OBI ENERGY TRACKER: Affordable smart meter with Home Assistant

Understanding your own electricity consumption better is an important step towards reducing energy costs. With the OBI ENERGY TRACKEROBI offers a solution that reads the digital electricity meter and clearly displays the consumption data in the heyOBI app. Installation requires no modifications to the electrical wiring and can be carried out by the user in just a few steps.

We have already the FRITZ! Smart Energy 250 We have thoroughly tested and demonstrated how to integrate this into Home Assistant. With the OBI ENERGY TRACKER, another solution is now available that records the electricity consumption of a digital electricity meter and can be integrated into Home Assistant.

Easy installation on the digital electricity meter

The OBI ENERGY TRACKER consists of a sensor and a bridge. The sensor is attached to the optical D0 interface of the digital electricity meter and reads the measured values provided there. This interface can be located on the front or top of the electricity meter. The bridge then connects the sensor to the home Wi-Fi network and transmits the data, encrypted, to the heyOBI app.

OBI recommends a compatibility check before setting up the system. On the Product page Users can check whether their digital electricity meter is supported. For some meter models, a PIN from the respective network operator is also required to unlock the complete data set of the electricity meter.

Easily analyze electricity consumption

The ENERGY TRACKER is set up and used via the free heyOBI app for Android and iOS. The app clearly displays the meter readings and analyzes them over various time periods. This gives users a better overview of their energy consumption and allows them to track how their electricity usage develops over the course of a day, week, or month.

Integration with Home Assistant possible

In addition to the official use via the heyOBI app, a community solution for Home Assistant is already available. The OBI ENERGY TRACKER can be integrated into Home Assistant today via a custom integration for the Home Assistant Community Store (HACS). This integration uses the data from the heyOBI account and makes the meter readings directly available as sensors in Home Assistant.

This allows consumption data to be used, for example, in the Energy Dashboard It can be used or integrated into automation systems. This allows current electricity consumption to be combined with balcony power plants, battery storage systems, or other devices and used for intelligent energy management.

Encrypted data transmission

According to OBI, the electricity meter data recorded by the sensor is transmitted to the backend in encrypted form. Only technically necessary information, such as network access data and certificates, is stored on the device itself. The actual consumption data is processed on the servers and then visualized in the heyOBI app.

Conclusion

With a RRP of €29.99 counts OBI ENERGY TRACKER* Among the most affordable smart meters on the market. Especially for beginners or owners of a Balcony power plant* The system thus offers a comparatively inexpensive entry into monitoring one's own electricity consumption.

Possible alternatives can be found here:

Source/Photo: ( Obi / Amazon / Chrissmart / city of Bremerhaven )