Mains supply energy monitoring

Hey @ECO_Mental

I'm going to order a Shelly EM with 50A clamp.

I have attached my CU to this thread. I'm thinking to connect the positive and neutral (once the board is dead, obviously) to the outputs of the RCBO as below. This RCBO feeds my garage radial socket circuit where nothing is being used out there - in general.

Roughly - is this what you did? I see this it what many have done in Google images.

Regards.

@Jonathan That's a fair point. It's a 20A RCBO.

Looking at the lighting MCBs for the house - 2nd, 3rd and 4th MCBs on middle row from left to right - they are 10A. I have no 3A or 6A for lighting. I recall the rewire of the house at the time (2012), it was 1.6mm cable used.

For MCB then - I assume taking the live from the top of one of the 10A MCBs and then the neutral from the neutral bus bar at the bottom of the CU.

Below , the 3rd MCB Sitting room lights.

The Orange circle is the main feed to monitor. The 2nd last MCB on the bottom row is the Utility which I want to also monitor.

@Nelbert

Looking at my board again, the middle row, 3rd RCBO in from the left is my garage and outside garden lights. Load is about 150w .

Anyway, that's a 10A RCBO, so I guess that is the one to go with.

@Nelbert @Jonathan @ECO_Mental where did ye buy ye're Shellys from?

@Nelbert I ordered the 2 x 50A. It was the cheapest of the lot. Also one of the UK 3 pin smart plugs that have PM aswell. About 25 euro. I know the Tapo is half that but said I'd keep it all with one company.

Deliver early next week.

Now to set up HA in my docker machine.

I've a couple of bits that need doing elsewhere in the house for our local electrician so will get him to put in the shelly while he is here - even though I'm perfectly capable of putting it in myself.

Hi,

Going back to the original poster, I use shelly EM for exactly this purpose. I use a 120a CT Clamp on the mains cable. I added this to my Home assistant configuration to get cumulative meter readings.

  # ----- Special ---- #
  cum_energy_from_grid:
    unique_id: "cum_energy_from_grid"
    source: sensor.import_total_energy
    name: Cumulative Energy from Grid
    tariffs:
      - peak
      - offpeak

By not including a cycle value it will just increase for every more, I can also set daily, weekly, monthly cycles etc. Grafana works fine with the Shelly EM and I also use the Energy dashboard with a suitable cost inputs sensors. The shelly is good because it will keep a running total of energy used even if internet connectivity goes. They are built first and foremost of the EU market as opposed to the American Market.

You mentioned you have a socket near where you want to take the measurements, wiring into a socket isn't an issue and I believe the Shelly terminals can take upto 4mm. I'd recommend using a Waco to make the power connections though, to avoid the fully current passing through the terminals. For illustration see below wiring for a shelly 1PM (absolutely don't use one of these, just for illustration of Waco connectors).

For Consumer unit installation this is my board. A qualified RECI would be able to install one in like 10 minutes and I got them installed as part of other work. I sourced the din mounts from a specialist as Shelly doesn't provide anything like that. You maybe tempted to do this yourself but there are lots of pitfalls even if you don't electrocute yourself right off the bat. I only include the below because I believe it should not be a mystery what you're looking to get done. I've had a outdoor socket installed by a RECI electrician once and when I had other work happening in the house the electrician took one look at it, said it was missing an earth and was using a borrowed neutral (so could be live even when off at the board in some circumstances) and he just disconnected the entire thing. It's good to have a full awareness of what you want done and how it should be done even if you have no intention of doing it yourself.

There doesn't seem to be anything in the forum charter against it, so here you go: https://shellyparts.de/. I've no affiliation with them and as far as I know it's pretty much the only place you can source them. Everything is in German but that's not an issue really these days. You can get them in multiple orientations and they're 3D printed. He's got lot's of little bits and pieces on offer.

It's worth stating again, mounting something in the consumer unit should be left to a RECI but nothing stopping you getting the gear to make a nice job of it and handy for them on the day.

I think you've made your point a few times already.

Since the main point seems to have changed with the edit, Ill address it. I'm not a RECI Electrician however I do not think you are correct with regards the mounts. I've look at several other din mounts and their manufactures list no statements of compliance beyond compliance of RoHS which is unrelated and voluntary. It would appear at the EU level at least there is no regulations (though obviously their are standards) covering mounts specifically.

Regarding weather or not the Shelly EM itself is allowed within a consumer unit, this link lists the regulations https://kb.shelly.cloud/knowledge-base/shelly-em that the device meets and their own website provides references to consumer unit installations. They do sell a version of the Shelly EM that has it's own integrated din mount. A quick comparison between the Shelly and the Eaton Power meter installed for my solar inverter indicates that EN 61010-1 : 2011 is the odd one out on the Shelly EM list, though interestingly it is included on the din mounted Shelly 3EM version. I guess that's the equivalent EU Regs for the one you've listed. So there is definitely a conformity gap. Whether that means the Shelly EM's cannot be installed in the consumer unit or not or if such an installation would void insurance, we can only speculate. If this is something that worries some folks, you could purchase the Shelly 3EM instead or house the Shelly's outside the CU, as per what the original poster suggested. The Shelly 3EM wont fit in a standard Irish consumer unit enclosure however.

Likewise I'm not arguing with you, it does appear that the Shelly EM is not in compliance with at least EN 610101:2011 (though is with other Regs). I don't think anyone has disagreed with the points you've raised. As mentioned in my post I had the devices installed by a RECI but perhaps this is an oversight or perhaps that EN 61010 isn't required for installation of a CT Clamp. If someone wants a shelly that meets that reg, the Shelly 3EM lists it on it's statement of compliance and crucially the original poster isn't proposing to put the shelly in a consumer unit.