PiPowerMeter: Home energy monitoring

[crjens]

Hi,

I've been working on a Raspberry Pi based home energy monitor that i'd like to share with the group. It's based on the Cirrcus Logic CS5463 energy IC and supports monitoring up to 128 circuits. The Raspberry Pi runs a nodejs based service that controls the hardware and a web based monitoring portal. All data are stored locally on the Pi on a sqlite database. The system is 100% stand-alone and requires no additional hardware or servers. A couple systems have been running very reliably for almost a year.

The source code, Eagle files and additional information is available on Github: https://github.com/crjens/PiPowerMeter

Please feel free to contact me with questions, comments, feedback, etc.

Thanks,
Craig

boards (300x225).jpg (63.17 KiB) Viewed 13465 times

[prairietech]

Have you considered selling pc boards? Looks like the best home power monitoring solution I have seen. Plus nothing in the Cloud.

[crjens]

Thanks for the kind remarks. I do have extra boards that I'd be willing to part with. Direct message me if anyone is interested.

[dbfletcher]

This is exactly what I have been looking for! Unfortunately, since I just joined this forum when I found your post, It wont let me private message you. I am very interested in purchasing your boards if you do have some for sale. Perhaps you can message me?

Thanks,

Doug Fletcher

[philletourneau]

Me too!

How can I get in touch?

[crjens]

@philletourneau - email me at [Mod: removed email address -please use PM] if you are interested in boards.

[rpdom]

dbfletcher, philletourneau: You can't PM people until your first post has been approved by a moderator. The fact that I can see your posts now means they have been approved and you should be able to PM now.

[Massi]

Definitely following this topic
nice work, i was looking for something like this..

[jrmatos92]

What are your feelings on substituting your CS5463 for either, MCP3917 or ADE7878?

MCP3917:
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/D ... 05216A.pdf

ADE7878:
http://www.analog.com/media/en/technica ... 8_7878.pdf

[crjens]

I'm not familiar with either of these IC's but I took a quick look at the spec sheets.

The MCP3917 appears to be a multichannel A/D converter and does not support direct calculation of energy, etc. If you went that route you'd need to come up with some way to do those calculations.

The ADE7878 appears to be a close replacement for the CS5463. It samples input voltage and current and performs various energy calculations. I'm sure you could swap out the CS5463 for the ADE7878 pretty easily. One advantage to the ADE chip is that it has more inputs and could be used to directly perform 3-phase energy measurements where the CS5463 would require sampling each of the 3 phases independently and summing the results. Cirrus Logic makes several other multichannel IC's that could be used in a similar manner: http://www.cirrus.com/en/products/energ ... ement.html

Was there some other reason you were looking at these IC's?

[jrmatos92]

I am trying to build a system that is able to monitor both three phase and single phase.

I found the ADE7878 thinking i could put two of these ICs on my board so i can monitor 1-three phase input and 3-single phase inputs.

You think the ADE7878 is a good fit for this or does cirrius logic have a chip that you think would be better?

[crjens]

The 7878 does appear to be a better fit for direct measurement of 3 phase as it has enough voltage and current inputs to directly perform the 3 phase energy calculations.

As I mentioned above, another way to do it is to separately measure each leg of the 3 phase circuit and then sum the results to get energy usage. I only mention this because I've created an updated version of my board (V2.2) that has three voltage inputs and is now able to do exactly that. It's a sampling system that uses multiplexers to alternately measure each circuit so it's not a perfect fit for metering applications where you need to measure energy usage 100% of the time. It's great for most home applications where you just want to know how much energy is being consumed on each circuit.

Take a look at the latest schematics on my github (https://github.com/crjens/PiPowerMeter/ ... er.sch.png) site if you are interested. I also have a few extra boards available if you want to try it out.

[jrmatos92]

How do i go about getting one of your boards? id like to check it out!

But what do you suggest i do if i want to create a system that monitors both three phase and single phase? Looking to monitor about 10 single phase loads and 2 three phase loads. Would like to build a system that is revenue grade so i can very accurately compare my loads in my house.

Should i take a couple ADE7878 chips and then use multiple single phase IC meter chips such as the ADE7816? Or do do suggest another single phase IC?

[wandido]

I have been watching the emonPi that is integrated wiith Raspberry Pi but only has two sensor connections but then there was this http://boredomprojects.net/index.php/pr ... jeenodeusb with 12 inputs.

I however love this idea for the PiPowerMeter and want to see how it is going..

Great work

[mdetector]

Nice project! I have WAGO controller and posibility to use special power measurement module, but PLC's power consumption is quit high comparing to Raspberry PI and whole system is quit expensive too. My aim is to monitor heat pump work (via Modbus RTU) and power consumption, collect data and see on mobile devices in real time. I will study your project, it seems very promissing!

