Re: Household electrical current to Excel ???

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

Declan,

I've not seen any commercial solutions although there are a lot of
electrical meters (especially in Europe) that have the capability of
reporting usage either wirelessly or via RS-232. Some commercial building
owners have installed their own meters so they can charge tenants for power,
water, etc. Have you checked with your electrical utility?

There are several DIY solutions that tend to take one of two possible
approaches. One approach monitors the meter using IR to count the rotations
of the disc. Another uses specialized chips with current and voltage sensors
to make direct measurements several thousand times per second. Reactive
loads cause current and voltage to be out of phase so you need a way to
measure the true power rather than the apparent power.

"Declan McEvoy" <ngacs@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>Hi All,
>
>I want to be able to monitor electrical usage in the home in real time and
>to be able to see the effects of for example turning off the TV or turning
>on the water heating in graphical or numeric form.
>
>I looking for opinions on the best way(s) and product(s) for doing this.
>
>Presumably one would simply measure the electrical current drawn from the
>consumer board and send this reading to the PC using some kind of data
>acquisition board and software?
>
>I'm really not all that familiar with the products that are out there for
>doing this and would appreciate any help / opinions.
>
>I trolled Deja News and so apologise if it has been aired before!
>
>
>Declan.
>