Total Home Automation

Home Lighting: LED Sources

I have been installing a lot of Compact Fluorescent lights in my home, but have become more and more impressed with the LED technology coming out.  Some of the companies with the best gear seem to be hiding under a rock, so I will try to keep an active list of the ones I like the best.  These include:

• GVA Lighting - http://www.gvalighting.com
• IO Lighting - http://www.iolighting.com
• LED Tronics - http://www.ledtronics.com/
• Lighting Science - http://www.lsgc.com (Great bulbs for replacement of existing lights)
• LED Lighting Fixtures - http://www.ledlightingfixtures.com/ - can lights
• PermLight - http://www.permlight.com/ - can lights
• Prescolite - http://www.prescolite.com/ - Commercial lighting

It is important when you are looking at these lights to pay attention to Lumen output/watt.  I always want to tie this back to conventional lights (i.e. how many lumens is a 60 watt light), but the other reason to pay attention to Lumens is it gives you a real sense of the savings.  LEDs are changing quick, and you will want to find the most Lumen output/watt so you can get the most savings.  Remember, these things last for 40K+ hours so you are making a long term investment.  More lumens means more payoff.

Monitoring Energy

In an effort to be more proactive in monitoring energy, I am installing a monitoring device onto my Utility meter.  There is a technology called "Pulse Output" used by utility companies to allow a owner to monitor energy usage.  The pulse refers to the basic technology of a relay clicking each time a certain amount of Kw s used.  It probably comes from the old spin dials actually tripping a relay.  Everything is electronic now, but they still use the basic pulse signal to denote a certain amount of energy usage.  A Pulse output is also referred to as "KYZ".  Getting this type of output is common in industrial settings, it is very uncommon in residential.

My general notion is that if I can monitor all my energy usage by the minute, and then overlay things like air conditioning on/off state, then I will overtime have an understanding of total energy usage and its drivers.

The KYZ output has 3 leads - K, Y and Z.  The K is a common lead.  Y is open except at the moment of the pules.  Z is closed, but opens on a pulse.  I bought a Advantech Adam 6051 Distributed IO module.  This unit has multiple digital inputs, but also 2 counter circuits for measuring pulses.  The counter circuit just counts how often the relay closes.  The module is Ethernet enabled, but uses mod-bus/TCP as its protocol.  So, you need client software that can monitor the mod-bus transmission, read the counter, apply a time stamp, and then store it in a database.   In my case, I have access to a product called EnNET from Gridlogix which translates the mod-bus information into a web-service and database.

The other little trick is to find out how many Kw is represented by each pulse.  My utility company installed the KYZ meter, but forgot to leave that piece of information behind.  I am waiting for this critical piece of information.

Another next step is to link to items throughout the house to capture on/off state of various devices, and then superimpose them into a common database.  Ultimately I will link this into my Crestron system so I have real time visability into my energy usage.  More to follow......