How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

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Karl
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 11:04 am

Re: How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

Post by Karl »

BlueHornet wrote
I have tried several different Schedule manipulations including those suggested by Jameson, however none seem to to be able to set the weekend rate schedule to my requirements.
Hi Gary, Hi Jameson,
I am stumped, and now believe to have the same problem, contrary to what I thought.
Yesterday, Monday, was bad for testing: No consumption, and Civic Holiday, so the meter should accumulate only under my Rate1 anyway.
However, today, I spent 0.1 kWh just to see, and low and behold, it also went into the Rate1 bucket,although it was in the On-Peak time which should have accumulated in my Rate3.

Here the data:
DateTimeUTC __ 8/5/2014 19:17 _____ 8/5/2014 19:18
DateTimeEDT __ 8/5/2014 15:17 _____ 8/5/2014 15:18
Total_kWh ____ 350.1 ______________ 350.2
kWh_tariff1 ___ 225.5 ______________ 225.6 added 0.1 kWh here
kWh_tariff2 ___ 123.4 ______________ 123.4
kWh_tariff3 _____ 1.2 ________________ 1.2 Should have added 0.1 kWh here
kWh_tariff4 _____ 0 _________________ 0
L1_V 122.2 _____ 121.8 ______________ 121.8
L1_A ____________ 3.4 _______________ 13.4
Power[Watt] _____ 424 ______________ 1652

Please let me know if you want screenshots of my TOU settings.

All I can say so far is: It does add something to Rate 3 and Rate 2 some time I did not determine, but at least at one time it added to Rate 1 instead.
I'll keep 200 W burning for one day to observe it more precisely.

Karl
BlueHornet
Posts: 56
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:42 pm
Location: Victoria, Australia

Re: How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

Post by BlueHornet »

Karl wrote:I am stumped, and now believe to have the same problem, contrary to what I thought.
Hi Karl & Jameson,

In an attempt to be clear about the Schedules & Weekend Schedule and TOU registers behavior I am experiencing.

DASH can certainly set the Schedule times and the weekend schedule in the meter, proof of this is that if you shut down DASH and restart it, navigate to the rates tab it will retrieve what is stored in the meter, which correlates to the schedules and rates settings that I have previously entered - No Apparent Issue.

If I set only a 2 Tariff (Rate 1 & Rate 2) Schedule in say Schedule 1 - Peak & Off Peak say Rate 1 (TOU1) - Peak Start 07:00 & Rate 2 (TOU2) - Off Peak Start 23:00 there is no apparent issue, it will run for 7 days a week and allocate the kWh consumed or generated to the correct TOU Registers TOU1 for Peak & TOU2 for Off Peak, this is also evident at the meter where the T1, T2, T3 & T4 symbols display correctly at the appropriate times as per the Schedule and the values I see for the T1 & T2 registers are consistent with what I would expect to see.

However!

If I then create a Schedule 2 (Off Peak) to Start at 00:01 (12:01am) as Rate 2 (TOU2) and apply the Weekend Schedule to use Schedule 2 the settings are most certainly being applied to the meter Weekend Period Table but any kWh consumption or generation are accumulated to the same registers and times as set in Schedule 1 and not as it should, which is to accumulate the kWh consumed and generated during the weekend period as per Schedule 2 time and to the Rate 2 - TOU T2 register.

Now I hope there will be a speedy resolution to this issue as to date there seems to be several untested or stagnant branches to the metering solution. DASH whilst appearing complete does not handle TOU correctly nor does it offer a complete monitoring solution, PUSH for V4 users has been touted since the V4 was first marketed and encompass.io has no value for V4 adopters till PUSH is made functional for V4.

I think the first basic requirement of any genuine metering solution is consolidate and proof a branch at a time rather then introducing new branches which have limited or no functionality for some and not others depending on the meter versions they are using. Each branch should be consolidated in the order that they have been released 1- DASH, 2 - PUSH, 3- Encompass.io. If that means putting encompass.io on the back burner till the first 2 branches are consolidated and proving to be a reliable full featured monitoring solution well so be it.
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Contact:

Re: How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

Post by Jameson »

Hello Karl and Gary,

Thanks for your help. Can both of you email us or post screenshots of your meter "Rates" settings?

This is what you see in each of the schedule selections and the schedule tab under "Rates". It will be the settings that the Dash retrieves from the meter when you go to Edit Meter > Rates.

Thanks,
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
BlueHornet
Posts: 56
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:42 pm
Location: Victoria, Australia

Re: How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

Post by BlueHornet »

Not sure what these are going to tell you that I haven't already described but here are the screen shots you requested, and just as a matter of interest I tried the Holidays Schedules and they too do not override the Schedule 1 settings and the meter continues to accumulate TOU registers according to the Schedule 1 time settings when they should be overridden and accumulating to TOU2 register.

