hi all! Has anyone used a home energy monitor to monitor the power usage of a home? I know there exists a home energy monitor that is able to identify individual appliance's power usage, through the way the device draws power. It was quite popular a few years back. Does anyone know if such a device is still on sale?
i'm looking for a power monitor device at the switchboard, and able to identify each appliance + energy usage monitoring when turned on.
are you able to identify each appliance and its power usage through the app?
No
It measures whole house draw from the grid only. If you have solar it will read ZERO while you are consuming your own power and/or exporting.
Your options are varying degrees of expensive.
A 'smart' meter which can read grid draw, solar generation, self consumption and export will still only give you a whole of house number.
You could add individual meters to give you a read of consumption at a circuit level.
The cheapest option is a smart plug which reads at the plug and you move it around to test individual appliances to get an understanding of what they draw. You could buy lots of them I suppose…
The meross Smart Plug WiFi Outlet with Energy Monitor will monitor Power usage VIA an app
or you can look at
https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=power+usage&crid=2KNYUEZC9S1ZG…
is this for individual sockets?
i'm looking for a power monitor device at the switchboard, and able to identify each appliance + energy usage monitoring when turned on.
How would a switchboard device be able to identify different appliances/sockets? What if you unplug the coffee maker and use the air fryer in that socket - will you update the device?
How?
Only by magic, that is how.
:-)
You would have to put the device in-between the wall socket and the appliance. I can't imagine anyway to monitor individual appliances from the meter box.
at the switchboard you can only monitor each individual circuit, so depending on how your appliances are laid out you may be able to seperate your oven (usually seperate circuit) and AC/s and probably lights, but generally GPOs will have multiple GPOs on a single circuit.
I use meross plugs along with the smart meter from my solar, and home assistant can seperate the usage by known sources. So i have plugs on my big draws and then i can see everything else together.
How do you use the data? Like what does knowing this information empower you to do?
These are good, great price for a HomeKit smart plug. Though the plug is chunky and it says "1800 W", so using an air conditioner or heater on it might damage it?
I think they are clamp style current meter that you clamp on the power cable when the appliance is in use and it will display the power it draws.
I bought a couple from Aldi in June last year, keep an eye on their catalogues as their products are usually seasonal.
Friend set this up on his meter - https://glow-energy.io/docs/getting-started/
Then he got some Tapo power measuring devices - all hooked into Home Assistant - now he can separate a handful of appliances (computer workstation, dyson fan/heater, fridge, whatever) and help isolate 'whats left' as AC/hot water stuff/cooking appliances etc.
(YMMV based on your power box/whether it's supported or not***)
I've just ordered the parts for this. The challenge will be powering it.
I'm hoping a older USB battery bank works although it is a bit of a concern putting a battery in a meter box over the summer.
Yeah my mate got super lucky. He actually has 2 freaking power points in his box!!! So he could just use a usb adapter ha.
I have a Flukso that measures the power consumed by the entire house. It uploads to PVOutput to graph my usage against my Solar production.
You can only identify each appliance by the curve it produces in the consumption, so really just the big consumers can be spotted. Oven, Dishwasher, Kettle, Toaster, Microwave
ie The consumption graph spikes when the Dishwasher heats water for Pre-wash, then again ~30 minutes later heating water for the wash cycle and then ~ 2 hours after that there's a spike for the drying cycle.
As others have stated, you can't track each device without having individual power monitors on each device.
I can track a light being turned on or off by watching the change in usage as the event occurs, but looking back across an entire day's usage, I couldn't tell you when my daughter turned on her bedroom light for instance.
I couldn't tell you when my daughter turned on her bedroom light for instance
Just get smart light bulbs so you can track and control them straight from an app /s
This is today's consumption and a full day from earlier this week (noting that we're currently running a beer ferment with a chiller to maintain temp which has pulled up our baseline consumption)
https://imgur.com/a/YgVZoXS
Today's graph shows;
Fridge cycling on and off overnight,
Coffee machine turned on to pre-heat at 8:30,
Making coffee and toast at 8:45,
Washing machine heating water at 10am
Earlier in the week, same sort of story.
Fridge cycling on and off overnight,
Spikes for Coffee Machine, microwave (for porridge), toaster and kettle through the wake up hours,
Dishwasher cycle from 12:30-1:30pm,
me and the kids getting home from work/school around 3pm (TV, home office)
reheating food at 7pm
out to training at 8pm (causing a dip in consumption)
back home at 9:45pm
Kettle for cup of tea and a bit of TV time for parents before bed at 11-ish
Sounds like op needs to go into Jaycar and ask them for H.E.L.P.
Beware of help from Jaycar staff. Generally nice people with lots of interest and energy but don't always give good advice.
Some local libraries also lend a kit.
Grid connect/Deta smart plugs from Bunnings - they are actually now a semi decent physical size, and about $15 for the plugs with monitoring…
Requires access to Tuya platform based in China.
Best getting a power monitor you plug into a socket and just getting a reading for each device so you have an idea in your mind. That's what I've done so know when to use appliances during the. Day based on previous measurements. Ie. Washing machine, dryer, etc. the heavy hitters. I don't believe there is any device that could read each devices power consumption at the meter box, at least not without extra hardware to identify each device at the other end.
I've finally received the parts to build this to integrate into Homeassistant:
https://github.com/klaasnicolaas/home-assistant-glow
My meter has 2 LEDs. One for imports and the other for exports so hoping to be able to automate turning on things like my AC when I'm exporting and the house temp is within a certain range. Just need the time to do it 🙄
The app is smappee. It thinks it can identify appliances by energy use patterns, but for me this is not reliable and you can't even attempt to train/correct it. It is a great app overall, tells me my usage, self consumption, grid and solar power consumption…. check it out I'd say.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smappee.ap…
I have an iotawatt energy monitor. It came with 15 current transformer clamps which I installed at the breaker box.
It measures each circuit and the two incoming phases so I know when each the solar starts exporting etc.
it integrates with homeassistant and can post to a website etc.
Very cool.
Gets you pretty darn close to monitoring at an each appliance level!
wtf is this for?
If you need to understand how much each device is using. Look up the draw in the specs and multiple by the number of hours. Then put it into a spreadsheet. It's fairly basic stuff.
For automations, solar etc.
My hot water system heats on element when I have excess solar so my HWS acts like a battery if I have excess solar.
I have automations set up to charge an EV when there’s also excess solar, or when power may be free between 11 and 2 if you’re on Ovo.
Heat or cool house depending on temp of house, maybe OP is on a wholesale energy plan and might heat/cool depending on temperature as well as current wholesale price of power etc
Lots of reasons
OP asked for individual appliance draw measurement. I explained how it's easy to workout manually.
The question upfront is inquiring specifically what the measurements are for. As the OP didn't identify the problem that he is trying to tackle.
You mean like a Powerpal?
https://www.powerpal.net/
I use my free Powerpal along side my solar panel monitor app. Odd how monitor interesting power consumption and capturing can be.