Home Energy Meter

About this project

Build a clip-on AC current meter that measures how much power any home appliance is actually drawing — without cutting a single wire or touching any live conductor. An SCT-013 current transformer clamp simply clips around one live-side wire of an appliance's power cord; it senses the magnetic field produced by the current flowing through the wire and induces a small, safe, isolated AC voltage proportional to that current. The Arduino samples this signal 1000+ times per second, calculates true RMS current, and combines it with the known 230V mains voltage to compute real power in watts — shown live on a 16x2 LCD alongside an estimated per-hour running cost in rupees. The WOW moment: clamp it onto a running fan, iron, or kettle's cord and watch the exact wattage and per-hour cost appear instantly, with zero electrical risk since nothing is ever connected to the mains itself. Build time: 2-3 hours.

What you get

• Complete, commented source code
• Full components list with quantities
• Pin-by-pin wiring guide and connection table
• Step-by-step upload and testing guide
• Project report (.docx, IEEE style)
• Presentation slides (.pptx)