Current Cost Envi

Ever since I read about Google's new service for measuring power consumption, Powermeter, I wanted to try it, whatever your opinions on what Google might do with your data, it can't be denied that they certainly have a knack of recording and displaying copious amounts of data in easy to understand and manipulate formats. Thus I set out on a lengthy and fraught journey on attempting to use the service, this post has been a long time coming, it wont be an easy one to tackle... Lets get to it!

First and foremost I had to get my hands on a device that supplied data in a format that Google Powermeter understands. The only device available in Australia is the Current Cost Envi and we were kindly supplied a freebie by their Australian distributor, Steplight. That was the easy part, then the fun really began...

The Envi consists of two parts, the attractive looking display unit you see above and a clamp/transmitter assembly that connects to your electricity supply. Thanks to a raft of Australian rules and regulations between Electricians and their trade unions, despite being able to (theoretically) fit the clamp yourself, despite it being consumer fit-table in every other country it is available in, you're supposed to get a qualified electrician to fit the clamp. Again, we were very lucky to have an electrician friend who was willing to undertake the 30 second job (seriously) for a nice plug in this post (Thanks Adrian!), then after a few attempts to get the display unit to pair with the wireless transmitter, we were in business!

As you can see in the image above, the display unit is very clear to read and understand, it cycles through showing your electricity consumption at the current time, for the day and for the week, alongside the accompanying approximate cost (there is the facility to set up your suppliers cost per kwh). I let the Envi run for about a month and it was fascinating to watch the numbers ticking away, seeing what devices in the house cause massive spikes (The kettle, The hoover, the toaster...) and which were a lot more energy efficient that I thought (The computer, the fridge) as well as how our consumption varied depending on the time of day and whether it was a weekday or the weekend.

So far so good, the real challenge was just about to begin...

I thought a month of data would be a good sample set to load into Google Powermeter and compare our consumption, I just wasn't sure how to actually do that as the instructions were a little lacking on that front. Fortunately the Current Cost products have a pretty good online community and a little googling can easily find solutions and much more. It turns out there are two methods of getting data of the device, a custom USB cable that connects it to your computer ($15 available from Smart Now) and a WiFi bridge ($50 also available from Smart Now) that will actually upload data straight to Google on a regular basis. Being short of cash I opted for the USB lead (and I did check to see if it was available cheaply elsewhere) and took a trek down to Smart Now's offices in South Melbourne, a rather bizarre room above a pub.

Now comes the real fun...

We have an Apple Mac and a small laptop running Ubuntu Linux and sadly it appears that Google Powermeter only works under Windows, there are Mac and Linux versions of software that will do something similar but they all seemed to be either costly or free and extremely hard to actually get working. It also didn't help that on one attempt to get Google Powermeter to work on Windows running in emulation software it managed to not only completely fail to upload the data, but also to wipe the data from the device. After many attempts with many options I pretty much just gave up.

So, in summary...

The Envi is a fantastic device in itself, it clearly shows your power consumption and price in a format pretty much anyone can understand. Keeping track of that data over time was a lot more complicated, but if you have a Windows computer it's probably a very simple process. My main issue with the Envi is the cost, if you don't have an electrician friend you're looking at a $50 call out charge, plus the device ($140) plus the USB lead or bridge ($15 - 50), anything from $200 - 250, putting it out of the price range of many people. However, if you are lucky enough to have spare cash and a little patience then the Envi has a lot to offer.