40 circuits

I just bought a Vue 2 but haven’t received it yet.   I looked at Sense and had some emails with their support team.  It is not as adaptable as Vue and it is much more expensive.   I bought several Vue smart outlets.   For the circuits that power just one device, eg fridge, sump, etc, I’ll use a smart outlet and I don’t need to clamp those circuits then.  And I don’t need to dedicate a smart outlet to every one of these.  After a couple of months if the one and only device is behaving as expected I can move the smart outlet to something else.   I’m also going to combine several circuits into one outside the breaker panel as you suggest.  Not only so I can sense them all with one clamp but also:  I bought a small generator that hooks up to 10 selected circuits.  A lot of my 50 circuits power nothing but the lights for one room.   I can’t use a smart outlet for ceiling lights and I don’t need to sense bedroom lights and outlets individually.  How much could I learn from that?  All the lights in the house combined would use 20% of my generator power so I can gain a lot of flexibility for both the generator and the Vue by combining some circuits that don’t do much.    These are my initial thoughts.   I’m sure some of the won’t work as I expect and I look forward to learning more .

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I am running a Sense and the vue2 at the same time right now.  I’ve had the Sense installed for just over two months.  The Sense software does appear to be more mature than the Vue’s, but the learning is frustrating and I’d say 60% satisfying.  It can pickup most induction motors and large load resistive heat within first two months.  They’re not always accurate though.  I have a 5500w electric hot water heater and when that is running and my furnace kicks on, it has a a hard time leveling off the blower motor load at running wattage from start up wattage.  Also certain items like my washing machine and dishwasher have not yet been learned yet.  So far no electronics like tvs, pc or game console have been identified.  There are definitely pieces of both systems I would love to marry into one product.   I do have the “solar addon”, and use those two sensors as dedicated branch line sensors instead.  If Sense had more dedicated branch line sensors or when they implement their “on the road map” ability to assist device learning with smart plugs, it would be a more attractive product.  Right now I’m still evaluating the two.  Emporia could eclipse them with more mature software as the individual device learning feature is more novelty than practical in my opinion… But that could improve with product maturity as well.  Time will tell.</p>