Ingenious ways to measure power draw (mander.xyz)

submitted 3 months ago by acockworkorange@mander.xyz to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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So I wanted to get myself a Kill-a-watt. Being who I am, I wanted information regarding its accuracy, especially at low power draws. I found a comparison with a industry grade equipment (Fluke is about the best out there in handheld electrical meters). It’s not encouraging, so I thought about a more proper meter, but it’s not easy to find an actual power meter that is accurate at low loads, isn’t a hassle to install and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

What do you use? Am I overthinking it?

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[-] zout@fedia.io 2 points 3 months ago

It will be technically a bit more challenging, but I don't think you need to use the lantern power monitor software with the device. The device seems to be built around two MCP3008 IC's, which are basic 8 channel analog to digital converters. The values from these can be read and processed (like, sent to home assistant) using a python script on the raspberry. This is the kind of minimal programming effort someone with no experience could do using chatgpt.

this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024

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