Emporia Smart Home Energy Monitor with 16 50A Circuit Level Sensors | Real Time Electricity Monitor/Meter | Solar/Net Metering
Add Emporia Smart Plugs to Your Vue
Emporia Smart Plugs (sold separately) can be added to your Vue system to help you to not only monitor the energy of lighting and small appliances, but to also set timers, schedules, and turn them on and off from anywhere, any time with the Emporia app.
| Weight: | 1.81 kg |
| Dimensions: | 24.6 x 16.9 x 11.9 cm; 1.81 Kilograms |
| Brand: | EMPORIA ENERGY |
| Model: | 860001485691 |
| Dimensions: | 24.6 x 16.9 x 11.9 cm; 1.81 Kilograms |
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:
After switching off the main switch (!) 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. 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(!) 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.
EDIT: Emporia arranged for a replacement 50A sensor with arrived within a few days. All good.
We use this in a commercial 3 phase Hager Uk board, reliably provides energy usage information.
The only downside is you do need to hard wire to the main fuse board to power it, which is simple to do and the instruction guide shows this clearly.
It does clutter you board install if your not careful, but it’s the best product on the market by far. If I had any advice it would be to label your sensors with the corresponding number so you can easy connect them. If we have anything to make the product better it would be some number stickers to be included.
On a side note we had a query about using only 1 sensor on a 3 phase out going and the chat feature was super quick with knowledgeable and friendly staff. Literally great support from the company and we order a few more for other properties on the back of this.
Excellent piece of kit to measure total electricity usage, solar generated electricity and even individual circuits. Was a bit tight to fit sensors in my Small UK distribution panel but managed to use all eight and strapped the main unit outside the panel. Easy to set up and app is also easy to use. Checked accuracy around different circuits with a known load and all seems very good.
Measures my solar generation and calculates amount of electricity being exported, the only problem I’m having here is at dawn and dusk, it seems to add an additional 200watts to the reading, maybe to do with voltage changes? I don’t know but I can live with that.
I would give this kit five stars if a 240V smart socket was available, they are available in USA but sadly not in UK, I’d love to be able to switch a load on and off automatically dependant on solar generation.
I was a little sceptical about the product features when reading online. However, I took the plunge and bought the 16 channel version and it’s fantastic. It really does do everything it promotes. Online installation manual is superb and it worked first time out of the box. Even when I contacted customer service about a setting query, they responded quickly and accurately. In these energy focussed times, this really is a useful bit of monitoring kit.
Really great and a big thank you to some of the other reviews without whom I could not have set this up. Like them i class myself as a competent DIYer which I feel is the minimum required. Mine seems to work with leaving the multiplier as 1 despite my voltage being 240 vs 110/120 for US – not sure if that is a software update or I have it wrong :(. I only needed 1 of the larger clips – no ideea why they sell a UK veriosn with 3! I have left 2 spare smaller clip spots as i hope to get batteries soon to add to my solar panels but also because I struggled to fit the clips in the fuse box. I found the auto set up feature in teh app did not work but manual set up did and was extremely simple – altough the auto set up has the instructions you need to follow. Once I had the 14 fitted that i did use the cobver easily fitted back on the fuse box. In all took about 2 hours to set up. I hope this will help me make energy usage more efficient. I would be even better if they had UK smart plugs that were compatible – maybe one day.
Installation. The basic installation is easy if you are competent with electrics. The biggest issue is the size of the sensors which I cannot fit all in my current consumer unit so I will be upgrading (needs doing).
Accuracy. The sensors slightly under read power usages but are really close to actual. Other systems I have tried are all in excess of up to 50% so yes really good.
The App. Really impressed with the app so far, not only gives excellent installation advice but good warnings too. The app is easy to set up each sensor then gives amazing detail of usage per second up to over a year. Which can be split between each sensor. It even shows unbalanced draw of circuits not monitored or difference between overall draw and total sensors.
