Utility Meter false reading spikes

ESPHome
1

I recently implemented a NodeMCU running ESPHome into my HASS to monitor mains electricity usage. It uses a TSL257 in a 3D printed housing to capture the light pulses from my utility company power meter.

It works well for almost all the time - but every now and again (about once a day) it does something completely weird as shown below:

Energy_Daily
Energy_Daily1537×465 24.8 KB

Power_Daily
Power_Daily1533×321 7.89 KB

My mains trip is 80A so there is no way it could have had that much power in that space of time (I’m joking, it is clearly not legitimate!) :wink:

I also have a clamp-on inductive sensor measuring current - it did not show this peak so it is either a spurious burst of flashes from the meter or some kind of electrical interference.

The meter seems to be reading about right - it is not registering any unusual peaks - so what on earth could be causing this?

The drop at 00h00 reflects the daily reset on the counter so is not an error.

Any ideas welcome!

Thanks.

Richard

2

Configuration.yaml entry:

utility_meter:
  energy_daily:
    source: sensor.mains_power_meter
    cycle: daily
    tariffs:
      - peak
  energy_weekly:
    source: sensor.mains_power_meter
    cycle: weekly
    tariffs:
      - peak
  energy_monthly:
    source: sensor.mains_power_meter
    cycle: monthly
    tariffs:
      - peak

ESPHome code for the NodeMCU (partial):

i2c:
  sda: D2
  scl: D1
  scan: True
#  id: bus_a

ads1115:
## see https://esphome.io/components/sensor/ads1115.html
  - address: 0x48
sensor:
  - platform: pulse_counter
    pin: D8
    unit_of_measurement: 'kW'
    name: 'Mains Power Meter'
#    update_interval: 5s
    internal_filter: 10us
    id: mains_power_meter
    accuracy_decimals: 3    
    filters:
      - multiply: 0.06

  - platform: ads1115
    multiplexer: 'A0_A1'
#    gain: 6.144
    gain: 4.096
    name: "Mains Current"
    update_interval: 1.5s
    unit_of_measurement: "Amps"
    accuracy_decimals: 2
    filters:
      - calibrate_linear:
#          # Map 0.0 (from sensor) to 0.0 (true value)
          - 0 -> 0
          - 0.3 -> 4.5
          - 5.0 -> 50.0
      - sliding_window_moving_average:
          window_size: 5
          send_every: 6
3
4

Hi.

I made something similar with a optical pulse counter for my power meter. I used a optical resistor and a small analog to digital signal amplifier/converter.
I had similar problems as you have. Now and then I got these high spikes.

First my sensor case was not dark enough. Take a flashlight and shine on it and see what happens. The second thing I hade to change was that pulse counter filter to millisecond level. My optical resistor was is very noisy.
Last I had to trim my amplifier that converted my optical a signal digital.
Made it much more insensitive.

I don’t know if you have same problems. But I hope you find what is the cause.

/Mattias

5

Thank you both. I think I have found a solution but am not sure why it works!

I’m now using the integration sensor and it appears to have stopped these spikes.

# https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/utility_meter/
  - platform: integration
    source: sensor.mains_power_meter
    name: energy_used
#    unit_prefix: k
    round: 3

If anyone can explain why this helps please do as I’m not sure how it does it.

Richard

6

I use an inductive 4mm sensor with a ESP32 running esphome.
It works, but gives problems, i think especially when the coil stops right under the sensor.
how can i debounce this?
I suppose this is done with the “internal_filter” within ESPhome?
See: https://esphome.io/components/sensor/pulse_counter.html
Though that page says: *“Defaults to 13us. On the ESP32, this value can not be higher than 13us”
Is this because of ESPhome or because of the hardware (ESP32)

any suggestions?