Water usage

If i'm exporting my water usage to PVoutput using the sensor and token id's what value is it getting exported as?
L/Min
L/Day
m3/Year
Litre
Litre Cumulative
other?

as my PVoutput is way different to the Flukso graph
PVoutput has 3 options for importing
L/Min
L/Day
m3/Year

Bazzle appears to have a similar issue.

bazzle's picture

Im sure I (or someone else).. asked earlier from memory... about the way water gets reported but there was never a clear answer.

B-Man's picture

ok so hooked up a different water meter as the wiring is stuffed for the other one.
now i have a small amount of data i think i have worked it out

flukso seems to be uploading it as L/Min to pvoutput.

the pvoutput is the average of l/m so in some ways this is correct.

what flukso's graph does is records in 1 minute intervals and what you bazzle and I are doing i'm guessing is we are looking at the actual litres used.
where as pvoutput does at 5 min averages and doesnt show L/Used. it shows it as L/min

as for the cumulative out settings are wrong (for what we are looking for) as the cumulative is the cumulative of l/m not cumulative of liters used if you times your cumulative by 5 it should give you a pretty close reading to what the actual read is.

i used 30L
now it only took me a few minutes to use 30L but it must of been either side of the middle recording point hence why its average out over 3 points and the fact its a 10L/pulse the usage might of been half open from previous use causing the graph to spread it out over 3 points (15 mins)

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58260317/Flukso/water%20workings.PNG

imo water usage really needs to be measured in 0.5L/ pulse and at 1 min intervals to be accurately graphed

i dont know if setting to "energy of " will fix the cumulative

B-Man's picture

the pvoutput readings are correct. just not in the format we want. so Bansktown bloke is right.

it needs another option like how the "w to kwh" is in the extended data summary option
that says L/Min to L Used *this would be the multiplier of 5

my other settings didnt work so trying to copy some others i had for electricity
failing that i will email BB and see what he can come up with.
to us its just another selection in the dropdown but it would take a bit to implement it so fingers crossed.

need a few times to test the different settings but pretty busy atm

bazzle's picture

Im still not happy with my readings. on PVoutput.

Todays post:

https://getsatisfaction.com/pvoutput/topics/extended-data-water-live-to-...

Copy of post.

Hi
I am still not convinced its reading the totals correctly.
This morning I used 6 litres a minute for 30 minutes. = 180 litres.
Graph shows 6 litres/min. ok.
Graph shows only 42 litres cumulative at 8;15am after the useage.
Total used in that time was ~ 180 litres

It shows the 6 litres/min for 30 mins ok. It then has the cumulative total of 42 litres not 180 :(
http://pvoutput.org/intraday.jsp?id=1335&sid=4380
I also checked water usage with a flow guage that read 184 litres over that time to check the total so its measuring the flow usage ok.

[IMG]http://i68.tinypic.com/2jdoswl.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i68.tinypic.com/ipcnio.jpg[/IMG]

PVoutput setup
[IMG]http://i65.tinypic.com/67ku8i.jpg[/IMG]

Any comments welcome :)

B-Man's picture

yeah i think there is a problem with how flukso site is sending/ pvoutput is receiving the data.

i have finally got a 0.5L/ pulse water meter so will hook it up and see how it goes as my other one was 10L/Pulse and way to inaccurate for pvoutput. didn't even register half the time.

i think flukso graph averages the water usage until the next pulse arrives but not sure what or how pvoutput retrieves when it goes looking for the data.

dont forget pvoutput is L/day in 5min intervals so its screwed around a bit.

i guess we need to workout what flukso is doing with the data and what data pvoutput is getting.

is it getting modified data used to graph on the dashboard or the actual data?

B-Man's picture

I replied to the other thread on getsatisfaction

this is what i emailed BB with a few months ago

https://getsatisfaction.com/pvoutput/topics/extended-data-water-live-to-...

what Bazzle (i assume from looking at his post) and I are looking for is liters used not L/Min
if there was an option in the extended data like the "W to KWh" but "L/Min to L used" that would change the reading on the graph rather than just the summary? or some other option?
and what that does is multiply the L/Min by the updated frequency (5) it gives the amount of liters used for water in that period, that would then give us the correct reading
as if i used 5L/min then 40L/min then 7L/min etc etc i then have to manually work out how much i used by adding them together and times by 5
if on the other hand it was liters used i could see i used 25L, 200L, 35L, and my cumulative would show 260L without trying to work it out

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58260317/Flukso/water%20workings.PNG

to summarise
basically the bore pump needs to show 10L used for the 3x 5 min periods rather than the L/min
the data getting imported into pvoutput needs to be times by the updated frequency (5)

IF flukso could export the data as L used instead of L/min it would be solved or we have to wait for the rule to be implemented

