Monitoring a well pump on-times??

Heck, probably draws a max of a watt or so, a series resistor would probably work just fine! Those hour meters are available in 110 volts, and probably 220 as well. The local electronics surplus place has bins of them--just the thing for this project.

Thanks to all that offered help. I like Tim's idea of the timer.

I have been trying to reply to this thread for two days but they replies are not showing up.

This is my third attempt. This must be Google Groups screwing things up. The CC emails are arriving OK.

Dave

Thanks Tim, the timer is a great suggestion.

I have tried to reply to this group 4 times now and they do not appear. Not sure what's going on but this is try #5 after updating Firefox.

Dave

Snip .....

For those that want to monitor consumption it might be worthwhile taking a look at the "CurrentCost"

A single LCD display/monitor can log 10 sensors outputs. The sensors employ a current transformer and a 433MHz transmitter. You can connect multiple display/monitor units to the same set of sensors. The Envi CurrentCost monitor/display has an RS-232 serial output that can be connected to a PC or other logging device. The output is in .XML format. see

If you have an internet connection, the readings can be exported and the results graphed on the WEB by Google Powermeter. These are not calibrated power meters but consumption monitors that gives an indication of the power used by various appliances.

CurrentCost is working on an accurate consumption monitoring sensor but there is no indication of availability yet.

Gerhard van den Berg

Never heard of them before, which is a bit surprising since they claim to be big in the European market. The UK purchasing split is reflected in Amazon.uk statistics fairly impartially:

Efergy now lead the pack, OWL second and CurrentCost a distant third.

There are several very similar products on the market. Almost all of the current generation have PC connectability (but check the spec).

As an early adopter of gadgets mine is older and wireless standalone. Range is an impressive 100m. This was a bit of a nuisance when I installed another one in the village hall it locked onto my transmitter by default. The latter has saved the VH a lot of money by preventing immersion and space heaters being left on overnight.

Regards, Martin Brown

All of them, Efergy, Owl and CurrnetCost has a Windows program to download, display save and export the consumption data in some or other format. CurrentCost seems to be only ones that publish their raw data format. It seems a bit daft to develop a device that promotes energy saving and then force the use of a Windows program and by implication Windows PC to save, archive and export the data in some more standard format. Processing and monitoring the data using some form of embedded processor instead of a PC could be a lot more efficient. And what about those of us that has a Unix fetish.

Is there someone who knows the raw output data format for The Owl or Efergy monitor/display units or knows where they've published it, please let us know.

Gerhard van den Berg

One thing to consider is what sort of failure mode you are looking for and how quickly you'll need to identify it. A timer will tell you if your pump exceeds some maximum normal run time. But it will only tell you that when you (occasionally) check the timer.

I have a system that takes lake water and charges a pressure tank equipped with a bladder. One failure mode is that bladder's 'pre-charge' (air pressure above it) bleeding off. Then the pump starts cycling on and off for a few seconds at a time. Having a little light (or a smart monitor) will give you an idea that the frequency and/or duty cycle are wrong. If I had a timer, I'd never know there was a problem since the total run time would look OK but it would consist of hundreds of starts a day instead of a few.