I am finally getting comfortable with HA and I’m starting to look for new projects to dig into. One thing I am looking to build out is a energy monitor for my electric dryer that I’m hoping I could use to trigger notification when the dryer finishes. I saw this video that I planned on using as a guide. It is a bit old, so my question is would this video still be relevant or are there more recent recommendations? Are there any other resources you would recommend to get started with this sort of project? Any guidance on getting started would be much appreciated!
You want someone to watch 30 minutes to tell you if it is current?
I would have thought you would just want to find a smart plug with power monitoring that you like.
Perhaps one which is ESPHome flashable.
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The plug is a NEMA 10-30 so I think it would be pretty unlikely that I would be able to find a compatible smart plug. I also plan to use this same idea on my hot water heater with is hard wired.
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I have never heard of that plug, but why shouldn’t any other smart plug do? It is by far the most used way to get usage information from non-smart devices and its is literally plug and play. If you are worried about load, qubino has 16A smart plugs that work just fine for me, including washer, dryer, dishwasher and fridge. Some use shelly’s, they tend to get quite hot. Shelly also has Shelly EM, which can be used to simply wrap around a live wire and can handle massive loads. And the bonus is you get to monitor device usage, so if the device gets old and maybe uses more power than newer ones, you can make an informed decision.
This is the outlet. Its a fairly standard appliance outlet in NA yet I don’t believe that there are any smart plugs that would support this.
That said the Shelly option seems like it might be a good avenue to investigate.
Nema 10-30 are deprecated, so you are unlikely to be created in a modern context. However they have 2 live and a neutral. Probably best to do a custom build as you suggested.
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You are correct, there’s unlikely to be a smart plug for that.
What I would do (and am hoping to do one day) is go back to the breaker panel and put CT clamps on the mains, and each circuit I’d like to monitor.
It looks like you can do this with ESPHome. It seems like the hard part is choosing the best hardware; there seem to be lots of options.
Yeah that’s the part that I’m stuck on is understanding where to start researching to make this decision.
It’s been six months since I looked at this. At that time I was leaning toward this 6 Channel ESP32 Energy Meter Add-on Board. There are lots of CT sensors you can use with it, like these at Ali Express.
Of course, six months is an eternity in electronics. chip shortages and newer technologies could change things, but at least you have a place to start.
Thats essentially what was recommended in the video I linked in the first post. I may go that route although this Shelly option is appealing as well.
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