[colug-432] Monitoring an analog, external device's power usage?

[jep200404 at columbus.rr.com]

On Sat, 26 Jan 2013 13:53:33 -0800 (PST), Peter Kukla <fruviad at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I'm a new home owner, and I have a sump pump in the basement that I would like

> Does anyone out there have any Linux-friendly solutions for monitoring power u

The January issue of Circuit Cellar, (still on sale at Microcenter 
as of yesterday, discusses Visible Energy's[1] stuff for monitoring 
power use. The five minute window might be too coarse. It's 
a network device, which could easily accomplish Linux friendliness, 
but I don't know if it is Linux-friendly. Hopefully it works 
with most browsers. That it uses Wifi is 
nice for electrical isolation. If it takes a lightning strike, 
it would not propagate from monostrip to PC since there's no 
connection. 

> 2.  Setup an early-warning alarm system that would alert me if the sump pump f

Monitoring power use is not an appropriate proxy for real-time monitoring 
of problems. Monitoring water height in sump is. 

[1] http://visiblenergy.com/products/monostrip.html
    http://portal.visiblenergy.com/index.php/page/monostrip_description.html
    http://portal.visiblenergy.com/index.php/page/app_description.html#web