Benpointer

Quick update: I took the plunge with an Emporia Vue £160 on Amazon with 16 x 50A sensors. So far, so good. Here's some thoughts from the Amazon review I posted earlier today: A clever product which seems to work well. Good app and great support. This was a UK DIY install. A few notes re installing in the UK: I managed to fit 15 50A sensors in my consumer unit. It was a bit of a squeeze but it all fitted in ok (see photos) Make sure you get each sensor round the right way, they are clearly labelled 'breaker' with an arrow (in the photo, I have two sensors, 3 and 7, upside down, I fixed that before closing the consumer unit). The 16th 50A sensor went on the PV feed live, the 200A on the live from the grid supply meter. The device itself was definitely not going to fit in the consumer unit. I therefore shortened the 4-wire power lead and connected it to a two-core connector: red, white and blue leads to neutral, black to live, with some shrink wrap over the wires for neatness and to provide double insulation. You can see this in one of the photos. The other end of the connector is wired into a standard UK 3-pin plug which is plugged into a wall socket. This works fine, no need as far as I can see to wire the power lead directly into the consumer unit. I guess the only issue is that you could accidentally unplug the power lead or switch the wall socket off, at which point you'd lose monitoring of course. As our socket is in the service cupboard this isn't really an issue. I did have an issue after the install when trying to configure the device via the app. It failed at the point I told it I had solar PV. Within the app there is the option to connect to a chat support service, which I did. The guy (James) was really helpful, checked lots of things with me. He was a bit worried that the unit wasn't powered directly from the consumer unit but... eventually we discovered I had made the novice mistake of putting the 200A sensor on the live feed from the meter THE WRONG WAY ROUND (doh!) Once I flipped it, it all worked fine. Tbf I have one further minor problem - the tip of the jack plug has broken off one of the 50A sensor leads. I don't think that was me. I actually have 15 circuits plus the PV so ideally I could use all 16 50 A sensors. I have emailed Emporia to see whether they can replace it or whether I should go via Amazon. I suspect it will be fixed without issue. Anyway overall a good product and very good support. Aimed primarily at the US & Canada but it's working well for us. I can now see how much of our PV generation we are actually using minute by minute, and how much we are giving to the grid. This will help us decide whether batteries would pay for themselves.

Thanks! I'll take a look

I can only find a US site and they don't seem to have all the components in stock 😞 I can't find iotawatt on Amazon.

Thanks joth and billt, lots of info there. It seems like most of my concerns can be overcome. I'll also take a look at iotawatt. Cheers

Er... isn't that what PhilT did, and posted their answer on 6 June?

Thanks I will take a look at that. Yes, I read the thread about the Ecodan base load concern - I am not sure if there was a conclusive answer though? It's one of the reasons why I want to start monitoring.

Thanks for the reply SteamyTea. Have I got a meter already? Only the BG smart meter which does not work most of the time 'because of cellular phone issues'. I could probably manage to link an Arduino to a cheap meter to do some logging (I have done some Arduino projects before although I am a bit rusty now) but I am not sure I want to devote the time to that if I can buy something off the shelf for £100 or so. Some of the questions I want to answer are not to my mind obvious. For example, our ASHP has always been 'on' 24/7/52, with usage controlled entirely by the room stats (so it's not really operating this time of year). This works well from a comfort pov, but is there a background load? How much does our pond pump and filter cost us to run? Should I keep the MVHR running through the summer? Could we run certain things at a time better optimised to use the PV power we generate? etc.etc.

Hi all, I am thinking of buying an Emporia Gen 2 Vue Energy Monitor with 8 or possibly 16 50A sensors to help further improve our energy efficiency. We have an all-electric, well-insulated house but the running costs are now going up with recent energy price rises. The house has underfloor heating run from a Mitsubishi Ecodan 85 ASHP. We also have 4kW of PV panels, solar hot water and MVHR. I'd like to be able to monitor the electricity use in detail hence the potential Emporia purchase. I know these devices hold the data on a cloud, with potential future risks that that poses but still they seem the best option at the moment. I have some questions which I cannot get clear answers to from the Emporia website. If someone has one of these units or knows the answers to my questions, I'd appreciate any thoughts... The device has two 200A clamps which need to go around the L and N supply leads into the distribution box. Why both leads? Just curious. Does this device measure the live voltage or make a voltage assumption to calculate the power level? Can I measure the PV panel output on this device too? If so how? If we are feeding into the grid will the monitor distinguish that, or see the power going through the supply leads as an absolute value (i.e. will a 1kW feed into the grid from our PV panels look like we are using 1kW from the grid?) The instructions say the clamps have to be fitted inside the consumer unit (CU). Anyone know why? The issue for me with fitting them inside the CU is that the ASHP, UFH, MVHR and solar water are all on one CU circuit, so I wouldn't get any granularity about the individual demand from each of those devices... ...Also, is it safe to open the consumer unit to fit those clamps, if the main switch is off? (Obviously I can be careful not to touch any bare wires but it sounds a bit scary to me!) If I clamp a 3-core cable (e.g. the individual supply to the ASHP) would I get a double reading, or zero? (i.e. would the currents running through the live and neutral wires be added together or cancel each other out?) Sorry, that's a lot of questions but if anyone can answer some of them, I'd be grateful. Many thanks Benpointer

Hi all, Just to briefly introduce myself: We completely refurbed a 1960s bungalow 10 years ago, building a SIP two storey extension, more than doubling its size, adding cavity and external wall insulation to the original bungalow at the same time. We installed underfloor heating driven by a Mitsubishi Ecodan 85 ASHP. We also added 4kW of PV panels, solar hot water, MVHR, and rainwater harvesting. We did all that back in 2009-10 and at the time I got a lot of help from the old Navitron forum. Since when we have been enjoying the house and been very pleased with the results. I have joined Buildhub now because: Whilst originally the PV FITs were covering our electricity costs, that's a long way from true now. So I am looking at what further efficiencies we might make. I think we will do another house project in a few years, maybe a new build but we'll want it to be as efficient as possible, so I could be seeking thoughts, ideas etc. As an aside I am secretary for our small village hall, which is a converted stone 19th chapel. The heating costs have gone through the roof (as does most of the heating tbh!) so I might be looking for any ideas members have about managing heating costs for a building that is unoccupied most of the time. I apologise that it looks from that list as though I am just on the take but hopefully, with our experience of a major eco-rebuild I can offer some ideas in return. Anyway, that's me introduced! Benpointer