Hi I've been looking around the internet for something which can replace using manhours to walk to each electric meter and write the number of kw/h is being used. You see I work at a factory where they pay a different for the electricity used in electric waterheaters from the electricity used for lighting or the machines. So they have this
Electric meter with a pulse output 1000 Imp/kWh MID approved
EAN: 4010312501207
where someone is reading these manually.
Can I set up a FLUKSO to read the pulse output 1000 Imp/kWh from the meter and have it send the data wireless to a computer? And will it work with 15 of these all over the factory?
Yes. Should do if the pulse can be wired to the flukso. You can do 4 at a time on a flukso.
Hmm, actually you could use a Fluksometer for that purpose, rather I think the use case is less "community metering". Also, how far away from each other are the meters? You can attach up to 4 pulse meters to one Flukso, of course; but you need to consider the cabling, which especially needs to comply to security and safety requirements in your environment. Does WLAN work at all?
IF WLAN works, an option would be to use these cheap ESP8266 devices to set up a "pulse server" and transmit data (pulses or even the meter values) to a central computer (Raspberry Pi would do for that purpose); IF WLAN does not work, there are alternatives in the 433 and 866MHz range that could provide the same functionality: detect the pulses and send them on - something like a Jeenode would be the most convenient device for that purpose. Setting up the software (Arduino forever ;-)) is no witchcraft... Honestly, I would not go for an FLM on this use case in the first place. It sounds more like a weekend project with enthusiastic pupils or students to step into the fascinating world of IoT and embedded devices. Be careful with respect to regulatory compliance!
Ok nice. The wiring regulation will be made in proper manner since Im an electrician. What I need is something easily build without too much programming. This customer of mine is a factory which has 15 electric water heaters spread out on their factory but with wireless network throughout the whole factory. As of now they send a guy with a piece of paper walk around the factory to write down how much electricity they have been using which he then turn in to whoever send this to the electricity company. Here in Denmark the wage is pretty high so this is quite an expensive way to do this thing. So there's really a lot of money to be saved if I can setup a Flukso right next to the electric meter which is also next to the water heater and right above hover an accesspoint with wifi.
To get an understanding of the setup, please also refer to the manual (currently v2 - v3 to be released) -> https://github.com/flukso/flm02/wiki