Design your energy monitoring system

Choose what to monitor. Build your panel. Get the modules you need.

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BASIC — monitor

Live V · I · P; energy added up on your controller.

Consumption only, lowest cost per circuit.

I-series SCT-I1 / I2 / I3: live current for control.

Interface: I²C. Needs a controller (ESP32, Arduino, Raspberry Pi).

STD — account

Counters on the device, saved every second.

Import and export separately; very small loads resolved.

Interfaces: I²C, or Modbus RTU over UART TTL with an external RS-485 transceiver.

Works standalone as a Modbus meter, or on the same I²C bus as BASIC. Measured characteristics

The choice applies per point, not per house: STD where the number must be right, BASIC on the branches you only want to see. Add later, never replace.

1What to measure
2Monitor or account
3Where the data goes
4Your installation

Which one do I need?

Pick the task, not the module. We will work out the hardware — the line, the model, the sensor rating and what else you need — from your answers. Three or four questions.

Both lines measure the same things. The difference is what you can do with the numbers: BASIC is for watching a circuit — over months the small errors add up; STD counts energy on the device, in both directions, down to very small loads — for numbers you will rely on. You choose that on the next step; it applies to any task below, including single circuits.

Whole-house consumption and cost

See how much the house takes, when, and what it costs.

“I only get one number a month from the utility.”

Solar: import, export, self-consumption

Separate what came from the grid, what went to it, what you used yourself.

“Export breaks my charts; the counter jumps after a reboot.”

Individual circuits or appliances

Boiler, heat pump, workshop, the charger — each on its own line.

“One number from the meter is not enough.”

What draws power when everything is off

Find the baseline that never switches off — and which circuit it sits on.

“Everything is off and the meter still turns.”

Tenants, rooms or workshops — separate meters

One device, a meter per unit, readable by your accounting system.

“A meter per tenant, not a cabinet of meters.”

Feed an inverter, PLC or SCADA

A meter your existing system reads over Modbus RTU.

“My inverter expects a meter on RS-485.”

Control loads, react, get alerted

Live current per circuit for overload protection, balancing and routing surplus solar into heating.

“I need to act in real time, not read a counter.”

Tick one task or several — most panels end up with a meter on the input and modules on the branches; we build one combined setup.

Nothing selected yet — pick one task, or several.

Skip the wizard Continue → Monitor or account?

How will you use the energy data?

This is the only question that decides the line, and it applies per point — the input, a branch, a tenant feed.

Load control uses live current, no counters needed — any STD you add is for the accounting, not for the control loop.

Fits your tasks

Monitor and understand

BASICMeasureavailable

Live voltage, current and power; energy per period added up on your controller. Charts, trends, automations, control loops. Consumption only. Lowest cost per circuit.

Solar with BASIC: live parameters and consumption only — no separate import and export counters on the device. For export and energy balance choose STD, or Mix with STD at the input.

Fits your tasks

Measure and account

STDMeasure & Meteravailable

Energy counters stored on the device, saved every second; import and export separately; very small loads resolved. Works without a controller; Modbus RTU over an external RS-485 transceiver for other systems. For numbers you rely on.

Recommended for your tasks

Mix them: account where it matters, watch the restMix them: account where it matters, watch the rest

STD + BASICone busavailable

STD on the point where the number must be right — the input, the inverter, the tenant feed — and BASIC on the branches you only want to see. One bus, one library, one controller. This is what most panels end up with.

Not sure? A way to decide

Ask where the number ends up. If it ends up on a chart — to see when the heat pump runs, whether the workshop is on, how the evening peak looks — watching is enough, and BASIC does it at the lowest cost per circuit.

If it ends up in a report, a comparison with the utility, or a decision about money — how much the solar really gave back, what a tenant owes, whether the new boiler paid off — you want a counter that lives on the device, counts both directions and does not drift with your controller's uptime. That is STD, and it is the same answer for a single branch as for the input.

And if the thing you are hunting is small — standby, chargers, the night baseline — a clamp sized for the whole circuit will show you "something", STD will show you a number.

← Back

Choose one — or pick the mix.

Continue → Where the data goes

Where should the data go?

Who reads the module decides the interface and what else goes in the box. Pick the one you will use first — STD serves a second path later without any change.

Home Assistant

ESPHome · BASIC availableESPHome · STD in validation

The module becomes native entities in Home Assistant through our ESPHome component — a few lines of YAML, energy counters persist, Energy Dashboard works.

Adds to your setup: an ESP32 board (yours, or one we add to the list)
Interface: I²C

STD support in the ESPHome component is in validation. BASIC works today; STD over ESPHome when the component is released.

I already have the ESP32

Recommended for load control

My own code — ESP32, Arduino, Raspberry Pi

libraries · available

MIT-licensed libraries for Arduino, ESP-IDF and Python; the register map is published if you write your own driver. You decide what happens with the numbers.

Adds to your setup: your controller
Interface: I²C

For load control and alerts this is the natural path: live RMS current every window, your logic on the controller; rbDimmer or a relay as the actuator.

I already have the controller

Ready firmware

rbgrid on an ESP32 — no code

firmware · available

Our local master firmware, free for personal use: web dashboard, tariffs, local history, MQTT to Home Assistant. Flash it, adopt the modules, done. Developed on rbgrid.io.

