gar
Senior Member
- Location
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Occupation
- EE
130911-1128 EDT
The time out function on this site is much too short. If you do not periodically save your composition you loose it.
Starting late this month last year my DTE smart meter was installed. Even though it was advertized that I would be able get on-line information from my meter this was not possible. Many calls to DTE produced no results. About January of this year I finally made contact with the correct DTE person. A person that had knowledge and authority. Within a short time I had data all the way back to the installation time.
Both the web site ease of use, and the data presentation presented some problems. Thus, I started writing a set of notes to help users make use of the available data. This is titled "Reading, Collecting, and Using DTE Smart Meter Data to Help Reduce Energy Use". It is in a preliminary form and I have put its table of contents on my web site.
Yesterday my useful contact at DTE stopped at my home and I discussed the notes and my concerns about the web site with him. We had an extensive discussion because it lasted several hours.
It is not real clear to me what his functional position is, but he can get results. However, he is brudened down by having to deal with many DTE customers that call up crying with claims of health problems, or that their bills have jumped because of the smart meter. Then he has to work with the customer to get the issue resolved.
In one case the customer's bill jumped substantially. The smart meter indirectly was used to determine that an engine block heater was being used. By coincidence after the smart meter was installed the use of the block heater started. Thus, the big jump in their bill. With 1 hour quantized power use information, and when you have a large power rise during a time when there should be little activity it points to something unusual at that time. Thus, thru questions of what was powered at night brought forth the information on the block heater. From there it is easy to show why the bill increased.
Instead of or possibly in addition to the dot sequence DTE is looking into some form of numeric display for short time average power measurement. Voltage can be monitored, but he does not know if the two sides of neutral can be separately measured. If possible, this would be useful to monitor at the meter for a bad neutral from the transformer to the meter.
The meters are pinged periodically to make sure communication exists, but data is only output once per day. A mesh network is used. Loss of power information is transmitted immeadiately.
Even though power is averaged over a 1 hour period it is possible to get useful information to help reduce energy use. Also the meter can be used to measure short time average power.
The 1 hour averaging starts on the hour and ends at the start of the next hour. However, presently the DTE on-line bar graphs are centered on the hour marks, and these bars really need to be shifted plus 1/2 hour so the bar spans the time range of power averaging.
When I put something new on my web site I test with some simple string searches to see where Google places the result.
Just --- "DTE Smart" --- does not get me close to the early pages.
Whereas --- "DTE Smart" data --- puts me 7th on the first page.
There are two interesting sites on this first page:
http://www.smartgrid.gov/case_study...ivery_and_provides_improved_service_customers
This is interesting because it outlines some goals and results.
http://michiganstopsmartmeters.com/tag/dte/
This is far from a correct or balanced discussion. The people behind this information are clearly on an anti-smart meter agenda.
I can not find the reference presently, but someone was claiming that a switching power supply in the smart meter was creating "dirty power" and this was a health risk even when the RF transmission was disabled.
An informed customer can make use of smart meter data to analyze their energy use, and by changing their lifestyle they can reduce their cost, at least in kWh.
.
The time out function on this site is much too short. If you do not periodically save your composition you loose it.
Starting late this month last year my DTE smart meter was installed. Even though it was advertized that I would be able get on-line information from my meter this was not possible. Many calls to DTE produced no results. About January of this year I finally made contact with the correct DTE person. A person that had knowledge and authority. Within a short time I had data all the way back to the installation time.
Both the web site ease of use, and the data presentation presented some problems. Thus, I started writing a set of notes to help users make use of the available data. This is titled "Reading, Collecting, and Using DTE Smart Meter Data to Help Reduce Energy Use". It is in a preliminary form and I have put its table of contents on my web site.
Yesterday my useful contact at DTE stopped at my home and I discussed the notes and my concerns about the web site with him. We had an extensive discussion because it lasted several hours.
It is not real clear to me what his functional position is, but he can get results. However, he is brudened down by having to deal with many DTE customers that call up crying with claims of health problems, or that their bills have jumped because of the smart meter. Then he has to work with the customer to get the issue resolved.
In one case the customer's bill jumped substantially. The smart meter indirectly was used to determine that an engine block heater was being used. By coincidence after the smart meter was installed the use of the block heater started. Thus, the big jump in their bill. With 1 hour quantized power use information, and when you have a large power rise during a time when there should be little activity it points to something unusual at that time. Thus, thru questions of what was powered at night brought forth the information on the block heater. From there it is easy to show why the bill increased.
Instead of or possibly in addition to the dot sequence DTE is looking into some form of numeric display for short time average power measurement. Voltage can be monitored, but he does not know if the two sides of neutral can be separately measured. If possible, this would be useful to monitor at the meter for a bad neutral from the transformer to the meter.
The meters are pinged periodically to make sure communication exists, but data is only output once per day. A mesh network is used. Loss of power information is transmitted immeadiately.
Even though power is averaged over a 1 hour period it is possible to get useful information to help reduce energy use. Also the meter can be used to measure short time average power.
The 1 hour averaging starts on the hour and ends at the start of the next hour. However, presently the DTE on-line bar graphs are centered on the hour marks, and these bars really need to be shifted plus 1/2 hour so the bar spans the time range of power averaging.
When I put something new on my web site I test with some simple string searches to see where Google places the result.
Just --- "DTE Smart" --- does not get me close to the early pages.
Whereas --- "DTE Smart" data --- puts me 7th on the first page.
There are two interesting sites on this first page:
http://www.smartgrid.gov/case_study...ivery_and_provides_improved_service_customers
This is interesting because it outlines some goals and results.
http://michiganstopsmartmeters.com/tag/dte/
This is far from a correct or balanced discussion. The people behind this information are clearly on an anti-smart meter agenda.
I can not find the reference presently, but someone was claiming that a switching power supply in the smart meter was creating "dirty power" and this was a health risk even when the RF transmission was disabled.
An informed customer can make use of smart meter data to analyze their energy use, and by changing their lifestyle they can reduce their cost, at least in kWh.
.
