Power Quality Monitor

Hardware
1

Hi, I am interested in an integrated energy usage and energy quality monitor.

I am currently using a Fluke VR1710 and Brultech GreenEye monitors.

I installed the power quality monitor after we moved in to document dips and sags to try and convince the power company to fix the supply problem. (Old houses with 40A circuits being replaced with new houses with 400A circuits, but the supply circuits have not been updated)

The VR1710 was the cheapest, still more than $1200, of the meters I could find, there are many commercial quality meters with recording capability, but they are very expensive.

Looking at the open source energy monitors and open source power quality monitors, I see a large overlap in hardware, and it feels like it should be possible to integrate the two concepts.

I have seen a few opensource power quality monitor projects, most now dead university projects, but one is still active, Open Power Quality and on GitHub.

Are there any other open source power quality monitor projects out there?

Is there any interest in integrating the quality analysis with consumption analysis in hardware, even if only for swells and sags to create a CBEMA report?

2

Interesting project, thanks for the pointer. I see they use the 16-bit sigma delta ADC in the STM32F373 for their front end and a RPi for their data analysis. @pb66 and @TrystanLea have got an stm32 based energy monitor in the works, so it might work in well with that.

3

I hope there is interest from the hardware creators to collaborate.
Are any of these projects open source, GitHub or CircuitMaker?

It would be fantastic if I can get a single device that can monitor power consumption, generation (I have solar) and quality, on both legs, in or near the panel.

I opened a ticket at OPQ pointing to this thread, I hope there is collaboration:

A hardware solution that can sample voltage and current, at a high enough frequency, for multiple loads, and pass the data over for analysis, can generally be programmed for a variety of uses.

Think of an open source version of products like https://sense.com/ that is really nothing more than mains isolators to an A/D, and then math and AI and ML.

4

Hi, I am a member of the Open Power Quality project. I think that a collaboration between Open Power Quality and Open Energy Monitor is quite natural and synergistic (I mean, just look at our respective names!)

The question is, where is the best point for (initial) interconnection: hardware or software? It seems to me that providing an integrated hardware solution, while the “ultimate” form of collaboration, will be quite time-consuming.

A more simple-to-implement point for (initial) interconnection is the software layer. In other words, both of our projects can provide API endpoints that enable OEM servers and OPQ servers to request data from each other.

With this approach, we can get started exploring the benefits of the two forms of data more quickly, then move to hardware integration with a better understanding of the benefits that would accrue.

For more information about the motivation and goals of the OPQ project, please see our documentation at: Motivation for OPQ · Open Power Quality

I think this is a cool idea and I thank @ptr727 for bringing it to our attention!

Philip

1 Like
5

Philip, thank you for showing interest.

I understand your project objectives, and I agree that an easy first step would be for two backend systems to collect and correlate data from each other.

Speaking for myself, representing the home enthusiast persona, I am looking for:

  1. A simplified hardware deployment
    1.a) One small monitoring device to install
    1.b) With appropriate certifications
    1.c) That fits in or near panel
    1.d) That does not require external power
  1. Monitor utilization and quality
    2.a) Dips, swell, transients, CBEMA graphs, etc.
  2. That measures both phases legs (US 110/220 120/240 panels) (I found that in my home the phases legs are unbalanced under neighborhood summer AC load)
  3. That can measure solar production
  4. That can survive transient outages, and can buffer acquired data, waiting for the network to come back up.

Now I have an EE degree and I’m in the software business, but I’m no expert in this field, but I feel the biggest benefit in hardware collaboration would be that of certification, and sharing current and voltage acquisition hardware.

Anyways, I am glad you are showing interest, I hope there can be collaboration.

And a really cool stretch goal would be an open source device, similar to Sense, that allows AI/ML on acquired data.

[N.B. In the US, domestic consumers generally have single phase supply, centre-tapped to earth. See Learn | OpenEnergyMonitor
– Moderator (RW)]

Edit - reworded the comment that included the Sense device to avoid giving the impression that Sense is open source, as it is not an OS device. Moderator - BT

6

FYI: I found this interesting post on a teardown of the Sense device:

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Very interesting indeed, thanks for sharing. Of particular interest is that they went the cpld route for the front-end processing.