Induction-based power monitor for dryer?

Hardware
1

Hey Everyone!

I’m trying to detect if my clothes dryer is running. Inline smart switches for high-voltage lines are kinda expensive. Are there any cheap smart induction-based solutions? Maybe something else even better?

Cool but expensive:
image

Cheap but not smart:
image

Thanks for your help!

2

You need to know if it’s running, or when a dry cycle has completed?

If it’s the latter, then what kind of dryer, (make and model)?

3

It’s an LG DLEX3570W. It does not have any smart features that I know of other than an NFC tag for reading diagnostic information.

“Cycle Completed” is a minimum piece of information. “Running” or “Not Running” would be great. “Power Consumption” would be nice to know.

4

Is there a signal light on the unit that identifies a completed cycle? If so you could use a

  1. z-wave (if you have z-wave setup) light sensor.

  2. z-wave or zigbee vibration sensor

  3. z-wave or zigbee split phase power meter.

5

Interesting! Do you have some links for option #3?

6

I use this to monitor my dryer. Works great. I just use the power monitoring feature. Not the relays.:

$55

7

Thank you for your replies!

I have two breaker boxes for my house (US): one for high-voltage appliances (220V, dryer, stove, etc.) and one for regular voltage (110V, household outlets, etc.). After looking around at options, I found this:

image

Could I use this device in the high-voltage box or is there a separate special one for high-voltage lines? I could then monitor multiple appliances at once for a better cost-per-appliance value.

Thanks again for your help!

8

CT clamp and an ESP?
CT Clamp Current Sensor — ESPHome

9

I hope someone here could answer this, but knowing emporia is likely not something extremely popular… this question is probably better going to emporia’s tech support / sales support.

So would recommend you reach out to emporia in parallel.
(And report back on how well they behave on tech support. I, for one, would be interested to know.)

10

I am doing this with cheap Gosund SP1 Tuya plugs (Tasmota patched)

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11

Hey Joerg,

Cool! Are those available for US 220V power outlets?

Thanks again!!

12

Hi,
I am in EU so I am not sure if they are still sold but it seems they have been sold as Gosund WP1 Power Monitoring Plug.
You need to find plugs which are supported by HA either by its own Add-in or (if still possible) by patching them with Tasmota.
As a reference - not necessarily for patching -, but to find out what is/was on the market check out the Tasmota site or ask in here for power monitoring plugs.

13

Hey @k8gg,

I’ve sent them a support message. Let’s see what they say…

Thanks again!

14

I believe Drzzs is using and likes this product. I believe he mentioned it can also be flashed for local functionality.

15

I got an answer from Emporia: The leads can be used on high-voltage lines up to 264V and the controller can be hooked up to them as well.

Ya, I saw DrZzzs stream mentioning the Emporia, but he had only used it for a few days at that time. Hopefully he will have a follow-up video showcasing his experience with it.

Does anyone know if there is any time delay between the Vue controller generating a reading and that information being available to Home Assistant? One of my original goals was to have HA notify me when the dryer cycle is complete, not 5 minutes after the cycle (assuming there is a delay).

16

Another follow-up:

I sent in another Emporia support request saying I wanted to purchase and use Vue for Home Assistant integration. Here is the response I got:

Unfortunately at the moment we don’t have any official integrations or API’s available to send that info to Home Assistant directly. Its something we’d like to add in the future just not sure on a timeline of when that’ll be available. If you’re comfortable with software programming, I’ve included some links below for some projects that customers have built to help in this way. That’d be the best option until we can build that officially. Very sorry about that limitation. Be sure to let me know if you have any other questions I can help with. Thanks!

Open Source Projects:
GitHub - helgew/emporia-downloader: A Java-based Emporia Energy API Client
GitHub - magico13/ha-emporia-vue: Home Assistant Integration for Emporia Vue Energy Monitor
GitHub - jertel/vuegraf: Populate metrics from your Emporia Vue energy monitoring devices into an InfluxDB
pyemvue · PyPI

Does anyone have experience with these projects and using them to alert on real-time home power usage changes?

Thanks again!

17

Option 1 looks very promising! I am using a light sensor with esp and a piece of a windshield wiper adapter to put the light sensor in.

Yes, it’s as fugly as you’re imagining it. I have it over the digital timer dial, which I’d negative factor #2. Works perfectly though. I am going to try this zwave option because I want it to go over the “Dry” LED light indicator. This unit is small enough to make it work. Plus if this works, I have an unfathomable amount of use cases for this. Thanks for the suggestion.

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