The T's

Forum is open to all questions, answers, and discussions related to electric meters, ours or others.
Post Reply
Nevland
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:56 pm
Location: Nevada City CA

The T's

Post by Nevland »

In the Dash soft ware what do T1 ,T2 T3 & T4 monitor ?
I assume T1 is Line1 Pwr; T2 Line 2 Pwr; and T3 Line 3 pwr in a 3 phase system. I am mystified however by what T4 does.
brouwerpower
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Nov 01, 2011 11:19 pm

Re: The T's

Post by brouwerpower »

The T's actually represent time of use periods. you can set these according to your local tariffs in order to more accurately determine to cost of the electricity that the meter reads. You can find out more about your local TOU periods from your utility company, as these will vary.

You can change your TOU periods in the EKM Dash software by choosing a meter, click on the "Meters" icon in the upper left of the main window and then "Edit Meter." Then click on the "Rates" icon at the top of the meter preferences window. From here you can set your own TOU periods and click "Set" when you are done.

You can also change the settings for up to 4 different seasons, weekend schedules, and holiday schedules from within the same "Rates" portion of the meter preferences window.

Hope this helps.
Nevland
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:56 pm
Location: Nevada City CA

Re: The T's

Post by Nevland »

On the v.3 parsing sheet T1 (bits 25 to 32) is listed as T1 KWH, Total KWH for Line 1 ?
T2 (bits 33 to 40) Line 2 KWH ?
Add them together and I get the same as Total KWH (bits 17 to 24)
I am only using Line 1 & Line 2
I am not at present using Line 3 but assume that T3 is L3 KWH
But what is T4 = ?

I don't think that the T's are time of use settings, but I guess I could be wrong but I don't think so.

Bill
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Contact:

Re: The T's

Post by Jameson »

Hello Bill,

Here are the kWh values that are returned on the Omnimeter RS-485:

Total kWh (forward kWh TOU1,TOU2,TOU3,TOU4 + reverse kWh TOU1,TOU2,TOU3,TOU4)
TOU1 Total kWh
TOU2 Total kWh
TOU3 Total kWh
TOU4 Total kWh
Reverse kWh (reverse kWh TOU1,TOU2,TOU3,TOU4)
TOU1 Reverse kWh
TOU2 Reverse kWh
TOU3 Reverse kWh
TOU4 Reverse kWh

The T's you are referring to are the Time-of-Use Periods (TOU). If you add the TOU periods together they will equal the Total Kwh.

T3 is Time-of-Use Period 3. (there will not be any values in the 3 and 4 TOU periods unless you have setup your meter to record these using our software. The Omnimeter is set by default to only record TOU1 and TOU2)
T4 is Time-of-Use Period 4.

The values for amps, volts, watts, and power factor are measured on each of the 3 lines. The lines are referred to as L1, L2, and L3.

Let us know if this answers your questions.

Regards,
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
Nevland
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:56 pm
Location: Nevada City CA

Re: The T's

Post by Nevland »

Not sure I understand it just yet.
1. I assumed that total KWH is the net amount consumed.
True ?

Statement from answer to previous post.
Total kWh (forward kWh TOU1,TOU2,TOU3,TOU4 + reverse kWh TOU1,TOU2,TOU3,TOU4)
Should the + in your statement been a - ?
If not I really am lost.

EKM say's I can set 4 time of use periods (I think that what it says.) I haven't tried it yet. Not sure if I need it but I would like to know how it works.

Ok lets say I set up 4 of them each for 2 hours each. Total 8 hours.
Are you saying Total KWH would only show the total of these 4 TOUs (8 hours) ?

Not trying to be a nit picker. I am just trying to understand what the meter is really telling me.

Bill
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Contact:

Re: The T's

Post by Jameson »

Bill,

Not a problem at all!

