Green Building Forum - Electricity Monitor Recomendations Thu, 25 Jun 2026 06:58:23 +0100 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/ Lussumo Vanilla 1.0.3 Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237092#Comment_237092 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237092#Comment_237092 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 09:41:55 +0000 vord
I'm trying to work out why my electricity usage keeps on going up. It seems to have risen from £1.50/day to £2.50/day over a couple of years (calc assuming 11p/kWh). I've a fair idea it might be something to do with the huge fridge and oven the other half wanted, but would like to see where economies might be made.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237093#Comment_237093 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237093#Comment_237093 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 09:54:40 +0000 SteamyTea http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/current-cost-envir
Then I connect it to a Raspberry Pi for the logging.
Going to cost you about £100 to get it all sorted.

And CurrentCost went bankrupt recently and not sure if they have phoenixed or not.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237096#Comment_237096 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237096#Comment_237096 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 10:53:07 +0000 torrent99 Posted By: SteamyTeaThis is what I use for the monitoring. You can buy extra clamps and an optical sensor.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/current-cost-envir" rel="nofollow" >http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/current-cost-envir
Then I connect it to a Raspberry Pi for the logging.
Going to cost you about £100 to get it all sorted.

And CurrentCost went bankrupt recently and not sure if they have phoenixed or not.

Hmm that's interesting that CurrentCost device looks identical to the EON branded device my dad gave me (including the USB data cable).

Do you link the RPi using the USB cable or the Network bridge device? What software do you use to suck the data out of it?]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237097#Comment_237097 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237097#Comment_237097 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 10:58:57 +0000 SteamyTea I use the USB cable as I can then use the default sample time of 6 seconds (ish).

I wrote my own script (actually modified others). Then installed Upstart so that it was live as soon as the RPi boots up.

#!/usr/bin/python

import serial, time, datetime

while True:

#Open the USB Serila port
cc128 = serial.Serial("/dev/ttyUSB0", 57600, timeout=6)

#Read the USB Serial port
text = cc128.readline()[:]

#Splits up the data
length = len(text)
dsb = text[32:37]
time = text[49:57]
temperature = text[70:74]
sensor = text[89:90]
sensorID = text[103:108]
ch1 = text[139:144]
ch2 = text[170:175]
ch3 = text[201:206]


#Sort out the time format
timestamp = datetime.datetime.now().strftime ('%d/%m/%Y %H:%M:%S')

#Opens and writes to the text file where the data is stored
tfile = open("/home/pi/homemonitoring/ccdata.csv", "a")
tfile.write("%s"%timestamp + ",%s"%length + ",%s"%dsb + ",%s"%time + ",%s"%temperature + ",%s"%sensor + ",%s"%sensorID + ",%s"%ch1 + ",%s"%ch2 + ",%s"%ch3 + "\n")
tfile.close()

time.sleep(6)]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237099#Comment_237099 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237099#Comment_237099 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 11:57:56 +0000 torrent99 ]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237103#Comment_237103 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237103#Comment_237103 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 12:48:47 +0000 Ed Davies
A word of warning though: those CurrentCost devices vary a lot from version to version in what they output so Steamy's code might not work exactly as is for newer ones. Should be easily modifiable, though. Mine puts out XML and I did some quick and dirty code to parse that (also in Python) using the default Python DOM implementation. It relied on a one second timeout to determine when a burst of lines (which come, as Steamy says, every 6 seconds) was complete.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237104#Comment_237104 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237104#Comment_237104 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 13:11:37 +0000 Ed Davies
https://gist.github.com/ed-davies/4e2e4045c103e2946135#file-current_cost-py

The original idea was to be able to have other similar logging activity running in the same process. However, when I came to do code to talk modbus over the LAN to my Morningstar PV charge controller I decided to do it in JavaScript in Node.js as it deals with this multithreading more natively. Consequently, this code didn't progress beyond the prototype test code at the end. Might be of interest, though, as it tells you a bit more about your particular device is outputting.

Something to note is that not all the messages from the CurrentCost are the same. At some interval (one an hour?) it also outputs a summary of readings over a longer period. IIRC there's some way to force it to do that on request, like reset it, but I can't remember the details.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237106#Comment_237106 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237106#Comment_237106 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 13:52:19 +0000 vord Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237108#Comment_237108 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237108#Comment_237108 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 14:14:30 +0000 torrent99 Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237116#Comment_237116 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237116#Comment_237116 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 15:23:00 +0000 Ed Davies Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237117#Comment_237117 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237117#Comment_237117 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 15:30:48 +0000 torrent99
Also in case anyone wants to wire their own "data cable" I found this pinout info:


http://currentcostgadgeteer.codeplex.com/

1 Vcc supply
4 Gnd
7 EnviR Unit Rx Data
8 EnviR Unit Tx Data]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237123#Comment_237123 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237123#Comment_237123 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 18:45:22 +0000 SteamyTea
Ed
My initial codes was written by someone else and that hourly, morning noon and night, daily, weekly and monthly output used to cause all sorts of problems.
Why, with my very limited understanding of coding, I simply split the line up.
I have a later version that does a conditional check on the line length and only saves when the length is correct. Bu tit is messy and probably not reliable (I have one at a bakers at the moment and must go and check it.

Also worth knowing that the RPi does not have a clock, and can be flaky on its timekeeping even when connected to the internet.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237125#Comment_237125 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237125#Comment_237125 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 20:39:34 +0000 djh Posted By: SteamyTeacan be flaky on its timekeeping even when connected to the internet.
If you have a connection to the Internet your timing should be perfect. You need to set up an ntp daemon (Network Time Protocol). googling 'pi ntp' throws up lots of likely how-to hits.

