Whole house power monitoring.
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@zboblamont just for clarification, what do you mean by "direct reading "?
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@gohan Sorry for any confusion, I meant in-line meters, where there is direct reading of voltage, current, pf, etc....
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@zboblamont have you found any worth mentioning?
@gohan I guess you meant in-line meters? Not specific device recommendations, but more a methodology, none of which is new.
The supply here is about 65A, so perhaps not euro-typical, in the UK it would be a standard 100A supply even though full load current would rarely top 50A unless you were simultaneously loading supply with some hefty coincidental peak demand, and electricity ain't cheap particularly in the UK.
If you were measuring each major circuit separately, a 45A meter could easily cover all sockets, another could cover all lighting, each with a kWh pulse output, all you need is space for 2 standard DIN units, or 3 if you had a high load such as an instant shower or cooker. These will comfortably measure kWh to a high degree of accuracy, pulsing out according to choice of model, probably 30 euro each.
Where expanding the consumer box or adding to it is not physically possible, that is where I view CTs as solution to achieve the objective, but it remains a compromise.
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I am using a couple of sonoff pow to measure kitchen and washing machine as they are the most power hungry devices. I am also using a pulse counter on the electric company meter but I figured it is not really working well in reporting instant power readings, while the pulse counter is counting fine but power calculation by domoticz is too slow and I can't use it to switch off the big loads in case of overload ( over here we have 3000W maximum allowed and if you exceed that for few minutes the main switch will cut the power and I was planning to avoid those situations with the help of the sonoffs pow)
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I am using a couple of sonoff pow to measure kitchen and washing machine as they are the most power hungry devices. I am also using a pulse counter on the electric company meter but I figured it is not really working well in reporting instant power readings, while the pulse counter is counting fine but power calculation by domoticz is too slow and I can't use it to switch off the big loads in case of overload ( over here we have 3000W maximum allowed and if you exceed that for few minutes the main switch will cut the power and I was planning to avoid those situations with the help of the sonoffs pow)
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@kimot yeah, 5 minutes intervals are not the best for that kind of statistics; you'd probably better look at influxDB for more accurate statistics
@gohan
5 min interval is not big problem for me.
Problem is, that this last 5 min interval in each hour is completely lost.
They do not add it to next hour.
Next hour is calculated from hh:mm:00 again.
So first interval hh:00:00 to hh:mm:04.
InfluxDB is good, but I want all at one web ( domoticz ).
I try calculate power consumption myself through some Domoticz script. -
Hi,
I see some commercial offering that count meter ticks but are there any clamp style current meters that people have used to measure power usage in a house?Thanks!
@shabba I have used a clamp meter and arduino uno to monitor power levels, disadvantages are that you need to full wave rectify, provide load resistor and smoothing. Measurement becomes a bit of guesswork as to how many volts o/p in a Kwh.
Here in Britain, meters have a LED that flashes 1000 times per Kw. I have used a digital light sensor input into arduino uno digital input and then measured the time between flashes in msecs to give accurate readings. I use have used both methods to monitor solar panel output, then turn on Leaf BEV car when sufficient free power is available and off again when clouds arrive. Next step is to o/p readings to a Nextion for both solar and grid power readings with adjustment of turn on thresholds to optimise summer and winter useage. -
@shabba I have used a clamp meter and arduino uno to monitor power levels, disadvantages are that you need to full wave rectify, provide load resistor and smoothing. Measurement becomes a bit of guesswork as to how many volts o/p in a Kwh.
Here in Britain, meters have a LED that flashes 1000 times per Kw. I have used a digital light sensor input into arduino uno digital input and then measured the time between flashes in msecs to give accurate readings. I use have used both methods to monitor solar panel output, then turn on Leaf BEV car when sufficient free power is available and off again when clouds arrive. Next step is to o/p readings to a Nextion for both solar and grid power readings with adjustment of turn on thresholds to optimise summer and winter useage. -
@shabba I have used a clamp meter and arduino uno to monitor power levels, disadvantages are that you need to full wave rectify, provide load resistor and smoothing. Measurement becomes a bit of guesswork as to how many volts o/p in a Kwh.
Here in Britain, meters have a LED that flashes 1000 times per Kw. I have used a digital light sensor input into arduino uno digital input and then measured the time between flashes in msecs to give accurate readings. I use have used both methods to monitor solar panel output, then turn on Leaf BEV car when sufficient free power is available and off again when clouds arrive. Next step is to o/p readings to a Nextion for both solar and grid power readings with adjustment of turn on thresholds to optimise summer and winter useage.@terryrow Out of curiosity, was there no output pulse connection on the meter, or is it a sealed 'smart' meter from the supplier?
Wh pulses appear to be rare on supplier provided meter which piqued my curiosity, they are generally kWh pulses... -
Our utility company meters have a flashing led that flashes 1000 times for every Kwh, so 1 flash is a wh
@gohan said in Whole house power monitoring.:
Our utility company meters have a flashing led that flashes 1000 times for every Kwh, so 1 flash is a wh
Fair comment for Italy, but I do not recall similar for the UK, although I must confess I had little interest with respect to monitoring systems at the time.
In Romania they have the habit of placing smart meters with pulse flashers in rather large acrylic bubbles (a la Klockner Moeller) out on the main road, which not only renders optical detection difficult, put potentially removeable by every passing drunk.... Hence placing a padlock on the isolator access to dissuade the same folks from switching off the entire house from the main road...
;) -
@terryrow Out of curiosity, was there no output pulse connection on the meter, or is it a sealed 'smart' meter from the supplier?
Wh pulses appear to be rare on supplier provided meter which piqued my curiosity, they are generally kWh pulses... -
@gohan Sorry I have been so long, some things, apparently, are more important than playing on my laptop. I managed to lose the "saved" copy when looking at Nextion mods. I have recovered/repaired and tidied the code but I need your help as to how to share with you.
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@zboblamont I cannot see any sockets for a digital o/p. Neither is a smart meter, but both are only 2 years old. The grid meter has an additional green led when power is going out of the house.
@terryrow Sorry, perhaps I am misunderstanding your scenario in thinking it may be similar to my own.
I cannot access the supplier's meter or optically couple safely as explained above, but I can shut down power to the house, which allowed fitting of a DIN mounted meter in the consumer box. This has both external flashing LED and 2 connections for pulse measurement via clamp screws.If the house meter is less than two years old, it will be digital, and these USUALLY have a connector for external pulse.
If you can physically access the meter, google the make and meter type for info, perhaps you have a model with similar pulse connection available. Hence my query... -
@gohan Sorry I have been so long, some things, apparently, are more important than playing on my laptop. I managed to lose the "saved" copy when looking at Nextion mods. I have recovered/repaired and tidied the code but I need your help as to how to share with you.
