Comments on new EKM Dash

For more advanced meter data users. Learn from others and ask questions about how to read meters, how to use the EKM Push Data, and how to display the meter data in useful ways.
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gagnon
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:04 am

Comments on new EKM Dash

Post by gagnon »

Hi,

Congratulations on the new version of your software, EKM Dash.
The new version is much more user friendly than EKM reader v3.
I was able to communicate with my reader in no time.

However, I do have some questions/comments.

1. What is "demand period" ?
2. I wish there was a way to flush all historic data for a meter in the software. This would be useful when I change the physical setup (monitor another circuit) and then exporting data.
3. Is there a way the get daily readings of VAH instead of KWH ? I know I can divide KWH by power factor, but then I need to do readings as fast as possible and have my own VA accumulator (instead of using the KWH acculumator in the reader and reading it once every day) ?
4. I think I will miss the functionnality of the EKM reader of automatically logging to a file. Having to export data manually has some drawbacks.

Thanks !
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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Re: Comments on new EKM Dash

Post by Jameson »

Gagnon,

Thank you very much for your feedback, this is very useful to us. We should have a sizeable upgrade to the EKM Dash available soon, stay tuned.
1. What is "demand period" ?
Demand Period has to do with Max Demand: Some customers are charged by their utility for what is called Max Demand. This is essentially a penalty for large users (usually industrial customers) to offset the costs of providing increased Peak Usage infrastructure to these customers (which is a major component of the cost of the electrical grid). These large customers are charged based on 15, 30 or 60 minute Demand Periods. This is not the absolute peak usage of the customer, but more of an average peak over 15, 30 or 60 minute periods. This number always increases until it is reset internally in the meter. Of course to avoid this charge you can use our meters to keep your Max Demand down to an acceptable level. Do this by shifting loads to low demand times of the day (for some customers, the Max Demand charge can rival their kWh power bill). You are usually charged for your largest Maximum Demand for the billing period. So to answer your question, you would set your submeters' Max Demand Period to what you are billed on (usually a 15, 30 or 60 minute period).

Here is a pretty good overview of the subject: https://www.duquesnelight.com/forYourBu ... Demand.cfm
2. I wish there was a way to flush all historic data for a meter in the software. This would be useful when I change the physical setup (monitor another circuit) and then exporting data.
To flush the meter data from your database, you can either delete the meter and create it again, or you can change the meter number (to a bogus one) and then change it back. The Dash should warn you that when you do this all meter data will be lost.
3. Is there a way the get daily readings of VAH instead of KWH ? I know I can divide KWH by power factor, but then I need to do readings as fast as possible and have my own VA accumulator (instead of using the KWH acculumator in the reader and reading it once every day) ?
Yes, you have it right. At this point you would have to read your meter quite often and then get rid of the Power Factor influence in your kWh readings. This is because Power Factor is volts x amps x power factor x time. VAH is just volts x amps x time. We are developing a meter that will return VARs and kVARHs. This will make it much easier and more accurate to get VAH.
4. I think I will miss the functionnality of the EKM reader of automatically logging to a file. Having to export data manually has some drawbacks.
The EKM Reader used file based storage and the EKM Dash uses database based (that sounds funny) storage. There are huge advantages to using a database and yes, I could see that file based could have some uses too. At this point when you want to create a file you have to export from the database to a .csv file. We could look at having the option of logging directly to a .csv file also if you think it would be helpful. We really just want to make the meter data as easy for you to access and as useful as possible, so if you have any ideas on this front, we are all ears!!

Again thanks for the feedback. The EKM Dash is certainly a work in progress. This would be a great place for users to let us know some of the features you would like to see incorporated into the Dash. We are aiming for a stable platform that makes your meter data easy to see and to access for other purposes. Then beyond that, the sky is the limit ;)

Best regards,
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
adwardrob
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Dec 25, 2012 11:30 pm

Re: Comments on new EKM Dash

Post by adwardrob »

Last edited by adwardrob on Fri Sep 05, 2014 3:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
Wouter
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun May 20, 2012 11:37 am

Re: Comments on new EKM Dash

Post by Wouter »

Love the EKM Dash.

Feature request however:

Allow the addition of a "virtual meter".

The point is...

I have a meter that monitors power to/from the grid.
I have a meter that monitors solar power from my array.

While I can export and add/subtract the data from the two meters, other than that I do not know what power my house is consuming.

Virtual meter (house consumption) = Grid + solar

This could be used for all kinds of applications.

Wouter
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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Re: Comments on new EKM Dash

Post by Jameson »

Wouter,

Good concept! We will stew on this one for a while as to how to best implement this from a users perspective. At first blush this might be a feature that would be confusing for most users. I could see some sort of a hidden interface that would be used to enable this. Instead of Remote, Local Serial, or Push data the Dash would have the ability to use "Virtual" data. In the setup the data source would be 2 separate meters that you could choose.

Let us give this some thought. This may have to be folded in later down the road.

Thanks for your feedback. (sorry I did not get back to you sooner, somehow your post escaped my notice :oops: )
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
paulrquinn
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:38 pm

Re: Comments on new EKM Dash

Post by paulrquinn »

How much history is stored in the cloud for each meter? It looks like only 1,000 records. At one minute intervals that is only 16 hours, less than one day. I would like to do energy analysis over an entire year to see variances in different seasons. Do I have to have EKM Dash running on my computer constantly to not miss readings?

How can I see more than a 40 minute window in the EKM Dash software? I would like to be able to put in a date/time range and see the historic data. The software seems VERY simplistic, too simplistic to be of any real use or analysis.
Jameson
Posts: 860
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
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Re: Comments on new EKM Dash

Post by Jameson »

The EKM Push system stores the latest 1000 reads in our real-time cloud data. For a once a minute meter this is the latest 1000 minutes. We have some customers that have us set their meters to be read once per hour so that they can get the latest 1000 hours.

The EKM Dash will retrieve all available data. For a once a minute meter if you were to start up your Dash it would retrieve the latest 1000 reads, if you then quit it and restarted 1 hour later, it would retrieve the latest 60 reads.

We are working on providing other cloud based long term data sets. The one that is currently available is something like the "Calendar Widget" or the "Comparison Widget" at http://www.encompass.io At this point the Calendar Widget just shows kWh usage per day, but moving forward it will have more historical data available.
How can I see more than a 40 minute window in the EKM Dash software?
Is this the "Dashboard" (line chart) portion of the EKM Dash? For now you can only graph something like the latest 40 data points, but moving forward, we would like to provide historical graphing, more values, re-sizable widgets, etc. I would export the data you are interested in and graph using software like excel.
Jameson
EKM METERING
http://www.ekmmetering.com
831.425.7371
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