Apart from the sensor size, I cannot fault this piece of kit. Highly recommend
OK, i’m not a qualified electrician, but am a competent DIY’er. Thanks to another review here and taking the advice given by their electrician, i shortened the wires from the included wiring harness and using a 16 amp terminal block, converted them to a UK mains wire so i could fit a 13amp plug. Red, White and Blue wires merge with the neutral (UK Blue), Black goes to live (UK Brown). Earth wire not required although i did terminate it in the plug. I only required a basic setup to monitor incoming grid usage, and so just one 200A clamp required fitting over the Live feed, of which a good place for this was just after the main fuse (Henley fuse). After registering through the app, all is working well and readings are matching with the smart meter readings.
Nice piece of kit, may prove difficult to fit in a standard UK consumer unit. I installed spare breakers between used circuits to give me more room. Waiting for a UK/European smart plug.
Instructions a bit confusing, mixing US wiring consumer units but worked it out in the end.
Thinking of getting Battery storage with my solar panels.. this gives me an idea what i consume and what i expo
This is a really good product but for 240 volt which it will handle as I checked with their support before ordering does not display the amps correctly as it’s clearly using 110 volts in the calculation. The master clamps did not work in my installation, not the product fault. The software is slow to open but does work apart from the graph this is not the best. Overall a fairly good product with limitations
Very impressed with the kit. Instruction for setup excellent.
Clamps are a challenge to fit but can be located anywhere on the live cable so not a huge issue.
Reporting is simple and easy.
Can add in a cost per unit to get bills in money but does not handle different time of day costs.
There is an alarm only on the cooker category, which I haven’t use, but not available on other categories.
This is about the best unit on the market
instructions are ok-but I nearly gave up installing it as the wiring diagrams did not include uk consumer unit, which emporia emailed to me after a few messages. Most US fuse boxes are big enough to house a small dog, but most UK units are barely large enough for the wiring-just put the unit on the wall next to the fusebox.
also… these units should either come with labels for the front, or numbers, as all the port numbers are on the back which is a pita once it is screwed on a wall! either label the front or put the numbers on with felt tip
the wifi in these units is 2.4 ghz, so you need to check your router can “see” it and it it is not only on 5GHZ
if you buy a unit, buy it with either 8 or 16 sensors, as it is far too expensive to buy these after. The unit is easy to install-make sure the sensors are fitted in the right direction-they are marked, if you have a split load unit it may trip-make sure the neutral is the right side
I found my newly refurbished pond and aerator pump(low energy) were costing me 1000 per year. I have turned off everything on standby, dumped a fridge, removed maintained lights that were not required
This is a good tool to have at your disposal.
Simple to fit, and when I did have a question it was answered quickly. Pleased with my purchase.
Loving my Emporia energy monitor, I hope they will release a UK smart plug soon so I can use my spare solar energy that I’m feeding back into the grid.
The app is good and intuitive.
The hardware is good except for the jack plugs on the sensors which easily disconnect with the tiniest displacement.
But it is very much designed for the USA and the UK instructions are poor.
The system is provided with two x 200A incoming power clamps. This is for the 2 phase 110v US power system.
In the UK you will only use one of these clamps on the incoming feed from your meter.
The sensor clamps are huge and difficult to fit into tiny, cramped UK consumer units. But I managed. Be aware you only need one sensor per circuit on the line coming out of the breaker.
You also only need one sensor on you solar supply line side.
The instructions suggest the unit goes in the consumer’s unit. No chance. Hence the separate box.
Also the power to the unit can come from anywhere. In the UK one wire goes to line the other three to neutral.
Now it is installed it is fascinating. Next stop batteries on my solar. I’m giving a lot of power to Eon!
Obviously Chinese hardware but made for the North American market, no other country could make this for the price. It’s very good value and accurate. The hit came with poor installation instructions and the fact that the UK still clings to its postwar 13amp ring main. Only the UK would do this!
Once installed all the readings need to be multiplied in the software (which itself is excellent) by 230/110v. In other words 2.1. If you don’t do this the readings are wrong. For the american Cent I used penny values (currently 40p).
