How to hack a Current Cost energy monitor
This is an update to my previous plea for an energy monitor that could share its data. Thanks to Kim and Frankie who pointed me to Roo Reynolds from where I find that there is a small community of mainly IBMers who have recently been playing with exactly this. They have discovered that the Current Cost energy monitor has a data port and that you can construct or buy appropriate cables to connect this to your computer, whereby it spits out a chunk of XML every 6 seconds containing your energy data. Perfect. So I've just ordered mine for about 30 quid from the eco gadget shop. And I've also discovered that the company behind Current Cost is based in the town where I live so maybe I'll be able to buy a data cable from them directly.
So here are some of the links I've found about hacking the Current Cost:
How to make the data cable
How to buy a data cable
The XML output format
Logging and graphing the data
More about using Google Graphs to chart the data
And the Current Cost Wiki (currently a bit sparse)
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Just to note you can actually get the Current Cost monitor FREE, as I just have, if you signup up to the Southern Electric "Better Plan" (which is a hydro-electric green energy tariff).
I was trying to find how long the batteries in the transmitter lasted / if they could be replaced - a slip of paper with it seems to suggest 7 years (?!) and no, but an address will be added to the website to where you can send it to be recycled.
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