How to connect aeon labs power meter

Devices & Integrations
#1

So I opened up my Fuse box (sorry I’m British living in America) and I got scared. Any ideas where I should connect this thing?

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I really appreciate the help guys.

EDIT: The photo never got uploaded

#2

Yes, it’s actually good to be scared when getting into the “fuse box” because those clamps have to go on the mains (the main electrical cables coming into your house and into the fuse box before the circuit breaker). These wires are live and cannot be shut off except by the electrical company. Those wire are very dangerous if you touch them wrong. Depending on how your mains go into your fuse box will determine how easy it is to put those clamps in place. I personally hired an electrician to put mine in. It only took him a few minutes to do it but it was worth it for me to pay him to do it.

Check this Youtube video at 3:49 mark to see one of these installed:

See this thread for more info.

#3

Be afraid. Be very afraid ;(

Initially I hired an electrician to install mine as I had no idea how to get at the incoming electrical lines. My electrical panel has that part covered. Anyway, once installed my HEM looked like:

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I had problems with the readings (showed double the watts/amps actually used) and contacted AEON. The tech wanted pictures and confirmed all was installed properly. They never could figure out why I was getting double readings so I modified the device handler and divided amps/watts by two. I am now off about 300-600 watts per month from my bill which equates to about $0.06. I can live with that :slight_smile:

Look for advice for sump pump project
#4

Thanks guys I really appreciate the input. I took a photo of my box, it looks like this:

I see there is an empty space for the main breaker, I will check tonight but I think my main breaker is downstairs in the buildings meter room. If this is the case I should be able to completely isolate the power to my apartment before doing this.

#5

Don’t mean to hijack this thread, but we have an outbuilding with its own breaker but uses the same meter as the main house. Can I hook the Aeon power meter up to just that building so I can get an electricity amount for it and not the rest of the main house??

Thanks!

#6

Sure - just use those to leads.

#7

Interesting, how did you determine you were getting double the reading? Using a ‘known’ device and watching it?

Looking at your setup and my box it looks like I just need to connect the clamps to the red and the black wire at the bottom of my box.

#8

Thanks Jimxenus, some basic information about the US setup in that video that I needed :smiley:

I think looking at my box it should be relatively easy to setup

#9

What if there are 2 fuse boxes one next to the other?

#10

Looking at your picture of your fuse box, your mains look easily accessible. Make sure the clamps go on the right way. I think I remember reading somewhere that there may be directional arrows that follow the flow of electricity, otherwise you may get some negative readings. Once you have it set up, I would recommend using this DTH (Device handler) by @johnconstantelo EDIT: Just discovered that the link to the code is broken in the thread below, do we have an updated link?

#11

Take a look at this, I believe you should still only have two mains coming in, just to two separate boxes:

#12

Yeh I agree now. I think I should be able to isolate my apartment completely also. I believe the main breaker is in the basement in my apartment building.

Thanks for the help :slight_smile:

#13

You’re going to need some Z-wave repeaters if it’s too far away from your hub.

#14

Sorry, i meant I will install it within the box I showed you (which is in my apartment) but the meter and I suspect the main breaker is downstairs in the basement. I hope I can isolate my whole apartment with that.

#15

That is correct.

I determined I was getting double readings by turning on one or more devices (i.e. Hair Dryer) with known power draw. In the case of a hair dryer my consumption went up 30amps. Considering it was plugged into a 15 amp circuit without tripping the circuit, the reading obviously was wrong.

#16

FYI, @boreddead

Yep, sorry guys. Been doing some clean up on Github. Here’s the updated code:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/constjs/jcdevhandlers/master/devicetypes/jscgs350/my-aeon-home-energy-monitor.src/my-aeon-home-energy-monitor.groovy

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1 Like
#17

Awesome thanks :slight_smile: Excited to try this out

1 Like
#18

I got around to installing it this weekend, works a treat! numbers look pretty good too. My house seems to sit around 100-200w when doing nothing, fridge etc etc.

However I cannot seem to get this device to report on an interval or in any kind of sensible fashion. It seems to send an update every 6 minutes! Ideally I would like it to send evey 15-30 seconds. I have tried using the app, updating the firmware to 3.61, performing a reset by commenting out and even excluding and re-including but nothing seems to change.

Also it seems I never get a battery report?

Any ideas?

EDIT - I also tried with the latest firmware, which is what it is currently running. Funny the numbers were way out till I did a reset on the latest firmware. This is the battery model… I wonder if that makes a difference to reporting…

#19

Solved my own problem!

http://www.z-wave.pl/pl/p/file/1697e0dff93f47bdc3a9034540c206ca/aeon_hem_tech.pdf

Battery means it wakes up every 4 mins at best!

#20

Sure does, and I see you found the tech spec. I have my HEM running on USB power so I can have it report as fast as I want.