Home Energy Centre: Monitoring Solar PV, Thermal Panels, and Room Temperatures with Raspberry Pi and Moteino

Introduction

After using a Raspberry Pi to log my household electricity consumption, I installed Solar Thermal Hot Water panels and, more recently, Solar PV. That gave me the chance to build a portable “Home Energy Centre” (HEC) – a dashboard that displays real‑time energy production, consumption, and environmental data. In this post I share the design decisions, the hardware I chose, and the challenges I overcame to get the system up and running.

The HEC runs on a Nook Simple Touch tablet, which I purchased during National Book Week for just £21. Its affordability, built‑in Wi‑Fi, and hackability made it an ideal platform for a home energy dashboard.

Why the Nook?

1. Extremely low cost.
2. Integrated Wi‑Fi.
3. Easy to modify with Nook Manager.
4. Long battery life (≈1 week with continuous Wi‑Fi and screen refresh).
5. Touch screen for intuitive interaction.
6. Compact size – fits in a frame or on a fridge with magnetic tape.
7. Reusable as an e‑book reader.

The dashboard is delivered via the Nook’s web browser, so it can be viewed on any device with a browser – PC, laptop, or mobile phone. The screen is divided into three primary columns:

• Left column: Solar PV performance – real‑time power generation, export status, and cumulative daily totals.
• Middle column: Solar thermal panel status – panel temperature, tank water temperature, pump speed (%), total pump runtime, and daily temperature gain.
• Right column: Current local weather information.

At the bottom of the display are three navigation buttons. The left button links to a detailed graph of electricity consumption (see the earlier blog post). Having all of this information in one place helps the household decide when to run appliances, when to heat water with the central gas system, and how to optimize energy use.

Behind the scenes, a Moteino board collects temperature data from the solar panels and hot water tank, and a Raspberry Pi aggregates the sensor readings, handles Wi‑Fi communication, and serves the web dashboard. Together, they form a reliable, low‑cost system that enhances energy awareness and promotes sustainable living.

For more details on the full setup and code, refer to the linked resources in the original post.