The Eyedro EYEFI-x models include a built in web server that you may query with the /getdata command to retrieve the instantaneous measurement values.
While the EYEFI module is not provisioned for the internet (the out of the box configuration), you may only use the /getdata command locally by first connecting direct to the module WIFI network. Eg. EyedroWifi [00B-12345] will appear in your WIFI options list. While connected directly to the EYEFI module accessing the /dashboard, and /settings pages, and the /getdata command are the same format.
After the EYEFI module is provisioned for the internet (SSID, Security, Password are configured per Quick Start Guide), then it will connect to your local network and will be assigned a new IP address from your local network. For this blog post I am using IP address 192.168.0.134 but your IP address will most likely be different, and can be found by logging into your router to see a list of connected devices and their respective IP address.
While the EYEFI module is provisioned for the internet it will communicate with the MyEyedro cloud service 24/7. The module will open a second network port at port 8080 that can be queried in parallel. The format of the /getdata command is shown below. Please note that you’ll replace the IP address (192.168.0.34) with your own.
http://192.168.0.34:8080/getdata
The output of the command is in JSON format. The example response below is from querying an EYEFI-2 (2 sensor model).
The ‘data’ array includes 2 elements, one for each sensor (A first, B second, etc). Each sub-array includes 5 values that are:
1st: Power factor in milli-units meaning ‘988’ = 0.988 2nd: Voltage in cV meaning ‘11665’ = 116.65V 3rd: Amperage in mA meaning ‘11800’ = 11.8A 4th: Wattage in W meaning ‘988’ = 988W 5th: Ignore. Used by factory only.
When viewing the /dashboard page you’ll see that it updates itself every few seconds. It is running a small piece of javascript code that calls the /getdata command as part of the update. The below html and javascript code example can be used as a starting point to create your own software. Save the file to your PC with an .html file extension, edit to replace the IP address with your own, then open the html file in a browser. The javascript should run in the background and update your simple html table with data values.
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Zen Ecosystems and Eyedro Green Solutions Inc. today announced a partnership to integrate Eyedro’s near real-time electricity monitoring equipment and software with Zen Ecosystems’ intelligent commercial energy management platform, Zen HQ. This integration will offer current and future Zen HQ customers access to more detailed energy-related data for optimizing electricity use.
Eyedro’s easy-to-install hardware and MyEyedro cloud software package enables Zen HQ to collect and transmit data at the individual load level in five-minute intervals. Zen HQ will analyze the usage across building operations and deliver insights through comprehensive energy reports for building managers to enhance lighting, ventilation, cooling and other building operations. Eyedro is currently installed in more than 130 countries.
“Energy management is a complex arena, with countless opportunities for greater efficiency, but transparency is key,” said Zen Ecosystems CEO James McPhail. “Eyedro’s integration allows customers who are already saving with Zen HQ to monitor more and use actionable insights to make changes that improve their energy use, and ultimately, their bottom line.”
The first Zen Ecosystems and Eyedro-powered systems will be installed in multiple restaurant franchise locations as a part of a pilot program.
“Restaurant franchises have some of the slimmest margins in the business,” said Eyedro CEO Trevor Orton. “Diving deeper into new data streams with the Zen HQ and Eyedro integration will help businesses of all sizes identify energy drains. As we offer increasingly precise energy use data, we identify new opportunities to achieve electricity savings and support businesses’ bottom lines.”
Eyedro solutions will be offered in tiered packages and price points to all Zen HQ customers over the next six months, and a simple user interface will be added prior to the full roll-out. The integration is estimated to provide 10-30% in savings for sustainably-minded businesses. For more on the collaboration visit: www.zenecosystems.com
About Zen Ecosystems
Zen Ecosystems provides intelligent energy management solutions to businesses and consumers. Zen HQ is an energy management system designed for the unique needs of businesses and utilities to provide insights and control over multisite commercial energy usage while delivering the fastest payback in the market. The Zen Thermostat is a beautiful, simple connected device for home and business that also enables multi system operators to enhance the customer experience. Fast Company has recognized Zen Ecosystems as one of its “Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Energy” for 2018. Learn more at http://zenecosystems.com/
Contacts
Antenna Group for Zen Ecosystems Laura Wetzel, +1 415-802-1363 zen@antennagroup.com
If you’re like everyone else who owns a mobile device, you’re probably using it a whole lot more than you used to. And why not? Smartphones can do nearly as much as your favorite PC, but without the tether that usually goes along-side a traditional desktop. Maybe you’re responding to work emails, reading today’s news, texting friends and family about dinner plans, or (more often than not) fulfilling that insatiable Netflix addiction.