[MOKANMAN]

Just joined the forum to see if you still have pc boards available. I understand that once a moderator approves this post then I should be be able to PM you about it.

Thanks,
Craig (yeah, that's my name, too)

[crjens]

@MOKANMAN - Yes I still have boards available. I'll IM you details

[cumak]

Craig - if you still have boards available then I'm interested as well. I've wanted to set up a home energy monitoring system for a while now. I came across your project and I'd love to give it a try.

Thanks,
Mark

[crjens]

@cumak - boards are available for $75 for the control board and $25 for each 16 channel input board. You can stack up to 8 input boards on a single control board. The boards are fully soldered, tested and ready to go. You'll need to supply your own Raspberry Pi and current sensors. IM me if you are instested.

Thanks,
Craig

[nlmike]

Hi Craig,

I just registered as to be able to IM you about getting your boards. I am already using a Raspberry Pi in my home automation project, and I am definitely interested in adding power monitoring to my setup.

Thank you for your work,
Mike

[cumak]

Craig,

Thanks for your reply. I'm definitely interested in getting some boards, I just need to figure out how many circuits I have room for but I'll IM you when I'm ready.

In the meantime, I had a few questions I was hoping you could answer. I figured I'd post them here as others might benefit as well.

1) The CT you're using (SCT-013) is pretty big and I wouldn't have room to put them on all circuits. Since most of my circuits are 15A or 20A, I was thinking of trying these little 20A solid core CTs:
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 91810.html

Based on the current input and output specs it appears to have the same 2000:1 turns ratio as the SCT-013. Do you think these can be used as an alternate CT?

2) There are some similar solid core CTs rated for 30A and 50A on ebay, but they have a 1000:1 turns ratio. (For example, 50A/50mA.) Could your software accommodate this? Would the 5 ohm shunt resistors on the CTs need to be changed?

3) (I'm sorry if this is a stupid question...) I followed your instructions on GitHub and the installation seemed to go fine. However, I can't figure out where to point my web browser to interface with it.

Thanks for your help.

-Mark

[crjens]

Mark,

You can use any CT's that you want as long as they are current output type (without internal shunt resistors). The one you specified should work just fine but since they are not split core but you'd need to disconnect your circuits and feed the wires through. I've used the SCT-006 (30A)http://www.yhdc.com/en/product/348/ which are small and work very well. I've also used SCT-019 (200A) for my mains http://www.yhdc.com/en/product/347/. Just let me know which ones you are planning on using because we may need to adjust the size of the current sense resistors to match the current output of the particular CT's.

The web server runs on port 3000, so jut hit http://<ip address>:3000. You won't see much but should be able to get to the configuration pages, etc.

Craig,

Thanks for your reply. I'm definitely interested in getting some boards, I just need to figure out how many circuits I have room for but I'll IM you when I'm ready.

In the meantime, I had a few questions I was hoping you could answer. I figured I'd post them here as others might benefit as well.

1) The CT you're using (SCT-013) is pretty big and I wouldn't have room to put them on all circuits. Since most of my circuits are 15A or 20A, I was thinking of trying these little 20A solid core CTs:
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product ... 91810.html

Based on the current input and output specs it appears to have the same 2000:1 turns ratio as the SCT-013. Do you think these can be used as an alternate CT?

2) There are some similar solid core CTs rated for 30A and 50A on ebay, but they have a 1000:1 turns ratio. (For example, 50A/50mA.) Could your software accommodate this? Would the 5 ohm shunt resistors on the CTs need to be changed?

3) (I'm sorry if this is a stupid question...) I followed your instructions on GitHub and the installation seemed to go fine. However, I can't figure out where to point my web browser to interface with it.

Thanks for your help.

-Mark

[cumak]

The web server runs on port 3000, so jut hit http://<ip address>:3000. You won't see much but should be able to get to the configuration pages, etc.

(Sorry, another stupid question...) After install should the server be running, or do I have to do something else to run it? I can't connect with a browser, and if I list the processes "ps -e" I don't see anything running that appears to be part of this package (at least nothing obvious). I'm using the Raspian browser and pointing it to http://127.0.0.1:3000

I'm a linux noob so I just want to make sure I can get the software running before I start buying stuff.

Thanks,
Mark

[crjens]

You'll either have to reboot after the install or else type 'nodestart' from the command prompt to get the node process started. It should auto start when the system reboots.

[NB_LG]

Hello Craig,

Very interesting energy monitoring solution. I am wondering if you still have some boards available for sale?

Luc