Water and Gas on pvoutput.

Fluc's picture

Oh, oh, thanks to communicate this. I was thinking to do the same for gas and water.

adamcowin's picture

oh hell yes!! well there goes sleep tonight, i'll be busy playing with this now lol

Big thanks to BB for implementing it into pvoutput and big thanks to Baz for requesting the feature! :D

very happy camper here lol

bazzle's picture

IF .. I can get back into my Flukso to see my sensor api and token numbers I would of done the same...Grrrrr

adamcowin's picture

cant get the flukso website to show the sensor/token id's? or..?

I could see the sensor and token ID's but I seem to have managed to break my live production graph for pvoutput. Sounds like we're both doing well haha

bazzle's picture

Your right doh. I forgot you can see them on the tools page here.. thanks for the heads up .

Baz

bazzle's picture

@ Adam
I added the numbers and the litres/day
I then made v7 the input.
There I made ...water...litres...0....day......last
I am looking at my pvoutput graph but see no new data field .
http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=1335&sid=4380
Did yours work?

adamcowin's picture

@Bazzle

i'm still playing around with it - i have it working, but I dont think its setup right from my side yet. It's only just started to pickup data from the flukso - http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=28541&sid=26142

these are the settings i have atm:

V7 input = water and set to litres per min
V8 input = gas and set to m3 per year

under extended data i have

V7 label = Water Usage
V7 unit = LPM
V7 axis = 5
V7 daily summary = none

V8 label = Gas Usage
V8 unit = M3
V8 axis = 5
V8 daily summary = none

I suspect that I have the extended inputs set to the wrong measurement - IE litres per day instead of lpm etc and also I suspect that I haven't got the extended data settings correct either (IE unit/axis/summary)

I've gotto spend a bit of time RTFM for pvoutput to see where i've gone wrong, just gotto find the time first :)

It looks promising, I think I just need to set my part up correctly first

adamcowin's picture

Also mine didnt work initially and I also managed to break the live production graph. I've fixed both issues and found what i did to cause it - any of the below may or may not help you :)

1. not working initially

- I initially had the primary device set as flukso and consumption for the 3phase house power. The secondary device was set to flukso and solar.
- I changed it to the way it should be - primary device for consumption and the secondary primary sensor for solar (set to opposite)
- Then I put in the water / gas sensor id and token into the secondary device. Under flukso + extended

This didnt work initially. Although I remember seeing a pvoutput post previously about making changes to the sensors during the day, whilst it was in use. Not sure exactly what the problem was, but i remember that it didnt work too well for someone.

To fix this, I left it set with just the primary and secondary primary device for the consumption/solar. I then removed the Secondary device and saved changes, leaving this overnight.

This morning, I enabled the secondary device as per the pvoutput post from BB you posted above. Which solved the issue of it not working.

2. Breaking the live view graph

Turns out, if you disable the secondary device that was set to extended data and leave the label/unit/axis fields filled in, it seemed to stop the live view graph from working..

hope some of this helps :)

cheers
adam

bazzle's picture

We will see tonight. House not using any water during the day so no data .

I clicked on your graph but 5th box to Extended data under date not present there.

bazzle's picture

Working perfectly. Ran a 12l bucket, the loo and a glass of water 16 litres. Here and on Pvoutput (16.000)

adamcowin's picture

hey baz,

sorry had the extended data set to private for some reason - but also I think it might not have enough data yet (It only started picking up the flukso reading this morning)

If you get the error saying extended data not available on that link of mine above, click on the standard data link, then click on the live link and once it shows live generation/consumption you can then click on the extended data via the 5 small boxes under the date (under middle of graph) and hopefully that should work

what extended settings did you end up using within pvoutput? I notice you said pvoutput listed it as 16.000, have you found a way to get it to show just 16 instead? or might that be related to the axis settings (0-5) being decimal points or digits?

cheers
adam

bazzle's picture

I notice we are both getting very strange readings . I got a water pulse of 3,700 litres. Youve got a gas pulse of 19,973 M3 of gas.
Something isnt right.

adamcowin's picture

yeah i agree somethings not right. the times dont seem to line up perfectly between flukso dash and pvoutput

the water doesnt seem to line up properly - flukso dash shows at 8pm a spike from 0 up to 48lpm. this is when the sprinklers come on. however the spike starts at 8pm and then just stops at the 48lpm. there is no graph line after that (not even to 0)

where as pvoutput shows the spike up to 48lpm when the sprinklers come on at 8pm. It then varies between 48 to 51lpm until 8:25 when the sprinklers stop.