Edit: PS the sheepwalk RPI3 one-wire plug-in also contains a clock.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237127#Comment_237127 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237127#Comment_237127 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 20:52:01 +0000 djh Ive seen this:

http://www.hw-group.com/products/sensors/30A-Current-probe-1W-UNI_en.html

but haven't looked closely or investigated yet.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237134#Comment_237134 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237134#Comment_237134 Tue, 01 Mar 2016 22:03:26 +0000 SteamyTea http://www.ibuttonlink.com/products/ms-tc

My old mates at Homechip do them for £50
http://www.homechip.com/1-wire-controllers/sensors/ms-tc-temperature-and-current-sensor.html]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237144#Comment_237144 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237144#Comment_237144 Wed, 02 Mar 2016 09:48:50 +0000 torrent99 Posted By: djh
Posted By: SteamyTeacan be flaky on its timekeeping even when connected to the internet.

If you have a connection to the Internet your timing should be perfect. You need to set up an ntp daemon (Network Time Protocol). googling 'pi ntp' throws up lots of likely how-to hits.

Edit: PS the sheepwalk RPI3 one-wire plug-in also contains a clock.

You can also add a real time clock module for a couple of pounds from the bay. Probably easier to use NTP though.
(Mind you my OSMC seems to have REAL difficulty keeping time despite supposedly using NTP, my latest thing has been to set up a cron job to manually update the clock from NTP every 15 mins. It's a mystery!)

Is there such an animal as a multiplexor for the 1 wire sensors around for the Pi (so you can have LOADS of sensors)?]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237146#Comment_237146 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237146#Comment_237146 Wed, 02 Mar 2016 10:08:48 +0000 djh Posted By: torrent99Is there such an animal as a multiplexor for the 1 wire sensors around for the Pi (so you can have LOADS of sensors)?
the sheepwalk RPI3 one-wire plug-in

Edit: PS: ntp is pretty reliable. If you dig hard enough I'm fairly sure you'll find a misconfiguration somewhere.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237151#Comment_237151 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237151#Comment_237151 Wed, 02 Mar 2016 10:49:04 +0000 SteamyTea Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237155#Comment_237155 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237155#Comment_237155 Wed, 02 Mar 2016 11:15:11 +0000 djh http://www.pool.ntp.org/en/use.html]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237241#Comment_237241 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237241#Comment_237241 Thu, 03 Mar 2016 20:06:34 +0000 rhamdu Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237244#Comment_237244 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237244#Comment_237244 Thu, 03 Mar 2016 20:44:48 +0000 SteamyTea But it is probably easier to just get a smart meter fitted (roll out year this year, just like last year and 2014 was).]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237317#Comment_237317 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237317#Comment_237317 Sat, 05 Mar 2016 12:53:09 +0000 vord

It is a surprise to find I am consuming 500W without anything really being switched on. Half turned out to be the fridge and freezer, but of the other half there isn't much that really needs to be on. It will be a useful tool.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237319#Comment_237319 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237319#Comment_237319 Sat, 05 Mar 2016 14:12:27 +0000 SteamyTea I found out my fridge was faulty when I noticed that my usage had gone up by 3 kWh/day.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237320#Comment_237320 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237320#Comment_237320 Sat, 05 Mar 2016 14:31:36 +0000 vord
There is still a fair drain with everything switched off. The building was commercial and I've still not removed the emergency exit lighting which must be worth 100W on it's own.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237321#Comment_237321 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237321#Comment_237321 Sat, 05 Mar 2016 15:07:18 +0000 SteamyTea Now you got a Envi, you going to connect it to a Raspberry Pi?

It is also worth getting a plug in energy meter to test individual items.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237323#Comment_237323 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237323#Comment_237323 Sat, 05 Mar 2016 16:15:02 +0000 vord Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237324#Comment_237324 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237324#Comment_237324 Sat, 05 Mar 2016 16:17:07 +0000 SteamyTea If you were local I would lend you one of mine, but I don't think you are nearby.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237325#Comment_237325 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237325#Comment_237325 Sat, 05 Mar 2016 16:25:23 +0000 vord Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237734#Comment_237734 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237734#Comment_237734 Tue, 15 Mar 2016 14:53:41 +0000 vord

I'm down from 500W to 230W continuous so far, with another 40W phantom current on a lighting circuit and upstairs sockets that can probably go once I figure out what is using it. The biggest reductions were switching the fridge to eco mode and the other half turning things off when she saw the monitor.]]> Electricity Monitor Recomendations https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237735#Comment_237735 https://www.greenbuildingforum.co.uk/newforum/comments.php?DiscussionID=14086&Focus=237735#Comment_237735 Tue, 15 Mar 2016 15:56:46 +0000 skyewright Posted By: vordI'm down from 500W to 230W continuous so far, with another 40W phantom current on a lighting circuit and upstairs sockets that can probably go once I figure out what is using it. The biggest reductions were switching the fridge to eco mode and the other half turning things off when she saw the monitor.
When you get to those sort of levels, power factor errors can loom large. The currentCost makes fixed assumptions about power factor and voltage. If all that's left running is a few switch mode PSUs the figure shown on the CC may be significantly more than reality. I spent ages trying to find out why I was seeing around 150W when I was only expecting around 80W (both figures v. approx from a dim dark corner of my memory). I only found the solution (which was that there was no extra load, just a false reading) by waiting till a quiet day with no one else around, powering the CC itself from an unplugged UPS, and turning off each of the known (& individually checked using a plug-in monitor) 24/7 loads one by one. As each device was taken out the CC reading dropped by more than each device accounted for. With all known loads off the CC reading was zero...

YMMV.]]>