Clip on meter - 'smart meter'

[oranjeboom]

Hi all, 

 

Looking to have a temporary 'smart meter' to have in addition to the old analogue one. User has no wish to have have a 'smart meter' installed by current provider and dubious about the merits of having one. But would like to have something that is easier to read in terms of consumption used at hourly/daily intervals. I see that there was some discussion here about them a few years back, but many of these units don't appear to be available any longer such as Effergy and Owl.

 

 

 Just needs to be accurate (there's a question mark on current analogue dial meter but no wish for energy company to replace it with smart meter...unless it shows to be inaccurate) and simple to install, so ideally clip on to the house feed.

 

There's obviously plenty to choose from via ebay/amazon, but accuracy and simplicity is key. I have however read that there's a question mark on the accuracy of the clip-on ones but wondering whether there's any exception to this? 

 

 

[SteamyTea]

Some of those old analogue meters have a magnet on the disk, you can read the revolutions with a simple Raspberry Pi circuit.

 

As for clip on ones, I used the old CurrentCost, but like all the clip ons, they only sense current, so no adjustment for voltage or power factor.

[ProDave]

Nothing to stop you buying your own electricity meter and fitting it AFTER the DNO's meter as a check meter.  I have one, but wired backwards to record how much I export.

 

Some of the cheap clip on wireless ones are useless for me at least, as they can't differentiate between imported and exported electricity.

[oranjeboom]

3 hours ago, SteamyTea said:

Some of those old analogue meters have a magnet on the disk, you can read the revolutions with a simple Raspberry Pi circuit.

 

As for clip on ones, I used the old CurrentCost, but like all the clip ons, they only sense current, so no adjustment for voltage or power factor.

Probably a bit much for me at this stage. KISS for now!

 

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Nothing to stop you buying your own electricity meter and fitting it AFTER the DNO's meter as a check meter.  I have one, but wired backwards to record how much I export.

 

Some of the cheap clip on wireless ones are useless for me at least, as they can't differentiate between imported and exported electricity.

 

 

Yeah may have to go down that route and get my electrician to fit one.  Accuracy is key. 

[Alan Ambrose]

Yeah agree (a) the simple cheap things like CurrentCost are not very accurate, but they may do, (b) putting in your own accurate in-board meter is a neat alternative, (c) there are also third party per-circuit set-ups with phone apps etc that quite useful (search the forums), (d) accurate 1/2 hour reporting is a benefit of smart meters - I know there are drawbacks but I think it's the future. For instance, you can't access the 'smart' time-of-day tariffs, like Octopus Agile, without one.

[S2D2]

Smart meters are very accurate and best of all completely free to have installed, you've already paid for it whether you have one or not.

 

To get good accuracy and usage breakdown (over what a cheap in line meter would give) from a consumer product you're looking at openenergymonitor emontx with a 100A clamp for around £160. You could compromise accuracy and do it cheaper with a home brew setup. But why when smart meters are available?

[oranjeboom]

Just resurrecting this thread...

 

Has anyone tried some of the clamp-style/clip on meters? I now have a heat-pump installed so keeping a closer eye on every day usage and rather than poking my head round to look at the analogue meter (and doing the calcs) it would be easier to have some display to refer to.

 

I do also have solar panels so wary that some meters don't take that into account.

 

I did spot  a few on Ali B that work supposedly with grid-feed setups (I.e. PV):

 

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007929330294.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller.14.6a7fxLONxLONPh&gps-id=pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40050.354490.0&scm_id=1007.40050.354490.0&scm-url=1007.40050.354490.0&pvid=9b0c87e8-0bb5-485e-9615-35783977629b&_t=gps-id:pcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.40050.354490.0,pvid:9b0c87e8-0bb5-485e-9615-35783977629b,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238115%232000&isseo=y&pdp_ext_f={"order"%3A"376"%2C"eval"%3A"1"%2C"sceneId"%3A"30050"}&pdp_npi=4%40dis!GBP!12.23!9.20!!!107.28!80.72!%40211b876717393183553854108ea2f8!12000042902351618!rec!UK!!ABX&utparam-url=scene%3ApcDetailTopMoreOtherSeller|query_from%3A

 

 

 

[MikeSharp01]

We have one of these: https://www.offgridrenewables.co.uk/products/growatt-spm-e-single-phase-smart-meter?variant=49293197705484&country=GB&currency=GBP&gad_source=1 it does need to be spliced into the supply but it has RS485 connection so does not need cloud connectivity.

 

 

[SteamyTea]

29 minutes ago, MikeSharp01 said:

We have one of these

Did you ever pick up that ESP32 meter based on my design again?

[MikeSharp01]

24 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Did you ever pick up that ESP32 meter based on my design again?

Yes I built it using my go to device - the RPi pico, it worked. Logs to a MQTT dashboard- that was as far as I got. Only any good for one way flows though. 

[Bramco]

On 27/11/2023 at 20:25, S2D2 said:

Smart meters are very accurate and best of all completely free to have installed, you've already paid for it whether you have one or not.

 

To get good accuracy and usage breakdown (over what a cheap in line meter would give) from a consumer product you're looking at openenergymonitor emontx with a 100A clamp for around £160. You could compromise accuracy and do it cheaper with a home brew setup. But why when smart meters are available?

 

As @S2D2 said, your best bet would be one of the open energy monitor units - https://openenergymonitor.org/. The emonpi2 is a great bit of kit. Is local, so not cloud based.  Easy to install and very accurate.

 

We've been using their kit for years. It can really help to understand how all your systems are working, ASHP, PV, batteries etc.  Can also help you track down the elusive base loads that all add up to make bills higher.

[S2D2]

As with everything else, the emonpi2 cost has ballooned, around £240 now. I'm using a Shelly EM Pro (~£78, got it on sale for £60something) for my heat pump as it's accurate enough to track usage and optimise performance. It comes with 2x50A CT clamps. I log via MQTT but it has the standard app for a simple view of usage so it really depends on requirements. Cheaper stuff you'll lose the factory calibration and increase error margins, but how important is that to you?

[SteamyTea]

2 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Yes I built it using my go to device - the RPi pico, it worked.

Do you fancy uploading the code to my blog, then I shall see if I can make one.

[MikeSharp01]

13 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

Do you fancy uploading the code to my blog, then I shall see if I can make one.

Yep I will dig it out.

 

[SteamyTea]

1 minute ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Yep I will dig it out.

 

Thanks. 

[Bramco]

1 hour ago, S2D2 said:

As with everything else, the emonpi2 cost has ballooned, around £240 now.

Agreed but as you say the emonPi2 is a much more accurate device which gives you 6 channels - and, if you care about these things, you'll be buying from a UK manufacturer that really believes in open source software and hardware as well as not forcing you to use a cloud. They also have a very active forum and run the ASHP monitoring site which can be useful to know if yours is running well against other ASHPs in the area.

 

[S2D2]

9 hours ago, Bramco said:

Agreed but as you say the emonPi2 is a much more accurate device which gives you 6 channels - and, if you care about these things, you'll be buying from a UK manufacturer that really believes in open source software and hardware as well as not forcing you to use a cloud. They also have a very active forum and run the ASHP monitoring site which can be useful to know if yours is running well against other ASHPs in the area.

 

Yes they've done a lot of good and I've learnt a lot from their forums. I was just adding a middle ground in between what this thread started off as (very high accuracy) and what the revisit focused on (£11 aliexpress sensor)