Read data from your electricity meter

Connection IR reader

Most modern electricity meters or smart meters (often on the digital display to detect) have an IR interface via which you can read the current consumption and other data. The data is read out with the help of an IR read head.

The IR reader can be easily set on the top of the infrared diode and keeps using a magnet. It is connected to the server via USB.

IR reader connected to electricity meter

Unfortunately, I was not able to read this USB / Serial port with java. So i could not develop a binding for it. In various forums i read that the driver chip used here is especially problematic. If someone knows more about this topic, feel free to contact me.

With a shell script the reading works. It now runs as a cron job and transmits the data via REST API to openHAB.

Further information on data analysis

Connection IR reader

Another way to read the power consumption is to use a Lingg&Janke energy meter. This sends its data via KNX and provides a much more detailed and accurate picture of power consumption. In addition to data on the individual phases, you also get values for apparent and effective power.

KNX reader

Visualisation

Electricity consumption visualized in openHAB Electricity consumption visualized in openHAB

Use of the data

With the consumption data from the previous year, you can also create a projection for the current year. For this purpose, the consumption of the current year is taken plus the consumption of the previous year from the remaining period.

Sources

All scripts for reading the electricity meter as well as the openHAB rules for generating the extrapolation are part of my Deployment Projektes or downloaded. Alternatively, the openHAB rules can also be obtained directly from my Github Repository.

https://intranet-of-things.com/
https://intranet-der-dinge.de/