Tag Archives: Power Monitoring

Power Monitoring using an Arduino

Open Energy Monitor is a project based in Wales which has developed an energy
and environmental monitoring system. They have an energy sensor (the emontx
series) which monitors the current in up to four(4) channels, together with the
AC voltage, in order to measure the power flowing through electrical circuits.

Current transformers are used, and are placed by clamping around individual
wires, allowing the current in the wire to be measured without making any change
or direct contact to the existing wiring.

The Open Energy Monitor store are selling their sensors as a kit, and one has
been ordered with four current transformers. This will be paired with an already
available Arduino UNO to allow for an evaluation of the monitoring software.

We are just after the power measurements for each channel to be reported via a
serial connection rather than using their project specific radio (a 433MHz radio
link).

All of the code that they are using (with and without the radio link) is
available via their forum and github repository.

As we evaluate this system we will be posting the results here.

The Open Energy Monitor also has a good set of documentation on how the units work, how they have been put together, and more on the theory of energy monitoring using current transformers.