Monitoring Gas Usage - UK

[thebeetleuk]

Hi,

Is anyone in the UK monitoring gas usage? If so what hardware are you using to do it?

[thebeetleuk]

First clue...

http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/1732

See post "Submitted by dmb on Mon, 16/02/2015 - 18:55."

" It has a reflective dot on the zero" <-- Surely this is the answer... Some more investigation required.

[ticktime]

This might work for you. But at this point, there is no way to extract data.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00YNCJB3S/r ... 91PMQ1DGJM

[stlaha2007]

Hi there,

Im not from UK but Netherlands. Here part of the household have smartmeters. Unfortunately mine will get one scheduled for end of 2017. So i have almost the same start, an analog meter with digits.

What i have done is read the number with an IPcam (bought this cheap €55,- d-link dcs-933), tried with irleds in nightvision (bad results of the reflected irleds), got a usb-ledlight (plusminus € 6,-).
Now the image is well lit without reflection (lot of trail and error).
Read the image with wget into domoticz sdcard.
Installed tesseract and imagingtools for crop, grayscale and OCR (tesseract) the number into file.
Then after OCR write the number with curl into json request into gasmeter device.
Created cronjob to read every 59th minute of the hour to get the reading of this gasmeter.
Need to say im in the testfase now, reading only the white-on-dark digits. Planning on reading the digits in de redbox later.
And still need to find out which number and divider needs to be fed and adjusted to get correct use statistics.

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[ThinkPad]

Have a look at the MySensors project, by building something like this: http://www.mysensors.org/build/pulse_water you can probably get it into Domoticz.
There is already support for MySensors in Domoticz. Don't forget that, apart from the sensor node, you also need a MySensors gateway to receive the data from the nodes in Domoticz.

For the reflective mirror in the counting reel, a TCRT5000 / CNY70 photosensor can probably be used. But your gasmeter might also have a little magnet in the counter reel, maybe you can pickup this signal with a so called 'reed contact'.

[stlaha2007]

Have a look at the MySensors project.

For the reflective mirror in the counting reel, a TCRT5000 / CNY70 photosensor can probably be used. But your gasmeter might also have a little magnet in the counter reel, maybe you can pickup this signal with a so called 'reed contact'.

Have you seen the picture from threadstarter. Seems to me he doesn't have a turning wheel.

I however, have looked at suggested MySensors, looks promising but need lot of cabling from outside meterhouse into central nervecenter on 2nd floor

For me: my setup works for now. Builded my own gateway with bash and tesseract on domoticz-pi.
Im extending it with electricity and watermeter in a couple of days.


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[thebeetleuk]

This might work for you. But at this point, there is no way to extract data.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00YNCJB3S/r ... 91PMQ1DGJM

Thanks for the reply.. eek! £70 is much more than I was thinking tho. Need to do more thinking

[thebeetleuk]

Hi there,

Im not from UK but Netherlands. Here part of the household have smartmeters. Unfortunately mine will get one scheduled for end of 2017. So i have almost the same start, an analog meter with digits.

What i have done is read the number with an IPcam ....

Interesting approach. I had a friend thinking about this idea as well but seemed like too much work If I did go down this route I think I would need an IP camera that had power over ethernet due to the position of the gas meter. Good luck with your testing and let us know how you get on

[thebeetleuk]

Have a look at the MySensors project, by building something like this: http://www.mysensors.org/build/pulse_water you can probably get it into Domoticz.
There is already support for MySensors in Domoticz. Don't forget that, apart from the sensor node, you also need a MySensors gateway to receive the data from the nodes in Domoticz.

For the reflective mirror in the counting reel, a TCRT5000 / CNY70 photosensor can probably be used. But your gasmeter might also have a little magnet in the counter reel, maybe you can pickup this signal with a so called 'reed contact'.

This might be the way to go but to be honest it might be a bit beyond me. I'll need to do a bit of reading.

I dont have the wheel but looking at the post http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/1732 it appears as if the dial does have a magnet somewhere at the end that I might be able to monitor.

[rmtucker]

If it has a magnet, use a reed switch and an esp8266 with ESPEasy firmware straight into your domoticz server.
Whole thing costs about a fiver as long as you already have a server.
If not another £30 for a Raspberry.
Works really well and my reed switch is just stuck on with Blu Tack
It has never missed a pulse since i set it up.
If you need any setup help just head over to the Espeasy forum or give me a shout.

[thebeetleuk]

Espeasy forum? Where is that?

All sounds too easy and I have a spare Pi

[rmtucker]

http://www.esp8266.nu/index.php/Main_Page
You will not need a Pi if you are already running Domoticz.
Any way pop over there and have a read.The Forum link is near the bottom if you need it.

[markk]

I've got one of these meters and found that you don't need to mess about with pulses or magnets on wheels. Mine has an RJ11 port under the last set of numbers. I connected an old telephone cable to this and to a modified reed switch and got an open signal every time the numbers moved but didn't have the know how to devise something to record and measure it. Someone with a bit of savvy should be able to do this easily enough.

[stlaha2007]

Interesting approach. I had a friend thinking about this idea as well but seemed like too much work If I did go down this route I think I would need an IP camera that had power over ethernet due to the position of the gas meter. Good luck with your testing and let us know how you get on

Thanks!
Wasn't that much work. Wireless ipcam was enough, had power-outlet for doorbell. Had extended it with a powerbox.
When finished testing i'll let you know.

Will post it here or the other subforum Show your stuff

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[stlaha2007]

I've got one of these meters and found that you don't need to mess about with pulses or magnets on wheels. Mine has an RJ11 port under the last set of numbers. I connected an old telephone cable to this and to a modified reed switch and got an open signal every time the numbers moved but didn't have the know how to devise something to record and measure it. Someone with a bit of savvy should be able to do this easily enough.

Maybe mine will have some sort of. Need to investigate further.
Thanks for letting us know.

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[thebeetleuk]

I have now take a good look at my meter and I notice it says in the bottom right it says "1 PULSE = 10dm2". I'm assuming this is an LED that might light up each time the "5" (in red) changes. I didn't have the patience to sit and watch it so will look later when it gets to 9 I also noticed that the zero is indeed reflective so should be able monitor this.

I also checked about the RJ45 connection on the bottom. Didnt find one

So I think I might have a few options around monitoring. By light or by potentially a magnet (or reed switch).

[amz4u2nv]

for those in the uk... looked up the loop gas energy meter - its £30 b&q.

http://www.diy.com/departments/loop-gas ... 12154615:s

I think its possible to write a script to scrape the results from the loop website and add it to domoticz.

[alexsh1]

I would go with MySensors - simple to setup and almost native in Domoticz

[markk]

for those in the uk... looked up the loop gas energy meter - its £30 b&q.

http://www.diy.com/departments/loop-gas ... 12154615:s

I think its possible to write a script to scrape the results from the loop website and add it to domoticz.

Looks like you have to have the loop electricity monitor (45GBP) for the gas monitor to work so 75GBP total

[amz4u2nv]

markk - ordered yesterday worked out £50 for both - £25 discount if both added to the basket.
Thought I would get it and see what I could do with it. If it doesnt work give it back...