Electricity consumption
25/06/2017
Similar to the system implemented to visualize water consumption, installing an equivalent sensor allows access to electricity consumption.
Legend:
- the electricity consumption sensor with a digital output,
- the sensor's digital output connected to the Raspberry Pi (just like for the water consumption sensor),
- a 5V DC 2.4A power supply,
- the power supply connection to the Raspberry Pi.
Warning, while in theory adding the sensor to the electrical panel is simple, in practice it must be entrusted to a professional.
Adding a power supply installed on the DIN rail is optional but since an electrician is being called for the installation of the electricity consumption sensor, might as well take advantage!
Capturing pulses is identical to that done for water. The conversion to watts is different and depends (a little) on the sensor but the display is similar:
It's really educational to see your energy consumption in real time! In video, it's more demonstrative: https://youtu.be/WDUL1vy2zWc
All that remains is to exploit the information to save money and contribute to fighting global warming.
For the coffee example in the video, about 10 W/h was consumed to make the coffee, or 1 cent TTC for electricity. We would need to estimate the costs of water and coffee beans for a cost price but we can reasonably think that it's not by limiting the number of espressos that we'll save the planet. Phew!