Electricity Logger

[RandomRando]

Hey folks.

Please could I ask your advice / recommendations of an electrical logger for my house DB? Ive been looking at efergy / nano view etc but i cant seem to confirm if these will do what i want them to do.

Efergy has this standalone monitor which i think is unnecessary... i want a device that works direct to an app on my smartphone via wifi, and if possible, has the potential to have the data downloaded from it. (Not an issue if it doesn't).

It would be nice if the logging interval could be adjustable, not fixed at per hour too, so more toward real time, per circuit.

Ultimately, i want to open an app on my phone and be able to see the consumption data in real time and view it historically. Tracking of incoming voltage is also a requirement to spot voltage fluctuations.

Does such a device exist locally, at an affordable price? Im been seeing these 'smart breakers' as well, but not sure about their functionality.

I would appreciate your feedback / experiences and perhaps even a screen shot or two if you have such a system in your household.

TIA

 

[Tomtomtom]

To monitor voltage a smart plug anywhere in the house will do.

For energy monitoring if you have a prepaid meter with a blinking LED then the easy cheap DIY option is to put a sensor on it and count the pulses.

Even the old wheel meters can be read digitally.

Otherwise look into CT clamp based sensing.

 

[krieg]

Hey folks.

Please could I ask your advice / recommendations of an electrical logger for my house DB? Ive been looking at efergy / nano view etc but i cant seem to confirm if these will do what i want them to do.

Efergy has this standalone monitor which i think is unnecessary... i want a device that works direct to an app on my smartphone via wifi, and if possible, has the potential to have the data downloaded from it. (Not an issue if it doesn't).

It would be nice if the logging interval could be adjustable, not fixed at per hour too, so more toward real time, per circuit.

Ultimately, i want to open an app on my phone and be able to see the consumption data in real time and view it historically. Tracking of incoming voltage is also a requirement to spot voltage fluctuations.

Does such a device exist locally, at an affordable price? Im been seeing these 'smart breakers' as well, but not sure about their functionality.

I would appreciate your feedback / experiences and perhaps even a screen shot or two if you have such a system in your household.

TIA

Nano view is the only one that does multiple circuits. It also has an API to read the data but you would need something like a Raspberry Pi to make it smart.

 

[RandomRando]

To monitor voltage a smart plug anywhere in the house will do.

For energy monitoring if you have a prepaid meter with a blinking LED then the easy cheap DIY option is to put a sensor on it and count the pulses.

Even the old wheel meters can be read digitally.

Otherwise look into CT clamp based sensing.

Im definitely looking for CT based sensing, or 'smart' circuit breakers.

Id like to be able to open an app and view a specific circuits load profile history if i want to.

Assess the overall consumption against the sum of individual circuits and the impact of each.

If thats done via a specific API then thats ok, although having a android based app would be ideal.

I see the Nanoveiw has a real time 1s refresh rate to view the loads, but then historical consumption data is hourly for a 24hr period, daily for weekly and so on.

Is this consumption data able to be filtered? E.g: if i pull a weekly profile, will i be able to view the info per day, in hourly format?

Any user experiences and info with the folks here?

 

[Bundu]

Sonoff Elite stores hourly data that can be downloaded to excel

 

[Paul_S]

If you like DIY then how about IotaWatt. I've used it to log to an online Influx DB and visualize the data using Grafana. I wired it into the DB board in my previous house.

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

Can monitor up to 14 circuits and it's more accurate than most other energy monitors because it uses a seperate reference voltage transformer.

 

[RandomRando]

If you like DIY then how about IotaWatt. I've used it to log to an online Influx DB and visualize the data using Grafana. I wired it into the DB board in my previous house.

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

Can monitor up to 14 circuits and it's more accurate than most other energy monitors because it uses a seperate reference voltage transformer.

View attachment 1659958

View attachment 1659960

Now this looks like what im looking for.

What is the logging interval? Hourly?

Does / can it monitor incoming supply voltage as well? Given our predicament with loadshedding, it would be a usefull feature.

where did you buy it from - Australia outlet? Any customs charges etc? Delivery turnaround?

Overall user friendliness to set up? Im no computer programmer

 

[Paul_S]

Now this looks like what im looking for.

What is the logging interval? Hourly?

Does / can it monitor incoming supply voltage as well? Given our predicament with loadshedding, it would be a usefull feature.

where did you buy it from - Australia outlet? Any customs charges etc? Delivery turnaround?

Overall user friendliness to set up? Im no computer programmer

The logging interval is 5 seconds by default.

It can monitor incoming supply as well, you just need to use a higher current CT. It measures voltage, current, power factor and frequency.

Pretty easy to set up and one can view the data locally from the device but if you want to extend the logging and visualization using Influx DB and Grafana then that part is a bit tricky. However it can also output the data to EmonCMS, PVOutput, etc. It's all in the documentation.

I bought from the USA store and yes, there are customs and shipping charges. Turn around time was about a week if I remember correctly.

I just noticed another type of device on Geewiz which looks similar but I'm not sure of it's capabilities, accuracy or visualization features. Logging the data is only half the solution - being able to visualize it in a meaningful manner is the other more important half.

Emporia Vue Gen 2 Energy Monitor - 200A 3-PHASE Sensors and 16x 50A Sensors - GeeWiz

Emporia Vue Gen 2 Energy Monitor - 200A 3-PHASE Sensors and 16x 50A Sensors for sale online at the Best Prices! Door to Door and Overnight Delivery

www.geewiz.co.za

 

[Abe53]

Good reviews on two electricity loggers, but seems Emporia is out of stock and IoTa site not updated?
.
All I need at the moment is to read monthly total consumption. Just read the meter, you say? Not so simple here.
Used to have access to the ESKOM medium user 3-phase distribution box with meters. Then metering was put onto radio reporting and upper box locked with ESKOM lock.
Must ESKOM provide customers access to meters? Before I demand such, I am wary of small print somewhere which might make it the customers choice and cost to install meters.

 

[Heisenborg]

Cbi astute

 

[Abe53]

Hi Enzo, I have an OWL monitor for single phase, but the main feed to the business splits in the back of the Eskom distribution box to three 3 phase CB's: 300A, 250A, 200A, which we can access. Would need to measure 9 separate 50mm2 cables if we cannot gain access to Eskom meters.
My question: Is Eskom compelled to provide access to meters or not?