Has anyone come across a a battery powered clap style power monitor.
im trying to monitor the consumption of my heat pump. Its got its own fuse box outside with the tails connected to the house meter (in a outside box) so i dont have any sockets out their (i don't want to add a circuit to there's and invalidate any warranties).
thanks
Mark, I think such a battery-powered AC power meter cannot exist ... To calculate AC power correctly, you need both current and voltage, including the phase difference between them. A battery-powered clamp-only device has no voltage or phase reference, so it cannot measure real power accurately.
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Can you drill a hole into the house then run a clamp with a lead into the house? If so you could use a monitoring clamp like this one and simply extend the wiring and weatherproof the hole you drilled. This would allow a monitor like iotawatt to be mounted inside the house.
Remove knockout from panel on side.
Get 90 degree conduit bend (1/2")
Using the bend mark where you need to drill the hole
Mount bend to box and seal house entry (silicone caulk that matches house)
Mount clamp to appropriate wire and run wire through conduit into house. (Splice on needed wire to ensure proper length to monitoring unit)
Incoporate with Hubitat.
Have several beers and yell at the kids
Sleep
Example
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That's a great idea, the tails for the new fuse box are outside in the meater cupboard and i could try running the wire with the tails for the old fues box.
What are the clamps called on there own, just browsing amazon and there all the hand held type
Any should do, just make sure it matches or exceeds the amperage of the line you're connecting to.
Thanks, looking at them all cables are to short. Ideally need a meter long.
Would this be compatible
https://amzn.eu/d/dRnat9L
You can simply splice on to it. Length really doesn't matter. But yes that would work. @kkossev Do your drivers work with that?
Question, does your outside box have enough for another blank breaker?
Actually, this has existed for many years. My old Aeon AEDSB09104ZWUS Home Energy Monitors do have the ability to run off batteries. They are chatty little guys, but they still work great and you can pick them up on eBay for cheap.
In theory, a device that only measures current can’t really measure power or energy.
What it probably does is assume a fixed mains voltage (like 110 V) and a power factor of 1.0, then calculate power from that.
Does it have a Hubitat driver? There should be fixed voltage setting/preferences, if it shows power/energy ...
I would just take the access plate off the side of the heatpump and stick a Shelly in there with one clamp. I assume its a 240v so double the value.
Mark, all Tuya Zigbee 'energy meters' are crap, do not buy and do not use them... They are spammy as hell.
Indeed, this is how it works. There's a really old driver (for a really old device) that gives some errors, but still works. There's also a driver that @mike.maxwell wrote many years ago. That has been updated and doesn't throw errors. It was really intended to just check when a washer and dryer was on, but it can measure watts. Might be good enough for the OP.
I have one of my three Aeon AEDSB09104ZWUS Home Energy Monitors on Home Assistant and it works very well there. So that's a possible other option if the OP also runs HA like many of us do.
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Yes, I agree - a battery-powered, CT-only device like this can be good enough for relative monitoring and spotting trends. It’s useful to see when consumption goes up or down, but it shouldn’t be treated as an accurate or revenue-grade power meter.
Devices like heat pumps that use compressors for sure have a variable power factor, so the absolute values won’t be precise, but the relative power readings should be good enough for practical use.
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