Home Automation - Smartkit

SauRoNZA said:
Why do you suspect those particular two plugs to be taking so much power?

Is it a new thing or has it always been this way?
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Moved in Oct 2017 and it’s been like this since.
Gone through the house replacing old tech and now I’m done and still have the same issue.

Lounge plug has all media stuff so usually the one most in use when I’m home.
Study has server and PlayStation/ Xbox.

Looking at it possibly being the geyser now but that was also replaced two months ago :(
 
Like suggested, the Efigy's sensor can be placed around your mains to measure everything. Or you can place it around each breaker circuit in the house. Do that for a week at a time (during a typical period) and you should figure out what is sucking up power (compared to the other circuits at least).
 
Pho3nix said:
Hi guys,

Looking for a cheap IP camera module I can use with homeassistant, does anyone have any recommendations?

Also need to figure out wtf is using electricity at my place at a ridiculous rate still, any method to attach sensors on the main swith per "port" (sections for lights, geysers etc) and measure the usage per port and the usage on the main line. Hope that makes sense :eek:
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I have 2 hikvisions and two cheap no-name brand IP cams. They use the "V380" and "YYP2P" apps on the IOS store respectively -- both are dodgy and chinese and definitely send data back home. Both are supposed to be 720p cameras with PTZ controls.

Onvif Device Manager did however manage to pick up both: on as GwellTimes-IPC and the other as IPCAM. One has PTZ controls. This allowed me to configure them as generic cameras in Home Assistant.

That being said -- invest in good (but price effective cameras) that comes with a good, reliable app (or NVR with an app) to manage the recording and remote viewing AND that can be configured in Home Assistant. Home Assistant will give you a once-ever-couple-of-seconds snapshot which helps, but isn't great for viewing live what's going on. And it doesn't do any recording. My Hikvision cameras are incredible compared to the cheap noname Chinese stuff - in reliability, quality, night-vision, up-time etc. And they both use the same app -- for that reason I'd probably buy more Hikvision cameras.

AT the moment I need 3 camera apps on my phone -- which sucks.
 
Pho3nix said:
Moved in Oct 2017 and it’s been like this since.
Gone through the house replacing old tech and now I’m done and still have the same issue.

Lounge plug has all media stuff so usually the one most in use when I’m home.
Study has server and PlayStation/ Xbox.

Looking at it possibly being the geyser now but that was also replaced two months ago :(
Click to expand...

How much is your idea of outrageous?

How many people? What size geyser?
 
We changed our fridge recently to the new digitial inverter fridges, dropped our monthly bill by like R100 so far I can see (could be more), without using any specific equipment to measure.

Edit: Oh and its a bigger fridge than the previous one.
 
Tinuva said:
We changed our fridge recently to the new digitial inverter fridges, dropped our monthly bill by like R100 so far I can see (could be more), without using any specific equipment to measure.

Edit: Oh and its a bigger fridge than the previous one.
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Interesting - would be curious to see what it uses!

I have an old deep freeze that uses just under 60kWh per month - I'd be interested to know!

EDIT : I find the stats pretty interesting tbh :) I see my entertainment system idles at 35w but peak at over 400w when in use. December in total I used 44kWh on it.
 
ebendl said:
I have 2 hikvisions and two cheap no-name brand IP cams. They use the "V380" and "YYP2P" apps on the IOS store respectively -- both are dodgy and chinese and definitely send data back home. Both are supposed to be 720p cameras with PTZ controls.

Onvif Device Manager did however manage to pick up both: on as GwellTimes-IPC and the other as IPCAM. One has PTZ controls. This allowed me to configure them as generic cameras in Home Assistant.

That being said -- invest in good (but price effective cameras) that comes with a good, reliable app (or NVR with an app) to manage the recording and remote viewing AND that can be configured in Home Assistant. Home Assistant will give you a once-ever-couple-of-seconds snapshot which helps, but isn't great for viewing live what's going on. And it doesn't do any recording. My Hikvision cameras are incredible compared to the cheap noname Chinese stuff - in reliability, quality, night-vision, up-time etc. And they both use the same app -- for that reason I'd probably buy more Hikvision cameras.

AT the moment I need 3 camera apps on my phone -- which sucks.
Click to expand...
Thanks, let me research a little more :)
 
Tinuva said:
We changed our fridge recently to the new digitial inverter fridges, dropped our monthly bill by like R100 so far I can see (could be more), without using any specific equipment to measure.

Edit: Oh and its a bigger fridge than the previous one.
Click to expand...
Most new technology is so much more efficient. Folks with 10 year or older fridges, dishwashers and washing machines , need to seriously looking at replacing their equipment as it will save money in the long run ...
 
ebendl said:
I have 2 hikvisions and two cheap no-name brand IP cams. They use the "V380" and "YYP2P" apps on the IOS store respectively -- both are dodgy and chinese and definitely send data back home. Both are supposed to be 720p cameras with PTZ controls.

Onvif Device Manager did however manage to pick up both: on as GwellTimes-IPC and the other as IPCAM. One has PTZ controls. This allowed me to configure them as generic cameras in Home Assistant.

That being said -- invest in good (but price effective cameras) that comes with a good, reliable app (or NVR with an app) to manage the recording and remote viewing AND that can be configured in Home Assistant. Home Assistant will give you a once-ever-couple-of-seconds snapshot which helps, but isn't great for viewing live what's going on. And it doesn't do any recording. My Hikvision cameras are incredible compared to the cheap noname Chinese stuff - in reliability, quality, night-vision, up-time etc. And they both use the same app -- for that reason I'd probably buy more Hikvision cameras.

AT the moment I need 3 camera apps on my phone -- which sucks.
Click to expand...
If you click the image in HA it opens a live feed.
 
xrapidx said:
I find Efergy accuracy fluctuates quite a bit, anything from 10-30%.
Click to expand...

I agree -- it isn't great, especially if you compare it against your meter.

That being said, to find out the RELATIVE usage between your different circuits in your house it can be a useful tool.
 
ebendl said:
Yes, which updates only marginally faster (if you're lucky, 1 FPS). It might be because I'm using a Raspberry pi as my Hass.io server though.
Click to expand...
Ah, probably the PI, mine is better than the camera apps.
 
What do you use (as cameras and for running Home Assistant)? Sorry if I missed that somewhere in the thread.
 
ebendl said:
What do you use (as cameras and for running Home Assistant)? Sorry if I missed that somewhere in the thread.
Click to expand...
Cameras are various Chinese crap, and five internal TPLink cameras over WiFi. I've found the Chinese cameras need Ethernet, they're beyond useless on WiFi.

HA is running in a docker container on a HP Gen8 server.
 
How would one test a dry contact?

Trying to figure out if my soldering is dodgy or board is somehow broken.

Have managed to have the Sonoff SV trigger he alarm one or twice but then hasn’t worked again.

Though it was the crappy breadboard connectors so I soldered wires on but still no joy.

If I manually touch the connectors on alarm it arms. So that side is working fine.
 
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