I am trying to make an energy consumption meter for our home. I want it to store data and generate electricity bill in real time. and for that the device needs to calculate the units consumed.
The first problem that I have is reading accurate AC voltage. I have tried a lot of ways to do that but I am getting no where near solving this problem.
Used this product but amp gets right but volts keep fluctuating.
also i have used the Ac voltage sensor but no luck . I that also the voltage keeps fluctuating.
I have a mains voltage measuring circuit comprising a PIC (I know, I know!) with a 12 bit A2D that is fed from a resistive divider from the mains live to the A2D input. As it is connected directly to the mains with the PIC 0V connected to neutral it is fed from an isolated DC DC converter and the serial output goes via an opto coupler. Although it actually measures the peak voltage I just calibrated that against a DVM for RMS. The whole thing is housed in an earthed metal box for safety. I can't seen any fundamental problem in doing something similar with an appropriate Arduino.
I am trying to make an energy consumption meter for our home. I want it to store data and generate electricity bill in real time. and for that the device needs to calculate the units consumed.
The first problem that I have is reading accurate AC voltage. I have tried a lot of ways to do that but I am getting no where near solving this problem.
also i have used the Ac voltage sensor but no luck . I that also the voltage keeps fluctuating.
how can i get a stable voltage readings
Please help me out here.
You also need an accurate clock to compute the actual energy consumed in killowatt hours. What part of what country do you live in? In the US, it is impossible for us to compute an accurate electric bill, at least in Oregon, because there are various taxes, delivery charges, and actual credits that depend on some parts of hydro power.
Later this year we are getting really smart meters installed and can inquire on-line for a bill for usage through the last 15 minutes.
Paul_KD7HB:
You also need an accurate clock to compute the actual energy consumed in killowatt hours. What part of what country do you live in? In the US, it is impossible for us to compute an accurate electric bill, at least in Oregon, because there are various taxes, delivery charges, and actual credits that depend on some parts of hydro power.
Later this year we are getting really smart meters installed and can inquire on-line for a bill for usage through the last 15 minutes.
Paul
Dear,
I am from Pakistan. I have a real time clock attached to the system
My electricity meter has an LED that flashes 3200 times per kWh.
It's dead easy to count those.
Well I will connect 5 meters to this system and this system will distribute the units consumed evenly on all the meters thus resulting in less electricity bill.
Does that thing give you the phase information? i.e. You need to know the phase difference between current & voltage to calculate the power factor.
Otherwise, the voltage should be constant (within a few percent) so you shouldn't need to measure it. Your homemade energy meter won't be perfect anyway (no measurement instrument is perfect) so knowing the nominal (or average) voltage should be good enough.
i have used the AC voltage sensor but no luck . I that also the voltage keeps fluctuating.
Of course, a sine wave IS always "fluctuating"... You can calculate the RMS or since you know it's a sine wave you an take an average of the absolute values (or just ignore the negative half of the cycle) or find the peak... (The peak-to-RMS or and average-to-RMS are known factors for a sine wave.)
Well I will connect 5 meters to this system and this system will distribute the units consumed evenly on all the meters thus resulting in less electricity bill.
You could just measure the current (Amp-hours). The voltage will be the same for everybody and the power factor should be "similar" for everybody. So the ratio of the Amp-hours and the ratio of the Watt-hours should be close-enough to divide the bill.
So I have been working on making an energy meter for my home. I came up with an idea but I am not very good at this.
I have a voltage and amp meter which displays voltage and amp. Is there any way I can extract that data via Arduino?
Attaching some pictures.
How do the two boards connect together? What are the other 2 screw terminals on the right-hand board for? Can you post a link to where you purchased the board?
PaulRB:
How do the two boards connect together? What are the other 2 screw terminals on the right-hand board for? Can you post a link to where you purchased the board?
There is no mains voltage isolation on those boards that I can see - that is likely to be an issue for the Arduino/safety if you are taking an output.
In my house , I’ve actually taken a signal from the house meter - I’ve an electronic type meter that has an optical output on the front - an led that flashes every 1/100 KWH and is easy to interface , and accurate !
hammy:
In my house , I’ve actually taken a signal from the house meter - I’ve an electronic type meter that has an optical output on the front - an led that flashes every 1/100 KWH and is easy to interface , and accurate !
The owner of the house meter is the Electricity Distribution Company (EDC). Is it legal and permitted for any party other than the EDC to engage any instrument/wiring with the house meter?
It isn't wiring into the meter -its detecting and using the flashing led on the front panel, no intrusion at all. I bet in the darkness of the meter cupboard you could detect the light without even having the sensor mounted onto the meter !
If you do this, its probably the easiest/accurate/safest method.
For general purposes, you can buy meters quite cheaply and wire those into whatever you want to measure
It isn't wiring into the meter -its detecting and using the flashing led on the front panel, no intrusion at all.
I agree, but my concern would be that a jobsworth meter reader wouldn't have that amount of common sense and would report it as interfering with the meter. You then get into a long argument with the energy company about nothing.
