Great Product! My Wishlist on Software Features

[Randy]

I recently purchased and installed a Gen 2 system with 16 sensors at my son’s house.  He has a main panel plus a subpanel we added to the side for his garage shop.  His shop has some good size equipment (2 CNC mills, lathe, mini-split HVAC, misc other equipment).  Given the close proximity of the panels, I was able to install one system with sensors in both panels.  I like almost everything about the system, but I do have a few ideas that could make it much better for our use.

By far my biggest request is to update the energy use home screen so that it does not present misleading information.  I would like to be able to open the app and click on “Day” or “Hour” and get a prioritized list of the biggest users.  But we only get that if the app is used very late in the current calendar day or current hour.  That makes what should be two of the most useful views pretty much worthless to me.  I believe the default for each of the time selections should be the prior period in question and it should be clearly stated on the screen next to the energy use units.  Ideally I would like to see “Day” return usage for the last 24 hour average, “Hour” return the last 60 minutes, etc.  In fact, that is what I assumed it was doing until I realized the data made no sense.  For example, the main AC unit should be one of the largest users during cooling season.  But if Day view is selected in the morning, I have to scroll down to the bottom of the list to find it since it usually does not run in the morning.

Two additional requests:  First, I would like the ability to change the account email address.  In my case, I set up my son’s system using my email address since he was not available to do the account verification steps while I was installing and configuring his system.  He is able to log in on his phone using my email address and the password I set, however he is not able to receive notifications or a link for the exported data.  While this might be an unusual case, I am sure many users will eventually want the ability to update their email address.  Second, I would like the ability to make a 50 amp sensor “sub” to another 50 amp sensor like can be done with the Emporia Smart Plugs.  I tested the feature with a Smart Plug and verified it correctly calculates the energy balance.  In our case, I have 50 amp sensors on each of the subpanel legs plus two additional sensors on the mini-split HVAC and largest mill.  This causes an error in the energy balance calculation since the system does not know the mini-split and mill are being metered twice.  Not a big problem, but it would be nice to not have to make the correction.   To avoid confusing users, the 50 amp Sub option could perhaps be hidden until the user has already installed a sensor with the Subpanel circuit type designation.

Great work! I am looking forward to gaining experience with the system and monitoring your progress.  I am a big believer in getting this type technology into the hands of homeowners.

[Emporia Support]

Hi Randy! Thanks for the feedback and I’m glad it can help in your situation. Regarding some of your requests/ideas, we are in various stages of implementation for many of them:

• You are correct about the display of “calendar” day/hour being potentially misleading. We’ll pass this information onto the development team as they work on features related to the home screen (more updates are planned for that page in the future).
• As far as changing the email address for the account, we can make that happen:
  • First, create a new Emporia account with the new email address you’d like to use.
  • Then, reach out to the Support Team here at Emporia (via email or chat using the email address that is currently registered with the account) with the new address you’d like to change to and we can update it from our end. This is a feature that is on the roadmap for the future.
• The nested (or “sub”) circuits/sensors is a feature that is currently in development (Beta testing) and should be released later in this quarter.

Again, thank you so much for the feedback and if you have any additional comments or questions, feel free to reach out.

Thanks,

Emporia Support Team

[Author]

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