Company
Date Published
Author
Julie Dam
Word count
788
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Erwin de Keijzer, a Linux engineer, creatively used Prometheus and Grafana to monitor his washing machine's power usage at home, despite not achieving his initial goal of receiving notifications when the machine was done. By connecting his Raspberry Pi Zero to his smart energy meter, Erwin collected data and used Prometheus to scrape and Grafana to visualize the metrics, although the graphs did not provide a clear indication of the washing machine's completion. Nevertheless, his setup provided valuable insights into his household's power consumption patterns, revealing unexpected information such as the refrigerator's nighttime power draw and distinctions between peak and off-peak electricity usage, allowing him to identify cost-saving opportunities. While he still manually checks his laundry, Erwin's project showcases an innovative application of these technologies for personal energy monitoring.