• Q1: How do I get more information ?
• Q2: What is the Web Energy Logger ?
• Q3: What sensors does OurCoolHouse offer?
• Q4: What other sensors can I buy elsewhere?
• Q5: Can I build my own sensors?
• Q6: What sort of charts and diagrams can I generate?
• Q7: Can I get my data to use in a spreadsheet?
• Q8: Where is my data logged and how long will you store it for?
• Q9: If the WEL is an Internet apppliance, what is its IP address.
• Q10: How do I hook up a Continental Control Systems Watt-Node?

ANSWERS

You're always welcome to email or even call me (Phil Malone) to talk about the WEL. Another place to look for answers is my online documentation. I have one main WORD document, called the WEL User Manual (2.0). It describes the WEL in more detail, and explains how to configure your WEB logging and charting. Use the Support Files link in the main menu to locate these and other documents.

Phone: (301) 387-2331 10am - 9pm EST
Email: webmaster(at)OurCoolHouse.com Go to the Support Files page.

The WEL (or Web Energy Logger) is an internet appliance (smart box) that is used to monitor, record and display a bunch of information about your house or building. It's mostly about measuring LOTS of temperature sensors and a couple of electrical power meters, but the fun part is all the WEB charts and diagrams it produces automatically. See our Homepage

I offers a range of temperature sensors, and a few special interface circuits, like current switches). See the next question about other sensors that the WEL can read. Check out my Store

I'm building a list of third-party sensors that the WEL can read. It's small now but it will grow. The main ones are the WNB-3Y-208-P-300Hz Watt Node (Power Meter) from Continental Control Systems, and the CR9321-NPN Current Switch (run monitor) from CR Magnetics. See the Appendix B of the WEL User Manual (V2.2), which can be downloaded from the "Support Files" section of this site.

Maybe. The WEL can read several different 1-wire devices (not all of them). The full list is found in Appendix A at the end of the WEL User Manual (V2.2), which can be downloaded from the "Support Files" section of this site. If you are good with a soldering iron, and use use a 1-wire chip that the WEL supports, then go-for-it :) Support Files

If you post your data to the WELServer website it can automatically generate a master "System Diagram" based on an image you upload, and the sensor value text positions that you specify. It can also create a number of trend graphs that can each plot up to 8 sensor values. REAL system image and graphs

Yes. As well as displaying your data, the WELServer website also generates a tabulated text logfile containing your sensor data along with the date-time that it was collected. The data in this log file is ordered based on your own preferences, so it's easy to process. One logfile is created for each month worth of data, and they can be downloaded from the website at any time. With the WEL, data is the prize.

Your logged data is stored on one of my WELServer web servers. These are located in large co-hosting facilities on the internet. When you purchase a WEL, you get a username and password to access your own slice of my WELServer. This enables you to configure your logging, and download your data.

Datafiles are restarted each month, and after 15 days, the prior month's logfile is zipped up to save space.

I do NOT indend to store these zipped logfiles for more than a month, so it's important that if you want to save your data for the long haul... you MUST download the logfiles. Once you have downloaded the data, I'd appreciate it if your would then delete the file from the server. It's all just good housekeeping.

Since no hard-drive is immune to failure, if you realy want to ensure the safety of your data, I'd recommend doing a download (without deleting) on a regular basis (eg: weekly)

The WEL supports both static and dynamic IP addressing. If you want the WEL to have a specific IP, then you can set it using the built-in Network Configuration page. Otherwise you can configure the WEL to request a dynamic IP using DHCP from your Router or PC. If you have a preference one way or the other you can request for the WEL to be setup before it's shipped to you, then it's ready to run out-of-the box.

The standard WNB unit only uses two of it's three pulse outputs. P1 for Net Power in, and P2 for Net Power out.

Assuming you wire the unit into your mains circuit correctly, without any generation capability you will only ever get pulses out on the P1 circuit.

I recommend connection this to Pulse Input 3 on the WEL. (Pulse input 1 and 2 are best reserved for future mechanical pulse counter input later on)

So... The best way to wire the WattNode is...

Watt Node      WEL
---------      ------
COM            PULSE GND (at the end of J5)
P1             PULSE 3
P2             PULSE 4