Read Utility Meters via SDR to Fill Out Smart Home Stats

Jeff Sandberg put significant effort into enhancing his home’s solar and battery storage system, but his energy usage statistics remained incomplete. To solve this, he used an RTL-SDR (software-defined radio) to read data from his utility meter, filling in the missing information. The results have been positive, and the same method could potentially be applied to monitor gas and water usage as well.

Jeff’s home automation system, which runs on open-source software Home Assistant, integrates well with his solar and battery setup. However, due to the way his house is wired, Home Assistant only tracks about half of his total energy consumption. His heavy appliances, for instance, draw power directly from the utility company and bypass the solar and battery systems, resulting in incomplete energy statistics.

Fortunately, in the U.S., many smart meters broadcast their data in a way that can be intercepted by affordable devices like RTL-SDR. This allowed Jeff to capture the missing data and gain a fuller understanding of his household’s total energy usage.

While the concept of gathering data from utility meters is straightforward, integrating this into his system required some effort. For anyone facing similar challenges, Jeff’s documentation provides useful insights and ideas for implementing such a solution.

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