1) Total kWh is Forward kWh + Reverse kWh. To calculate Forward kWh only: Forward kWh = Total kWh - Reverse kWh

2) Yes you can set your meter to keep track of up to 4 Time-of-Use periods. You can make these settings by using the EKM Dash software. Once you have a meter setup, click "Edit Meter"> "Rates"

This is where TOU times can be setup. The EKM Dash will first read your meter to determine the TOU times that are set internally. If you want to make a change, change the values to the times you want and click "Set". The meter will ask for a password. Use "0" (zero: this is the default password, you should leave it at this, unless there is a compelling reason for changing it. If you change your password and lose it, there is no way to recover it.)

The TOU periods have to add up to 24 hours. There is no way to make the meter just keep track of 1/3 of a day. SO for example it could be set to start TOU1 at 10:00, then change to TOU2 at 14:00, TOU3 at 18:30, TOU4 at 2:00. I will attach a screenshot of this example:
TOU Example.png
TOU Example.png (57.77 KiB) Viewed 18446 times
Not a problem about your questions (they are good ones), keep them coming ;)

Thanks,
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
Nevland
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:56 pm
Location: Nevada City CA

Re: The T's

Post by Nevland »

I may have post this already but just is case
I am begging to get it, maybe
from the screen shot how doews it add up to 24 hours
Not sure what happens from 00:00 and 10:00 and 18:30 to 2

Bill
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Contact:

Re: The T's

Post by Jameson »

Hello Bill,

Thanks for getting back to us.

There is no break at midnight (0:00).

In my previous example TOU1 starts at 10:00, runs for 4 hours, then changes to TOU2 at 14:00, runs for 4 and a half hours, then changes to TOU3 at 18:30, runs for 7 and a half hours, changes to TOU4 at 2:00 and runs for 8 hours until 10:00 and keeps going with TOU1 again. This is a total of 24 hours.

Here is an example I pulled from a utility website of what Time-of-Use could look like (our meters could keep track of how much was used in each time-of-use period):
timeofusechart.gif
timeofusechart.gif (23.82 KiB) Viewed 18440 times
You can see in this example, that there is no break at midnight. 11:59 PM and 12:01 AM the next day have the same TOU rate.

Now of course if you were on a utility plan like this (in the example), you would try to do everything you could to consume your power when it only costs 1.398 cents/kWh (at night) instead of 21.716 cents per kWh. Our meters would let you know how you were doing with this in real-time.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

Thanks,
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
Nevland
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 2:56 pm
Location: Nevada City CA

Re: The T's

Post by Nevland »

:idea: I think I have got it.

Start time for Period 1, Period 1 End time is:
Start time for Period 2, Period 2 End time is:
Start time for Period 3, Period 3 End time is:
Start time for Period 4, Period 4 End time is:
Period 1 Start Time.

So if I was interested in 4 events (I changed to word from periods to events for clarity)
Say (5a to 7a) (8a to 10a) (1p to 2p) (3p to 5p)
I could only do 2 of them due to the periods in between the interested events.
(P1 5a to 7a) (P2 7a to 8a) (P3 8a to 10a) (P4 10a to 5a)

Bill
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Contact:

Re: The T's

Post by Jameson »

Hi Bill,
So if I was interested in 4 events (I changed to word from periods to events for clarity)
Say (5a to 7a) (8a to 10a) (1p to 2p) (3p to 5p)
I could only do 2 of them due to the periods in between the interested events.
(P1 5a to 7a) (P2 7a to 8a) (P3 8a to 10a) (P4 10a to 5a)
Yes you have it right. You would be limited to 4 time periods (by the 4 TOU Periods the meter keeps track of).

To get the information you are looking for I would consider reading your meter every 30 seconds or so for a few weeks, and then exporting the data to a .csv file. You can then manipulate this data to see exactly how much power was used for any given time period you choose. You could compare days of the week, look at trends, averages, and graph the results, etc. Once the data is in .csv (excel) it is really easy to manipulate.

Let us know if you need anything at all,
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
Post Reply