UK consumer units are very small compared to other countries so I added a plastic box from Screwfix to house the Emporia unit. Incidentally, our consumer unit is as installed when the house was built in 1990 and the case is plastic — no longer allowed. When we have solar panels fitted I will get an NICEIC registed electrician to replace the consumer unit with a metal one and to accomodate all the CT’s properly I shall probably be faced with using a 3-Phase consumer unit with a conversion kit to single phase. The worst thing is getting the CT’s onto the cables below the RCBO’s. We got some on, but it is impossible to monitor every circuit. However the cover no longer fits and it was an awful struggle.
To answer some comments/criticisms I have seen here. My son has used the Open Source software “Home Assistant” and a Raspberry pie to merge this data with that relating to weather from Froggit. The Raspberry pie records all data and keeps it on site. It can show peak values and graph the information in several ways. Contrary to another commentator the 3-phase model (installed on a public hall and collecting data after replacing gas fired boilers with ASHP’s, installing 18.5kW peak energy solar panel provides fully comprehensive ) can record load levels on all 3-phases.
There is a plugin for Home Assistant to use the cloud service but an esphome build is available
There is a plugin for Home Assistant to use the cloud service but an esphome build is available
Okay first off what’s not to like.
1. This is designed to go inside a Consumer unit as the wire that powers it is not sheathed.
2. The unit is designed for 3 phase. The live wire is black on this. Neutral is white. The 2 other wires are red and blue , for single phase UK units gang the red,blue and white together. I shortened all the wires and ganged them together using a Waco connector and run a blue wire from it.
Ensure you use a 16 amp breaker to connect the live (black) to. If you have a modern consumer unit (18th edition) ensure the neutral connection runs off the same MCB to avoid balance issues.
Other than that easy to fit one 200 A sensor on the main live feed and wiggle the smaller 50a sensors on each live circuit. Most houses shouldn’t need more than 8 of these. Would of been nice to have seen a mounting bracket for the main unit as it just would not fit in the consumer unit. Good bit of kit though and plenty support out there for it.
This works well in a single standard home and can be wired for power to a 13amp plug and socket .
Comes with the connectors for standard power units , extra connectors to specific fuse of circuit usage available
This product is really easy to set up if you have plenty of space in your distribution board (the installation guide on your iPad is brilliant) I had to do a bit of moving around in mine to make space for the CTs and to be honest I would recommend getting an electrician for the install (it will still be worth it). I have 2 boards next to each other (one for automation) and managed to get the main device sat in trunking in between, then it ends up being a nice install. If you take a bit of time with the install you’ll find it will benefit more in the long run and it’s definitely worth rechecking all your connections after as you’ll be moving cables around and you won’t want loose connections. Also as a note I completely isolated the power whilst I worked on the install. Once I restored power the rest of the setup is very easy. It finds the device via Bluetooth then connects to your wi-fi (so you also have remote access) and once you name your circuits and add them to the app your away (when I followed the start up it came up with an error as only one phase was detected but I carried on without fixing as I assumed this was normal as there was only one phase and it seems to work fine) what is really outstanding about this product is you can monitor individual circuits to see what devices cost to run in real time or over a period of time e.g kettle, tumble dryer and induction hob won’t be going on again in my house ..
You can also discover how little items are to run, I thought my air heat recovery system will be costing a fortune but it runs on 100w (same as an old style light bulb). I also realised having certain items on standby was costing more than I thought. Prepare to turn into a geek for the day switching equipment on and off to see what it uses.. By the way at first I thought you could only use the dollar sign as a currency but you can change it easily in the app and put in your usage cost and bill date too. It also has a proper iPad app and not a phone one converted, the app is very impressive. I’ve installed a fair few monitoring devices commercially and residential and for the cost of this one and what’s included it’s brilliant.
The product does exactly what is says it does , and really easy to set up .
The instructions are primarily for the USA market and it shows 2 of the 200amp clamps fitted, but for UK use, only one clamp is required around the live input.