B-Man's picture

im trying to set my meter up but its being a bitch.
i have a pulse water meter supposedly a 5L/P and a 0.5L/P

set constant to 5 and tried and reads 36L on graph and meter showed 100L went through
tried again and it showed a constant 4L of usage from the first use of water to the time i put another 50L through.

i then put 22L through and graph jumps up to 36L

i would of thought if there was no response with the water it would drop down to 0 and wait until it recorded usage again.

its just not making any sense

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58260317/Flukso/water%20test.PNG

bazzle's picture

Thanks for the replies on the other site :)

With yours what do you get if you just show liters cumulative?

baz

B-Man's picture

i will check tomorrow night its too late now and i cant find my old data

do you think your results on flukso are correct?

bazzle's picture

On here .. yes.
The liters cumulitve and plain liters graph I find easier to read and work out usage.
This is how I was expecting the data to be seen on PVoutput. Both those 2 graphs over each other.

B-Man's picture

i really dislike how flukso is graphing my water usage.

also dislike how i can't set a default option ie. liters or cumulative

i used 10L at 16:41 and 10L at 18:32
the water usage was used in under a min for each (ie all at one so should be a pretty straight forward graph)

i have constant of "1" so i can work out how many L/ Pulse it does as nothing is making sense ie basically counting pulses to work out what the meter is.

im assuming the water meter is 5L/ pulse so there should only be a 2 step increment
and if it was the supposed 0.5L/pulse it would be a 20 step increment
but its random steps

imo the graph should go like what i have drawn ontop of the blue

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f7sbomlyhlndnhb/Flukso%20water%20usage.PNG?dl=0

do you have a screen shot of your flukso water bazzle?

B-Man's picture

i am using air if that matters just for testing?
i figure that the pulse unit is based off the meter spinning so shouldn't affect it?

bazzle's picture

Using water not air ;)

[URL=http://s8.photobucket.com/user/bazzslk230/media/litres%20per%20day%201_zpsgxns1ni2.jpg.html][IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a19/bazzslk230/litres%20per%20day%201_zpsgxns1ni2.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

[URL=http://s8.photobucket.com/user/bazzslk230/media/litres%20per%20day%20cumulative%201%201_zpsbjh1qxk9.jpg.html][IMG]http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a19/bazzslk230/litres%20per%20day%20cumulative%201%201_zpsbjh1qxk9.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

B-Man's picture

does yours work fine now bazzle? using the new rule?

B-Man's picture

im still having issues

flukso site seem about right.

says i used 82L for a shower
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58260317/Flukso/Fwater1.JPG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58260317/Flukso/Fwater2.JPG

pvoutput is showing i used 125L then another 100L in the same time frame...?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58260317/Flukso/Fwater3.JPG

there's something going wrong.

yet earlier in the day the 15L when it was 7 is the same?
all pvoutput is doing is using the flukso sensor and token id to get the data.

bazzle's picture

Ive found the https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/58260317/Flukso/Fwater1.JPG graph to be inconsistent.
I use the Litres Cumulative one now and just read the difference from where I put my mouse.
PVoutput is easier to read for me overall. My readings work out the same +/- a few litres..
Water Cumulative Total on PVoutput now ok. Im using 5.1 as multiplier.

B-Man's picture

yeah i prefer pvoutput to read pity its showing different readings than flukso i will play around a bit more

bazzle's picture

Ive been checkingt mine too. Sometimes pretty close, sometimes ~20L
This morning usage, Flukso 74L. PV 166L ??
I only check the 24 hr total now. Ive adj the multiplier in pvoutput to 5.3

bazzle's picture

Flukso litres on cumulative chart. From 06.00 to 13.00 ........181 litres
Today PV Output 00.00 to 13.00............181.5 litres (ist use at 06.00)
Extended data rule: v7=v7*5.5

B-Man's picture

thanks for keeping this going Bazzle i have been pretty busy in the last month and a bit!.

haven't really had much time to look at my water usage but i will have some nice data to compare.

what i don't understand is how pvoutput gets the reading from flukso buy they are so different.
it would be great if someone involved with the flukso can give some answers

B-Man's picture

the whole point of buying a flukso was so it does my water and power and could put it on pvoutput easily but it can't do the water very good at all.
i like everything else about it and how its an all in one device but if had had the chance again i would of stuck with my old setup and looked at something different to do the water.

B-Man's picture

i have looked into this more.

flukso usage on the dash seems to be correct.
pvoutput from the flukso always seems to be wrong.

im thinking that flukso graph plots along adjusting each minute (or section in time) until it gets its next pulse to correctly identify the data and works the average amount between each pulse.

still not sure what data pvoutput is retrieving from flukso to know how it is getting it wrong

does it gather the data directly from the flukso unit or is it getting it from the flukso website
what data is it collecting?

how do i get it to read right like the flukso dash?

bazzle's picture

I think you will need to ask on the PVoutput site. (get satisfaction)