“We recently had a digital electricity (and gas) meter installed by Fluvius. In order to make more efficient use of our solar power, I installed a little dongle from HomeWizard to the P1 port of the meter. Using an app, it is possible to monitor electricity taken from or pushed to the grid. The idea is then to use the bigger appliances (dishwasher, washing machine, etc … ) when there is leftover solar power available, rather than push it to the grid.
However, in order to not always have to consult the app to find the best moment to run appliances, I thought a live display would come in handy. It’s also the perfect opportunity for a new project after a long break from making and blogging.
Required Components
Here’s a list of components used for this project:
- Raspberry Pi 3B+ (though any other compatible Pi is just fine)
- Raspberry Pi power supply 5V/2A
- Pimoroni Unicorn HAT HD
- Pimoroni Pibow Ninja Coupé
- HomeWizard Wi-Fi P1 Meter
- MicroSD card 8GB
Connecting the P1 meter
The first step is to enable the P1 port on the digital meter, which is disabled by default in Belgium. In order to do so, go to the Fluvius website, request port management and set it to open. The port can take up to 24h to be enabled.”