

OptiSmart works with meters that have an LED impulse.  A magnet fits the OptiSmart sensor and transmitter to the meter, so no tools or knowledge is required to install.  Check here for meter compatibility.

The sensor works by simply counting the LED flashes and the mini transmitter sends the meter reading to the EnviR monitor.  Each LED impulse meter will have an IPU setting.  The IPU indicates the value of an LED flash.  Many meters work on a 1000 IPU value, meaning one LED flash is one watt hour.  So 1/1000 of a kWh.

Tuning the OptiSmart transmitter is the same as all Current Cost transmitters, but with an added extra.  The OptiSmart transmitter uses two appliances on the EnviR so you get a meter reading on one appliance and the "Energy Now" value of that meter reading displayed as watts on a different appliance.  However, please note that the monitor does not display the meter reading on the LCD, only inside the XML output from the EnviR.  

You could also choose to ignore the Energy Now function and so only use one appliance for the meter reading.

Installing OptiSmart

We recommend that you check with your energy supplier before fitting OptiSmart.

Some meters have an inbuilt magnet, so you can simply cover the LED with the OptiSmart transmitter.  If your meter is not magnetised, you can use the self adhesive magnet included to mount the OptiSmart sensor on the face of the meter.

Once installed, the LED flash from the meter is shown on the OptiSmart sensor.

Tuning OptiSmart

Stage 1 - Tuning the meter reader

1. On the EnviR monitor, select the appliance number you wish to use for the meter reading data by using the up and down arrows.
2. On the OptiSmart mini transmitter, press and hold the tuning button.  
3. After 1 LED flash, release the tuning button.  The LED on the mini transmitter will flash, indicating tuning mode.
4. Press and hold the down button on the EnviR until the LED flashes on the front of the monitor and release the button.
5. The EnviR will tune into the transmitter and will display "data" on the EnviR LCD display.

Stage 2 - Tuning for Energy Now

1. On the EnviR, select a different appliance to use for displaying the "Energy Now" value by using the up and down buttons.
2. On the OptiSmart mini transmitter, press and hold the tuning button.
3. After 3 LED flashes, release the tuning button.  The LED on the mini transmitter will flash, indicating tuning mode.
4. The Energy Now value for the meter reading will now be displayed on the EnviR.

Underneath the Bonnet

The meter reading value is only available in the XML and is not displayed on the EnviR display.  The XML structure for the OptiSmart meter reading is as follows:

<msg>
<src>CC128-v1.29</src>
<dsb>00001</dsb>
<time>10:58:35</time>
<tmpr>20.5</tmpr>
<sensor>1</sensor>
<id>03885</id>
<type>2</type>
<imp>0000015175</imp>
<ipu>1000</ipu>
</msg>

The XML follows the standard CC128 XML spec available here: http://www.currentcost.com/cc128/xml.htm

The XML also contains two new tags:

IMP - The IMP is the number of LED flashes. One LED flash increments this value by one.

IPU - The IPU indicates the value of an LED flash.  A 1000 IPU value means one LED flash is one watt hour.  So 1000 flashes is 1kWh

Sensor <ipu> starts at 0. No user action resets it. Maxes out at 4294967295, next increment overflows to 0.

What's next?

OptiSmart transmitters are already in the wild monitoring water meters using a reed relay switch along with the LED Impulse version.  Simply replacing the sensor cable with a new sensor means that you will see a whole new range of monitoring scenarios available soon.  Or you could mod your own sensor cable for your own needs.

We look forward to hearing about your usage scenarios or ideas for this device.

* 100% accuracy (relative to existing meter)
* Installation is to an approved meter
* Installation is carried out in accordance with our instructions

My.currentcost.com is the online web dashboard from Current Cost. When used with a Current Cost NetSmart Bridge, the dashboard allows users to view energy usage data in real time via their PC, Laptop or Smart Phone. Despite the recent announcement that Google will be retiring PowerMeter on the 16th September 2011, my.currentcost.com will continue to operate as normal and will in fact see a number of enhancements in the coming months.

We realise that some customers have been using the PowerMeter desktop software with the Current Cost Data Cable rather than using the NetSmart Bridge, so where does this leave such customers?  Well, there are a number of online graphing options from 3rd party developers that work with the Data Cable and Current Cost monitors, all available for download from the Current Cost website.

