Building a Home Power Monitoring System

Filed in archive DIY on July 18, 2005

Okay, this is definitely not a project for everyone. Have you ever wondered about the exact electricity an appliance in your house uses? Well here's a tutorial that shows you how to build a home power monitoring system that monitors each circuit. For a project like this I think it's best to start out with the warnings:

A couple of warnings however...

• DON'T try this at home unless you know what you're doing. Aside from being electrocuted, incorrect wiring can burn your house down. If you think this is cool and try to do something similar on your own and kill/damage/burn/destroy yourself/friend/pets/computer/etc, don't blame me as you've been warned!


• If you live with someone, or in particular are married, and you feel like trying to do something like this, make sure you have a pretty good idea of who uses more power before you start. I busted my wife for using the toaster (at 10 amps a pop) and leaving the lights on too much until she pointed out that my server rack consumes about 5 amps continuously (plus another 4 when the cooling system is running at max capacity)... ouch!

[via Slashdot]

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