first project, need advice

Development Boards Arduino
1

I am adding 3 lights to the back of my house and wanted to control them with an Arduino. Everything is working fine , i just wanted to see what it would take to extend my current setup to be able to measure the current used by the devices i can switching.

i am running 3 lights independently off of 3 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9096

i know how much power the lights use because they say so, i just want to be able to measure it with the Arduino for other devices.

My hope would be something doable with an Arduino, and can measure up to 20A with some accuracy.

Thanks for the help!

2

You “could” just look at the watt-rating of the light bulbs, or measure with a Kill-A-Watt device. Then program that into your Arduino.

To directly measure, you’d need a current sensing transformer (inductive). The guys on the Homeseer.com forum do this.