Home Energy Monitor Series – Internet of Things

Recently I started an Internet of Things series on my experiences installing, using and analysing data from a smart electrical meter.  This included a BC Hydro smart meter, Eagle monitoring gateway from rainforest automation, and a cloud-based analytics service from Bidgely.

I’ve collated all the posts on the topic for you below.  More will be added as I write them.  Enjoy!


Continue reading Home Energy Monitor Series – Internet of Things

IoT Day 4: Bidgely Cloud Energy Monitor Dashboard

After a week of collecting smart meter readings, I’m now ready to show results in a cloud-based energy monitor system – Bidgely – complete with graphs showing readings, cost and machine learning results breaking down my usage by appliance.


Bidgely Energy Monitor Dashboard - UsageThis is part 4 of a series of posts about the Internet of Things applied to Home Energy Monitoring.  I have a Smart Meter from BC Hydro, an Eagle energy monitor and various cloud apps helping me understand it all.

 

See my post from Day 1 – getting started or Day 2 – connecting to cloud services – Day 3 – viewing data


3 Value Added Parts to Bidgely

In this post I’ll show you the three parts of Bidgely that I’ve found most helpful:

  1. Usage dashboard
  2. Cost dashboard
  3. Appliance breakdown (best for last!)

Usage Dashboard

Bidgely Energy Monitor Dashboard - Usage
Bidgely Energy Monitor – Usage Dashboard

Continue reading IoT Day 4: Bidgely Cloud Energy Monitor Dashboard

Review of 3 Recent Internet of Thing (IoT) Announcements

Working in the big data and analytics space, I’m always interested in parts of the Internet of Things (IoT) that will produce more data, require more backend systems, and help users/customers get on with their day better.

The past week has shown a few interesting announcements relating to Internet of Things topics.  Here are just a few that jumped out to me, either because they inspired me or because I was left wondering what it would really mean.

TL;DR?  Summary: While IBM is “getting started” (oops, I meant “getting serious”) and Facebook has big plans to “take over”, Amazon comes out with a consumer focused solution.

Continue reading Review of 3 Recent Internet of Thing (IoT) Announcements

Amazon Dash Button – Concept and Article re: IoT use

I like this concept: “Just press and never run out”.   It’s the Amazon Dash Button: http://amazon.com/… – intended to be stuck onto appliances, basically retrofitting ones that don’t have them built in (in the future).  Pressing a button orders refills of products, just like Amazon one click ordering online.

Also read this Fortune.com article about how this fits into their overview vision for Internet of Things (IoT) at Amazon: http://fortune.com/…

What would you put a button on?  Scary or useful?

Amazon announces Dash Buttons
Amazon announces Dash Buttons

 

IoT Day 3: Viewing data on the Eagle Energy Monitor

Photo of an Eagle energy monitor device

The Eagle energy monitor from Rainforest Automation is a very handy device.  It reads the wireless signal from my electricity meter and makes it available through a web interface – both a graphical environment and a RESTful API.  In this post we look at the standard graphical screens and the data download option. Next time we’ll look at the RESTful API for programmers to use.


This is part 3 of a series of posts about the Internet of Things applied to Home Energy Monitoring.

See my post from Day 1 – getting started or Day 2 – connecting to cloud services.


Continue reading IoT Day 3: Viewing data on the Eagle Energy Monitor

IoT Day 2: Cloud Services for Energy Monitoring

Energy monitoring isn’t only about knowing what’s happening right now, but also understanding what happened historically.  Often that includes knowing not just what was happening but also when and why.  Enter cloud services for energy monitoring.  They range from simple charts and graphs to predicting your usage over time – essentially storing, analysing and enriching your raw data.
In this post I review two cloud services that I’ve tried so far and show you what you get from them. Continue reading IoT Day 2: Cloud Services for Energy Monitoring

IoT Day 1: Home Energy Monitoring

Eagle energy home monitoring IoT device
Eagle energy home monitoring IoT device

 

In my next series of blog posts we explore an Internet of Things topic – Home energy monitoring – from a first person perspective.  Join me as I install, use and hack a monitor (and related cloud services) in my new home.


This is part 1 of a series of posts about the Internet of Things applied to Home Energy Monitoring.

See my post from Day 2 – starting to use Cloud Services. Continue reading IoT Day 1: Home Energy Monitoring

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