Is it possible to measure the power of a domestic appliance using OpenEnergyMonitor kit? I am thinking not as I think (if I understand it correctly) the CT needs to be clipped around either live or neutral to measure power consumption. How therefore do these plug in power measurement devices work and is there a way of creating one that talks directly to an EmonBase?
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Re: Measuring power consumption of domestic appliance
If you type "monitor appliance" into the search engine top right you will get links to many pages with information about this.
Short answer.
Yes you are right
Yes there is a way but doing it safely in a home environment isn't something that makes people feel comfortable.
No none of the commercially available device talk direct to an EmonBase
Re: Measuring power consumption of domestic appliance
I've hacked my way into this with the modules available via Plugwise (www.plugwise.com). They have modules called Circles, that you plug in between the device and the wall socket. They measure power consumption, and can switch the power off and on. For controlling the Circles you need an device called Stretch, that communicates with the Circles and has an Browser or App interface. It makes you able to fetch the status of all attached Circles as xml, and this is what I parse on the same RaspberryPi that runs emoncms. This way I have an overview in one json string of all 15 Circles in my house.
Re: Measuring power consumption of domestic appliance
currentcost also have their IAMs:
http://www.currentcost.com/product-iams.html
Although last time I enquired, they measure apparent power, not real.