Re: [mh] Whole home power monitoring

On 5/23/21 10:41 AM, H Plato wrote:
> Has anyone found any good DIY power monitoring solutions? My panel is full and I’d to get an idea of the average and peak load. I have a 100a service, and the wiring from the utility isn’t sized for 200a, so an upgrade would be pretty expensive. I’m hoping that the usage is low enough that I can just replace the panel without upgrading the service, so having usage tracking would be really helpful.

Are you planning on adding new electrical devices/appliances, or just 
more outlets/lights?

Ultimately, the size of your service determines how many "things" can be 
running at the same time.  If you aren't adding (or many) more "things" 
then you likely don't need a bigger service regardless of how many 
breakers/fuses you add.

If you want to be a little more scientific without spending any money 
you can fire up a spreadsheet.  Getting average power usage is pretty 
easy: get the total kWh from your power bill and divide it by the number 
of hours in the billing period.  Getting peak current, which can tell 
you how close you are to exceeding your service capacity, is much 
trickier.  However, you might be able to get a rough estimate simply by 
looking up the power rating of all your electrical equipment and adding 
it all up.  That would simulate a worst-case scenario, like after a 
power outage, when everything tends to come on at once.  Start with the 
power hungry things, like electric heaters, AC units, electric range, 
electric clothes dryer, fridges, freezers, microwave, dishwasher etc.

Even better, at least for plug-in appliances, is to get a plug-in power 
meter such as a Kill-A-Watt and find out what your power hungry devices 
draw, then add those up.

Good luck!



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