House Energy Monitoring

[Spanky09]

Hey guys,

This is a big question, but it's a project I'm just starting on and will work on until completion. If anyone has any experience, hopefully they can suggest some hardware or give me advice.

I'm trying to monitor the energy usage of my house in detail. I want to collect data from each circuit breaker within the house over a long period of time. This data will be sent to the internet to be accessed by a monitor/computer for long term analysis. There also should be the option to view the data in real time.

I've done a few google searches and found a general flow chart of what the system would look like:
**broken link removed**

Since there are many steps to this project, I thought I'd just figure out what monitor I would use. I found this device called the eMonitor that seems to do EVERYTHING I described. Found **broken link removed**. Has anybody tried it before?

Any insight/recommendations are appreciated.

 

[Reloadron]

Monitoring home energy use is always a fascinating project and in forums like this electricity usage is always an interesting topic.

Personally in our home energy is delivered in two forms. we use both gas and electric. So I would guess in a home like ours both should be considered. With gas heat during the NE Ohio winters natural gas is the main cost while in summer electric takes top billing with the air conditioning.

When monitoring power usage I really don't care which branch circuits use more power. I know the electric clothes dryer uses considerable power when running. There is little difference between me toasting a bagel and the wife blow drying her hair on branch circuits. So I guess my concern would only be the average power consumed over a given period of time. Since during the day we are both at work power use is at minimum unless the dogs are watching TV or doing things.

As to how to plot and graph power use? I would place current transformers across the mains and plot the current. There is likely a dozen ways to go about it. There are over the counter turn key solutions or home brew methods. The choice being how much you really want to get into it.

Just My Take.....
Ron

 

[Spanky09]

Thanks Ron!

I should have been more specific - I only want to plot my power usage through the outlets in my house. We'll leave the gas part to another project
Though it would be a lot easier (and cheaper) to simply measure the current going through the mains and graph it over a long period of time, I want to make sure that I can measure detailed usage of energy throughout the house. I may still measure the current across the mains as a way to find the accuracy of the full house power monitoring.

 

[crutschow]

You might consider a dedicated energy monitor chip such as this, which is specifically designed to do what you want.

 

[Reloadron]

OK, got it. What I do not see in the link is the actual hardware (sensors) to monitor the mains power input panel? Looking at prices I see prices like $1,000 USD. I don't see anything specific or tangible in the link? Maybe I am missing something?

Measuring branch circuits is not all that difficult. Not easy but quite doable. One needs weigh in the cost of sensors to make it happen.

Ron

 

[alec_t]

Providing your power supply voltage is reasonably stable perhaps you can simplify things by monitoring only the current in each branch circuit, using one current transformer per branch.