Home energy monitoring

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Home energy monitoring

amanzi

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#319907 13-Jun-2025 12:01

I know there have been multiple threads about this in the past, but I'm wondering what people are using to monitor energy usage at home in 2025? I have a bunch of smart plugs that are good for monitoring individual appliances, but I'm wanting to monitor our whole home's usage as well as our heat pump separately.

From reading through previous threads, it looks like the Shelly 3EM would work best for me, but wanted to hear if there are newer/better options to consider? Integration with Home Assistant is a must.

richms

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#3383617 13-Jun-2025 12:04

I got a refoss 6 channel unit off aliexpress when it was on choice deals for half price. Its in the shed monitoring some circuits there as that is where most of my things that need monitoring are.

I have a CT to put on the meter board but I need to get a way to get the cable from that to inside the house to put the other unit I have bought, its just a cheap tuya based one that needs mains into it for the reference which will come from a plug into a socket. Wall under my meter box is questionable possible ACM so not wanting to drill it.

Richard rich.ms

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#3383621 13-Jun-2025 12:14

I have had my eyes on one of these for a while...just need approval from the financial controller.

timmmay

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#3383626 13-Jun-2025 12:28

I use a switchboard mounted Shelly EM Pro to monitor heat pump and hot water, A$135 to monitor two circuits. It uses clamps rather than passing current through itself which is important. They have a three circuit version for switchboards which is quite expensive. These ones appear to be designed to fit inside an electrical box, and can take two clamps - might be interesting for our washing machine / drier. I'd like to get a few of the individual ones but at least in theory they need to be installed by an electrician. Maybe they'd be useful to put onto appliances, leave them there for a week to get an idea, you don't need them fitted to every device permanently.

I know that hot water take about 10kwh of power a day and our ducted heating in the past month (cold) has taken between 5.5kwh and 14.5kwh, out of a total of about 60kwh a really cold day, so between them that's about 45% of our power usage. The rest is likely other heat pumps, cooking, washing and drying, underfloor heating, etc. I wouldn't be bothered measuring them all.

Nate001

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#3383630 13-Jun-2025 12:38

+1 for the Shelly ProEM. Have set up 1 channel each for incoming Mains/HWC in the switchboard, but has to be installed by sparky. Data is collected polled with NodeRED and saved to influxDB, finally visuals in Grafana. With this setup I can also direct query the DB using python from notebook instances like JupyterLab to analyse the data.

amanzi

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#3383633 13-Jun-2025 12:55

timmmay:

Maybe they'd be useful to put onto appliances, leave them there for a week to get an idea, you don't need them fitted to every device permanently.

This is how I use my smart plugs - I cycle them around the house to get a rough idea of energy usage.

Seems like the Shelly device is the way to go.

davidcole

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#3383845 14-Jun-2025 08:50

I’ve had one of these for years (build your own) I’m lucky there power plugs right below my distribution box

https://glow-energy.io

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WellWhat

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#3383855 14-Jun-2025 10:09

How many circuits are you looking to monitor? if more then 4 or 5 then something like the iotawatt might be a bit more economical as it can monitor up to 14 circuits from the one unit

have a look at my comments here if your interested https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=73&topicid=289265&page_no=3#3120840

You will need a bit of space in the switchboard