Any energy meter has a pulse output option. The pulse output could be optical – a blinking diode (flashing led) used for calibrating the unit or electrical (so-called S0) pulse output.
Blinking leds and optical pulse counters
Any energy meter has, the flashing led. Next to the led typically, you will see how many blinks are equal to a certain amount of energy.
For example in that picture 1000 blinks of the led are equal to 1 kWh.
S0 pulse outputs
S0 pulse outputs are also quite common. Typically, they are galvanically separated pulses produced by an option in the energy meter.
Galvanically separated means that you or the pulse counter that you will connect to the S0 pulse output can’t get some high voltage from the meter.
On the example above you have a 3 phase energy meter with S0 forward and reverse pulse outputs.
How do you take pulse from energy meter?
To take a pulse from an energy meter, you need a pulse counter data logger.
ThingsLog energy metering data logger can count S0 pulses or pulses generated by the meter itself. Most energy meters have direct pulse outputs. In that case the energy meter together with ThingsLog data logger would look like this.
For the first type of pulses, you can just directly connect the pulse output to the pulse input ports of the data loggers. For the second you will need an adapter to convert led flashes into electrical pulses.
That method is always a bit riskier since most of the energy meters are not created in mind for putting such a pulse sensing adapter there. Typically people attach it with double-sided adhesive tape.
As you can see the pulse output is actually generating pulses based on capturing the blinking led “blinks”. That process although quite easy to install is error prone since external light can interfere with the blinking led signal and lead to false pulses.
As an advice if you are looking for correct pulse counting from an energy meter always buy such one with build-in S0 pulse output.
If the meter is existing and you have no choice get a data logger with an optical pulse reader adapter and simply duck-tape it to the blinking led.
How does pulse energy monitoring look like?
In ThingsLog from either of the energy meter pulse output options you will get an energy data profile that will look like this.
The graph above is called consumption profile and from it, you may reason for your daily energy consumption pattern. For example, to determine your minimum nightly consumption, how much any of your largest consumers add to the bill, and more.
How to order?
Simply contact us to get a data logger with an energy meter pulse output. If you are looking for a optical pulse counter let us know as well we offer both options combined with our iot data logger and energy monitoring solution.
