Monday, April 6, 2020

Energy Monitoring

https://emporiaenergy.com/

I received one of these Friday, three days ago.  This morning, I ordered two more.  It is the best value in energy monitoring I have found.  And, the easiest to install and configure.

The best price I have found is through Amazon.  $100 plus about $13 tax for the basic unit plus the needed 8 CT expansion unit.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XYJCDYT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://energycurb.com/

Curb was my previous favorite and is quite a bit more mature and capable.

Emporia must be within wifi range, Curb uses power line communication which is likely to more easily provide the needed internet access.

Currently, Curb offers both smart phone app and browser access while Emporia offers only a smart phone app.

I find the Emporia of more value to me because I can consider monitoring isolated PV installs which do not have dedicated wires in main breaker boxes.

Both Curb and Emporia are dependent on internet access.  If your internet goes down, you do not have access to your energy data.  If the company goes out of business and quits supporting their cloud storage, your equipment likely becomes worthless.

Curb became much more useful after they were initially introduced.  Like Tesla cars, features were added and improved as time passed.  Emporia seems to be doing the same.  Emporia says that a browser interface is "coming soon".




1 comment:

  1. My Emporia system is working. (I spend too much time checking it.) It actually shows the pulsed waveforms for the Induction Cooktop; sort of a pulse width modulation. Same for the old-fashioned non-stick electric skillet. It caused me to investigate the plugged plumbing on my solar water heater system, because heating water with PV power is currently my #2 power hog. #1 is our side-by-side refrigerator/freezer which runs almost all the time, and is on the same electric circuit as the large-screen Netflix TV. I can't do much about that, but I can dis-assemble the plumbing on the water storage tank in the basement so the solar water can be used now that the outdoor temperatures and solar radiation levels have increased. My Emporia never did acknowledge Bluetooth connection with the Smartphone, but all of a sudden it started working.

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