whole house power monitor is soooooo cool!
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BentleyJ
Solar Wizard
Many of us use Emporia Vue. Low price vs. features is probably the best value. Some on the forum don't like the fact it is cloud based and doesn't keep 1 second data long enough. This is what I use with 10 CT's. Accuracy is good.
IoTaWatt is highly recommended also, costs more but affords more privacy and has better data collection per others on the forum.
The Energy Detective (TED) is a brand I've used previously and liked but their new 2.0 version is not out yet and the older models are all discontinued.
Brueltech is another lesser known brand. Still have one of their OLD devices, still works. Just 2 channels though.
Sense is NOT recommended as many have found it doesn't do a good job of "learning" how to distinguish your branch circuit loads simply by their electrical signature.
IoTaWatt is highly recommended also, costs more but affords more privacy and has better data collection per others on the forum.
The Energy Detective (TED) is a brand I've used previously and liked but their new 2.0 version is not out yet and the older models are all discontinued.
Brueltech is another lesser known brand. Still have one of their OLD devices, still works. Just 2 channels though.
Sense is NOT recommended as many have found it doesn't do a good job of "learning" how to distinguish your branch circuit loads simply by their electrical signature.
TED is total junk. I owned there product and nothing but issues. I don't see them making anything better in there next version.
You left one out that is opensource. I have been using it for a very long time. You can build yourself or buy it ready to go.
Home | OpenEnergyMonitor
Good Luck finding something you are happy with.
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Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
Emporia Vue is a great option, live monitoring with hour/day/month totals on each of 16 circuits plus the main grid connection.
However it is more difficult to install as you have to clip the clamps over each circuit inside your panel, but well worth it.
However it is more difficult to install as you have to clip the clamps over each circuit inside your panel, but well worth it.
BentleyJ
Solar Wizard
I wouldn't say TED is total junk but it did have some issues initially with Power Line Communication until filters were added. Accuracy was acceptable but not great. Worked well for several years. What I liked about TED was the user interface, in particular the gauges.
Will add OpenEnergyMonitor to my list.
corn18
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Dang, this emporia vue is awesome. Finding stuff that is a constant drain. Our iMac with external raid was drawing 200W all the time. Turns out it wasn't going into sleep mode. Fixed that. We have a fridge and a separate freezer in the garage. They are drawing 260W almost constantly. Turns out I had them set to the lowest setting. Set them to the recommended. Have a couple of thermometers on the way to track the temp.
Between those two, that's 560W almost constant draw. The emporia has paid for itself already.
Between those two, that's 560W almost constant draw. The emporia has paid for itself already.
corn18
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This power monitoring stuff is cool. When I first installed it, we were idling at 1500W. Have that down to 700W. We had stuff running all over the place. The dang TV was always on as background noise and that was 160W with the Dolby 7.1 surround system.
corn18
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Well, it turns out our freezer in the garage never stops. Didn't know that. I remember replacing the thermostat control panel years ago but never paid attention to whether it was working. So our freezer that we paid $200 for 10 years ago has probably cost me thousands in wasted energy bills. DW said she will work on consolidating out frozen stuff down to our two refrigerators with freezers and we can just get rid of that freezer.
It doesn't record 1 second data at all unless you are actively watching it in the app. It gives you a 1 second resolution file with the readings repeated 60 times to kind of fake it. They went to a lot of work to make it look like you get 1 second data and then not give it to you generally. All that to save about 200 K bytes of storage per user, which is trivial these days.
If you want to look at long term energy use, it is okay.
If you want to know what your peak power is so you can size your inverter or other parts of the system, its really no good at that.
I intend to swap mine to ESPHome which will provide much better data, but that's a bit of a chore to do.
The Vue 2 has problems with reliable connections to the CTs. It uses small phone plugs that ten to come out or make partial contact.
The Vue 3 improves on this with pluggable header connections which will be more reliable. Vue 3 also adds an Ethernet port for when Wifi doesn't cut it.
Most installs are cover off, but I put them back on for safety.
Mike C.
