Now that I have gained a number of ideas, I thought it was time to take my first step in home automation. I am still waiting for my Raspberry Pi but I already have the cable for my smart meter. I knew that the 'Domoticz' program can also run on a Synology NAS so I went to give it a try.
In the Netherlands people are very busy replacing old electricity meters with new smart meters. This means that you no longer have to report the meter readings yourself, but the electricity company can read the meter from a distance. Very handy. Another advantage of this is that you can also access the data if you use the right cable and the right program. Today I started to experiment with that, and with success :)
First of all I connected the cable to the meter and to my NAS. I had to see how you could check if the USB connection worked, but it turned out to be pretty easy. Then I downloaded Domoticz software for my NAS type. This is a custom package and you have to install it by hand, but that was also very easy.
Once Domoticz was installed, it was a bit of a puzzle to get things configured, but in the end it worked and I was able to read the energy consumption. The great thing is that you can see both what you use and also what the solar panels produce. The pity is that it was already dark and therefore no energy was generated and I could not test its functioning. But the smart meter is triggered every 5 seconds to send data, so you see in real time what is being used.
I also saw that the total figures are displayed. So from the moment we received the smart meter. So far we have generated more power than used, but it was a great summer. I therefore assume that the upcoming winter months this will change and then we will consume more than we have generated.
domoticz can also show nice graphs and you build a history of data so that you can see when you have peak consumption, for example. There are of course several software packages for home automation or home automation, but to experiment and play with it this is completely fine .. Now on to the next step :) mapping consumption per device, but I must first smart plugs for purchase :)
Have a great home automated night :)
Peter
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