Hi All,
Thanks for anyone who is about to read this.I am from India, southern part ,
This post has many questions I would like to seperate it into 3 parts for simplicity
I was initially planning to create an energy monitoring/logging tool customized for my home.... primarily for calculating the power energy I am taking from the PV and then also my battery monitoring,etc. Then whilst roaming around in the Internet I found this nice project.
I am almost convinced to buy this from the store, however had some questions..
Regarding the 3Phase:
I was assuming I have 3-phase power here in my home , but reading the Wikipedia and this site, I'm convinced it is not the 3 phase they are talking about , it looks like they supply 3 x 1 phase .. so we have separate breaker/fuse and then we run different loads like lighting / computers/air conditioners in each.
No device in my home can take all 3 phase at a time. Is this normal? line from the grid has like 4 wires total which i assume is 3 live wires and 1 neutral ..
I have 1 of this 3 x1 Phases and another 1 Phase from the grid which means I have to monitor all 4 to get the total power consumption.
I would like to go with a RaspPi Base as its the most recommended., and I will buy an EmonTx , it can monitor 3 x CT sensors..
How do i go about monitoring the other nodes..
Regarding the Display :
In the EmonGLCD I would like to show more information that it is.. It seems it would only display the first sensor's calculations so far by default.
Editing the arduino code is the only way to show the other phase outputs? if so.. adding them all together is alright to show a combined usage?
Regarding more data:
I have a hybrid solar pv system which is more of a UPS system with batteries being charged from the SUN. it is not grid tied so i do not export. however I harvest some of the sun power by deliberately switching off the grid during morning hours.
I would also like to monitor my battery as well as PV output.. which I believe can be done with 2x CT sensors and an arduino.. I heard this is possible but I dont think this kind of feature is integrated into the Emon.
So should I have this in a separate module/system ? or somehow integrate it into the same emon system? . I would love to see all the information I can gather into 1 LCD / 1 system so I can easily read it from internet / lan and see it in LCD too.
And a final question: is it possible to monitor some other sensors like lets say water level sensor as a part of the emon?
My background: I am a software engineer with lot of interest on the electronical/electrical stuff.
I have done tons of stuff in the software / web dev but in regards to E&E, I have only 2 things to say Ive done.
Ive put together a 2KW solar pv system on my home and I have designed a circuit based on arduino so my grid is detached if my battery is charged and there is bleeding solar energy !.
And I know a thing or two about the arduino and basic electronics.
I wanted to tell about me so those who answer can give me the ideas that best suit me :).
I am an opensource developer so I want to support projects like this which helps everyone!.
Re: Questions about extra sensor data and lot more
Welcome to the website. I shall ONLY answer the question about your electricity supply.
If you have a genuine 3-phase supply, you will measure:
Neutral - Earth: zero to a few volts,
Each Line - Neutral: approx. 220 V
Between any 2 Lines: approx 380 V
If you measure less than (say) 40 V between Lines but they both measure about the same to Neutral, then they are the same phase. Look here to see why.
It is quite normal for only large loads and motors to use 3 phases. Lighting and domestic socket outlets will invariably be single phase, though different floors or areas may well be on different phases. However, I don't understand why you should have a 3-phase supply and another phase, unless the building was originally two separate houses, or a house and a workshop.
I assume you have read this: Full-fat 3-phase monitor If you do have a 3-phase supply and you don't require maximum accuracy, then you can measure 3 phase currents and one voltage with a single emonTx. If the voltages of the three phases are significantly different, then you need to measure all 3 voltages and you probably need 3 x emonTx like the Full-fat project.
Re: Questions about extra sensor data and lot more
Thank you. Robert. I will test my phase voltages and see what i have.
You were right about my house being a 2 separate house initially and now only we are occupying it as a whole.
I am not really that much hardware saavy to stack 2 arduinos and setup things in master/slave.. I guess I can learn but I am 99% sure my house is just 4 seperate phases .
I would be grateful if someone can answer my other questions :)
Re: Questions about extra sensor data and lot more
I'm also new to openenergy... but assuming that the sketch do calc all 3 phases but the display only shows phase 1 i would think there is no problem just adding them together... if you want you could have the display cycle through them automatic... or push the button to change what phase or the combined result
I understand that you have some solar cells that output power and you use that to charge some battery's and you use the battery's to power something in your house... why not just monitor the power used from the colar system?
So as i understand your system, you could use the 3 phase system found here: http://openenergymonitor.org/emon/node/1170
that one can monitor 3 phases from the grid and up to 3 phases from a solar system. to monitor the extra phase for the 2nd "house" you can use just 1 emon tx on its own.
Use the GLCD to monitor on LCD... you can move it arround if powered from battery. use emoncms to monitor from internet/lan