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luckielab
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Their Smart Plugs are pretty cool too. My fridge isn't the only thing on its circuit, so I have it plugged into a Smart Plug so I can see its actual usage. I noticed my Laundry Room wasn't really interesting to watch at the circuit level [it's just the washing machine + overhead light], so I plugged the washing machine into a Smart Plug and moved the CT to monitor a different circuit.
corn18
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I am still trying to track down 200W of unaccounted for usage. I have two CT sensors left and can't find the circuit(s) that are using that 200W. Haven't tried very hard yet. Maybe a project for today.
I did have to put two CT sensors on the dryer circuit. I guess the dryer is wired to pull different amounts from each 120V leg. Just using the x2 multiplier gave inaccurate results.
I did have to put two CT sensors on the dryer circuit. I guess the dryer is wired to pull different amounts from each 120V leg. Just using the x2 multiplier gave inaccurate results.
I wrote some firmware to enable BK7321 smart plugs (the ones based on BL0942) to measure whole house consumption. While it is still on experimental phase, I'm using it with good results. It can be integrated in Home assistant.
The measuring device would likelly be this or preferably (but limited to 16A) this which is a lot easier to work with.
I'm working on making a mod using CT clamps for ease of instalation. If someone knows of one such device, kindly advise, maybe we don't need to mod anything.
They must be based on BK7231 (sometimes you can change this as it's a separate card, if you come from a ESP8266 or other) and energy metering IC BL0942 (generally not replaceable so choose a board with this - You can distinguish it from others at it has 10 pins instead of 8).
With the default firmware they don't measure the direction of AC power, so you need to flash my firmware here.
You can find instructions on the Elektroda forum under smart home, similar to flashing an ESP8266 via serial.
I use two of these as I draw power from 2 phases. Not a problem if you use home assistant, as you can add several meters to import and export.
The measuring device would likelly be this or preferably (but limited to 16A) this which is a lot easier to work with.
I'm working on making a mod using CT clamps for ease of instalation. If someone knows of one such device, kindly advise, maybe we don't need to mod anything.
They must be based on BK7231 (sometimes you can change this as it's a separate card, if you come from a ESP8266 or other) and energy metering IC BL0942 (generally not replaceable so choose a board with this - You can distinguish it from others at it has 10 pins instead of 8).
With the default firmware they don't measure the direction of AC power, so you need to flash my firmware here.
You can find instructions on the Elektroda forum under smart home, similar to flashing an ESP8266 via serial.
I use two of these as I draw power from 2 phases. Not a problem if you use home assistant, as you can add several meters to import and export.
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justinm001
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Who's your power company? I just found out home assistant has an integration called opower which can login to some electric companies and pull data right from the meter. It's 2 day old data though which kinda sucks but free. I have 2 houses in WV under Appalachian Power and pulling this. I have 2 offices in OH with AEP and it doesn't work, so guess it doesn't like business accts. My main homes a coop and doesn't work.
I have sense on one of my houses and it's pretty cool guessing the devices based on power. All my houses have multiple panels so I can only monitor part with a meter unless I want to buy multiple.
If my Victron energy meter ever gets delivered I'll be able to use my RV to monitor one of my main house panels. I setup a solaredge inverter to monitor the other and tossed a few panels on the grass to test with.
I have sense on one of my houses and it's pretty cool guessing the devices based on power. All my houses have multiple panels so I can only monitor part with a meter unless I want to buy multiple.
If my Victron energy meter ever gets delivered I'll be able to use my RV to monitor one of my main house panels. I setup a solaredge inverter to monitor the other and tossed a few panels on the grass to test with.
I have data, usually from the day before.
But I need real time metering data to run automations, such as turn on loads or inject into the grid to ofset consumption, if I have spare storage left at night.
With this data I can also set my inverter to dinamically adjust export. For example rank it to full solar capacity to supply household loads, but keep it under 16A export to comply with G98 specs.
Those with an electric car can also use it to set the charge rate real time, based on export. EV chargers can easily change their output, a feature which is very under utilized, considering The SAE_J1772 standard supports it since 2009!
PotusGobbleBottom
Corn Pop was a bad dude.
This was my observation as well.
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