Earth Hour! Take part, and help a little bit...

So, I have recently been talking alot about my own power usage over the past couple weeks, and here is your chance to do sometime!  Tomorrow March 28th from 9:30 - 10:30 PM (your local time) turn off all your lights!






This movement is getting bigger, and while it isn't enough to solve the problem of using too much power, it definately helps a little bit.

I know it's not tech... but it's important!

Go to Whitehouse.gov!  Obama is hosting an experiment to try and get the American people involved in a nation wide town hall!

All you have to do is go to the site, vote on a few questions other people are asking, and maybe even propose a few questions of your own.

I think this is an awesome idea, and everyone needs to take part.

Thanks... and participate!


FYI, all of the hyperlinks go to this site.

Quick Post about Ligh bulbs...

If you were to turn on a compact flocecent light, an incondescent light, and use my entertainment center normally for one year, you would use about 1,587 kWhs of electricity.  If you were to break down which one used the most... you would get the pie chart to the left. 

You would spend $80 more per year to use the incondescent light.  And you would produce at least 696 more lbs of CO² per year with the incondescent light.

So, next time you think of how you can cut down on your power bill, just remember, compact florescent light my be annoying in the way they flicker when you first turn them on, but each one could save you up to $80 a year... now how many light do you have in your house?

that's all for now.

It's Obama on Jay Leno

The Kill-A-Watt experiment

So, as part of the requirements for the Tweet-A-Watt, I also purchased a P3 Kill-A-Watt (model#: 4400).  So, before I open the thing up, I was curious what kinds of numbers it produces.  So I started a few tests.  I have completed the first test so far, and I have published the spread sheet that I am tracking the data in.  So far, I am monitoring Wattage, Amperage, and I will be doing some quality of service(QOS) tests too... just for kicks.

And so far, I think the results have been interesting.  So, most of this data should be self explanitory.  I hope.  I have completed one test, so the results should be fairly accurate for test 1, however, test 2 is still in progress, and because I haven't created a way for the Kill-A-Watt to transmit the data to my computer, the kW section has to be entered in manually.  One more piece of data that is not clearly present in this chart is the cost per kilowatt.  On a separate sheet (which I did not publish) I recored my power usage in kilowatt hours for the past six months, and compared that data to the dollar amount of my bill (data provided by puget sound entergy.)  Then I took the average from the past six months, and came to the amount of $0.105695 as the average price per kilowatt hour.  Then I used that number to get the price per watt hour, and then multiply that number by the watt hours that I use.  As an extra and not yet useful piece of information, I have the % of my hourly average.  This is also based on my Puget Sound Energy bill, except I divided the months into day (because each bill tells me how many days it covers) and then days into hours, and take the average of all six months.  I imagine that this data will become more accurate over time, as I enter more electric bills into the table.



In the above table, you should see a section for QOS, however, until I create a database to log that data in regular intervals, the data provided is useless.  It merely shows a snapshot that represents a small fraction of time.As far as QOS data is concerned, I am monitoring Volt, Frequency, Watt meter, Volt-Amps (VA), Power Factor (PF).  I still don't know what the difference between the Watt meter and kW functions are;  I assume is is probably the case that the watt meter uses a consistent amount of time, and the kW funciton meters kW hours over the total time that the unit was plugged into the wall. 

Volt-Amps are constantly changing with the load put on the system.  For most purposes they are the same thing as watts, however for determining power quality, they can be used to determine is you home handles low power loads better than high power loads.

Power Factor (PF) is usually expressed as a percent because it is a number between 0 and 1.  It is the ratio of real power to apparent power, and is a fairly good indicator of the efficiency of your power grid.  Normally a residential PF is higher, and commercial is lower.  To compensate for a low PF, the utility companies will need to install additional equipment such as power regulators and capacitors. 

So, now you know!

Anyway, as far as my power quality.. I know that I have seen the Voltage from the outlet my entertainment center is plugged into as high as 122 Volts and as low as 116 Volts.  The frequency is usually pretty close to 59.9Hz, but I did see it dip to about 57Hz.  My power factor is 88%, which makes me think my connection to the grid is fairly close to a power sub-station (like the one over by the Boeing plant), or at least is some what efficient. My Volt-Amperes seems to be fairly consistant around 120VA.

I know it really doesn't mean a lot now, however, I will be able to collect this data over time, and hopefully soon I will be able to create a picture of what normal power consumption is supposed to look like.

Anyway, more to come soon.  I'm still troubleshooting the whole XBee software issue  I guess I need to compile the driver as a kernel module, or recompile the kernel with the driver in it.  So... I'll post some instructions for anyone who is interested in the project.

So, that's all for now.

Later,
     SteveO

XBee Module - My 1st electronics project!

So, I have to admit I was a little surprised that the kit I ordered wasn't already put together, however I guess it gave my a chance to learn hot to solder!  So, I broke out my soldering iron and got to work! 

The first thing I learned was that I had two problems.  the gauge of solder I was using was too thick.  I needed about a 23 gauge solder, but what I had was about 16 gauge solder.  The second thing I learned was that the point on my soldering iron was too big, however a little work with a file, and I was able to take the size of the soldering tip down to what I needed.

As you can see in this picture, because the gauge of sodder I had was too thick, I ended up with these big ugly clumps of sodder at the top of the unit, and because the iron wasn't sharp enough, I was melting the silicon on the board when I soddered each point. 


When I got to the 14 pins in the middle, and the 7 pins on each side, I had sharpened my soldering iron and gotten a smaller gauge solder.  So there I didn't have the huge clumps of useless metal.  I have a strange feeling that once I get around to testing this thing, the extra solder will need to be removed, but my friend didn't come over with his multimeter, so I haven't done that yet.

However, at the very least, I must have done something right, because when all was done, the XBee chip slid right into place, and the USB adapter worked fine.

Now, I guess the next step will be to get some form of software to work with the module.  Then I will be able to flash the firmware, and start transmitting some data.

My next step is to get my second module in the mail (I know, I was stupid and only ordered one module so it doesn't really do anything yet.) 

However, I do have my Kill-A-Watt, so that means I am one step closer to my goal of having a way to log my power usage into a database!  The original project was called a Twit-A-Watt (post power usage to twitter, but I really didn't care about the twitter part.  Just a way for me to see how much power I am using.

The cool part is that right now, I know that my DSL bridge and wireless router have used .02 Watts in the past 2 hours (.01 Watts/Hour.)  I guess it's not as cool as sa hooking it up to my TV, but it is something. 

Actually, I should probably just hook it to my TV and see what happens.  OK, that's what I'm going to do now.

Oh, BTW, I have a few web pages that I want to note here so other people can do what I have done:

   The web page for the original Tweet-A-Watt project

The general steps I have taken so far are:

• Buy a P3 4400 Kill-A-Watt I chosse newegg.com because they had the right price.
• Buy 2 Xbee modules, and 2 Xbee Adapters and a FTDI (USB) cable. 
• Assemble the XBee adapter kit 

And that's what I've done so far.  Now, the actual Tweet-A-Watt project has some more to it than just what I've done, and on the original project's page they have a detailed list of all the small parts you need (diodes, capasitors, heat shrink, regulators, etc,) and that page is a good resource to figure out how to do everything except assemble the XBee adapter kit (however it does link to the site that contains the instructions.)

So, yea, that's what I've done so far, and now I have to work on the software aspect of getting the Xbee to do something (anything!) 

So, that's all for now, and I'll keep updating as things move along.

Later,
     SteveO