Energy is expensive these days. There’s no getting around it. If, like [Giovanni], you want to keep better track of your usage, you might find value in his DIY energy meter build.
[Giovanni] built his energy meter to monitor energy usage in his whole home. An ESP32 serves as the heart of this build. It’s hooked up with a JSY-MK-194G energy metering module, which uses a current clamp and transformer in order to accurately monitor the amount of energy passing through the mains connection to his home. With this setup, it’s possible to track voltage, current, frequency, and power factor, so you can really nerd out over the electrical specifics of what’s going on. Results are then shared with Home Assistant via the ESPHome plugin and the ESP32’s WiFi connection. This allows [Giovanni] to see plots of live and historical data from the power meter via his smartphone.
A project like this one is a great way to explore saving energy, particularly if you live somewhere without a smart meter or any other sort of accessible usage tracking. We’ve featured some of [Giovanni]’s neat projects before, too.
If you’re missing it, I’m missing it too.
Incase it’s silently updated, the title is currently
“Balancing Balls With A Touchpad”
Touchpads are filthy, who in their right mind would put their balls on one?
but they have to be kept balanced SOMEHOW
Someone appears to be phoning these in lately. Recently there was the Amiga/C64 debacle and tbh I was expecting to see some balls this time
To be fair, the ESP32 probably powers a bunch of cheap commercial energy meters too.
I don’t know if the comments on the previous title needed to be deleted.
Nah, wouldn’t want to thank them. Just deleting the comments is much better for everyone… /S
Now I’m curious what the old title was. “Dog bites microcontroller”?
Something entirely unrelated and about balls. I don’t remember exactly.
Something along the lines of
“Balancing Balls with/on a touchpad”
“uses a current clamp and transformer”, and “to accurately monitor” are contradiction in terms. Shunts are a much better solution than clamps IME.
Incorrect. CTs are easier to install, and you’ll find them on revenue metering everywhere.
If shunts were “much better”, they’d be more prevalent. Accuracy is one part of the equation, practicality is another. Also, don’t delude yourself into thinking that because one thing can be precise, that nothing else can.
When I said “better”, I was referring to accuracy. Sorry for not making myself clear. And in that aspect, a shunt beats a clamp anyday. The reason clamps are more common is because they are easier to install (no need to interrupt the circuit), not their accuracy.
Shunts are a much better solution than clamps IME.
So your experience must be limited to low voltage and/or DC circuits.
I am a new bie. What do you mean by shunt and how do you say it’s better.
Not a fuse to be found. For the PT or the PSU that are mains-connected. I’ve designed a few energy meters, put them through regulatory approvals and uh er well these maker energy meters I would never use the approach.
A fuse as a basic requirement towards fire protection, as well as creepage and clearance specs for surviving mains overvoltage transients – these are the basics that get glossed over.
And PLA makes excellent fuel. It’s like solid Napalm. I use it for kindling.
It is nice but this is the one you should fork or built https://github.com/ElektorLabs/esp32-energymeter, galvanic isolation and use of the right IC
The right ic? This project uses a dedicated power meter module to do the sampling and calculations
I’ve done this very thing a while ago and in a neater package too ;)
https://github.com/anverx/pzem-pm-for-ha/blob/main/README.md