Adds to your setup: an ESP32 board
Interface: I²C

Surplus-to-heating and similar control scenarios: an rbDimmer as the actuator, driven from the live current. [[DOCS]] rbgrid + ACRouter pairing

I already have the ESP32

Required for your task

An inverter, PLC or SCADA

Modbus RTU · STD available

The module has no RS-485 transceiver on board: it carries UART TTL and a driver-enable line, and an external RS-485 transceiver connects it to the bus.

The STD meter answers as a standalone Modbus RTU device with a profile compatible with the public SDM630/SDM120 Modbus protocol, plus its native map. No library on our side; your system reads it.

Adds to your setup: an external RS-485 transceiver
Interface: Modbus RTU over RS-485

Modbus is an STD interface. BASIC modules speak I²C only — for this path your setup will use STD on the points the other system reads.

I don't have a controller yet

No problem — we add one to the list. For watching circuits that is an ESP32 next to the modules. For an STD meter we add an ESP32 too, or you pick the Modbus path if another system will read it.

Adds to your setup: an ESP32 board, flashed with ESPHome or rbgrid — you choose on the result screen

SDM630, SDM120 and Eastron are names of a third-party manufacturer's meters, used only to state compatibility with their Modbus register protocol.

← Back

Pick the first consumer of the data.

Continue → Your installation

A few things about your panel

Only what changes the parts list: the sensor rating, the number of modules, whether we add a clamp. Nothing here changes the line you chose.

Supply at the point you meterSupply to each unit

Look at the main breaker: one pole or a wide breaker with three. Most houses are single-phase; workshops, heat pumps and three-phase inverters are often three-phase.

Single-phaseL + N, one breaker pole Three-phaseL1 L2 L3 + N

Add a main meter at the input?Optional

Branches tell you where the energy goes; a meter at the input tells you how much comes in — and, with solar, how much goes out. The sum of the branches is never the whole house.

No, branches only Yes — single-phase inputL + N Yes — three-phase inputL1 L2 L3 + N

Main breaker rating

Printed on the breaker: C25, C40, C63… This sets the current sensor: it must cover the breaker rating with headroom, and a sensor far above it loses resolution on small loads.

up to 32 A60 A sensor 40 – 63 A100 A sensor 80 – 100 A100 A sensor more than 100 Asee note

Above 100 A the kit sensors do not cover the input. STD Industrial — enclosed, interfaces and connections galvanically separated from the measurement part — is planned for this range; for now, meter the branches rather than the input, or contact us. [[DOCS]] larger-CT option

How many circuits do you want on their own channel?

Count the breakers you want to see separately. You can start with one or two and add modules later — they share the same bus.

Count the loads you want to control or watch live — each needs a current channel. Current-only modules carry 1, 2 or 3 channels.

1 2 – 3 4 – 8 more than 8

More than 8 channels: this is where multi-channel STD (UI3 / UI5 / UI7 / UI15, planned) and the rbAmp Hub (in development) come in. Today: several modules on one bus — the parts list shows how many. [[DOCS]] max modules per bus

How many separate meters — tenants, rooms, workshops?

One STD meter per unit. Each keeps its own import/export counters and answers on the bus as its own unit.

2 3 – 4 5 – 8 more than 8

Add some circuits or appliances to the meter?Optional

A whole-house meter tells you how much. A few branches — the boiler, the heat pump, the workshop, the charger — tell you where. Same bus, read by the same controller.

A whole-house meter tells you how much. A few branches — the boiler, the heat pump, the workshop, the charger — tell you where. On the STD line that will be one multi-channel meter with its own counters per channel (planned); today, one STD-UI1 per branch.

No, just the meter 1 circuit 2 – 3 4 – 8 more than 8

Do you already have SCT-013 clamps?

BASIC modules accept the common SCT-013 split-core clamps (the 1 V output type). If you have them, we leave the clamp out and you keep the cost down.

No — include a clampmodule + clamp Yes, I have SCT-013module only I prefer a fixed solid-core CTBASIC CT-UI1

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Answer the questions above.

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Your setup

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Prices, stock and exact sensor options are read from the product cards. Planned items are shown for orientation and are not added to the cart.

	BASIC	STD	Hub [[PAGE: /products/hub]]	Industrial [[PAGE: /products/industrial]]
Role	Measure	Measure & Meter	Connect	Measure & Meter, enclosed
Energy on the device	no (master computes)	yes, counters saved every second	on the hub	yes
Direction (import/export)	consumption only	yes, two counters	via modules	yes
Interfaces	I²C	I²C, or Modbus RTU (ext. RS-485)	by shield	Modbus, CAN
Phases	1	1 or 3	1 or 3	1 or 3
Sensor	your SCT-013 or paired CT	in the kit, calibrated and labelled	—	in the kit
Standalone	no (needs a master)	yes (Modbus RTU, ext. RS-485)	yes	yes
Trust	SCT-013 characteristics per rating	event log, device certificate, signed records, signed firmware	—	like STD
Build	open	open, DIN-clip enclosure	open shield format	enclosed with display
Status	available	available	in development	planned