Posted on February 7th, 2017
Using a Clipsal Cent-A-Meter you can effectively monitor the power usage of different appliances. This is great, however the built in functionality can be rather limiting. You can not, for example track the power consumption of a device over time. Thankfully, combining this meter with Arduino can allow you to reach the power meter’s full potential! Specifically, a 433MHz receiver can provide a communication bridge between the power monitoring system and an Ethernet connected Arduino allowing the power meter’s data to be sent into a SQL database for analysis and tracking. To find out more about this hack checkout the following link.

If you’re looking to work with your own RF wireless hardware, but don’t want to make your own receiver circuit – check out the Freetronics range of 315/433 MHz receiver shields:

Apart from being idea for working with the various low-cost data links on the market, the shield can also be used to capture wireless weather station data, as described in the book “Practical Arduino“. For more information and ideas, check out the product page.
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Inspired to start work on this project? Are you working on a project you would like us to feature in this blog? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.

Posted on January 19th, 2017
Have you ever been frustrated that the only way you could turn off your Arduino was to physically unplug the device? With this instructable from PeterH310 you can learn how to “self power off” your Arduino. Although some projects require an Arduino to be always on, for projects that don’t require the Arduino to be consistently on, this trick can be a great for added convenience and power saving. To find out more check out the following
link.

Want to keep in the loop about the latest in home automation? Subscribing to SuperHouse Automation on YouTube is the best place to start!
Inspired to start work on this project? Are you working on a project you would like us to feature in this blog? The team at SuperHouse Automation would love to know! Tell us about it in the comments section below or on Facebook and Twitter.
