July 11, 20232 yr Howdy ho fellow tinkerers. Does anyone know a good device that can monitor my eskom usage for home assistant? We have just got a new prepaid meter. Have attached a Pic. Ideally it would be great to have one unit installed in our cottage DB and one in our house. Many thanks in advance.
July 11, 20232 yr I'm using a Hiking DDS238-2 WiFi which is rated for 65A/220V. Unfortunately the DDS238-2 ships with Tuya firmware. There is clumsy cloud based Tuya integration to HA. If you know Python, you can access the DDS238-2 with TinyTuya https://github.com/jasonacox/tinytuya If your whole house is connected through the inverter, you may be able to get the readings from the inverter. Other options: Shelly EM with CT-Coil (WiFi) Eastron meter (RS485) Victron/Carlo Gavazzi ET112 Meter
July 11, 20232 yr Author 16 minutes ago, system32 said: I'm using a Hiking DDS238-2 WiFi which is rated for 65A/220V. Unfortunately the DDS238-2 ships with Tuya firmware. There is clumsy cloud based Tuya integration to HA. If you know Python, you can access the DDS238-2 with TinyTuya https://github.com/jasonacox/tinytuya If your whole house is connected through the inverter, you may be able to get the readings from the inverter. Other options: Shelly EM with CT-Coil (WiFi) Eastron meter (RS485) Victron/Carlo Gavazzi ET112 Meter Thanks. I see they are quite expensive. 1. 5 to 2k I did find this for around R500. https://shop.thesunpays.co.za/products/single-phase-ac-universal-electricity-smart-panel-power-meter-rs485?gclid=CjwKCAjw-7OlBhB8EiwAnoOEk8s9wEa2d1JBH1qeXm9Ne-mEjPP5ShNFD_hKA0ECKr0XZ9g40WiRmBoCcvcQAvD_BwE Are the more expensive ones safer? Edited July 11, 20232 yr by sunset1
July 11, 20232 yr 4 minutes ago, sunset1 said: Thanks. I see they are quite expensive. 1. 5 to 2k I did find this for around R500. https://shop.thesunpays.co.za/products/single-phase-ac-universal-electricity-smart-panel-power-meter-rs485?gclid=CjwKCAjw-7OlBhB8EiwAnoOEk8s9wEa2d1JBH1qeXm9Ne-mEjPP5ShNFD_hKA0ECKr0XZ9g40WiRmBoCcvcQAvD_BwE Are the more expensive ones safer? How are you going to integrate this one into Home Assistant?
July 11, 20232 yr As @PowerUser indicated, you need to check if / how you going to connect to the meter to HA. If it's RS485 you will need additional kit to make the meter data available. Edited July 11, 20232 yr by system32
July 11, 20232 yr Author Good point! I had not thought about it. @system32 I see the Shelley EM has alot of sensors exposed in HA which seems great. I have seen a CBI (HTTPS://CBI-LOWVOLTAGE.CO.ZA/ASC). This one works with Google I believe. Is there a way to find out if HA would pick up the sensors Edited July 11, 20232 yr by sunset1
July 11, 20232 yr 3 hours ago, sunset1 said: Good point! I had not thought about it. @system32 I see the Shelley EM has alot of sensors exposed in HA which seems great. I have seen a CBI (HTTPS://CBI-LOWVOLTAGE.CO.ZA/ASC). This one works with Google I believe. Is there a way to find out if HA would pick up the sensors The CBI range uses Tuya/Smart Life which is cloud based and has a clumsy integration to Home Assistant. AFAIK, all Tuya devices can integrate with Google Assistant/Alexa/SmartThings. The CBI ASC is only rated at 30A Resistive/10A Inductive loads and is normally used for geysers or such like. I suspect your home Eskom feed is above these limits - typically 80A, so I doubt this device will be adequate.
July 11, 20232 yr Author Thanks for the info. Pitty it uses the cloud. Would of preferred something local. We have 60 amps here. 30 for the main house and 30 for the cottage (our airbnb). In saying that it would be nice to see how much each dwelling uses.
July 11, 20232 yr Apparently this can integrate with HA and pass up to 120A but it’s pricey: https://www.firstshop.co.za/products/shelly-em-smart-energy-meter-with-wi-fi-monitor-power-consumption-relay-137301
July 12, 20232 yr 11 hours ago, PowerUser said: Apparently this can integrate with HA and pass up to 120A but it’s pricey: https://www.firstshop.co.za/products/shelly-em-smart-energy-meter-with-wi-fi-monitor-power-consumption-relay-137301 Does the product at firstshop also include a CT-Coil or is that an add-on? According to HA forum, it seems the Shelly works well with HA. Efergy also does power monitoring.
