Using Meniscus for Current Cost after Google PowerMeter was shut-down

Since Google shut down it’s  PowerMeter service I was on the look out for a replacement.

Initially I tried Enio but it wasn’t very stable, didn’t have many features and in truth as a bit Mickey Mouse, and then I found Meniscus

Meniscus runs as a service under Windows and there is a Python application for Linux. Once hooked up to the Current Cost, you can access the Meniscus Dashboard from any web browser running Microsoft Silverlight

There are various graphs available in Meniscus, such as:

• Daily cost
• Daily savings – when you have set a target energy use
• Carbon equivalent
• Seasonal Average use
• Real-Time

Meniscus also captures the room temperature that is displayed on the Current Cost so you can monitor how the temperature in your house fluctuates over time.

It also has the ability to download historical data that is stored in the Current Cost unit, which is useful if you have had it running for a while before connecting it to Meniscus, or if your computer crashes and you have gaps in your graphs.

There’s a video showing some of the Meniscus dashboard functionality on YouTube

It’s definitely a suitable replacement for the Google Service. In fact I would say it’s actually better that what Google had.