[flyoffacliff]

It depends on the area, some areas are more strict about it. I would say it’s one of those things you’re not supposed to do but could probably get away with. Just plan on not being able to access it later (connect any extra CTs you may use in the future, and make sure all the connections are tight on the vue).

[flyoffacliff]

You should clamp the center and the left main. Not sure what’s going on with the service neutral and the third main. Are you in The United States? It should have nothing to do with your subpanel though.

If the 20a breakers are not used then go for it. The bridge is for if you’re using an existing breaker that’s in use (since you can only have one wire screwed to the breaker by code)

Your sub panel would be coming off one of the breakers.

[flyoffacliff]

I believe data is retained longer and/or updated more frequently while the app is open. Which is probably a reason they won’t change this. Increasing the timeout would mean putting a heavier load on the servers.

[flyoffacliff]

How did you get each CT on the energy graph in home assistant to show up a separate color like that? I spent hours trying to do that and everyone just said it wasn’t possible.

[flyoffacliff]

Yeah that does seem like a bad implementation. Could you just set it to report after 3 hours? That way it has to be on at least 60 minutes before it can trip.

[flyoffacliff]

I never even noticed that it reset when you switched CTs until now! I feel like a good way to implement this would be just having the graph and having checkboxes so you could check which CTs you want graphed and maybe have like up to five on the graph at the same time with different colored lines.

 

It sounds to me like maybe you want the type of data logger that electricians have.

[flyoffacliff]

I’m a little confused by your response and that link, indicating that there is no public API available, yet the article you linked to then lists several community projects that utilize an API to get data.

Are you just saying the API is not public and you worked with those developers on a special case to get them access?

[flyoffacliff]

Yes this is what I did with mine, but then you have to rearrange all the breakers and splice them so they are all long enough to go through the same CT. Most DIY installers are not going to do this.

 

The install and setup took me almost a full day and I am experienced with this stuff.

[flyoffacliff]

You can just put a CT on one leg and use a multiplier in the app since it’s a balanced load (no neutral)

But yeah I agree this should have been implemented years ago.

[flyoffacliff]

Thanks for this list.

To the OP: There is not and likely never will be a way to interface directly with the unit. Your options are either the cloud API, or flashing the ESP32 with custom firmware (which of course is unsupported).

I do have that issue in Home Assistant where it will drop out, but restarting home assistant fixes it so I’m not convinced it’s on the API side.

But I do know the API has some issues with returning bad data and I’m hoping Emporia fixes this.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 3 months ago by flyoffacliff.

[flyoffacliff]

Why not just combine the circuits by sticking the breakers on opposite legs and running multiple wires through a CT. It’s even better than implementing it with software because you don’t need an extra CT then.

[flyoffacliff]

I don’t disagree about things needing to be more open, but I find it kind of ironic that you complain about Emporia not working with other vendors but you use Apple Home kit, which is notoriously locked down as far as compatibility goes.

 

Usually the serious home automation users that want everything working togetherwill be running something like home assistant.

 

Emporia does have an open API I believe?

[flyoffacliff]

Not sure about the browser but you can do this in the app. On the home tab you should see a green line and an up arrow near the bottom of the screen in the center. Tap it to open up a slider to select the time range. If you’re in the month view, it will show it by month.

[flyoffacliff]

I have over 20 circuits and had no issues with the 16 CTs. You just need to be strategic. I have two or three circuits on many of them. Any modern electrical system will have at least two kitchen countertop circuits, combine them. The dishwasher and garbage disposal? Combine them. Etc.

 

Spent a good chunk of the day setting up a color-coded plan and rearranging the circuit breakers onto the same leg to make it work. Definitely worth it!

[flyoffacliff]

Seems to just be in maintenance mode unfortunately. Some of the app features such as “HVAC malfunction alerts” have said coming soon inside the app for years. My guess would be the original developer is gone.

I’m still satisfied with it though, as long as they keep the servers up. Definitely a great value energy monitor despite having a few software shortcomings.

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