EKM Metering

Good day to everyone here on the forum. I am new here, and no different to anyone else, I have a few questions to the knowledgeable participants here.

Let me 1st introduce myself and explain my setup and needs before firing away with questions.

My Setup:
Supply voltage: 240V, 3 Phase
Current residential meter: Email meter, EM3330 (http://www.westernpower.com.au/document ... _Sheet.pdf)
Supply authority: Synergy
Location: Western Australia
Town: Tapping, 6065

Generation Setup:
Type: Solar PV, 6.0kW, restricted to 5.0kW on grid
Link: http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=23876&sid=21753 (for today, might have to search pvoutput.org for "Storm PV Plant")
Inverter: 2 x Aurora Uno 2.5-I-OUTD (http://www.power-one.com/sites/power-on ... i_en_0.pdf)
Solar Panel: 24 x 250W Phono Poly PS250p-20/U

And finally my questions:
1) I want to monitor the instantaneous consumption, with a .5s update rate to at leat .5% accuracy. Can I read directly from the meter using a laptop?
2) Is the software for item 1, free with the meter or is there a fee?
3) When will the PUSH be Omnimeter Pulse v.4 ready? Or is it best to just use V3.

Thanks for the help everyone!
J

Hello CubeX, thanks for the detailed introduction and welcome to the forum

And also, thanks for the link to the pvoutput graph. Very cool.

1) I want to monitor the instantaneous consumption, with a .5s update rate to at leat .5% accuracy. Can I read directly from the meter using a laptop?

You will be able to read any of our line of Omnimeters using your computer as fast as once per second with the EKM Dash software. And our Omnimeter and CT combination is 0.5% accurate. Here is a chart that compares Omnimeter models: http://documents.ekmmetering.com/Omnime ... -Chart.pdf

2) Is the software for item 1, free with the meter or is there a fee?

We do have a free version of the EKM Dash. You can download the free trail (which is a 30 day full version), after 30 days it goes to the Free Version. I would recommend the $30 Full version as it allows more in the way of logging. If you only want to read your meters once in a while, then the Free Version works for some people.

3) When will the PUSH be Omnimeter Pulse v.4 ready? Or is it best to just use V3.

This is getting to be the age old question. Progress is being made. Pushes are reading v4 meters here on our test bench, data is coming into our new API. But now we are down to fine tuning, tweaking, stressing, massaging, improving, and beautifying the next gen Push system. Still don't want to stick my neck out with a time estimate though (already made that mistake).

If you ever need anything at all, please let us know.

Regards,

Hi there Jameson! Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

I will opt to buy the full software then. I understand what you mean with the update, I've read the other post. I hope you manage to give all the expecting customers some good news soon.

How far can the CT's be from the meter?

Thanks,
J

Hello again CubeX,

The CTs come with wire leads that are about 6 feet long. We do not recommend that you extend these wire leads as you will lose some accuracy in the CT/Meter combination. It is better to locate the meter near the load it is measuring and extend the RS485 data communication wire to the communication gateway.

If however you absolutely need to extend the CT wires, I would recommend that you pay close attention to the connections. I would solder the wire ends together and then use heat shrink tubing to seal the joint. We have found that we lose about 1% accuracy when we extended the CT wires by 50 feet.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the information Jameson. I will install the EMK meter in an external enclosure next to the meter box then. Oh by the way, I've purchased a V4 meter and 3 CT's.