But did you know that you can also catch up on your home’s electricity use from your smartphone? Lots of our customers enjoy checking MyEyedro from their mobile browsers, but there’s an even easier way to keep an eye on your electricity use while you’re on the go.
Here are a few simple instructions on how to add MyEyedro to your smartphone’s Home Screen.
Step 1: Open Safari and visit http://myeyedro.com. If the mobile version doesn’t automatically display, click “Try our mobile friendly version.” When you get to the mobile friendly version, click the symbol that looks like a square with an arrow coming out of it (let’s just call it: “doodad”).
Step 2: Tap “Add to Home Screen”. Feel free to rename your link as you see fit, and then tap “Add”.
Step 3: That was easy wasn’t it? You should now see the MyEyedro “app” located on your Home Screen. Tap the icon to enter MyEyedro and proceed to login. Remember to tap the green arrow if you would like the app to remember your login information for next time.
Step 4: Go somewhere, anywhere. Have a cocktail. You’re free to check your electricity from anywhere. Now you just have to remember your phone.
If you’re like us, winter caught you a bit off guard. With an unseasonably warm Fall, winterizing the house was the last item on the list of things to do.
Fast forward to January 2015 and winter looks like this:
Someone flipped the Snowmaggedon switch and it looks like winter is back with a vengeance. So if you’re looking for some low cost ways to winterize your home in a flash, look no further.
We’ve curated 5 easy ways to winterize your home on the fly.
1. Destroy The Drafts
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, drafts can waste 5% to 30% of your energy use. Test your windows for leaks and drafts by holding a lit candle in front of them. If the smoke from the candle swirls, here’s what you can do:
Put Up Some Plastic: Remember when people used to shrink-wrap their windows? Turns out it wasn’t as ridiculous as it looks. This stuff can help a room to retain as much as 55% of its heat.
Bust Out the Caulking: Seal everything with this energy-saving goop.
2. Take Control of the Thermostat
Let’s be honest with ourselves here, we love tinkering with the thermostat, but if we are truly looking to be efficient with how we heat our home this winter, here are a few things to consider:
Lower the Temperature: You can shave 1% off your heating bill for every degree you turn your thermostat down during the winter. Boom, instant savings.
Get a Programmable Thermostat: Turning your thermostat back 10 to 15 degrees for 8 hours a night can save you 5% to 15% on heating costs. You can automate this process with smart thermostats like Nest and Ecobee.
Bundle Up: Winter sucks, and running around the house in shorts and a t-shirt can help us feel a little closer to summer. Unfortunately, it also causes us to crank up the thermostat. So seriously, put on a sweater and some slippers.
3. Master Home Maintenance
Just like a car, a house has a sophisticated system of parts that require some occasional upkeep to maintain optimal performance. While there are many costly ways that you can maintain your home’s efficiency (like a new furnace) there are also wallet-friendly ways to keep your home purring like a well-oiled kitten.
Complete a Checklist: Who can remember every little thing that needs to be checked? For sanity’s sake, here’s a pretty thorough home maintenance checklist that you and your family can divvy up, yay for kids!
4. Work Smarter, Not Harder
Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest.
Reverse the Fan: Since heat rises, a ceiling fan in reverse is a terrific way to push all that warm air back down to where you need it most, around you.
Turn Down the Water Heater: It takes a lot of juice to keep your water hot and ready, but you could be spending way more money than you have to. If you don’t need skin-scalding water on demand, you can save by lowering the temperature.
