Advice Wanted - Home Power Distribution and Monitoring - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: rooftopjoe
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 10, 2015, 09:34:12 pm
content: Hi,I'm looking for advice on how to cheaply and easily implement a load distribution and monitoring solution for my house. I suspect I should use an Arduino/RPi/insert_alternativeboard and a big relay board or something. Could you discuss possible design options for a newbie? How would you do it, what is commonly done, and what are some open source projects that already do this so that I can take a look?Don't worry that I'm a newbie---I don't plan on implementing anything until I feel confident. But I need a real project to spend time thinking about because I found it's a great way to learn.Thanks!

author: donmr
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 10, 2015, 09:46:14 pm
content: Are you looking to add something permanent to your home, or just experiment. If its going to be permanent then think about what you will do when it comes time to sell the house. It might be worth spending a little more on commercial products designed for this kind of use.

author: rooftopjoe
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 10, 2015, 10:01:34 pm
content: I'm looking for a permanent solution. I might end up using a commercial solution but, for the time being, let's pretend I won't. The building has no electrical wiring yet so I'm not constrained in that way, by the way.

author: rooftopjoe
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: November 13, 2015, 04:23:11 am
content: Anyone? Sorry for the prod but this looks like a high-traffic forum where things get lost very quickly.

author: dan3460
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 13, 2015, 03:11:04 pm
content: Here is one idea, not difficult to implement:http://www.theenergydetective.com/

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 14, 2015, 05:58:52 am
content: You might drum up more interest if you were more explicit about your goals. The words you used could mean anything from a very complex system which attempts to balance loads across many circuits down to something which merely measures and reports watt/hours in a few circuits.The first is a complicated project involving not just the wiring of the house, but also the loads (refrigerators, lights, HVAC and whatever else you have going on). Some of the issues are more than I would try to take on, and if installed permanently would also involve interaction with building codes and insurance providers. Tough interactions because you would be doing something new, not found in the standard rule book.The latter is easy, and could be done in such a way that it wouldn't affect resale, insurance or other legalities.In between projects might include occupation sensors and lighting control or the like. Is it the display of information that interests you, the automation of functions, load leveling, shifting power to low cost times of day, remote control of key devices, power factor correction by selecting load pairs? There are many, many possibilities.The first stage of any design is figuring out what you want to do. If often changes mid-project, but you have to have a direction. If you want others involved you have to communicate that direction.