Iotawatt? or something else maybe

[tdpolo26]

i have about 40 circuits
30 in 1 box
10 in a subpanel
i want to monitor all of them

has anyone used something like iotawatt or something similar

why?
i want to monitor everything to see where my energy succubus is
i want to use this to balance loads with my portable generator in real time
i just think it would be fun and a added level of control

any recommendations
lets pretend money isnt a option

[sburke781]

Solar power often introduces both a power saving and a monitoring capability. A "no-brainer" where I am from, but may not always make financial sense in other parts... Would this be something worth considering for you, or something similar?

[Sebastien]

I’ve been using Emporia Vue for a few years now and it has been working well. To monitor everything, you will need 3 units with 16 monitoring clamps each.

I have been using 2 units, and recently linked them to Hubitat (web integration).

[RELEASE] Emporia Vue driver for Hubitat

I created a driver that works with Emporia Vue. Unfortunately it requires an external script to get an authentication token (i.e. python), but I'm holding out hope that it can all be run through Hubitat someday. ke7lvb/Emporia-Vue-Hubitat (github.com) Please keep in mind that Emporia does not have an official API and this may stop working at any time. If you are using the unofficial API, they request you keep the API calls to less than 2 per minute (This driver uses 1 per minute at most).

[tdpolo26]

We have massive trees around our house is #1 reason. They are wonderful
Other is we are snow covered alot .... buffalo ny.
Cost is slightly a issue too.... also i dont know how much longer we stay here.

[tdpolo26]

Ok so it can do more then 1 unit
Thats defintely good news and what i am looking for
The panel box doesnt scare me in the least
I rewired most my house myself and added the subpanel to give me more circuits

[Pat-C]

I have a pair of iotawatts that I use to monitor circuits in my house and am very happy with them. I like the fact that they are all local and don’t rely on third party infrastructure in the cloud. They’re pretty flexible in that you can do things like integrating over time to give energy as well as power readings.

I primarily use these for monitoring so I chose to bring them into home assistant where the trending graphs are far simpler to produce. As a result I don’t have any experience with the Hubitat integration. I do have a couple of instances where I take some action based on power consumption, but I just bring those values across using HADB integration.

[vitaliy_kh]

I could be wrong but Emporia Vue is a cloud-based integration.
IotaWatt is 100% local.

Personally I am trying to avoid anything cloud-based.

[ogiewon]

I have a pair of IoTaWatt devices, one for my main panel and the other for my sub panel. They work great and have been very robust and reliable. I have them sending all of their data to a local instance of InfluxDB and Grafana. This provides a great combination of tools for monitoring and analysis.

I wrote the Hubitat integration for the IoTaWatt which I use for things like washer and dryer cycle completion notifications.

[velvetfoot]

Too bad there isn't such a thing as replacement smart breakers. Pop out the dumb one and snap in the smart one.

[amithalp]

@velvetfoot

Too bad there isn't such a thing as replacement smart breakers

But there are. See shelly for example and lots of Tuya options. I have not used them so can not recomand.

[Sebastien]

I suspect that Shelly breakers will work on European systems, but not in North America…?

[dcaton1220]

@velvetfoot

Too bad there isn't such a thing as replacement smart breakers

I think the problem with that is that virtually all existing load centers are metal. I'm guessing any type of replacement breaker would have to use the power line to communicate with some sort of hub. I'm also guessing that the Leviton smart breakers use a plastic enclosure, or at least the cover is plastic, to allow rf signals to pass through.

Not sure there is a lot of demand for this sort of thing, otherwise you'd probably see companies like SquareD jumping on the bandwagon.

[velvetfoot]

@dcaton1220

SquareD

Yeah, that's my only reference point, lol.

[vitaliy_kh]

@velvetfoot

Too bad there isn't such a thing as replacement smart breakers. Pop out the dumb one and snap in the smart one.

In the US the "Smart Braker" can only report OFF condition which is next to useless because you already should know which Braker is OFF. For instance, you can use IotaWatt with associate RM Rule(s) which will detect sudden 0 Watts Power consumption on whatever circuit(s).
By code in the US you ABSOLUTELY cannot have a Circuit Braker in Electric Panel which could be remotely turned On. It certainly could be turned Off remotely but this makes very little sense. Is not it?

[rlithgow1]

@tdpolo26

I have an iotawatt and it's fantastic. Would work well for you.

[tdpolo26]

yes i am all for local no stupid cloud ..... to much room for problems

[tdpolo26]

i think if we see a smart system regarding breakers it will be a smart box per say.... with a ethernet and wifi connection... it will more or less have its own version of monitoring software built in and the breakers will report to that ....i would definetly no want the breakers to be controlled.... way to much room for error..... or worst yet being hacked and burning your house down

[tdpolo26]

i looked i have a aeaton br box they make them but they take 2 spaces a piece

[rlithgow1]