Below is a list of these online graphing options. Please make sure you have the Data Cable drivers installed correctly first, before using any of this software.  Data Cable driver details are available here: http://currentcost.posterous.com/data-cables-and-driver-installation

Enio

Enio is a free web-based service, that helps you monitor, manage and reduce your home energy costs. Enio monitors how much energy you're consuming, either automatically through a connected live monitor, or via manual entry of meter readings. Enio then uses this information, coupled with some details about your home, to give you accurate and useful recommendations on how to make your home more efficient.

Enio also tracks the 'complete loop', so each time you make a physical change (e.g. upgrade your fridge), or behavioural change (start air drying your clothes), we track the effectiveness of each change on your bottom line consumption and costs. This data then feeds back into Enio's database so the system learns and gives better and more accurate recommendations to all of Enio's members.

Setup instructions:

• Visit www.enio.co.uk, create an account and login.
• While logged in at enio, click "connect energy monitor".
• Click "Connect your live monitor to your enio account" > Get the Enio meter reader software.
• Install the software that you downloaded http://www.enio.co.uk/download

The windows software will ask you for your enio api key, to find these details:

1.    Visit http://www.enio.co.uk/profile/live-monitor and click "connect a live monitor to your account"

Meniscus

Meniscus is a hosted service so you can access your home electricity information from anywhere and enables you to select up to 4 different graphs to display on the dashboard at the same time. Total of 8 available graphs with more coming soon:

• Real Time graph - updates every minute. Displays up to 1 hour of data and can select one of three channels or temperature.
• Raw data graph over the last 24 hours. Similar to the Real Time graph but does not update.

Range of historic graphs for aggregated half hour and daily consumption for each channel:

• Calculates the carbon equivalent.
• Cost v target cost and showing any savings.
• Pie chart of daily electricity use - broken down into channels.
• Benchmarks
• Comparison of half hour data (continually updated) consumption with a graph of the seasonal average for the same season and day type. This shows how much elec you are using compared to, for example a Winter WeekDay.
• Baseload calculation.
• Ability to import the historical bi-hourly data. We split this across the three channels in proportion to the historic use in each channel.

Setup instructions:

1. To access Meniscus real time dashboard then register at http://home-energy.meniscus.co.uk/cc_create.aspx
2. Download application for connecting Current Cost meter to Windows or Linux PC http://code.google.com/p/currentcost-ftpupload/downloads/list
3. Enter the 8 digit code mailed to you in step 1
4. Start sending data using the application installed in step 2
5. View your real time dashboard by going to http://dashboard.meniscus.co.uk/current-cost.html

Customise your installation

• Enable historic data stored in the Envi to be downloaded
• Change unit costs and targets
• Request a monthly report in Excel

 

MakeHistori

Users' secure power tori mimics your Current Cost display on the web, and automatically calculates and trends day, week and monthly power consumption and costs.
 
Access you power web pages from anywhere and compare time lines of your power toris with your friends or with other public toris such as news, stocks, weather, blog and Twitter feeds.

Details on how to download and install the PC based scanner from here:

http://www.makehistori.net/mhiCurrentCostsetup.aspx

and the pdf Quick Start Guide here:

http://www.makehistori.net/MHCCScannerV2.pdf

Today we have rolled out new alert functionality to our Beta testers on my.currentcost.com.  If you are a Beta tester, you will now see a bell located next to the padlock of a device inside the devices panel.  The default alert setting is off for all bridges, which is denoted by a grey bell.  

Click the bell and OK the message box and you will be setup to be alerted if your bridge goes offline.  Please note you will only receive one email per day if a bridge goes offline.

At the moment, only Beta testers will see the alert functionality.  Depending on feedback and  if all goes as expected, we will roll out to all users in the next week or so.

 

Google today announced that they will be retiring PowerMeter on 16 September 2011.  You can read the official announcement here. 

If you use the Current Cost PowerMeter desktop software or if you have setup forwarding on my.currentcost.com, this will continue to work until 16 September.  However, no further bug fixes will be made to PowerMeter software.

Existing PowerMeter users can download their data by following these instructions.

[update 27 June 2011] - Google PowerMeter closing does not change anything regarding the bridge and my.currentcost.com.  The bridge and my.currentcost.com continue to be supported and improved, with new features being added each week.  my.currentcost.com and the bridge are not closing down.

We have recently released quite a few new features on my.currentcost.com.  So here is a screencast for a quick overview of new features.