The CurrentCost Python gui is still very much a work-in-progress - a place to try out ideas on how to do graphing of CurrentCost data.
At time of writing, it has the following features.
| View historical data |  | It's what the app was written to do - historical CurrentCost data is represented with a variety of bar graphs
Hint: Download history... |
| View live data |  | See live updates from your CurrentCost meter with a real-time graph
Hint: Show live data... |
| Storing your data |  | CurrentCost meters only store a limited amount of history data. The application will store all of the historical data you ever give it, and will combine it with the latest data received the next time you connect it to a CurrentCost meter.
All of the data is saved to a file on your computer. |
| Connect via serial connection |  | Have a serial cable to connect your CurrentCost meter to your computer or laptop? The application can make a direct serial connection, and receive and parse the data.
Hint:
Download via serial port |
| Connect remotely via MQTT |  | Is your CurrentCost meter connected to a Really Small Message Broker? You don't need to disconnect it to be able to use the GUI - the application can subscribe to your message broker and receive the data remotely via MQTT.
Note that you will need to download support for MQTT first.
Hint:
Download via MQTT |
| Tabbed interface |  | One graph not enough for you? Rather than try and fit multiple graphs on a single screen, the application uses a tabbed interface to display a variety of graph types - and you can let any of them fill the screen |
| Identifying trends |  | Graphs not enough? The application also identifies a few trends for you on the 'trends' tab |
| Display graphs in £ |  | Enter the cost of a kWH to see graphs displayed in the cost of electricity.
The simplest way to work out your personal cost is to find a recent electricity bill, and divide how much you paid by the number of units you used. This will give you a cost per kWH that includes any fixed charge, and averages out any variable pricing.
Or just go for something like 11p
Hint: Data -> Display GBP |
| Display graphs in kg of CO2 |  | Enter the name of your electricity supplier to see graphs displayed in an estimate of the amount of CO2 produced for the electricity you use.
Hint: Data -> Display CO2 |
| Pan and zoom |  | Graphs produced by the application are dynamic - you can drag to pan around your history, zoom out to see the big picture, or zoom in to focus on a particular period of interest.
And the Back / Forward / Home buttons let you go back through the history of your moving around the graph.
Hint: See the detailed doc on Interactive navigation |
| Save graphs as images |  | Want to share a graph with a friend? Graphs can be exported to image files.
Hint: Click on the little disk icon in the toolbar |
| Export to CSV |  | Want to do something different with the data? You can export all of the data stored to CSV files, for use in other programs like MS Excel or OpenOffice.
Hint: Export -> Export ??? to CSV... |
| Support for multiple CurrentCost meters |  | As mentioned above, your history data is stored in a local file.
If you don't want to have to locate this file every time you run the application, you can tell it to always open the same history file to add to.
But if you have more than one CurrentCost meter, you can tell the application to let you choose which history file you are going to add to.
Hint: This preference is set at startup. Delete the currentcost.dat file if you want to change the setting. |
| Calculating averages |  | As well as showing the history data as it is received, it is also turned into a variety of averages - for example, see your power usage in an average day, or see what your average week looks like. |
| Compare your usage with other people |  | You can see how your usage compares with other people. The application will download anonymised averages for people from the web, and draw graphs that show your usage against these averages.
Hint: See the detailed doc on comparing your data |
| See how your electricity was generated |  | You can see your live electricity usage divided up by the different generation sources.
Hint: Show live data... -> National electricity generation |
| See everyone's usage on a single scatter graph |  | You can see how your usage compares with other people. The application will download an average daily power usage for every user who has registered online, and draw a scatter graph plotting everyone's usage. Your own usage will be highlighted in a different colour, so you can see where you compare with the trend of all users.
Hint: See the detailed doc on comparing your data |
| Annotate your graphs |  | Seen some unusual electricity usage data that might not make sense in a few months time? Such as the holiday which meant you used hardly any electricity for a week? Add notes to your graphs to explain interesting points.
Hint: Click on a bar to add a note. Click on an existing note to see the details |
| Set yourself a goal |  | Tell the application how much you want to spend on your electric bill in a year, and it will put a horizontal line on each graph giving you the target you need to meet to achieve your goal.
If your bars are going over the line, you're exceeding your goal. If your bars are under the line, you're on target!
Hint: Data -> Set personal target |
| Look at your friends' usage |  | The application can download and display average electricity usage of other users. If you give it more than one username to display, their data will be displayed side-by-side on the same graph - compare your usage with your friends!
Note that only users that you have explicitly granted permission to will be able to view your average usage data
Hint: Web -> Compare friends ... |
| Compare your usage with the rest of the UK |  | The application can download data from the UK National Grid and display it on the live graph.
Hint: Show live data -> National electricity demand |
| Measure energy usage between any times |  | Click-and-drag to highlight a span of the graph, and the application calculates the area under that part of the curve - using this to calculate how much energy you used during this time. |
| Check for updates |  | The application is under active development, and as such is updated fairly often. To save you coming back to the site, you can check for updates from within the application. If a new version is available, it will take you to where it can be downloaded.
Hint: Help -> Check for updates
Alternatively, you could subscribe to a feed yourself |
| Report problems |  | Bugs are inevitable. Sorry
But if you find one, please let me know and I'll do my best to fix it if I can.
Hint: Help -> Report a bug |
Dale, Thanks for this very clear step guide. very useful. Audaye
Please note: I do not get notified when a comment is posted here, and I do not regularly visit this page.
As a result, comments here may go unnoticed by me for many months. I would recommend using http://getsatisfaction.com/dalelane/products/dalelane_currentcost_gui instead if you would like a more prompt answer.
hi, does this application works when you have connected the currentcost via the bridge to the web dashboard or google powermeter?
Hi, you don't mention if it displays multiple channels from the EnviR. Cheers, Mick.