Blogue de Guillaume DALLAIRE's Blog

Recently I found other ways (see my previous post) to monitor my house’s electricity usage:

• http://www.theenergydetective.com
• http://www.diykyoto.com/uk/wattson/about

They use current transformer clamps instead of reading the power meter’s output. I prefer this design mainly because you get instant reading (ok the power meter gives a relatively fast reading but I want < second reading) and it allows you to compare with the power meter reading (my power meter is probably > 30 years old, still accurate??).

Then I found this project:

http://www.picobay.com/projects/2009/01/real-time-web-based-power-charting.html

This is mostly what I’m planning to build. I was looking for a cheap and well documented current transformer clamp model. So I ordered 2 of these clamps.

More to follow…

Black and Decker introduced a rebranded version of “the Powercost Monitor” from Blue Line Innovations:  The “Power Monitor“.

The idea behind this device is to help you monitor your power consumption by installing an unit that reads your meter and transmits the information to the base station inside of your house.

An important feature is missing though : No way to interface it with a computer allowing logging and other possibilities. But the idea is good, I could just use the reader and connect its output to my systems.. Or just try to build something similar to read the spinning wheel’s RPM? To follow..

• Note #1: Click here to read a complete review.
• Note #2: I saw this device at my local “Rona” hardware store.