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Power Monitoring: Emporia Vue

...Program controller so that whenever primary fridge is on a drawing more-than-standby current, chest freezer switch turn off so that if chest freezer was running, it stops, and if it was already off, it is prevented from turning on until primary fridge is off again....
You might want to think about a temperature sensor in the chest freezer too, such that if it starts getting to warm it pre-empts the others for 15 minutes or sends you a text message to alert you.
 
No WiFi? Needs a physical ethernet cable?
It uses a physical internet cable for those devices (wifi) & activities (reading realtime watts from my Enphase (LAN)) that only can interact that way. Also for s/w upgrades.
But it runs just fine controlling local zwave and zigbee devices with no cable and no internet.
What are they used for anyway? With SmartThings I send text messages to my cell phone to get alerts of things I need to take action on... what do you do to avoid the internet for those types of things?
I leave the network plugged in. I do use it to send me txt messages for alerts. But it will keep running the rules independent of the network.
In fact I have mine running off a little 3000mAh Li battery (charge while power) so it keeps going thru outages and can continue monitoring battery based Zwave & zigbee devices.
I also like the privacy, and plausibly better cyber security since control is all local.
 
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I've been running a Gen2 Vue for a while now - love it.
its accurate (comparing to fronius inverter), does import/export on mains & any link labelled "solar/generation" (theyre working on others and has been super useful.
Its a great package, has a HUGE amount of inputs - i'm using 14 right now. The app is nice & clean too.

I've found a dodgy AC unit consuming 300W in standby, understood what circuits my power points are on, and control my water heater & other things. Superb value for money.

Wifi has been fine.
The only trick when setting up is you need ~1kw of power consumption on all mains circuits so it sets up correctly & detects the right direction.
They're a small company & support has been OK, but they could do with more support & developers.
 
The Emporia Vue is a possible power monitoring solution... currently $109 for 8 ports. A number of members like jasonhc73 have given it a thumbs up (see search for more) but also warns it doesn't distinguish between consumption and production in this post.

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Considering current sensors start around $10/each price seems good (although the accuracy of the current sensors might be questionable).
Reviews indicate accuracy is around 2% with the Gen 2... that's probably not including voltage deviations (e.g., 10 amps at 120V is 1200 watts, but if your voltage is 117, then only 1170 watts). App assumes PF=1.

Questions
  1. Any buyer's remorse or better products?
  2. Has anyone done any packet sniffing to see how tough it would be to integrate with a home-brew program to access the raw data over the WiFi? Any packet captures that could be shared?
I just installed the Gen 2 with 16 50amp monitors. It is VERY cool to see what lines are consuming how much wattage. I wish the updates were continuous vs one minute, as you have to turn things on and off and wait a bit to see the effect.
That is my only gripe. The software is simple and intuitive, and its brain dead simple to install. I am new to this, ans am hoping they have different size sensors, as the 50amp are a tight fit in a small box. They seem to fit up to #6awg wire. I have some #4 going to my AC system I wish I could monitor directly, but the main sensors seem to pick up when the AC kicks on (Two 3.5 ton Trane units).
I was surprised to find that the AC only spikes to 6KW on start, then drops to 4KW while running. I will be installing a set of Micro-Air easy start devices for the AC which should reduce the start-up amps by half.
I am surprised to see that at night, with lights on, TV, Computers and AC, I could run the house on less than the max power of a single LV6548.(I need two though for the split phase 240V, one on each leg, which is what I have. Very enlightening! This Emporia is paying for itself already. I am thinking of getting another so I can monitor ALL my breakers (its a BIG box).
 
I wish the updates were continuous vs one minute, as you have to turn things on and off and wait a bit to see the effect.
That is my only gripe. The software is simple and intuitive, and its brain dead simple to install. I am new to this, ans am hoping they have different size sensors, as the 50amp are a tight fit in a small box. They seem to fit up to #6awg wire. I have some #4 going to my AC system I wish I could monitor directly, but the main sensors seem to pick up when the AC kicks on (Two 3.5 ton Trane units).
The App allows you to monitor by the second (which i use frequently!), and there's about a 4 second delay - so its pretty much live. I used it to map out every power point & light to my circuit breakers in the house.

The sensors are generic, look for KCT10 clamps, 50A / 0.333v - The '10' refers to the opening in MM, if you're US based thats about 18 fathoms i think.
You can also get KCT16 which are larger, in the same specification 50A/0.333v
Have a look on Aliexpress or equiv & you should be able to find the right size.
 
The App allows you to monitor by the second (which i use frequently!), and there's about a 4 second delay - so its pretty much live. I used it to map out every power point & light to my circuit breakers in the house.

The sensors are generic, look for KCT10 clamps, 50A / 0.333v - The '10' refers to the opening in MM, if you're US based thats about 18 fathoms i think.
You can also get KCT16 which are larger, in the same specification 50A/0.333v
Have a look on Aliexpress or equiv & you should be able to find the right size.
Great to know! Thanks! This thing is pretty cool. I am just now getting to know the interface. Fairly intuitive. Well worth the money.
 
I just installed the Gen 2 with 16 50amp monitors.
The smart plugs can be useful if you're looking to monitor specific devices over time. You can associate them with the circuit that they're plugged into, like below where I have smart lugs on a CPAP and air purifier on my master bedroom circuit.

I was surprised at how inexpensive they are.

IMG_B66A838F56D7-1.jpeg
 
I agree too, but I'm a little worried about what happens if the company doesn't do well (since this is a cloud-only gizmo at the moment).
Agreed. It would be much nicer if the app could export an excel file or comma delimited text output to have offline and run through third party tools.
 
I am planning on selling my home and moving into a to-be-built cabin on a big piece of land (farm) I and my girlfriend own. I'm wanting to go completely off grid, it's just the two of us, and we're not big energy consumers. The big power hogs can be gas (clothes dryer, oven, water heater)

I wanted to get an idea of what my power usage is and ordered an Emporia Vue on Amazon... delivered today. One of the two 200 amp CT clamps is bad.

However, emporia support was awesome, especially for 6pm the day before a holiday. Spent a few minutes with them chatting and they are shipping a new clamp to me. In the mean time I'll see if I can figure out why the clamp is bad... I know they aren't that complicated.
 
Agreed. It would be much nicer if the app could export an excel file or comma delimited text output to have offline and run through third party tools.
You can, you can get your data emailed to you historically through the app.
You could possibly automate this.

I use Home Assistant & API poll the data to get it out, using a rasbperry Pi script
 
There is a github project, https://github.com/magico13/PyEmVue that piggybacks on the Emporia cloud to get data directly for Emporia devices, including the Vue power monitor, and their EVSE. I installed the Emporia EVSE recently and set it up with my other RPi controls to automatically control the EV charging speed depending on the available excess solar. That is a feature they support with the cloud and their phone or web app, if you use the Vue power monitor and smartplugs or the EVSE. And even though my RPi is tossing commands at the EVSE when the sun is out, to turn it up or down, I can still use the app from my phone to set timers, schedules and speed manually.

I didn't install the Vue power monitor that came bundled with the EVSE yet. Folks have also figured out how to put esphome on it, and use it just locally, which I would like to do. This also enables to gets around the absolute value function that Emporia uses in their app on individual current sensors. I'm not sure if folks have made it calculate power factor yet, but I would like that for sure.
 
During grid-down I backfeed my panel from a dedicated 20A tandem breaker. Feeds the same 120V to both busbars, all 240V breakers off.

Would be great to also monitor the individual power draws on the 2500W inverter. Do you feel the Emporia Vue will function this way? May be as simple as reversing the pickup on the backfeed breaker.
 
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