When I searched the forum for recommendations on energy monitors that work with Hubitat, the overwhelming consensus seems to be IoTaWatt. Unfortunately, I missed the window to buy one in the US, at least until a distributor is established here.
In the meantime, what's in second place? I have no experience with these so I am unsure how important the automation aspect is compared to the reporting features. I don't have a specific automation use case in mind but my intuition says to look for something I can integrate.
I think in September they're gonna start having them from resellers. He's just not gonna deal to the public anymore. At least that's what I got from his last post about it.
I was looking into this recently. On the website he mentions one retailer in Australia. The entry for a dealer seems to be 25 units plus sourcing the CT's. Seems like a low threshold.
When looking for alternatives I found the ESPhome firmware for Emporia. Seemed interesting, but not without effort.
The Aeotec HEMs work well. IOTaWatt had more capabilities but I have had a version 2 Aeotec monitoring my home power usage for about 7 years now. Works like a champ and is pretty accurate.
Not too long after I installed my Aeotec HEM my power company added the ability to log in to their website and check daily, hourly and so on energy usage. My Aeotec sensor is always within 1 Kwh of what they say my usage is.
I too have the Aeotec HEM (I have the EU single phase version). I had a bit of a faff finding a driver that worked correctly and I read a few posts regarding others having similar issues. It works great though and like yours is very accurate when I compare the usage value to the one on the energy suppliers meter linked display.
Same here, version 5. 2-leg version (240v).
The driver was a pita. It's working but I still don't understand it. Maybe a smarter person would understand all the parameters available, etc.
It's been reporting whole house watts for 8 months every 5 seconds.
It's Z-wave.
It's still not IoTaWatt, though, where I think the goal is to put little current transformers on individual circuits as well as the mains.
Thanks, folks. So far the score is Aeotec: 3, Emporia: !, everything else: 0. In general, I've been happy with Aeotec so I'm glad to see them in the list. This is for a house I won't be in until October so there's time to see if anything else rises to the top of the list. Meantime I'll have a look at the Aeotec docs. Thanks!
That's kind of like ... if a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody around does it make a sound?
What do you really need from your power monitoring? Some people monitor every circuit for a while to see where they can improve things, but also to have enough data to determine the best plan for backup power like a generator or adding solar. I have 400amp service and two panels. I'm interested in determining usage so I can plan for supporting backup power with load shedding. My power company only provides daily data even though they have very granular data. I would like to use the data to look at rate shifting with battery storage.
I looked at the Zemismart Zigbee power monitoring. I have not tried it yet. They make a single and a 3 phase. Not sure if the 3 phase model supports 2 phase by not using a phase.
I use an Aotech 5th generation with Taylor Vierrether‘s driver to monitor for Hubitat’s usage. I also have a couple of the earlier versions. All work well, but the 5th generation is best.
I also have an Emporia monitor that I use to monitor multiple circuits, but haven’t linked it with Hubitat (nor have I updated its firmware). This works great, but without integrations.
That's a good question. For starters I'd like to know whether I'd save money with a TOD rate schedule, and how much I'm spending on always-on devices. After that, I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that if I pick an integrated solution I'll discover more things I want to do over time.
Cool! Thanks for the pointer.
Quick question for the Aeotec folks...according to their web site:
AutoPilot is automation software powered by Aeotec’s automation hub AutoPilot Server
The page says installing AutoPilot is required so I assume they aren't talking about a cloud service they run, rather some kind of hardware. But I don't see a separate item listing for AutoPilot Server hardware anywhere on the Aeotec site or reseller sites. Is it hardware bundled with the energy monitor? Are they talking about the hub that runs SmartThings and you install a software package on it for the HEM? Or am I completely misunderstanding their marketing?
I guess the good news here is it isn't needed. The bad news? It's not encouraging when a vendor's marketing raises more questions than it answers. Small detail though if it's useful without AutoPilot.
This seems like a really affordable alternative if it's accurate. No HE driver at the moment, but if I didn't already have 3 Aeotec HEMs and a Sense HEM, I would give it a shot at just $19 CAD.
Small detail though if it's useful without AutoPilot.