It’s been running for 24 hours and so far so good.
I bought the package that didn’t include any 50amp CT clamps as I didn’t think that I would need any as we already have energy monitors on most of the appliances that need monitoring, however I did realise that I needed to monitor the cooker from the consumer unit so did indeed need one CT clamp. Unfortunately, it’s not easy buying the separate Emporia clamps in the UK and I think that there should be another kit option that maybe includes just one or two of the 50amp clamps because 8 or 16 is probably too many for most installations and is a waste of money.
Anyway, none of that matters now because third party clamps work just as well although you may have to buy a 3.5mm to 2.5mm audio jack adaptor as most third party 50amp clamps come with a 3.5mm plug.
One last thing to note, before purchasing this device, check that your router can split 2.4ghz and 5ghz bands as this device works on the 2.4 frequency. Some routers no longer allow splitting and automatically assign frequencies to equipment. If this is the case for you, then you will need to make sure that you have a phone connected to the network via the 2.4ghz frequency for setting up the app.
Once it’s set up, it can be accessed by any device on the 2.4 and 5ghz frequencies.
I have both PV solar and battery storage and now able to fully monitor my large loads such as :-
PV
Storage Batteries
EVC
Hot Tub
Hot Water
Relative simple to install and good App.
Great product which seems well made with reasonable instructions
If you’re not confident with electrical systems DO NOT attempt to install this as it needs attaching to the live input which you can’t isolate.
The meter and the software app are definitely aimed at the USA market and the consumption rate can only be input as $ and cents
Otherwise this is a good product and certainly highlights high usage items in the household (surprising how much lighting uses!)
Additional sensors can monitor individual circuits but if you want an overall idea on your electrical consumption then this will certainly do the job
Once set up and registered trying to change the multiplier and set up the tariff (currently in dollars) is not intuitive. The instructions that come with it are minimal and refer you to the online chat.
Had been thinking of getting one for our house and PV setup, but won’t do so now.
Very impressed how easy to install (great instructions to follow) and gives accurate data to the Emporia App.
Great system overall….only issue, as others have had, is fitting the sensors in the fuse/trip switch box as ours is very tight. Otherwise very accurate and app very good/easy to use. Would recommend!
I got an electrician to install this because my consumer unit is complicated. I’ve read that some people have found it inaccurate but my measured use over two days was 100kwh and the electricity meter recorded 96kwh which seems accurate to me. I have an electric car so I can now see how much that is costing me as well as things like underfloor heating in the bathrooms. I’ve only had it working for two days and so far it’s excellent. If it’s still working six months from now it’ll get five stars.
Have tried several different methods of monitoring my energy usage and thus is by far the most comprehensive one. My setup is slightly complicated with two fuse boards and two sets of voltages in each due to a voltage optimiser being fitted. However with using 4 of these devices i have managed to get a full listing of energy being used on every circuit in the house. This is extremely useful and having the complete history to view is easy and useful. Highly recommend this product, and for my situation i would have had to buy 30+ devices to get even close to the level of monitoring i have now.
The app readily links to the meter through the web. The only downside is it is built for the American market, This could easily be rectified if they are serious about selling this product in the UK or other countries.
If you’re purchasing the 16 sensor one, then it’s a tight squeeze in the consumer unit for domestic users. This being the case then you’re more than likely get interference and false readings albeit small. I have circuits that are off but the units registers small amounts of wattage which is apparently within tolerance but not ideal. The unit would more than likely sit outside your consumer unit due to space issues, though there are no fixing points on the unit to attach to the wall or other surface area. Quite easy to install, and if you have a spare circuit then for U.K. customers install a 1amp circuit breaker if you can get one for your unit, else a 3 or a 6amp as the unit draws <5 watts. It's just 50amps are more common in the States which is why the instructions refers to 50amps. Once you have attached the sensors and commissioned the unit (it's quite quick and easy), test the unit first as I had a faulty sensor - note if you don't see all the circuits zones, then make sure the jack plug is securely pushed in, else you might have a faulty sensor/cable. That's when you tidy the wires up. The wires aren't as flexible as you would hope, so it's fiddly to squeeze everything in and close the lid
Overall it's good to be able to itemise each circuit and it does match up to my energy providers smart meter IHD (In House Display)
I have a British Gas smart meter so I wanted to monitor individual breakers. This unit does just that but it is really designed for the American market where the consumer unit is the same as our industrial breaker boards. UK consumer units are very cramped and fitting all of the sensors is difficult but I just about made it. One thing I should point out is the app will ONLY give you the American wiring connections so download and print out the connection diagram you need before turning off your power. Also the smart plugs are US only which is a pain.