Both the Holiday and weekend schedules do not behave the way they are intended to.
Attachments
Schedule 1.jpg
Schedule 1.jpg (60.65 KiB) Viewed 13823 times
Schedule 2.jpg
Schedule 2.jpg (61.49 KiB) Viewed 13823 times
Weekend Schedule 2.jpg
Weekend Schedule 2.jpg (47.22 KiB) Viewed 13823 times
Last edited by BlueHornet on Wed Aug 06, 2014 1:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
BlueHornet
Posts: 56
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:42 pm
Location: Victoria, Australia

Re: How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

Post by BlueHornet »

And here are the Holiday Schedule Screen Shots
Attachments
Holiday 6 August Test for Schedule 2.jpg
Holiday 6 August Test for Schedule 2.jpg (76.95 KiB) Viewed 13823 times
Holiday Schedule 2.jpg
Holiday Schedule 2.jpg (45.13 KiB) Viewed 13823 times
Weekend & Holiday Schedule 2.jpg
Weekend & Holiday Schedule 2.jpg (47.75 KiB) Viewed 13823 times
Karl
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 11:04 am

Re: How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

Post by Karl »

Jameson wrote:Hello Karl and Gary,
Thanks for your help. Can both of you email us or post screenshots of your meter "Rates" settings?
<...>
Sure. I sent you the screenshots per email, and Doug wrote back asking whether the settings shown are the ones I intended (i.e. the ones as specified in Post #1). The answer for Doug is "Yes, the settings displayed and their interpretation exactly reflect my intention".

Reset of meter:
About the issue that TOU accounting paused for about 8 days (stopping about one day after I implemented them), here some new insight:
I reset my Omnimeter II v3 yesterday evening, by removing the fuses in the Voltage Sense wires for about 3 minutes.
Consumption thereafter until this morning 7:00 was of course going to Rate 1 regardless of schedule,
but now after 7:00 EDT I see that for the first time since 8 days the kWh counts correctly accrue under Rate 2 again, instead of accruing under Rate 1 regardless of time of day and schedules as in the past 8 days.
After 11:00 today I expect to see them accruing under Rate 3 (I'll update this then).
[P.S.14-Aug-2014: Yes, the 11:00 schedule shift to my Rate 3 worked fine, too. The following weekend schedule worked fine, as well, but Monday morning, when the Rate should have shifted from Rate 1 to Rate 2 at 7:00, it just continued in Rate 1 - as if the weekend was never ending. Since then I tested two "Diagnostic holidays, and after each the TOU accounting continued in my Weekend/Holiday schedule rather than reverting to Weekday - until a Meter Reset is done, or a change to the Rates setting is done per EKM-DASH. End of P.S.]

Do you think this reset "fixed" the problem, or may there be another explanation for this change?
What can I do to avoid such lapses in the future?

Thanks,
Karl
Last edited by Karl on Thu Aug 14, 2014 8:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
BlueHornet
Posts: 56
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:42 pm
Location: Victoria, Australia

Re: How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

Post by BlueHornet »

Hi Karl & Jameson,

I may have solved my own issue regarding my TOU registers not activating correctly as per the allocated weekday and weekend schedules, I will conduct further testing to establish that this is 100% correct but in the meantime this what I have determined.

Irrespective of whether your tariffs/schedules work on a season basis or not, you need to set at least a "season" start date for Schedule 1- this may actually work with/for any Schedule!

So far this has worked for Weekend TOU 2 and Holiday TOU 3 that I have set up and simply advanced the meter time to the appropriate weekend or holiday date and time that needs to be overridden by the Schedules 2 or 3.

Now if this proves 100% correct and I have no doubt that it will, the software needs to be amended so that if a weekend or holiday Schedule is selected you will also need to set a Season Schedule irrespective of whether your Tariffs/Rates use them or not. Alternatively a default Season for Schedule 1 could be set into DASH starting January 1st. Obviously there are other methods in ensuring that the Weekend & Holidays Settings are tied in with the Season Settings.
Attachments
Season Setting.png
Season Setting.png (47.96 KiB) Viewed 13815 times
BlueHornet
Posts: 56
Joined: Fri Dec 16, 2011 10:42 pm
Location: Victoria, Australia

Re: How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

Post by BlueHornet »

Hi Karl,

As a matter of interest what is your V3 meter number and do you have any co-generation?

Cheers,
Gary
Karl
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Jul 28, 2014 11:04 am

Re: How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

Post by Karl »

BlueHornet wrote:Hi Karl,

As a matter of interest what is your V3 meter number and do you have any co-generation?

Cheers,
Gary
Hi Gary,
I have no co-generation (no solar panels, turbines, generators etc.). My v3 meter has number 10002631. Don't tell anyone.

By the way, I also have a *Maximum Power problem*
It's reset does not work.
This one I could not yet get to work, despite Meter-Reset and/or changing any other setting I tried:
Max_Power was never resetting at midnight of each day, as it should according to the setup found out-of-the-box, and according to the setup I intentionally set per Dash-via-USB.
Ergo Max Power (in Watt, not kWh) just keeps track of the maximum ever (or since last manual reset), ignoring midnight each day and ignoring July-to-August rollover just as well.
I can manually reset this to zero with the "Reset Now" button per Dash-via-USB, but it should reset periodically when left alone.
No big deal, because the Utility company is not (yet) charging residential customers by this.

Greetings,
Karl
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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Re: How do I best set up the Time-of-Use options?

Post by Jameson »

Hello Gary,

My apologies, but I have not had the bandwidth lately to get to your questions above. Doug has been working with Karl on his TOU stuff, but I am out of the loop.

Karl,

With the v.3 meters the Max Demand needs to be reset using the EKM Dash. There is no way to set the v.3 meter to automatically reset the Max Demand on its own (unfortunate for Push users, they need to do this with a USB converter). The v.4 meter however does have this as an option, you can set it to reset Max Demand either Hourly, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
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