DIY Energy consumption counter for power meters

thingiverse

My Energy company would not deliver a pulse output from my power meter so I decided to pull the pulse output from the LED diode that is blinking 500 times per kWh. The instant value shown in the photos are just an average over the last 60 seconds. This is done in various projects around the web so it's not my idea in the first place and there is commercial projects also. I used a TSL257-LF Light to Voltage Converter Sensor connected to a Loxone PLC. This sensor doesn't accept 24V input so I set a analoge output on the PLC to 5V constant and connected VDD to the analoge output, ground to common ground and the sensor output to one analoge input on the loxone. I then set a trigger on that input for 3Volts and used the "digital" signal as a input on a counter block. This can all be done on a arduino or something similar also. The STL file provided fits the sensor and I hooked it up with double sided tape to the power meter. It's important to block outside light good as the sensor can trigger from ambient light changes if it's not blocked off good enough.