Home Automation Domotica Forum Europe, Bwired Forum

Very interesting product.

you can also hear the Radio broadcast about at
http://www.bnr.nl
go to the radio archive
date 16/06/07
time 15:35h

http://www.plugwise.com/index.html

Not much information on the website, I think they are just starting. I'm very anxious to know how it works and how the 40% energy saving is realized.

Pieter Knuvers
www.bwired.nl Online House in the netherlands. Domotica, Home Automation.

They will go live in September 2007
Investments cost for a normal house was about 1500 euro

I believe that you can save energy when you know how much is used.
but 40%...never.


I can't shutdown my washer...when it's using 2KWh..[V]
and what they forget to tell you that you need a PC to monitor 24h.

I have 3 machine on, all the time. 1 linux, 1 storage box, 1 work machine. I could do less, but hey i allready pay for it anyway. Only way to safe for me is use 1 big machine with vmware. But that would make me crash everything if the machine breaks down.

Using day/night rates (do washing at night, so after 11 will safe some money too)

Redundancy vs. Electricity bill ... The higher the redundancy the higher your electricity bill, but less headache when a machine breaks down. In my particulair case day/night rates help a lot as i have multiple machines running 24x7. Using day/night rates just for the dishwasher is a waste since day rates are higher compared to flat rates. Do your math, and don't jump into changes without carefull consideration.

I also came across similar devices lately.
For example: http://www.powertune.com.my/features.html
Was wondering if anyone with "electric" background could clarify it.

From my understanding, what they claim is something similar to the "active power factor correction" already included in nearly all computer power supplies.

However, I believe that alone wouldn't make much difference for normal power use in a regular home.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by niknik</i>
<br />From my understanding, what they claim is something similar to the "active power factor correction" already included in nearly all computer power supplies.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I wonder what they mean by 'improvement' of the powerfactor... For my bill a lower factor is better because I will draw blind currenct. But the the electricity companys a factor of 1 is better...

Hi Mindbender,

It seems like you would like a lower PF. However, i don't understand that in relation to this (dutch) story:http://olino.org/articles/2006/09/16/powerfactor

You pay for the P, not for the R, right? What's the advantage of a low PF? I thought i understood PF, but now i'm not so sure anymore.

Regards,
Robert

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Chak</i>
<br />
and what they forget to tell you that you need a PC to monitor 24h.

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">That is not totaly thru. The system /network is perfectly able to operate on it's own. Because every plug has it's own flash memory module.

Digit,
Unfortunately I wasn't able to read the dutch story.
But, what's the consensus here, does the Powertune do anything to really lower power consumption or is it only a cheap trick to fool simple power-meters?

And Superplug, I see that you have a rather nice product for the general public, but does it have anything to offer to us that already have a wired house and turn off/on our appliances and lights when they are used?

//Markus

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Dowser</i>
<br />
But, what's the consensus here, does the Powertune do anything to really lower power consumption or is it only a cheap trick to fool simple power-meters?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">Well, i don't know the Powertune, my question was more about the effect of the PowerFactor on the electricity bill. I didn't get an asnwer however, so i'm still in the dark about that...

I heard the plugwise devices use the EM250 Chip from Ember. The EM250 from Ember provides a ZigBee System-on-Chip that combines a 2.4GHz IEEE 802.15.4 compliant radio transceiver with a 16-bit microprocessor.
http://www.ember.com/products_zigbee_chips_e250.html

Now we need Zigbee plugins for homeseer and products sold in the Netherlands like wall switches, appliance modules, etc.

Plugwise would be interesting stuff if it would are 100% ZigBee compliant. (not sure if it does)


DJ

This year al lot of new products will be released. Built in, Switch, PDA..... in the Plugwise ZigBee standard. These product will be important for domotica.
The embedded will be only for Plugwise.
We thinking about a way to open the established Plugwise network for other usage with a (serial)port or something.

@ Dowser
I am really convinced that knowledge of where your power consumption flows to, helps to reduce power consumption. On the other hand, common sense will get you started but will bring you not as far.
In my case I saved a lot of power with: 2 pumps for my floor heating, standby killing (Home Cinema Set, transistors for my halogen lightening, Fax en Printer), and also warm water boiler in my kitchen. With the Plugwise system I switch them of at night or when Im not at home. I think together the Plugwise system saves me about 250,- per year, maybe more

@Reinder
I'm also switching off all the devices when I'm not at home or when they are not in use.
At the moment I'm consuming about 3600 kw per year. (+/- 700 euro)
Reduction of 30% is lot...

If you want make a chance on the market you need.
micro modules, switches etc... not only plugs
Plugins for the common HA software like Homeseer (they will not build any plugins for you)

And definitely you need more testers and testers will not pay first...
Few months ago I send your company a e-mail for testing...no response.