Breaker level electricity monitoring

[WAslayer]

Right, so my wallet has now had it up to here with my electricity usage and I cannot pin point the source of the usage..

In just the last 24 hours, 44 units has just gone somewhere.. it's a bit too much..

I am looking to monitor usage at a per breaker level, so I can tell where the highest usage is going, so I can then take whatever measures necessary to optimise..

So far, all I have been able to find that *may* work, is the nanoview from CBI and the effergy, though I am still unsure whether the effergy is the right tool here..

Anything else I should be looking at for this purpose..?

Yes, I have a kill-a-watt and already measured usage at plugs with the most devices and usage is minimal there..

 

[SpiderGear]

Prepaid meter faulty perhaps?

If not get someone with a clamp meter to come and measure the current on each circuit.

 

[WAslayer]

Prepaid meter faulty perhaps?

If not get someone with a clamp meter to come and measure the current on each circuit.

I don't know when the peak usage occurs and getting someone with a clamp meter to come stand there to measure each circuit costs money..

So I might as well spend probably the same money on getting a permanent monitoring system in place, so I can pick up on excessive usage in the future..

 

[RudderVator]

Right, so my wallet has now had it up to here with my electricity usage and I cannot pin point the source of the usage..

In just the last 24 hours, 44 units has just gone somewhere.. it's a bit too much..

I am looking to monitor usage at a per breaker level, so I can tell where the highest usage is going, so I can then take whatever measures necessary to optimise..

So far, all I have been able to find that *may* work, is the nanoview from CBI and the effergy, though I am still unsure whether the effergy is the right tool here..

Anything else I should be looking at for this purpose..?

Yes, I have a kill-a-watt and already measured usage at plugs with the most devices and usage is minimal there..

Do you have a normal geyser and have you inspected it? Leaking water?

Secondly are there any heaters of any sorts being used?
Lastly how are your fridges and freezers doing? Are some of them constantly running or have bad door seals?

 

[SauRoNZA]

CBI Astute is working nicely for me.

Problem is it’s rather large so going to be problematic per breaker I suspect unless you have a huge DB.

 

[krieg]

Right, so my wallet has now had it up to here with my electricity usage and I cannot pin point the source of the usage..

In just the last 24 hours, 44 units has just gone somewhere.. it's a bit too much..

I am looking to monitor usage at a per breaker level, so I can tell where the highest usage is going, so I can then take whatever measures necessary to optimise..

So far, all I have been able to find that *may* work, is the nanoview from CBI and the effergy, though I am still unsure whether the effergy is the right tool here..

Anything else I should be looking at for this purpose..?

Yes, I have a kill-a-watt and already measured usage at plugs with the most devices and usage is minimal there..

How many circuit breakers do you have? Nanoview will work, just make sure you have enough space in your box for all the clamps you need. The Astute can track power consumption so you could put maybe two circuits on it at a time to monitor usage.

 

[Paul_S]

I installed an IoTaWatt alongside my DB.
It has 14 channels and is also very accurate because it uses a voltage reference transformer seperate from the power supply.

IoTaWatt™ Open WiFi Electric Power Monitor

Electric Power Monitor. Residential and Commercial. Single, split and three-phase. Any voltage. Local data storage and analysis and also upload to your cloud service. Economical. Ships worldwide, in use in dozens of countries on four continents.

iotawatt.com

 

[Pineapple Smurf]

I installed an IoTaWatt alongside my DB.
It has 14 channels and is also very accurate because it uses a voltage reference transformer seperate from the power supply.

IoTaWatt™ Open WiFi Electric Power Monitor

Electric Power Monitor. Residential and Commercial. Single, split and three-phase. Any voltage. Local data storage and analysis and also upload to your cloud service. Economical. Ships worldwide, in use in dozens of countries on four continents.

iotawatt.com

This looks awesome
OP used 44 units in one day is just crazy, I average 6 or 7 units per day and everything is running on ESKOM

Was it easy installing this unit?

 

[Paul_S]

This looks awesome
OP used 44 units in one day is just crazy, I average 6 or 7 units per day and everything is running on ESKOM

Was it easy installing this unit?

It wasn't too hard but there is a little bit of configuration and DIY involved. I installed a wall mounted plastic enclosure alongside the DB, then ran surface trunking to the DB for the CT transformer cables to run in and made a small hole through the side of the DB for the cables to fit through. I powered the IoTaWatt from a nearby plug point since powering directly from the DB would not have been electrically compliant.