The gas is a completely different story. According to flukso dash there was a spike of 17014m3/peryear for gas today.

I dont know how to read that yet - IE like a newbie looking at the energy monitor and seeing the house currently using 2.5kWh as a base load and unsure if thats a lot of not etc.

I used the android flukso monitoring app and plugged in the gas heater. I can see that when it is on 2 out of 4 panels turned on, it uses 5L per min for gas - but once again i have no base reference to know what that means.

Ive yet to work out how the gas company charges (IE what their "unit" is equiv too) and if 5L per min gas usage is a lot or a little

Fluc's picture

If the spike comes on and stops after a while, that means that no more pulses are detecting (consumption stop). I see this too, and is in certain way normal with pulses that don't comes, on the other way it is weird to see this kind of graphics.
For the gas, look at your gasmeter and count the digits rolling to know the speed of gas flow in a certain laps of time, then you will see that 5L per min is normal (low consumption).
My gasheater goes from 15 to 25L per min.

bazzle's picture

@Fluc or anyone. Ive got the photoelectric switch for the gas. It lights up.
Still messing around with how to get it to read my gas meter.
How can I easily test the photoelectric sensor?

Thanks

Fluc's picture

Yes, thats my scheme ;-)
When both red and green is on > reflection detection
Red only is power.
Now turn on the potentiometer until green goes out, depending on the reflecting surface. you have to experiment somewhat and also because i don't have such a gasmeter to test it.
Like i sead before, test it first with a flat battery or usb power adaptor or something with 5 V DC.
Test on other surfaces to see how the sensor reacts...
It is possible that the reflection comes from the glass itself, for that i unglazed it a bit with extra fine sandpaper P400 - P600.
In your case it would be better if you can put on the needle a small reflecting thing like a small circle pushed out alupaper with a perforator....but for that you must access the needle behind the glass, or from under the glas and glue the reflector with superglue, hold it with a pencett, with is perhaps not alowed....?
Can you unscrew the screws a bit without breaking a seal ?
Sorry i can't help you further more with this, besides some tips ans tricks. If i lived nearby you place, i will help you out, but not at this distance ... ;-)

bazzle's picture

Thanks for the hint on the adjustment screw and with your help on the parts.
When I wired it up I used a header pin with an usb plug.
I am experimenting with it plugged into my pc whilst I dummy up a reflective surface before I get to the meter (Out in the rain) later.
I put another usb cable (old printer one with end cut off) on the end of the cat5 wires from the flukso.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/310676792112?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid...

onto this sensor

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281334726852?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid...

bazzle's picture

Temporary play around with gas. Have used masking tape to put sensor over .01 M3 dial on my gas meter.
Adjusted screw, green light stays on, goes off when black needle sweeps past . Period off quite a few seconds, on even more x10.
Seems to be sending pulses. Changed the multiplier from 1 to 0.01 in Flukso setup this morning.
1st day of experimentation.
http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=1335&sid=4380
Water is still strange. Can make it read only correct on Flukso site only by clicking on the litres or cumulative tabs below the line.
https://www.flukso.net/dash#water/day

Not sure what is read by PVoutput from Flukso data?
If anyone has corelation between the 2 sites please post up your settings.

Baz

fafot's picture

Bazzle, can you please re-post the schematics. The site that you used is down from 1 June.
Tx

bazzle's picture

Here you go.
Im also going to try an Hall effect sensor or a mag reed in a couple of weeks time.
I intend to drill a small hole in the side of the dial cover and feed a sliver of sticky fridge magnet onto the dial hand.

http://tinyurl.com/no8uyp3

bazzle's picture

click the slow button after it times out (~20 secs)

fafot's picture

Thank you Bazzle.

I have the old water meter (QLD) and I am wondering what sensor you used to measure the water usage?

bazzle's picture

Give it a wipe and see if you can get a closer shot?