rtlamr VS Tasmota

My municipal water meter transmits readings in the clear on the 915 MHz band. There's a neat program to catch the readings: https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr

Great - thanks for sharing this! I have an enphase system that shows me my production in HA, and I can read my solar and net meters using rtlamr to figure out consumption. I use the Utility Meter helper to create a sensor showing my current net meter change. When this number is negative, I'm sending energy to the grid, and when it's positive, I'm taking energy from the grid. What I'm trying to figure out is how to create sensors that will be acceptable to the Energy Dashboard so that I can get nice graphics like you have. showing how much energy is going to or from the grid. Any help greatly appreciated.

this varies by meter but if you are into tech you can listen for the broadcasts with a rtl-sdr and https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr software

Using an RTL-SDR device configured to read meter data. I have it connected to my HomeAssistant smarthome setup to log the data and populate energy usage dashboards.

I disagree, 20 quid dongle on amazon and rtlamr allows you to read many common meters. From usage you can tell when someone is cooking, showering, or not at home. Thieves already use more advanced tech to steal cars so it's only a matter of time before this is used to scope houses for burglaries.

Absolutely! I'm using a Nooelec NESDR Mini as a Software Defined Radio connected to a raspberry pi that's running a program called RTLAMR, which will pickup all the Automated Meter Reader signals in the area. There's some research you'll have to do to find your meter ID, manufacturer, and protocol, but once you have it narrowed down to your meter you can publish the entries to an MQTT instance using rtlamr2mqtt, where Home Assistant can pick it up and use it to track your total energy consumption.

Smart meters for electricity/gas/water: https://github.com/bemasher/rtlamr

All of my office devices are connected to Sonoff S31 smart plugs, flashed with Tasmota on their own locked-down VLAN, and can be controlled via voice, Alexa, Tasker automation on my Android, NFC tags at my office door and various scripts triggered via my StreamDeck (on Linux). This all works fantastic, and I can turn on or off my devices, including my printer, when I start or end my day at work.

The best alternative firmware example for true IOT devices is Tasmota [1]. Erase manufacturer firmware for every ESP devices the day after purchase to avoid those careless manufacturer firmwares.

[1] https://tasmota.github.io/docs/

The ESP8266 based Sonoff S31 and ESP32 based Switchbot plugs, both flashed with either Tasmota or ESPHome, are my go-to options for US WiFi smart plugs with power monitoring.

And if you want to turn your ESP8266 into a standalone appliance, with a web interface and directly editable config that doesn't need a build step, Tasmota is another great option.

https://tasmota.github.io/docs/