Countertop electricity consumption monitor

frisket

I want to use a realtime electricity usage monitor but I am having trouble finding out how they communicate with a smart meter.

I have an old-style (non-smart-meter) monitor that uses a current-sensor collar clamped round the mains conductor which sens current data wirelessly to the little monitor, but it's monochrome, and limited in terms of what it can tell you.

I have seen others abroad with much more sophisticated displays working with much better data, but I have found zero information about how they get this data in real time from the smart meter.

ESB Networks provide a fairly useless web site, and my supplier provides an equally crappy app, but I want a display that will sit in the kitchen all the time and can be referred to any time without having to go to a browser or pull up the phone app.

Does anyone have information or recommendations?

niallb

Do you now have a smart meter, but still have the clamp monitor you've used for some time?

What model is it and is the monochrome display wired or wireless?

I have a Frient ZigBee sensor that sits on the flashing light on my (smart) meter. This reads the 1,000 pulses per unit and I personally display and record it using Home Assistant, but alternatives exist.

10-10-20

OP, other than a clamp (CT) or pulse counter, there isn't a possible way to have live updates from a smart meter. Have a look at an Owl Energy Meter, that should do it for you.

championc

Get a Shelly EM2 and build a dashboard on an old android tablet with Home Assistant and / or Node-Red

Worst case, just use the Shelly Android App on the tablet

frisket

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891031#Comment_121891031

Yes. It's a wireless monochrome unit https://www.desertcart.ie/products/566524587

Very interesting, thanks. But the Home Assistant is just server software, from what I can see. I'd need to view it on (eg) a web browser or smartphone, right? I wanted to avoid that with a dedicated always-on display.

frisket

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891138#Comment_121891138

The Owl doesn't seem to do much more than my existing device.

I was under the impression that the smart meters transmitted their own (possibly proprietary) signal, or were possibly capable of connecting to a LAN or even BlueTooth. Maybe they're not smart after all.

frisket

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121891170#Comment_121891170

That is specifically what I wanted to avoid having to do 😐️

But in reality, there is apparently a significant amount of research going on into modelling and recognising the consumption profiles of different domestic appliances. This means that a system could isolate them and you could label them, eg Kettle, DW, WM, etc, without having to install expensive wireless senders on every 13A socket.

But weird that the monitor in a relative's house has a Chameleon IHD3 https://chameleontechnology.co.uk/solutions/smart-in-home-displays/ (scroll down) and I cannot find out from their web site how it gets its data. The relative lives abroad, so it'll have to wait until the next visit as they wouldn't be able to identify this themselves.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121895074#Comment_121895074

There will hopefully be a direct and instant method of interfacing, but it's not here yet. In Europe it's often done through an interface.

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/dsmr/

Actually, this interface mentions Ireland, but I'm not confident that it actually works here as that interface isn't supposed to be functional on our meters...

https://smartgateways.nl/en/read-out-smart-meter-p1-dsmr/

frisket

Cool, thanks.