Power Meter

2003 Winter

I saw a web page describing a circuit to measure the power consumption using a laser pointer and the existing power meter. I wanted to know if all the power saving features of the house (designed and built by my father in law) actually saved energy, I set out to build an interface to the power meter.

2005 Winter

I redesigned the detector circuit to introduce some gain in the differentiator. My biggest problem has been the mechanical alignment of the laser pointer and the detector circuit. Here are some preliminary shots. You can see the indoor circuit, the first attempt at the outdoor circuit, and the second attempt at the outdoor circuit using the turnbuckles as stabilizers.