[kabalah70]

I am buying this to track my electricity costs specifically for the car. I will use one of the two clip-on induction current transformers with wireless transmitters. Might have to use both as it is a two-phase load which may require clipping them inside the box where each phase wire is separate.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM2820899802P?ci_sku=SPM2820899802&ci_src=14110944&i_cntr=1327549884712&sid=IDx20070921x00003a

 

[Fabulist]

I am buying this to track my electricity costs specifically for the car. I will use one of the two clip-on induction current transformers with wireless transmitters. Might have to use both as it is a two-phase load which may require clipping them inside the box where each phase wire is separate.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_SPM2820899802P?ci_sku=SPM2820899802&ci_src=14110944&i_cntr=1327549884712&sid=IDx20070921x00003a

From the video, it looks like this is going to measure your full household electrical usage, not just the car's charging use. Is that going to affect the accuracy of the data?

-- Fab.

 

[kabalah70]

Fab, you can place the clip on current transformers wherever you want. I will be clipping them around the two phases of the line going to my EVSE, not the mains. Therefore, it will only measure the energy being used by the EVSE.

 

[Fabulist]

Fab, you can place the clip on current transformers wherever you want. I will be clipping them around the two phases of the line going to my EVSE, not the mains. Therefore, it will only measure the energy being used by the EVSE.

That's pretty cool. We are supposed to get some of these features with the newer smart meters but I have not seen them implemented yet.

-- Fab.

 

[kabalah70]

So, the monitor was in its FedEx package at my garage entry into my house, with the double garage door wide open again. I was beginning to think my Karma is claustrophobic, but when I cam home from work the garage door was open again, so I don't think the Karma is to blame. It is a rolling code, so ? Anyway. Here is how the installation went.

Contents of the package, minus instruction manuals and packaging:

The Lear/EVConnent/Fisker EVSE, after removing the velcro side panels and removing the eight T15 Torx screws:

The wireless transmitter in place and secured with a wood screw between the current transformer (CT) plugs and a twist-tie wrapped around it all:

A shot of the whole package with the CTs installed, one around each phase wire:

After turning back on the breaker in the main panel checking that the EVSE was gree across the board, I plugged in the Karma, waited a few seconds an bam:

After a few more seconds it stabilized at 3.606 kW. Sweet fun.

 

[brian]

That's very cool! Thanks for the details info. If that works out in the long run for you I might get one myself.

-Brian

 

[kabalah70]

Before someone asks, the numbers in the lower left and right corners of the display are ambient temperature and relative humidity. And to round it out the upper right is the time in 24 hour format. lol.

 

[Fabulist]

Before someone asks, the numbers in the lower left and right corners of the display are ambient temperature and relative humidity. And to round it out the upper right is the time in 24 hour format. lol.

That decimal point in the temperature readout is really hard to see. For a second I though you parked your car on Mercury since 688 Degrees Fahrenheit would be a bit balmy, even for the South.

-- Fab.

 

[kabalah70]

Here is the history data from the charge I gave it on 31 Jan 12.
The car read 1 mile of battery range on it.
In the future I will check the actually battery SOC for more accurate reporting.

kWh used to charge from 1 mile to 50 miles battery range.

Cost of those kWh at my rate of $0.093 per kWh

It also shows kg-CO2/kWh based on data I pulled from a government website. Unfortunately, it is the whole region not just my electric provider, so it is not too useful.

It will show historical data for day/week/month/year.
I thought about it afterward, that since it does it by day, that if the charging went past midnight, it would be split into two days. Sure enough, there was another 0.131 kWh on today at a cost of another $0.01, lol.

So, adding this together and guessing about a 15-17% charge that means that at 20.1 kWh in the battery pack slightly less than 10% loss in the charging process. Anyone else know if this is good, bad, or average?

 

[kwsmith007]

Wow that's a great idea do you mind if I copy it exactly? Do you know what the wireless range is?

 

[Fabulist]

Wow that's a great idea do you mind if I copy it exactly? Do you know what the wireless range is?

Some chargers, such as the Blink, have all this functionality built in and there is no need to add any new hardware. If you have a charger other than the Lear/Fisker branded one, you may want to check to see if you even need to do all this.

-- Fab.

 

[kabalah70]

230 feet wireless range according to the manual. 433 Mhz freq.