How to choose an Arduino compatible electricity meter?

Question

Arduino

I'm only interested in reading the meter readings.

This will not be the main counter. The cable will go from the main to a separate room.

The room is equipped with air conditioning, a personal computer, a clock and a lamp. In the future, it is possible to connect electrical engineering and this must be taken into account in the power and reliability of the device. The task is to automate the process of reading data on the current value of the meter and calculating the amount of consumed electricity.

Also interesting are the options and methods for installing this type of meter officially and legally.

Answer 1

If this is not the main counter, then just watch the wattmeter right away and that's it. It will be easier. But it will not be possible to legalize it 100% - no one will read his testimony from him. You can put a regular counter and IMMEDIATELY behind it a wattmeter - it will be almost the same.

Answer 2

1. The main thing is that the counter is certified. Everything is the same as with ordinary counters
2. There are several protocols. There is a pulse one - it just sends a pulse for every N units of volume, and there are more expensive ones that implement some kind of normal protocol.
In principle, both types will be compatible with Arduino - the main thing is that the interfaces are all necessary. (Arduins are different)

Answer 3

I'll tell you how they do it in the "industry", but it really works, you can dig further in the direction of cheaper and simplification.
1) Electric meters Mercury with its protocol like Modbus-RTU (RS-485).
2) From Insat OPC-server poll. You can get several hundred data, but I show a few basic ones:

3) Some kind of SCADA (Insat has MasterSCADA v.3 and 4).

Answer 4

You can also remove from the main. For example: https://habr.com/en/post/568314/

Answer 5

Officially, you call an electrician from the power supply organization and change your regular meter to a meter that has a telemetry output. He will remove the old one, write down the readings, put in a new one and seal it.
For myself - similarly, any counter with a telemetric output. You put it where you want, you take readings.
There are many different counters, for example, Mercury 204.
If super accuracy is not required, you can take a Chinese wattmeter like https://aliexpress.ru/item/4000330631886.html
The sensor ring is put on the lead wire.
Well, or, as already said, stick a phototransistor on the blinking LED of a conventional counter with adhesive tape and read the readings.

Answer 6

Or you can use a USB or web camera