July 12, 20232 yr 6 minutes ago, system32 said: Does the product at firstshop also include a CT-Coil or is that an add-on? According to HA forum, it seems the Shelly works well with HA. Efergy also does power monitoring. I'm not sure. Never bought it but from my research I saw there is a way to integrate the Shelly devices into HA.
July 12, 20232 yr 1 hour ago, PowerUser said: I'm not sure. Never bought it but from my research I saw there is a way to integrate the Shelly devices into HA. Just checked, seems the CT coils are a separate purchase - 50A and 120A models.
July 12, 20232 yr I have a Shelly 3em, very happy with it, native integration to HA, and seems pretty accurate.
July 13, 20232 yr The iammeter works with home assistant with its wifi connection (modbus tcp/ip) You can get it from takealot. I have gotten it cheaper from aliexpress…
July 13, 20232 yr The iammeter is even more expensive than the Shelly device. @sunset1 this is the cheapest option, I have seen so far: https://www.robofactory.co.za/smart-switches/371-100a-1p-smart-circuit-breaker-with-monitoring-ewelink.html
July 14, 20232 yr I have an Emporia Vue 2 flashed with ESPhome for monitoring my energy usage in my house. https://www.emporiaenergy.com/how-the-vue-energy-monitor-works Is expensive (about 3k from Amazon shipped to SA) but good value for money. https://www.amazon.com/Emporia-Monitor-Circuit-Electricity-Metering/dp/B08CJGPHL9/ Comes with 16 x 50A CT & 3 x 200A CT As default everything gets uploaded to the cloud and no local offload for HA but there is an integration. Best plan is to reflash it with ESPhome which isn't very difficult and get all the data locally.
January 14, 20242 yr On 2023/07/12 at 1:39 PM, spotity said: I have a Shelly 3em, very happy with it, native integration to HA, and seems pretty accurate. @spotity, how long are the CT cables? I have a DIN and samite board next to each other and would like to put the 3em in one and connect the CTs in the other.
January 16, 20242 yr On 2024/01/14 at 8:40 PM, HowserMD said: @spotity, how long are the CT cables? I have a DIN and samite board next to each other and would like to put the 3em in one and connect the CTs in the other. I can check when I'm home. I would estimate about 2 meters each. I see that people have purchased the plugs and made up their own cables if they are too short. Edit : 60cm per cable Edited January 16, 20242 yr by spotity Measured cables
January 16, 20242 yr On 2023/07/11 at 3:07 PM, sunset1 said: Thanks. I see they are quite expensive. 1. 5 to 2k I did find this for around R500. https://shop.thesunpays.co.za/products/single-phase-ac-universal-electricity-smart-panel-power-meter-rs485?gclid=CjwKCAjw-7OlBhB8EiwAnoOEk8s9wEa2d1JBH1qeXm9Ne-mEjPP5ShNFD_hKA0ECKr0XZ9g40WiRmBoCcvcQAvD_BwE Are the more expensive ones safer? Hi have a look at this link.
January 16, 20242 yr 10 hours ago, spotity said: I can check when I'm home. I would estimate about 2 meters each. I see that people have purchased the plugs and made up their own cables if they are too short. Edit : 60cm per cable Thanks @spotity, 60cm is definitely short. If extending does not interfere with the readings, then I would have to do that.
January 20, 20242 yr I started replacing halogens lights around the house two years ago, a couple at a time, the energy savings just on lights alone has been significant. I am replacing outside lights with LED floodlights and E27 LED bulbs, and the inside lights with smart LEDs. I am planning to replace my water heating, air conditioners, fridge, and most of the old tech with energy efficient ones, which got me into Energy Monitoring. Am afraid this is a rabbit hole for me. I am currently monitoring what the geysers are using (through home assistant), what the inside smart led bulbs are using at night, and this got me thinking I could possible do the same thing with the outside flood lights, get smart LED floodlights. I searched and found a few available options, but it is not clear for me if they provide energy monitoring like the shelly bulbs do. Has anyone experience with smart floodlights?
February 14, 20242 yr Hi there all - interesting toppic here - just a headsup that HomeAssistant now support Tuya devices natively via the Smart Life App. No more clunky integration.
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