OK I downloaded it but I have no idea what do do with it.
Teken wrote:- I'm not clear as to why you would have and own a Dash Box and not use its on board storage to capture, view, and recall historic readings? Along with all the other countless abilities it offers in terms of graphs, charts, dials, etc.
The main issue for me is lack of knowledge and understanding. I've played around with the web interface a bit but for me it is confusing and super difficult to get anything meaningful out of it. Sometimes I want to compare two or more different channels and compare them over a week or month. In this case I wanted to see if there are abnormal usages at different times of the day/week/month. So far my attempts have failed.
Teken wrote:- If the system is properly configured you can indeed capture, track, and review your NET metering and energy consumption and compare it with the utility. Keep in mind the system allows some basic means of entering extra charges like tax's etc besides the Fixed, ToU, Tiered rates seen by so many POCO's.
I failed to implement this correctly. For me following the manual has been difficult, at times it makes jumps assuming I know how to make the jump or it will reference something but it does not tell me how to find the item being referenced. I have to spend a lot of time trying to connect the dots and often connect the wrong dots. More pictures with correctly highlighted references and examples would be helpful for me in finding the various settings.
Teken wrote:- If you're seeing values that exceed a 100% value it could be two possibilities. One is using a older firmware which had this odd bug. Next it could very well be the system isn't properly set up to identify if a channel is supposed to be a *Main* vs regular load.
Following is for GEM #1 (this is the GEM in my home office)
Serial#: 01100139
COM firmware ver: 4.0
ENG firmware ver: 1.49
RealTime Status: ON
Packet Send Interval: 8
Pri. Packet Format: 4
Sec. Packet Format: 0
Sys Status: OK
Following if the the GEM #2 (this is in my garage)
Serial#: 01100087
COM firmware ver: 4.0
ENG firmware ver: 1.49
RealTime Status: ON
Packet Send Interval: 8
Pri. Packet Format: 3
Sec. Packet Format: 0
Sys Status: OK
It seems that the GEM COM Firmware is not at the latest level (v4.32) and looking at the "GEM Configuration Manual GEM-CFG" I don't see anything telling me how to update the firmware.
The ENG firmware v1.49 is the latest version.
Teken wrote:There isn't a real right or wrong way to configure the system only how you expect to see the data represented. Normally when a sub panel is connected its treated just like another extended channel because its powered off of the main electrical panel. If the sub panel is not fed by the main panel and comes off directly from the external meter it should be treated as a *Main*.
Right/Wrong way, I agree and this was my assumption when I installed.
My MAIN panel is on the outside wall of my garage. The garage sub panel is on the inside wall of the same wall supporting the MAIN panel. This panel mainly feeds my garage workshop, the half-bath in the garage, lights in the garage, outlets in the garage and the two door openers.
The MAIN panel and the garage sub panel are connected to what I call GEM #2. If I recall correctly this GEM has a WiFi connection to the Dashbox.
The sub panel in my home office supports the rest of the house and is connected to what I call GEM #1 and is connected to the Dashbox via Ethernet cable.
Teken wrote:If the sub panel is indeed fed off of the main panel those circuits should be treated as any other circuits attached to the main panel. The only problem you need to resolve is (IF) you monitored both the incoming feeds from the main panel going into the sub panel.
Both of my sub panels are indeed fed off of the MAIN panel, on the feed to the home office sub panel I did install a split 200. I thought I had installed a monitor on the feed to the garage sub panel but looking at my spreadsheet for the installation I don't see anything for it. I installed the split-200 on the feed to the office sub panel just to have something as a double check.
Teken wrote:Monitoring the two 120 VAC lines entering the sub panel is fine. But you will have conflict with say the other 10 circuits breakers being monitored on the same sub panel because the math won't add up correctly.
I was under the assumption that I could set up the monitoring so the feed measurement would NOT be included in the Total Consumption. However I don't know if this is the way I set it up and how to verify. I agree that I do NOT what the sub panel feed measurement added to the measurements from the sub panel.
I just looked at the Dashbox setup, under Groups I currently have two (1) "Office Panel" (it does NOT include the feed to the panel but it does have all the breakers in the panel), (2) "Garage Panel" and it includes all of the breakers in this panel.
My current assumption is that I have correctly setup the Dashbox however I would not be surprised to learn that it is not correct.
Teken wrote:Clear as mud?
So far YES!
BTW I will look at your project and I'm sure I will learn a lot. Sorry to be so slow but as I get older I find that I want the one-button to click that does everything and does not require me to learn.
Just as a side note, obviously I want get the monitoring setup correctly and understand what is going on. Basically I'm all electric which includes a heat pump for AC/Heating. When I was building the heating contractor convinced me to go all electric. So much for listening to an expert!
I do have a natural gas feed but it only services the kitchen cooktop and the fireplace (never used) in the family room.
My assumption at this time is that I should install the firmware upgrade for the two GEMs. I do have the GEM Network Utility v7 installed and I can open it, but I'm lost as to how to update the firmware. I need the dummies version of how.
Once the firmware is updated I "should" be able to verify if I have the Dashbox correctly setup. I was just looking at "DashBox Manual DBX-MAN V10", this is what I used for the initial setup.