How to interface with a digital electric meter

[Jules_Theone]

I have landis gyr E110a digital electric meter with an optical communications port and I've read that some meters have inductive or simply a three wire serail interface. This meter (or similar) stores loads of information about consumption, peak demand, realtime energy use etc. Is there a way to recieve and interpret the data from an electric meter or is the port encrypted to stop people adjusting the calibration and "cheating"?

Thanks,

Jules

 

[Sceadwian]

Not sure you'll find much help here because access to that kind of information can allow 'cheating' but if you search Google long enough you may be able to find out what you need to know. Actually looking for the 'cheaters' is probably the best way to do that so long as all you want is the logging information you can retrieve, as I can't (not one really should) condone those that alter meters.

 

[Jules_Theone]

Yes, well cheating is cheating, all I want to do is look at the data and hopefully its just being spewed out by the meter constantly so I don't have to send commands to access it. I think I can fiddle with the connections after the meter just not before it, if the meter doesn't want to talk I'm thinking of just putting some current transformer clamps in various places and periodically checking the measurements, not all that automatic though.

I've just been measuring the fridge and freezer current consumption - see pic

I got the following if this makes sense -

Small fridge:

On for 16min at 525mA, 242v
Off for 47min 30sec at 0mA, 242v
On for 14min 21sec at 525mA, 242v

Small chest freezer:

On for 4min 30sec at 645mA, 242v
Off for 14min 20sec at 0mA, 242v
On for 3min 38sec at 645mA, 242v
Off for 8min at 0mA
On for 4min 27sec at 645mA, 242v

Just need to figure out how to calculate power consumed over a day etc.

Jules

 

[Jules_Theone]

I spoke to the electric company about fiddling with the meter and she was very concerned I would want to fiddle with electricity at all. Scare mongering me thinks. Decided to just use an optical sensor monitoring device - Optismart from current cost. Has anyone else used this system before as I've got an optical sensor on each of the meters - consumption and generation so I can easily compare them but seem to have assigned the generation signal to the wrong channel and cannot find the information to reset it. The monitoring software seems to only be able to see channel 1 and 2, where I have consumption on channel 1 but generation on channel 7.

Jules.

 

[Sceadwian]

Never EVER call customer support about at truly technical matter. Waste of time!

By the way, you can't possibly monitor the meter, it doesn't just blanket broadcast all the time, you have to start up a conversation with it and then communication can begin. So even if you just want to 'listen' to the meter it inherently comes with the ability to alter it. The only place to go to find this information out will also contain information that will allow you to break the law so I wouldn't be able to post it (and I don't want to find it )