5. Measure What You’d Like to Manage
Imagine you’re trying to save money on gas, but your car doesn’t have a gas gauge. How successful do you think you’d be? There’s an old adage that says, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” In the case of saving on your home’s electricity, this couldn’t be more accurate.
Monitor Electricity in Real-Time: Back in the day, the only way to see how much electricity you consumed was to wait until your electricity bill arrived. This makes it pretty hard to make changes in the moment. With real time information, you are able to change your energy habits, turn off unused appliances and forecast what your bill will be based on your usage. Eyedro is an all in one, hardware/software solution that allows you to do just that.
If you’re like us, you know how important electricity monitoring can be when trying to meet energy cost and consumption goals. Traditionally, homes aren’t equipped with a way for you to see how much electricity is being used. But with the increasing popularity of connected home devices, it’s never been easier to feel at home while away from the house.
With learning thermostats, like Nest, you know that your living room is a cozy 73°F (23°C). And with video monitoring, like DropCam, you know your Golden Retriever is asleep on the couch, instead of munching on it. Now, with electricity monitors like Eyedro, you know your home consumed 20.14-kilowatt hours of electricity today.
Making Electricity Usage Easy to Understand
But unlike temperature, the kilowatt hour isn’t a measurement we use every day. Unless you work closely with electricity or have a knack for the subject, the average homeowner might only consider wattage when picking out light bulbs. Since we are less familiar with using kilowatt hours, electricity consumption can be more difficult to understand than things like fuel economy. (Stay tuned for a brief tutorial on kilowatt hours, coming up in January ;))
Introducing the MyEyedro Insights Plugin
While Eyedro always provides your electricity consumption in terms of cost, we wanted to give you a way to put energy into terms we all use every day. This is exactly why we created the MyEyedro Insights plugin.
MyEyedro Insights Plugin
This handy tool helps you put your electricity use into terms you already know and love. The values are based on the amount of energy produced (or required) for the given unit. So if you’re interested in how much gasoline you would have needed to power your home yesterday, we have that.
Or maybe you want to measure your environmental footprint. With the Insights plugin you can see how many kilograms of coal you would have used. Maybe you’d like to see how many slices of bread you could have toasted. We have that too.
9 Different MyEyedro Insights Views to Choose From
The MyEyedro Insights plugin helps put energy into context, giving you the power to make more informed energy management decisions in the home.
Interested in keeping an eye on your home’s electricity?
Real-time electricity monitoring is an important tool in understanding when and where electricity is being used, and to find energy saving opportunities.
Traditionally, the only information building owners have had access to is what’s on their electric bill – a total power consumption value (kWh) for the past 30-60 days. It’s electricity that was consumed some time ago… nothing to do at that point but pay the bill. This applies to all building types, whether it be a residential, commercial, industrial, or government building.
Electric Bill
If you’re not happy with the bill amount and want to do something about it then you can certainly look at energy saving tips, but beyond that the only way to understand why your electric bill is high is to see the full electricity usage details with a real-time monitor such as Eyedro. Electric utilities that have deployed smart meters sometimes share smart meter information via their website but it is still in 15 minute blocks and lags by 24 hours – better, but still not as good as real-time feedback. With real-time feedback you’re able to learn how often equipment is on, and how much it costs to operate, especially the larger more expensive power hogs. Here’s an example of a 20kW heater that the owner knew about but did not know how often it was actually turning on.
20kW Electric Heaters
At far less power and cost but equally interesting is the aquarium heater example shown here cycling 24 hours a day. The owner certainly enjoys their 80 gallon aquarium, but was surprised to learn the heater alone cost approximately $7 in electricity each month. Power consumption from the water pumps and lights (not shown here) increased the monthly cost further.
Aquarium Heater 280W
With real-time electricity monitoring you are provided with actionable intelligence because you can see exactly how much electricity is being consumed at any given point in time, and then keep an eye on consumption and costs before the bill arrives. No more surprises when your bill shows up!
2. Take Control of the Thermostat
