G+_Jason Perry Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Does anyone know if it is possible to do this with gas and power as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_610GARAGE Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 I don't know if you could monitor an electric meter directly, but amp probes are easy enough to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 Funny enough i have thought of amp probes for everything but this application. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_610GARAGE Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Jason Perry Yea, I actually saw an electrical meter the other day that used amp probes. It was old. :) But if you want to be super accurate, you could use a rectifier and a transformer to monitor voltage. That would be a really accurate way to measure KW. My dad asked me to make something like that that he could monitor from his computer. Never got around to finishing it though. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Ben Reese Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 It's a pretty cool idea. I looked up water flow measurement things for Arduino for someone either in this Knowhow community or maybe the Raspberry Pi community, but using a magnetic sensor against the existing meter seems a lot less invasive. I've also seen a couple electricity measurement projects and I don't think it would be too expensive as long as you don't kill yourself. But I was wondering... Couldn't you just wrap wire around one lead of a cord then to an analog line of an Arduino? Would probably also need a diode and capacitor to stabilize the power... Yeah, I might end up killing myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_610GARAGE Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Ben Reese I don't think you could just wrap a wire around the lead. Amp propes use hall effect sensor to read current. I don't think that 110v would induce a big enough voltage into the wire to read it. At least with an arduino. But I would be interested to see. P.S. Not killing yourself is simple. Just don't touch live wires. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted March 2, 2016 Author Share Posted March 2, 2016 610bob?, and when you do learning from it, like "oh, yeah, its safe I turned off the circuit." Never trust anyone including yourself that the circuit is "off." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_610GARAGE Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 Jason Perry I was wiring in a plug for a spot welder. My dad needed it the next day so I was working on it late at night. Before I started, I checked it with voltmeter and it was dead. Later on, I was wire nutting wires together and bushed the L1 to L2 (yea it was 220V) it arced and tripped the breaker. Luckily I try to avoid touching bare wire in that situation, so I didn't get shocked or anything, but boy did that get my heart beating. :) So yea, always double check and treat all bare wires as live wires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Ben Reese Posted March 2, 2016 Share Posted March 2, 2016 My uncle built a house 10 year ago or so and I went over to help him figure out the electrical. He had 2 meters and whoever hooked up the breakers ran the wrong wire to 1 pole in each box - if that makes sense (essentially only 110v per breaker box). Tuned out for the better because someone also tied hot leads from both poles (from 2 completely separate breakers) together in one of the bathrooms. That was fun to troubleshoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted March 2, 2016 Author Share Posted March 2, 2016 610bob, the stories you get over time. I was finishing up replacing the flood light over my drive way, which has an ariel line coming off it going to my garage. I was in a rush because I didn't want to hear about it from my wife (at this point you know something is going to go wrong). I wired L1 and L2 together and the hot from the flood light to the hot for the line going to the garage. I could not figure out why there was no power. Boy did I feel stupid when I climbed back up the ladder. Ben Reese, is your uncles house still standing? :) Kinda laughing now that I am reading the post over before I press send. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Ben Reese Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Yup. He's on to a new house and a new(er) wife ?. Actually, last wife moved out a long time ago and he sold the house to my cousin. That's the only major wiring flaw I found in the house, but there were a lot of other people running power that should have stuck to swinging a hammer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_610GARAGE Posted March 3, 2016 Share Posted March 3, 2016 Ben Reese I bet you that whoever installed it was proud of themselves for coming up with a way to have 2 panels without making one of them a sub panel. :) Jason Perry Yea, I've done similarly, well stupider things like that. For some reason, it always starts out with "I was tired" or "I was in a rush". Think there's a pattern there. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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