#Energy meters for the electricity cabinet

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

half echo
#

Hey all, what kind of EV meters are you using on your internal circuits? I'm looking for something to live in my cabinet in the basement and monitor my various circuits directly. Ideally I'd like something that can monitor more than one circuit at a time. I've got 14, but I'd like to get started with at least 3-6 channels ideally.

I don't want to use smart adapter plugs , because I'd need a ton of them or switch them around a lot to get an accurate picture of my energy distribution. I'll probably add some of them eventually in key places, but that's for later.

PS: I've been told to include the information that I'm going to run this in Germany.

solar jetty
#

In the Netherlands our utility companies have opened up an interface on the meters they install in our homes. i.e. we can read the whole home usage plus any production back into the grid from the same meter the utility company reads. If in Germany similar arrangements have been made, that would be your best option to get your whole home usage plus production. (this is what I do, plus a ton of additional metering devices plus more simulated ones using the Powercalc HACS add-on).
If you're interested in measuring multiple internal circuits, and/or you do not have the option to read the utility company's meter, I suggest something like Emporia Vue's energy monitors (https://shop.emporiaenergy.com/collections/in-panel-energy-monitors?_gl=1*16cgdwp*_up*MQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQjw3JanBhCPARIsAJpXTx6QfHmdtb73Qu6dSRCCu1btTLQTD4xssmhCUyK5bF3qFYrXOgjQPj0aAmVCEALw_wcB). These have the advantage that they can provide measurements that are in sync. I do not have them myself, so can't give you 1st hand experiences, but the specs look very good. Plus I've read that you can even put your own firmware in them using esphome, ridding you of any cloud dependencies.

Emporia Energy
Smart Home Energy Monitors

Shop Emporia's energy management products that help you save money by understanding and controlling your home energy usage.

half echo
#

On the power company side, I've still got my old mechanical electricity meter, and I don't want to wake sleeping dogs unless they make me. Remember what our old Bundeskanzler said: Digitalization is "terra incognita" for the German government and bureaucracy.

On the internal side, the hardware of those emporia devices you linked look quite interesting, and 16 sensors would actually be plenty. Do you have any additional information on the how and what of the custom firmware that needs to be applied?

half echo
#

Problem being, that thing costs 200 shmuckers, and if that custom FW turns out to be no good, I can't return it.

#

Actually, the more I look at it, the less I like it. Firstly, it's written as an Arduino sketch, not a proper C firmware, second, it's very likely written for the V2, and will probably require quite a bit of rework to function on the V3, unless the external form factor is the only thing they changed.

#

Even integrating it into HA via the cloud would be a nightmare apparently. So, as juicy as this thing looks, until it has better support in HA, I'll have to pass.

half echo
#

Isn't it sad how the things that would fit our requirements best always turn out to be incompatible with Home Assistant?

drowsy umbra
#

I have three Shelly 3em giving nine circuits. One device monitors the total energy on each of the phases and the rest just do individual circuits.

half echo
#

How well does that integrate into HA?

drowsy umbra
#

All the sensors in the device come through, so for each circuit you get voltage, current, phase factors, power and energy as well as some reboot buttons etc. You just have to set a setting in the shelly and everything is autodiscovered and very rapid.

full hamlet
#

I have iotawatts. Love em

ocean void
#

The Shelly devices work really well with HA. I have two regular two-channel EMs measuring the grid, solar, heat pump and oven consumption. I also have a few Shelly Mini PMs measuring things like the fridge and the dishwasher. Very easy to integrate with HA.

hexed panther
half echo
#

There's upsides and downsides for all of them. Emporia is insanely cheap, but has bad to no support in HA. Iotawatt is super cool and configurable, but also extremely complicated and the most expensive. Shelly 3EM take up a lot of rail space and are not much cheaper.

#

Decisions, decisions...

#

I guess I'll probably end up going with the shellys too, because I can build that up step by step instead of paying for it in one giant chunk.

digital comet
#

You can flash emporia with esphome

#

But you would have to calibrate

half echo
#

I thought I'd read everything written about custom FW on the emporia, and all I could find was intended for the v2, not the newer v3.

digital comet
#

Well.. You need to open it up

#

If this is a turn off for you then there is no way i think

half echo
#

Missed that last one, the firmware I've seen. I'm very tempted to try, but if it turns out to be a dud, I'm out 200 for a paperweight. On the other hand, if I go with the Shellys, I'm out almost 500...

half echo
#

@digital comet have you actually tried this yourself? The "callibration" bit scares me.

digital comet
#

i do have it but still didnt flash it / use it

#

calibration looks like this

#

filters: - calibrate_linear: - 0 -> 0 - 0.004 -> 0.65

#

you need to have known usage to calibrate

half echo
#

Hmmm. I'll meditate on the issue...

ocean void
#

It is fairly straightforward to do the calibration if you can get your hands on a clamp meters. Put the clamp meter around one of the incoming supply tails in your house. Install the device you want to calibrate (preferably on a circuit that has something that draws a lot of current, such as a kettle or a hairdryer). Switch the kettle or hairdryer on and off and see what the device measures and compare with how much the the measurement on the clamp meter jumps.

half echo
#

(I just hope you'll help me convert my measurements into yaml entries when the time comes)

half echo
#

Well that went sour quickly. Injecting 3.3V via the test pins won't work, because SOMETHING pulls massive power. So I basically have a choice of either pushing MORE power in via the test pins - which might release the blue smoke monster pretty quickly - or connect the device to mains power to flash it, which is DANGEROUS if you have pogo pins flying all over the place...

half echo
#

Well, I managed to inject power without burning out the reg, so I dodged that bullet. And I finally got it to actually connect to the esp32

#

somehow the OP of that hack omitted the necessity to reset it via the EN pin to connect.