.NET Micro to connect to my Electrical NET meter?

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Hi !
I am installing a solar array in my backyard :slight_smile:
And as such I am exchanging my current electrical meter with a so called net meter that will allow me to feed electricity back to the grid when I have excess power.

What I would like to attempt is to talk to my electrical meter, and I was wondering if anyone has any experience doing this ?
Does it require a specific type of meter that allows com capabilities
Is there a hack available, additional hardware and some software I can write that would allow me to talk to the meter ?

If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate some insight, and pointers.

Thanks
Anders

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@ persanders@ gmail.com - I’ve always wanted to do this. Have you see these:

I know someone that has the Black and Decker one and he likes it.

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@ persanders@ gmail.com: If you happen to live in the Netherlands your smart meter is probably equipped with a so called P1 port. This is a RJ11 socket and is a “readonly” port that transmits energy readings every 10 secs. It uses RS232 at TTL levels (5V) and it has a request line that has to be pulled up to 5V in order for the data to be transmitted. I’ve done a couple of projects connecting a netmf powered board to a couple of these meters, with only 1 or 2 transistors and a couple of resistors in between the meter and the netmf board.

If you don’t like soldering another option would be to use this P1 cable: SmartMeterDashboard - Webshop.

Then again, you still need a meter that is equipped with a so called P1 port.

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Thank you guys for your replies ! Much appreciated and I will look into these suggestions right away ! Glad I found GHI looks like a lot of good smart folks here :wink:
No I am not living in Holland, native Swede actually but currently abroad living here in US of A :slight_smile: in the beautiful state of MN.

Thanks again and I intend to share what my findings are and hopefully some possible solutions !

Anders

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Interesting project.

Your e-mail address is kind of in the open. ;D I would choose a different user name. :wink:

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Perhaps he’s testing how good gmail’s spam filtering is? :wink:

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Yes thanks for the heads up on the email address / username mix…anyways…corrected and thanks for the friendly pointer.
Anders

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