I have a holiday home in Portugal and have after a short relationship with Smartthings decided to add a setup there. My electricity costs are through the roof. Can anyone advise of a device that would integrate to give me online summary data of electricity consumed. Obviously I’m looking for something that works in Europe (220-240v) single phase. Thanks
Hi David,
I don’t know if you moved on and got something installed but I have a house in Portugal too, kitted out with CoCo RF power controllers/relays etc…and an Echo for voice control. I’ve been looking at the same thing recently too. Don’t know how old your property is but mine has three-phase supply (which I believe is very common in the Algarve at least…all that swimming pool pump and heating equipment. Anyway if you’ve installed anything successfully please do let me know…I’m currently looking at Owl or Efergy 3-phase wireless monitoring devices to keep track of my consumption.
Regards
Andy
Hi Andy.
Actually no. Mainly because I realised when I got back there that the tails were hidden within the electrical cupboard. I didn’t really want to hack it about as it’s a properly designed cupboard to house the meter, etc. I do have a desire to achieve this however as my electrical bills are through the roof. I have installed a new energy efficient pump on the pool which supposedly will save 750 euros a year! Let’s see…
I have recently added the efergy system to my home here in the UK, it was easy to set up and seems pretty useful as these things go however it doesn’t seem to cope with dual charging rates (cheaper overnight). We’ll Efergy never responded to a support mail so can only assume given I can’t see an option.
The Aeon 3 phase also looks a very good option. If I had three phase would probably go that way. Also consider tail width Efergy uk version is for 100 amp, I’ll bet three phase is thicker. If it’s not correct you’ll get sperious results.
“Mainly because I realised when I got back there that the tails were hidden within the electrical cupboard.”
Yes, I twigged that, fortunately before ordering anything! However the front panels on mycupboard are removable with four Phillips screws holding them on so I think I will simply pop the panel off and install behind it with the transmitter in front but behind the user access door. Owl do one system with standard diameter clamps and another with large clamps…one should fit (standard version is up to 70amps, so I assume large one is …well…larger but I’ve asked the question.and I have my property manager just checking what is behind the panel and what diameter the feed are.
Water seems to be another costly element…so I think I will also start monitoring water usage…Garden sprinklers etc are a real pain as you get charged once for the water being consumed …and again for assumed treatment costs despite the fact that there are no treatment costs for pool water evaporating and garden irrigation being sucked up by grass and plants! The other problem seems to be that there are no smarts in the irrigation systems to account for natural rainfall and no proper calculations of how long pumps should be on cycle based on pool capacity. They tend to get a pump that does X up to Y sized pools which is set for Y in a cycle when delivered and no one ever bothers checking what circulation is actually required based on actual capacity and adjusting things!
That has to be one big pool to save €750 a year on an EE pump though!What did the pump cost?
I find the CoCo (now Trust SmartHome) power switching stuff useful as well, I have the water heater (you wouldn’t believe how often that used to get left on!) etc on RF power relays and Aircon units, heaters etc all controlled through an RMPro by my phone. Depends what kind of heating//cooling system you use though I guess.
Oh, got an answer back from OWl…200A on the large CTs…err that should be enough! That’s >6KW total for the 70A version and > 17kW for the 200A version I guess, give or take.
Oh, whereabouts in Portugal is your house? Mine’s in the Algarve on Dunas Douradas.
Yes it’s a large pool I’ll be surprised though if I save that much even a few hundred would be nice. Having said that the previous pump ran at about 3kw constantly this is intelligent and goes below 1kw at times.
Yes I’ve also started looking at water. Best way to save is turn off Irrigation from October to April, grass will come back fine. Also add a rain sensor for 30 euros to the Irrigation. I looked at smart Irrigation but decided against it. I may also put some artificial grass in. My water bill is a out 7k pa so lots of incentive.
I’m just running a basic smartthings starter pack there for now. I haven’t looked at the Trust range or in fact heard of it, does it integrate with ST? I’ve got a fairly large ST setup here in the UK. Villa is near Vale Do lobo, so not far from you.
Hi David
I completely missed your reply all those months ago…so my apologies!
Did you get your irrigation/pump system sorted out? I’ve just got back on to looking at irrigation controls and found an interesting device from Spruce, a soil moisture hygrometer (about $60) that you insert in the ground you want to monitor that works with ST. I’m looking to automate the irrigation system so that if the ground is already moist enough, don’t irrigate!
Oh, the OWL electricity monitoring system has been excellent by the way…I installed it shortly after our original thread. Works flawlessly and I can tell whenever something gets left on and look accurately at ways to save electricity.
Regards
Andy
Hi Andy,
I ended up buying Hydrawise which doesn’t seem to integrate with Smartthings though it was purchased by Hunter so has some mainstream parent. The unit was less than £200.It took me half an hour to wire up and install and apart from constantly losing wifi connection (due to distance) it has otherwise been flawless. If you have decent wifi reception in the controller location I would highly recommend it.
I never got around to adding a electricity monitoring unit as it was so difficult to get to the electric main tails. Which one did you go for anyway? Also I believe its three phase out here, is yours the same?
Regards
David
Hi David,
I bought the Owl Intuition 3-phase monitor …£110 …they do single and 3-phase.
Installation was very simple…just clip the induction clamps (need to be careful you get the right diameter for your cables/max current load) round the cables in the supply panel.
You can monitor via the phone app and a Web panel that lets you generate detailed csv files for further analysis in a spreadsheet but my main usage has just been to spot high consumption peaks and generally cut out waste…I think it paid for itself in a few months!
Thanks for the reference…I’ll take a look at the Hydrawise. but I think I’m probably going to try the Spruce sensors and use Smartthings to control the irrigation switch on/off based on soil moisture.
Kind regards
Andy