Re: Household electrical current to Excel ???

[Palindr☻me <sb382638@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Declan McEvoy 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!
>
You can get a data logger, with a split core sensor, that will sense the
current in your main supply cable and pass the data to a computer and
hence to your spread sheet. It won't be as accurate as the supply meter
but should do for what you want.

http://www.onsetcomp.com/Newsletters/4880_home_power.html

The point of the split core sensor is that it just clips onto the live
but insulated wire from the meter/supply fuse - no having to go near any
  bare wires or contacts.

You may think it a bit pricey though.

If you are into electronics, an opto-reflective switch held on the face
of the electricity supplier's consumption meter may do it. Mine did,
just held in place with Blutac and aligned to look at the face of the
rotating meter disk with its black markings. Just feed the output from
it into the parallel port and count the transitions. That was very cheap
- the opto-switch came out of a defunct vcr.


--

Sue