{"id":1914,"date":"2010-06-17T10:21:41","date_gmt":"2010-06-17T10:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1914"},"modified":"2012-09-05T19:42:08","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T18:42:08","slug":"connecting-an-e-on-energyfit-monitor-to-google-powermeter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2010\/06\/connecting-an-e-on-energyfit-monitor-to-google-powermeter.htm","title":{"rendered":"Connecting an E.ON EnergyFit Monitor to Google PowerMeter"},"content":{"rendered":"

The energy company that I buy my electricity and gas from (E.ON) is currently running an “EnergyFit”\u00a0promotion where they will send you an energy monitor for free<\/a>.\u00a0A free gadget sounded like a good idea (I have a monitor but it’s the plugin type – this monitors the whole house) so I applied for one to help me reduce our family’s spiraling energy costs (and, ahem, to help us reduce our environmental footprint).<\/p>\n

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The EnergyFit package appeared on my doorstep sometime over the weekend and setup was remarkably easy – there’s a transmission unit that loops around the main electricity supply cable (without any need for an electrician) and a DC-powered monitor that connects to this using a wireless technology called C2, which works on the 433MHz spectrum (not the 2.4GHz that DECT phones, some Wi-Fi networks, baby monitors, etc. use).\u00a0 Within a few minutes of following E.ON’s instructions, I had the monitor set up and recording our electricity usage.<\/p>\n

The monitor is supplied with E.ON’s software to help track electricity usage over time and it seems to work well – as long as you download the data from the monitor (using the supplied USB cable) every 30 days (that’s the limit of the monitor’s internal memory).<\/p>\n

I wondered if I could get this working with Google PowerMeter too (Microsoft Hohm is not currently available in the UK) and, sure enough, I did.\u00a0 This is what I had to do:<\/p>\n

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  1. Head over to the Google PowerMeter<\/a> website.<\/li>\n
  2. Click the link to Get Google PowerMeter<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  3. At this point you can either sign up with a utility company, or select a device.\u00a0 The E.ON-supplied device that I have is actually from a company called Current Cost so I selected them from the device list and clicked through to their website.<\/li>\n
  4. Once on the Current Cost website, click the button to check that your device will work with Google PowerMeter<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  5. The E.ON EnergyFit monitor is an Envi device – click the Activate button.<\/li>\n
  6. Complete the registration form in order to download the software required to connect the monitor to Google.<\/li>\n
  7. Install the software, with includes a registration process with Google for an authorisation key that is used for device connection.<\/li>\n
  8. After 10 minutes of data upload, you should start to see your energy usage appear on the Google PowerMeter website.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Of course, these instructions work today but either the Google or Current Cost websites are subject to change – I can’t help out if they do but you should find the information you need here.<\/p>\n

    There are some gotchas to be aware of:<\/p>\n