There are a couple of options with regards to monitoring. On-device or remote. I chose Influx DB and Graphana for maximum flexibility and remote monitoring. Emoncms is probably a much easier route for off device monitoring.

 

[Lupus]

This looks awesome
OP used 44 units in one day is just crazy, I average 6 or 7 units per day and everything is running on ESKOM

Was it easy installing this unit?

Not really we have users that use 60+ in day, they have their own solar arrays that could power 2 houses .
I use about 15 to 25 a day depending

 

[TheChamp]

I can understand not knowing where the electricity is disappearing to in a factory somewhere, I know ours have a lot of dormant systems just lying around, connected and LEDs blinking away even when they have long been out of service, but how does it happen in a home?

 

[Pineapple Smurf]

I can understand not knowing where the electricity is disappearing to in a factory somewhere, I know ours have a lot of dormant systems just lying around, connected and LEDs blinking away even when they have long been out of service, but how does it happen in a home?

Dodgy neighbour has tapped off from his outside security light?

 

[TheChamp]

Dodgy neighbour has tapped off from his outside security light?

That could be very plausible, because not knowing where a good 44 units disappeared to in your own home is very odd, but some people have very complicated homes so it's possible, I doubt uBaba can account for all the kWhs consumed in Nkandla.

 

[labratza]

Prepaid meter faulty perhaps?

If not get someone with a clamp meter to come and measure the current on each circuit.

Been in the prepaid meter game myself. It is highly unlikely that it is a prepaid meter.

 

[labratza]

Right, so my wallet has now had it up to here with my electricity usage and I cannot pin point the source of the usage..

In just the last 24 hours, 44 units has just gone somewhere.. it's a bit too much..

I am looking to monitor usage at a per breaker level, so I can tell where the highest usage is going, so I can then take whatever measures necessary to optimise..

So far, all I have been able to find that *may* work, is the nanoview from CBI and the effergy, though I am still unsure whether the effergy is the right tool here..

Anything else I should be looking at for this purpose..?

Yes, I have a kill-a-watt and already measured usage at plugs with the most devices and usage is minimal there..

What brand prepaid meter you using? is it possible to post a picture?

 

[B-1]

If you get the "open closed type" you dont need to disconnect the live to move it around:

[R223.19~269.73 40% OFF] KEWEISI AC 50~300V 20A/100A Digital Electricity Meter Voltmeter Ammeter With CT Power Current Voltage Temperature Measurement Measurement & Analysis Instruments from Tools on banggood.com

KEWEISI AC 50~300V 20A/100A Digital Electricity Meter Voltmeter Ammeter With CT Power Current Voltage Temperature Measurement

m.banggood.com

 

[labratza]

This looks awesome
OP used 44 units in one day is just crazy, I average 6 or 7 units per day and everything is running on ESKOM

Was it easy installing this unit?

I wish. I go through roughly 900 units a month. Give or take but that is due to the fact that have roughly 4 PC's on 24/7 and also got 2 aircons that gets used

 

[Athos]

The best energy monitor I have found so far is the Shelly EM. Real time energy monitoring on your smartphone through the Shelly app. You can't go wrong.

Before the Shelly EM came along I installed a CBi Nanoview which I still have installed. It has given me a lot of issues including a cap which somehow split open and needed replacing. Was tricky finding the replacement cap but in terms of soldering etc it was dead simple to repair. It has also given me intermittent com cable errors which I couldn't trouble shoot. It is currently working but I rely 100% on the Shelly EMs and mostly just use the Nanoview to monitor my water usage.

 

[ADrunkTeddyBear]

Not really we have users that use 60+ in day, they have their own solar arrays that could power 2 houses .
I use about 15 to 25 a day depending

True true. I used up more than 1Mw this month alone. Although around 25% of this now comes from solar

 

[RonSwanson]

The best energy monitor I have found so far is the Shelly EM. Real time energy monitoring on your smartphone through the Shelly app. You can't go wrong.

Before the Shelly EM came along I installed a CBi Nanoview which I still have installed. It has given me a lot of issues including a cap which somehow split open and needed replacing. Was tricky finding the replacement cap but in terms of soldering etc it was dead simple to repair. It has also given me intermittent com cable errors which I couldn't trouble shoot. It is currently working but I rely 100% on the Shelly EMs and mostly just use the Nanoview to monitor my water usage.

But is it available retail? If so where?