Blog entry about new energy tab hints about devices that could read power meter by utilizing some LED blinking. But my power meter is in the basement and I’m on the 4th floor so it would be hard to set up anything down there and still get any signal.
So I wonder do you have any ideas how to approach this situation? I have fuse box, which is first thing that has power in my apartment. Also I’m from Poland, if that is of any help.
I know I could buy a bunch of smart sockets but that won’t be too efficient and it would still be hard to get overall consumption.
In the us the distribution panels are in the apartments. You can pretty easily ct clamp the mains. Have you checked with your local electric provider if they have an api? Smart meters are becoming more common and most have a way to get real time usage.
@Vlad Thanks! Looks promising. I also found that there’s something called Shelly EM + Clamp, which I think is similar solution. Both of them will probably work if there’s enough room in my fuse box.
@Mikefila Yeah, clamping is probably something I’ll go with. My local provider doesn’t have an API. There’s a hack that mimics their mobile app but it doesn’t get access to the current usage. But still I’ll ask them about that - it’s always worth a try.
For those that may be interested I think I found a best solution for my taste. There’s a device from company Zemel: MEW-01. It uses Supla software by default but they have beta firmware that has MQTT enabled that can bypass cloud almost entirely - you only need it to update the firmware itself for the moment. For me this solution is simply a cleaner one. I’d have to by Shelly 3EM because of the three-phase power (or whatever it’s called in English :P) which would be hassle to put into my small fuse-box. And MEW-01 would sit on DIN rail which will occupy so much less space and the price is comparable.
