Cheap Way to Monitor Power Socket/Plug?

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  octagonalman on 24/05/2017 - 23:35

  If you're willing to sacrifice functionality to purely energy consumption monitoring, you could have a look at this: http://www.altronics.com.au/p/p8137-powertran-wireless-mains…

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    jeeg on 25/05/2017 - 00:09

    Cheers for that. Not quite the sacrifice I am willing to accept.

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  paulw54jrn on 25/05/2017 - 08:31

  Could take a look at, have one at home. Works like a charm. Need wifi to work.

  http://m.gearbest.com/power-strips/pp_341431.html

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    jeeg on 25/05/2017 - 09:13

    Thanks I did a quick search. does not seem to support Home Assistant and as such hard to program this to give an alarm when the washing machine is done but thanks for the suggestion

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  pjetson on 25/05/2017 - 08:57

  Check out http://efergy.com/au/

  You'll need a hub kit to get the graphs.

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    jeeg on 25/05/2017 - 09:16

    Thanks. Quite costly unfortunately. With that price I could buy a Wemo plug or a z-wave one and still save a bit.

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  philhawthorne on 25/05/2017 - 09:42

  +3

  Hey jeeg

  I've just done exactly this with Home Assistant and Z-wave. http://philhawthorne.com/making-dumb-dishwashers-and-washing…

  I used Z-wave. I know you don't want to use Z-wave, but I found this the easiest for the issues you're describing. I would suggest you take a look on eBay for some cheap Z-wave gear. You can sometimes get some good used Z-wave stuff.

  As an example, I got a used Vera lite for $50. This works with Home Assistant and acts as a hub for Z-wave gear. So you don't need a Z-stick.

  I also got a few used power modules. Infact the one monitoring my dishwasher was off eBay I got for about $25.

  Finally, check out Capital Smarthomes. They usually post some good Aeon Labs/Aeotec deals here on OZB and seem reasonably priced. If you can wait, wait for their next offer and either score a discount, or something extra in the purchase.

  Cheers

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    jeeg on 25/05/2017 - 14:13

    Thanks Phil. u have a very informative blog!

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    jeeg on 25/05/2017 - 14:33

    i have been looking at ebay but could not find any cheap/used z-wave power plugs. maybe i look in the wrong place.

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      philhawthorne on 25/05/2017 - 14:50

      +1

      Yeah they are random. I have a search for "z-wave" which I have saved to my ebay app.

      Doesn't look like there's much second hand stuff up there today, but I'd add an alert and watch out. Last few weeks someone has been selling a whole bunch of Multisensors for about $30-$40. So it just depends on who is selling.

      Also look out for the % off ebay deals. Sometimes if the deals are sitewide, you can use them to buy z-wave gear off eBay that are already cheap.

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  Euphemistic on 25/05/2017 - 23:45

  Sounds like making it complex for limited benefit.

  Buy a plug in monitor to work out what usage your appliance has. Things like washing machine, dishwasher shouldn't change much if you use it in the same way for each load. Then you could leave it plugged in to the fridge to see if the usage changes over time (indicating it is failing).

  If you want an alarm when a device has fitted, set one on your phone when you turn it on. If your appliance doesn't have a time to finish, you might need to time it a few times first. Our washing machine doesn't have an alarm, but the spin cycle is moist enough you know when it's about to finish, dryer has a beeper when finished and the dishwasher needs to sit to cool down so there is now rush for that.

  On the other hand, sounds like a bit of fun to get it working.

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    octagonalman on 25/05/2017 - 23:52

    Excellent point. There's other ways of triggering an alarm apart from time and power consumption too. Trigger on sound and vibration (or lack of) could make for an interesting project, and avoid interacting with mains power.

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    jeeg on 26/05/2017 - 00:34

    Good point and I thank you for your suggestion.

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  cheepwun on 28/05/2017 - 15:59

  Anyway I can do this with the minimal cost?

  If you are willing to settle for just knowing how much power things use, a plug-in wattmeter would be best (cheapest), and will answer your general "how much power does this device use" questions. After that it's simple maths to get a good idea of the total KWh usage and where to focus your energies, energy-wise.

  Keep in mind the average muppet is paying ~$500 a year just to have an electricity supply at their residence (usage is extra), so unless you give them the middle finger, the only part of your bill that will change is the usage portion. For a lot of people the fixed costs (daily service charges) are higher than their actual usage costs, and these people are the first that should consider being pseudo off-grid with their own cheap battery/solar systems. Cooking and the rest can be handled with gas (or with a solar oven if weather permits…).

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    jeeg on 28/05/2017 - 21:33

    Thanks. I already have the Belkin Conserve meter which gives me the instantaneous kW usage and while it is able to give me an estimated kWH per month, I don't think it is actually accurate as it basically assume your load is constant. The load obviously fluctuates up and down.

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      cheepwun on 29/05/2017 - 11:45

      +1

      Yes, there is some amount of manual work involved in working out the total power picture
      http://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/XHYAAOSwCU1Y3GDC/s-l1600.jpg
      I have one of this style of meter in AU plug (though something made mine stop working, which I need to fix).

      It has a timer showing how long you've been reading the wattage. You can show KWh used in a whole wash cycle, for instance. Or the fridge after several hours or days. Or the toaster or kettle after several days or weeks. When getting enough readings for a suitable enough time, you can probably piece together a pretty accurate picture of your power usage without going into something more elaborate. Unless you want to.

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        jeeg on 29/05/2017 - 14:15

        thanks for the tip. I will look into this.

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  Leonidas on 31/05/2017 - 12:57

  http://www.belkin.com/au/p/P-F7C029/ ?