EmonPi and 3 CT (solar PV, EV, home usage agile tariffs)

Getting Started
1

I’d like to monitor home energy usage, solar PV production and EV usage. Ultimately I’d like to use an IFTTT system and an agile tariff to make the most efficient consumption of energy.

I have quite a few Raspberry Pi that I’d like to repurpose, I’ve seen the github source.
Can the enclosure be purchased separately ?

The PV inverter and charger is about 20m away from the consumer unit. I assume I’ll need 2 x emonPi or a wireless CT?

So the first step will be to be able to log mu usage and generation. So how can I do this?
thanks

2

Hello @zed and welcome!

Does the PV inverter and charger circuit connect at your consumer unit or are these split out at a second consumer unit 20m away? Could you measure all of these points from the single consumer unit?

It sounds like an EmonTx and emonBase solution could be a more cost effecitve approach to meeting your requirements, see emonTx - Energy Monitor Transmitter - Shop | OpenEnergyMonitor & emonBase - web-connected base-station - Shop | OpenEnergyMonitor

Its possible to add an ESP8266 adapter to an emontx if the 433Mhz radio is not sufficient and you have better WiFi coverage emonTx WiFi Adapter - Shop | OpenEnergyMonitor

3

Photos are good here to explain. I’ll bump your status.

4

Thanks for the warm welcome TrystanLea and borpin.

The PV inverter and EV charger are (close together) on a separate mini consumer unit 20m away. This connects to the main CU with 6mm2 cable. I may be looking at battery storage in the future; I’m working on the cost / benefit model for this.

The minimum setup for me would be a CT on one of the meter tails, one at the EV charger and another at the PV inverter.

OEM appears to offer the flexibility I’m looking for, with that flexibility comes complexity, so I’ll need to understand the capabilities of emonPi and emonBase etc.

I’ll get photos up tomorrow, it’s quite late now.

With regards to skills and abilities, I do have a background in electronics and RF, though I am less able in the software domain. I have used Arduino and Raspberry Pi for various projects in the past.