We need alerts

[isisdave]

I use a Vue Utility Connect to monitor power use at an office I own (I’m retired so I’m not often there any more).

Two weeks ago, someone set the AC fan to “On” rather than “Auto,” which caused it to run continuously.  It doesn’t make a lot of noise, and there has actually been little use of the office due to holidays and Covid, so it wasn’t until I looked at the app this morning that I discovered an excess usage of about 1 kW  24/7 since then.  About $100 worth.

We need alerts.  Although adaptive, AI-type alerts would be great, I would have been happy with “Notify me if usage > 500w and time is between 10pm and 7am”.

Would this perhaps be doable now with IFTTT?

 

[Jim @Emporia]

Hello @isisdave

The notifications feature you’re requesting was released on 10/9/20 in App Version 2.4.17.2417. To create your own alert, simply go to Menu > Settings > Notifications, then tap Add Alert. You’ll be able to name your alert and apply it to a Vue or a specific circuit. Then you can set usage threshold criteria that will fire the alert when the Vue or circuit meets your energy use for your specified time interval. For instance, to know when you’ve left AC on: Add a new alert; give it a name; apply it to your AC; and set the the threshold to fire when it exceeds 0.5kWh for the number of hours or minutes you think is too long for it to run.

[isisdave]

Thanks, Jim, but I need it to be time-dependent.

I’m trying to figure out if everyone went home and left the heat/AC on. So I need a time element: “between 8pm and 7am, > 0.5 kW for 5 minutes” for example. (I have a Vue.)

During the daytime, and especially on hot days, AC will cycle on and off, so usage might be 5 kW hourly, but not continuous. Maybe 7kW for 15 minutes, then 1.2 for 8 minutes, etc.  Some days, people are in for 8 hours, others for only 3. So I can’t figure out how to formulate an alert for wasted usage during “normal” hours. IFTTT could connect usage with occupancy though … something to work on.

 

Dave

 

[davidascher]

This is exactly the kind of thing that is going to require you to develop a graphical tool for implementing this kind of thing and thousands of other variations.  There are already a bunch of open source and/or cheap tools out there that do these things. Make it easy to connect your devices to them and focus on other efforts.

Looking at the things “not yet implemented” in Emporia vue, it looks pretty clear that all these API and integration things are way down your priority list and will never get done.  I would suggest that most of those not yet implemented features will turn out to be too complex for to implement across all the variations in just how power companies bill for energy.  That will leave you in a pickle with nice sounding high concept consumer oriented features undone and a couple of years wasted and the frustration from the hobbyist community over your failure to implement an API or integrate with tools that have been out there for a while and allow them to do “anything” in terms of control, data collection, and analysis forcing them to move to other providers.  Great opportunity wasted.

[bcr]

The alert features do suck. Please allow the Emporia community to build custom alert features for Emporia and post them online. I know the Emporia mission is lean and mean, but the lack of features and slow progress in adding more is crippling.
Put an API out there and watch your customers pay for the product then do your software dev for free.

Come on Emporia!!

[bcr]

Also, I can see where to put notifications into the Webapp but not where to set what happens when one is triggered. Does it email? SMS?

Don’t know. Can’t find out where to actually set that. It certainly isn’t where it should be.. as part of each notification.

[Author]

Posts