DIY Power Monitor
I’ve designed this open source project along the lines of a Kill-A-Watt, but for DC instead of AC. This week I’ll be adding a nice 4 line white on blue LCD display, and I’ll be adding AC monitoring soon as well. It monitors Volts, Amps, Hours, and calculates Watts, Watt Hours, and Amp Hours. It can be configured for multiple sensors to monitor the power consumption of several devices, or the power production of several sources, like solar, wind, hydro, etc.
I’m currently using a 30 amp unidirectional sensor, but again, this can be configured for bidirectional monitoring, ac or dc sources, and to several hundred amps, with dozens of different sources/loads. We will eventually add web based monitoring for internet or intranet, and sd card datalogging on board. The neat thing about this project is it’s customizability and extendability, and that it costs several hundreds dollars cheaper than the Bogart Pentametric or Outback Flexnet DC, and has much more flexibility than the single source low end Doc Wattson.
Follow along at http://arduinotronics.blogspot.com/ or participate in the design at http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/arduinohome/.
Related posts:
- Power vs. Energy
- Home Energy PowerCost Monitor
- What’s an Arduino?
- Peukert’s Equation and Battery Capacity
- Battery Monitor
