Have you updated to my very latest and greatest IoTaWatt Driver? I made some changes to ensure that the periodic scheduling works better now. One of my recent changes broke the scheduling any time the hub was rebooted. I have resolved this issue in the latest version in my GitHub repository.
I have three Hubitat hubs (two production and one development) and I have never seen a platform update break any of my periodically scheduled apps/drivers. I have seen plenty of community code, my own included, that had bugs in it that resulted in poor behavior after a reboot (which also coincides with a Hub firmware/platform upgrade.)
Hopefully my latest driver will help. After upgrading the driver, be sure to go into the Device Details page and click SAVE on the user preferences.
Great catch, I had updated the driver but that was before rolling back to deal with the strange 404 error. Just re-updated, assuming it will fix the problem but will edit this if it persists. This is still one of my favorite drivers, turns an expensive solar array into a light sensor
After using power factor to successfully troubleshoot a failing AC compressor run capacitor, I now have a rule to send an alert if power factor dips below a certain threshold. Certainly some interesting use cases beyond sending alerts when the dryer is finished!
General question here -- but does anyone know if IotaWatt can create an 'output' that is based on more-complex calculations? Example being, I would love to have a dashboard tile of "Today's total kWh usage, with cost."
The output builder within the device doesn't seem to support this, and I think that's the only way the driver can pull in data. Unless the driver can somehow take in graph/graph+ creations?
You could very easily modify the Child Power Meter driver to allow the entry of a per kWh cost rate, and then add the Energy Meter Capability as well. Just add a little bit of simple math and a daily reset routine, and voila!
It would not be as accurate as having the IoTaWatt due the calculations, though.
Another option would be to use Grafana to do the math, with a rolling 24 hour cost trend per IoTaWatt output. I only send power values to InfluxDB/Grafana from my two IoTaWatt devices, and I let Grafana display some charts in kWh to show my son just how much energy his gaming computer is using!
My main purpose for this integration is to monitor the power usage of our washer and dryer to trigger notifications when the laundry cycle is complete.
The Query API was added to the IoTaWatt firmware after I had written my original Hubitat driver. I have thought about changing things up to use the IoTaWatt Query API, but I have not really found a need. If you're a programmer and can refactor this driver to use the new API, I am supportive of Pull Requests - or please feel free to publish and support your own IoTaWatt driver. I believe that there is quite a bit more integration with Hubitat possible, however I just don't have the time to work on it. It would be great to what you come up with!
I'm curious how you got all those CTs inside the panel. Granted, they must be smaller than my old The Energy Detective (TED) CTs I use to monitor total and occasional generator load, but still, it must get congested, I don't think I'd have enough room.
You are correct, I somehow failed to take that photo before I buttoned the subpanel up.
I used the 50A Solid Core CT's for almost every branch circuit. I am not sure if IoTaWatt is still selling those or not. These CTs are small, reliable, and accurate. Here is a picture of one of my spare CTs, next to a SD card adapter for size comparison.
Here is another picture from that same thread that shows another user's installation. The interior of my panel is very similar with respect to the CT installation.
Is this like Emomcms? I currently push to that service, but I haven't found any tangible benefit. Maybe there's some upside to having the data stored externally for when the SD card inevitably gets corrupt (happened once already,)
I'm not a purebred programmer, but I can wrestle my way through writing ~10k-line software. I played with Groovy back in the early ST days, but haven't touched it since. I'll have to try my hand again.
I was surprised how small the CTs were as well. The accuracy appears to be really good. I also use it to track my washer/dryer. It's nice to see my A/C costs as well. I also had someone leave a stove on all night once because they were drinking and baking, so I can avoid stuff like that too.
In the IoTaWatt, simply create an Output using the calculator feature, where it adds the two CTs you want together. This new output will then automatically be created via the Parent Device as a new child device in Hubitat.
I made the mistake of ordering it without the CTs, although I found them elsewhere cheaper. I shouldn't have a problem using 100A CTs on regular circuits, should I?
They should work, as long as they are milliamp output CTs, and are properly supported by IoTaWatt's firmware already - otherwise you'd need to enter the custom settings for a CT that the firmware doesn't already know about. Using 100A CTs on lower current circuits should be alright, but may provide slightly less precise results. Also, they are usually larger and may create space constraints in your panel.
If I were you, I would check with Bob (@overeasy) over on the IoTaWatt Community as he is very responsive to questions like these. He's the expert! I am just another user...
If you take pictures on your panel, and post them over in the IoTaWatt Community, I am sure Bob (@overeasy) will help you design the system that will meet your goals.
