How to monitor Water, Gas and Electricity consumption with Rfxcom In 2004 I started monitoring Energy, Gas and Water with this solution making use of 1-wire. Now I use Rfxcom products which are wireless and much more easy to handle. In the Netherlands the Energy meter is still not replaced with a smart meter by energy company's or the government. Already for years they are talking about Smart metering and CO2 reduction, but all they do is talk and no actions :-) On the images below you can see my current Energy meter, Gas meter and Water meter, which can easily be monitored. Energymeter Gasmeter Watermeter I still have the same energy meter with the red LED in the middle which flashes 480 times for every 1 kW (1000 Watt). A BPW85 Photo sensor needs to be mounted in front of the LED for register the flashes (pulses). This Gasmeter has a small reflecting part of 3 by 3 millimeter on the last digit. This reflecting surface is located in the middle of the digit six, so every time the digit six comes around I have used 0.010 m³ Gas. I use a CNY70 light reflecting sensor to measure a pulse every time the digit six comes around. I installed two of these Alaxa water pulse counters on my central water system. With these counters I'm able to count real-time the amount of hot and cold water used. The pulse rate is 1 for every 0.5 liter (0.13195 Gallon) of water used. The Pulse (relay) contact can be directly connected to the RFXpulse module in the RFXmeter. Photo sensor CNY70 sensor Direct Connect Cable The BPW85 Photo sensor is for the Energymeter and needs to be put in front of the flashing LED, the connector needs to be connected to the RFXpulse module in the RFXmeter (below). The CNY70 (Reflective Optical Sensor) is for the Gasmeter and needs to be put just in front of the last digit of the meter. The sensor can measure a pulse every time the digit six comes around. The connector needs to be connected to the RFXpulse module in the RFXmeter (below). This cable can be connected directly without any sensor on the pulse contact of the Watermeter. The connector needs to be connected to the RFXpulse module in the RFXmeter (below). Rfxmeter The RFXMeter is a device that has an RF transmitter (433.92MHz) and a microcontroller to count pulses from up to 3 metering modules. I use only RFXPulse modules but there is also an RFXPwr module available for power metering. So this device can be used for measuring Energy, Gas and Water. The size of each counter is 24 bits so the maximum count is 16.777.215 pulses. The counter values of all 3 counters are saved in non-volatile memory so when the RFXMeter is disconnected from the power or a power loss occurs the measured values are saved. The RFXMeter device transmits the total counter value(s) at predefined intervals so can be set to 30 seconds, 1 minute, 6, 12, 15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes. For Homeseer users there is a plug-in available which supports this RFXMeter in combination with the RFXCOM receiver. For receiving the wireless signals of all the counters you need an additional RFXCOM receiver described below. Rfx Receiver/transmitter With this Rfxcom LAN receiver/transmitter I can receive the wireless rfxmeter signals. This receiver can be equipped with two different receivers and one transmitter, so you can use this for multiple devices. Receiver 1 on 433.92MHz, this receiver can receive: - HomeEasy and KlikAan-KlikUit with automatic code system - X10/A10 security sensors and remotes - X10/A10 lighting sensors and remotes - Digimax - RFXSensor for temperature, humidity, barometric pressure - RFXPower for electricity usage metering - RFXMeter with RFXPwr and RFXPulse for electricity/gas/water metering - KlikOn-KlikOff/DomiaLite/NEXA/BBSB/ELRO AB600 (chime, remotes, wall switches) - ATI Remote Wonder - Oregon Scientific sensors and body weight monitors, (see the list at the end of this page) Receiver 2 on 868.95MHz, this receiver can receive: - Visonic PowerCode sensors - Visonic CodeSecure keyfobs Transmitter on 433.92MHz, this transmitter can transmit: - X10 lighting format - X10 security format - Digimax format - RFXSensor format - RFXPower format - Rfxeter format - KlikOn-KlikOff / NEXA / ELRO AB600 / Domia Lite format - Harrison electrical curtain format - HomeEasy format - KlikAan-KlikUit with automatic code system Software I created my own TCP-IP driver for the Rfxcom LAN receiver transmitter. In the above image you can see some of the received devices and of course the Rfxmeter sensors for the Gas, Energy and Water. This driver is incorporated in my Home automation system and can be used for all kind of events.