Suggested configuration?

[dlmorgan999]

I am in the process of designing a system to monitor the majority of my circuits. I have a bit of an interesting situation in that my main power comes into a small breaker panel (7 circuits) on the side of my house, and the main breaker panels (there are two panels due the number of circuits I specified in the house) are 15-20 feet away.

I would love to just buy a GEM and be done with it, but I suspect I don't really want to extend the CT cables that far. If that is true, then I maybe the best idea is to use an ECM-1240 for the small breaker panel, and a GEM for the other two? Are there any features the GEM has that are missing on the ECM-1240?

I'm planning to install EngineG and have it send output to my CQC server. I can pretty easily run separate serial cables for the GEM and the ECM-1240. Is that supported? On a related note, is there any reason I shouldn't run CQC and EngineG on the same PC? The resource requirements for CQC are pretty light, and I have 16GB of RAM on the PC.

I also just noticed the "Suggest a System" section. *doh* Feel free to move this post there if you want.

[Teken]

You can simply invest in a GEM and extend the CT wires using CAT6 Ethernet cabling, or better using 22-2 / 22-4 alarm wire. Proper termination is a given when splicing uncommon wires so consider soldering the connections.

Main things I would consider is that the ECM-1240 is no longer being developed but is a great method to start energy monitoring. The GEM offers eight 1 wire temperature channels, 4 pulse channels to monitor water, gas, open/close contacts etc.

The GEM out of the hole has the best cost per CT when broken down. It supports multi protocols and has two separate channels to connect to third party devices etc. Continues to be developed and will offer many more features into the future.

[ben]

Take a look at http://www.mypowerpanel.com/ for information on the GEM.

One benefit the GEM has is the ability to send 2 packet formats, so you could hook up to CQC via one RS232 port, then use the other port to send to another service (COM1, COM2).

I -think- we have at least one customer hooked up to CQC directly via the GEM. It might be worth contacting them to see about that.

[dlmorgan999]

Thanks to both of you for your responses. I have 22-4 on hand, but probably not enough for 8 CTs. I can easily get all the CAT6 I need though, so if that would really work okay at 20 feet or so without too much signal loss, that would be a great solution for me. If I go with CAT6 cable, should I used shielded, or is unshielded sufficient?

I know for certain that there are CQC drivers for both the ECM-12xx and the GEM. There are a few threads on their forum, so lots of good information is available.

I really do like the feature set of the GEM, and knowing that it is the future platform makes it the obvious choice.

[Teken]

Thanks to both of you for your responses. I have 22-4 on hand, but probably not enough for 8 CTs. I can easily get all the CAT6 I need though, so if that would really work okay at 20 feet or so without too much signal loss, that would be a great solution for me. If I go with CAT6 cable, should I used shielded, or is unshielded sufficient?

I know for certain that there are CQC drivers for both the ECM-12xx and the GEM. There are a few threads on their forum, so lots of good information is available.

I really do like the feature set of the GEM, and knowing that it is the future platform makes it the obvious choice.

One thing to note about any Ethernet cable is to insure its pure copper wiring and not CCA cable. CCA is *Copper Clad Aluminum* and has saturated the market like lice.

CCA cable is not CEC / NEC approved for in wall use or install . . .

If you see a box of CAT6 of 1000 feet for less than $80.XX unless it fell off a truck skip it. All pure copper cable will be noted on the outside regardless of brand. The cable doesn't need to be shielded per say but you can use shielded cable if that is something you want to do.

Ideally 22-2 / 22-4 cable should be used because it is thicker when compared to even CAT6 cable. As CAT6 is 23 AWG vs 22 AWG for the alarm wire but given the short distance it won't be a problem and if you had to you could double up the wire pairs to reduce any resistance.

[dlmorgan999]

Excellent - that makes things much easier for me. Also, thanks for the tip to avoid CCA. I hadn't thought about that.

[dlmorgan999]

I'm about ready to start my installation and I have a follow-up question about extending the leads. I found that I have a decent quantity of 22-4 shielded wire. Most of the circuits I'm monitoring in the remote panel are 240V.

Can I put the CT leads for a 240V circuit in parallel right out of the panel and use a single pair from the 22-4 wire to extend them (as opposed to extending each CT individually, and wiring them up in parallel at the GEM)?

[Teken]

I'm about ready to start my installation and I have a follow-up question about extending the leads. I found that I have a decent quantity of 22-4 shielded wire. Most of the circuits I'm monitoring in the remote panel are 240V.

Can I put the CT leads for a 240V circuit in parallel right out of the panel and use a single pair from the 22-4 wire to extend them (as opposed to extending each CT individually, and wiring them up in parallel at the GEM)?

Yes, that is perfectly fine but please note what ever method you use to splice the two wires must be outside of the electrical panel. Please also take note proper polarity of the CT's otherwise you will find when you fire up the GEM.

Those circuits which are miss wired will show a 0 watt value. If that mistake is found you only need to switch one of the pairs at the GEM around. Also, keep in mind if you have a true balanced 240 load you only need one CT and use the GEM's doubling feature etc.

If you're looking for 100% accuracy use two CT's to measure and monitor both sides of the electrical feed.

Please let us know if you have any further questions and take lots of pictures to share with the forum members.