Fusion Energy Smart Home Energy Monitor with 16 50A Circuit Level Sensors

🚧 Developers
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Just wanted to document the Fusion Energy Monitor. @129 on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D6VZQBPF?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

I almost bought the Emporia Vue 3 for $200 but found that the Fusion model had MQTT output for local monitoring.

Things I liked
PRICE
snap on CT's (you dont have to remove wires)
nice phone app to see graphs and setup notifications
mqtt messaging for local monitoring into Hubitat
Ability to not send to cloud
support responds the same night
Upcoming release will merge multiple units (if you need>16)

Here is the details and driver

Here is example pic of device page

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Here is an example pic of app

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Yeah, the above is the part that's exciting to me - 16 sensors just isn't enought, as I have 2 x 200A panels.. - I'm actually using a Brultech GEM, and I had to make "compromises" to fit into 32 circuits.

Do they have any plans to support "generic" pulse counters (flow), or 1-wire temp sensors?
The MQTT interface is a nice interface (versus the Brultech and the need for some Python on a rPI), as well as the $130 price is impressive.

Just need a bunch more than 16 channels. - Does it have support for solar and netmetering for circuits with "negative" power flow into the panel?

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The Brultech/GEM now has an adapter board inside it ("ESP-Wifi") that speaks MQTT natively. You can reach out to their sales team to buy one to retrofit to older GEM's (which is what I did).

Their module was done for easier GEM/HA integration, but a HE driver wouldn't be difficult... you could also use [RELEASE] Simple MQTT Client Driver, which is what I'm using to pull in my GEM data.

NB: It's on my todo list to cutover from my Python/rPi/MQTT driver to use the native GEM MQTT support.

I'd still need the MQTT Broker (as we all do). Some of the python code, to bridge my Solar data to PVOutput.org would be needed in my env also

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Yes there is solar panel support and it tracks EnergyIn and EnergyOut

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Can you please clarify - are you saying that
a. the linked Simple MQTT Client Driver can be installed on Hubitat
b. it could theoretically be possible to get the Fusion Energy Monitor data direct into Hubitat without another computer via this Simple MQTT Client Driver?

Eta: In the reviews, users point out privacy issues and that the thing apparently phones home even in "Super Privacy Mode."...

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thats a great question.... and i was interested in the answer....i asked chatGPT and it said " Short answer: No, not directly. Your Fusion Energy monitor must have a broker in between, because that’s how MQTT works. Hubitat can only subscribe via a broker"

Also I asked the company if they support a generic pulse counter and they said "no"

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btw, I setup the mqtt broker using Docker on my always on Windows 10 PC so it really doesn't cost anything. Instructions are included on setting up on Docker.

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a. the linked Simple MQTT Client Driver can be installed on Hubitat

If it fits the bill for the messages you're reading in, then yes. That said, if there's a type-specific Device driver, matching the functionality needed, then I'd use that instead (like what @tim.ocallag has posted in here).

There are certain trade-offs in using generic drivers. In this case, the tradeoffs just happen to work nearly perfectly for my energy (MQTT) datafeed.

For me, using my GEM's MQTT format, this came down to:

  • One Child device in HE per EMS Power monitoring channel (for rules, graphing, etc)
  • No complex (JSON) values needing deep post-processing
  • Easily add new Channels without digging into config files
  • Driver source code so I could tweak stuff
  • Support for basic/primitive values, so things like WatchTower work easily

Notes: HA's MQTT format allows for auto-[re]discovery of children, datatypes, etc. When I make the switch to using the HA MQTT format, vs GEM-MQTT, I'll revisit whether I need a custom Driver to handle it.

Also on the todo list :slight_smile:

b. it could theoretically be possible to get the Fusion Energy Monitor data direct into Hubitat without another computer via this Simple MQTT Client Driver?

Nope. Until HE has a natively integrated, presumably optional, MQTT Broker, you'll always have one of these running externally [in the middle, an another box] between measurement device and HE.

In my case, the thing that's running the GEM <-> MQTT converter code (btmon.py with MQTT extensions) is also running my MQTT Broker (mosquitto).

This is running 110 active MQTT topics (power, energy, volts, temperature, etc) - attached to a dedicated C8 Pro, since it's a lot to process and gather :wink:

In the reviews, users point out privacy issues and that the thing apparently phones home even in "Super Privacy Mode."...

Yeah, I found that amusing. Folks with more advanced Networking gear can work-around that easily, but it's PITA to have to.

I recently found one of my devices sending data to China-mobile IP's. Worked with the vendor to fix that up, but will leave all my Router-rules to prevent most of the common abuse cases... along with some dodgy DNS behavior they implemented - hard-coded 8.8.8.8 (who would do that), calling it with incorrect ports (80, 443 and 22) not just the plain-text DNS port)

My car makes NTP (Time protocol) calls all over the world, so there's lots of cloud-enabled things that need to be fixed...