Emporia Gen 3 Smart Home Energy Monitor with 16 50A Circuit Level Sensors | Home Energy Automation and Control | Real Time Electricity Monitor/Meter | Solar/Net Metering

I ordered this to compliment my Sense energy monitor. I’ve been using Sense for several years and while that was great for some things, it didn’t give me enough information on what was actually using power. The Emporia functions differently than Sense, and each have pros and cons.From an installation standpoint, Sense was much easier because it doesn’t need individual circuit sensors. My circuit breaker panel was very crowded to begin with, and it was a challenge to get the 18 CT clamps in place for the Emporia and now my panel looks very messy inside.I get much more accurate readings with the Emporia than I do with Sense. Emporia shows the actual power being consumed by each circuit, where Sense only makes a guess at each detected device. For example, Sense detected my heat pump compressor, but it always uses the same power value when it detects that it turns on so it always reports 3.2kW. With Emporia’s sensor directly at the circuit breaker, I can see that the power ranges between 2.8kW and 4.2kW depending on the outside temperature. During the hot summer months, Sense will drastically under count my heat pump’s consumption.From an app standpoint, I like Sense a lot better. The Emporia app looks very dated in comparison, but it does what it is supposed to I guess. There are some things that I wish it could do, like let you pinch or spread to adjust the graphed data.There are also some things that should be a feature but aren’t for some reason. For example, I can’t set it up to get accurate readings for my clothes dryer in one entry. My dryer uses 240V for the heating element, but it uses a single 120V leg for everything else including the tumbler motor. I have a clamp on each leg so I can see the total power consumed, but it’s in two separate circuits that I have to add together. It should be easy to combine both into one sensor and let the app do the math, but this isn’t an option. On the Emporia forums it seems like this is an common request and Emporia says that it will be implemented “soon”, but they have been saying this for years so “soon” must have another meaning for them.It’s very handy for keeping an eye on malfunctions. I have a septic system that has an always-on aerator pump. When something goes wrong with the system, the pump turns off. I have an alert set up so that I get a notification if the pump stops working so I immediately know if there is a problem.I use Home Assistant at my home, and it was very easy to integrate the Emporia data into it. It works very well.It’s hard for me to say which is better, Sense or Emporia, because each one is so different. Sense is better at displaying real-time information, but Emporia is much more accurate on an individual circuit basis. The Sense app seems to be generations ahead of the Emporia app.

First, although I ordered the 16 sensor version it wasn't clear that the 2 main supply sensors were included. They were. Installation is messy in a 200 amp box but doable.The software is the best software I've encountered - and I do programming myself. Response is almost instant and the displays are extremely well thought out, easy to use and as far as I can see fault free. I don't think I've ever gotten a program for a cell phone where I didn't see things I would like to change but this one rings all the bells. 5 star!.My utility supplier is Dominion. They supply 15 min data via downloads but it takes them 2 days to get it on the internet and then it's only Main Use. This thing is instant. Want to know which breaker serves a particular outlet? Just plug something in and watch which circuit changes. Zip a do! instant wiring tracing.Likewise I can watch the performance of my heat pump in real time and see immediately how it responds to changes in the thermostat. Graphs are instant with easy movement back in time.This thing has the potential as a great way to monitor heat pump performance in rental units remotely.I do have some concern about the long term viability of the product since it sends the data to Emporia and you are totally dependent on them for it to function. If they go under or are bought by a less than ethical company then they have the right to turn it off - or I guess they could start charging a subscription fee for use. All in all though a great buy.

We are using much more electricity than I anticipated, so I had the utility company investigate the meter and also ordered the new Emporia Vue Gen3.The instructions for setting up the device are very straightforward and in my case, we have a modern load center and it can be done easily by a handy person.That being said, you are operating in an area where you can easily electrocute yourself when not paying attention. If in doubt, let a licensed electrician do this.The hookup with a modern panel that has enough room will take somewhere in the realm of 15 minutes. YMMV with older installations.Now the amazing piece is, that the accuracy of this device is easily within 1% of what the utility company claims. I am very impressed with how quickly and accurately the device measures the load and displays changes.You can look at the consumption at different resolutions: A given circuit's usage per Second, Minute, Hour, Day, Week, Month, and so on.The finest levels of resolution like Second or Minute are only kept for a limited amount of time (nobody will scroll back that far anyway), but the coarser resolutions will be kept indefinitely.This system works incredibly well. I can see in the finest resolution if I turn a device on or off immediately. But when I look back on how much my Water Heater used last week I need seldom a finer resolution than the hour.If the 16 sensors aren't enough you can either shuffle them around or buy a 2nd Vue and nest them to get more coverage.Alternatively, if you have more circuits than sensors, or, if you want to monitor devices on a given circuit separately you can add Emporia Smart Plugs. That allows you to single out power hogs or add more monitoring capabilities without having to buy another full Vue. Once you nest the plugs into your setup the graphs are smart enough to display your usage correctly.I am very happy with the device and can wholeheartedly recommend it at this point.We figured out that our AC is running a lot more than it should because the insulation in the attic is sub-par and a bunch of devices that didn't need to run were wasting energy in the house. Effectively the Vue has already paid for itself.