My previous monitor died, but in retrospect I’m glad it did. This is such an upgrade! Within hours I had identified 3 extremely wasteful pieces of kit in the house. This item has paid for itself in a couple of months.
My Consumer Unit is pretty tight so could only get three sensors inside. If Emporia did a smaller flexible ring jobby for inside the CU (and sold to the UK) that would do the trick for the tight individual circuits.
The box itself did not fit inside the CU so I put a three pin plug on it (as I had a socket outside the CU). The device is now fused and RCD’d. It would be good if emporia offered a three pin plug option in the uk as I guess I am not the only person with a socket next to my CU..
Follow the instructions and ISOLATE the CU before prodding around. Even if you are careful you don’t know the history of the unit. There may be a live wire not insulated as far as it should be TURN IT OFF and if not sure then consult a sparky. They will have it up and running in half an hour.
Web interface is great. And unlike some of the others I like the fact it is cloud based as we will constantly receive updates etc
Love it. Thanks Emporia
Excellent product Very easy to install good app that takes you through installing. Once connected easy to use and accurate
Gives a great insight to what is using the power and at what time of day.
Very easy to install but you must know your way around your electrical box. The product is very informative and will help you to save money if you monitor and take action to get rid of waste. The app is a little poor with no symbol. Feels like this is more for the American market but works well enough.
Easy to install, set up and calibrate. It now reads 16 circuits. I have set up an iPad with always on screen for family to view. The trend and drill down reporting assisted in understanding usage and savings options better.
Firstly, it’s very accurate, as in +/- 1% accuracy from my experience so far. Being mains powered rather than battery powered, the unit can reference the measured circuit phase angle to give very accurate power consumption.
Secondly, it’s easy to install and setup, though UK consumer units pose certain challenges. More on that later…
Thirdly, the App is really well thought out, easy to use, provides a phenomenal level of granularity and is easy to export .CSV data to manipulate in Excel for instance. The level of detail available will easily satisfy even the nerdiest of nerds!
Rather than install the first unit in the house, I opted to install it in my garden Office/Workshop/ManCave so that I could tinker around, figure out how it all works and determine the best way to fit it without disrupting the main house supply. SWMBO works long hours from home, much of the time on conference calls, so killing the power/internet/network regularly whilst tinkering wasn’t a viable option.
The biggest challenge I had is that UK consumer units just don’t have much free space in them. Just getting the sensors in there is a fairly tight fit. Trying to shoe-horn the excess sensor cabling, the unit itself and the wi-fi cable into my CU was impossible, so I had to get a little creative. In the end, I opted to mount the unit externally to the CU. I used one of the bottom, 20mm knock-outs, drilled it out to ~23mm and fitted a PG16 gland, which was just big enough to fiddle the (5) sensor plugs and power cables through. I also snipped the heatshrink off the WiFi lead and unscrewed the antenna from the cable, then fitted the antenna directly to the main unit. The unit has no wall mounts, so a few adhesive velcro pads hold it in place.
One item the instructions don’t cover is UK final ring circuits (ring mains). Reading between the lines in the instructions, you’d think that clamping 1 wire and using a 2.0 X multiplier would be the correct approach, right?
Wrong. Ring circuits rarely balance properly. It depends very much on the circuit load and how close it is to one end of the ring vs the other. The right approach is to clamp both wires and use a 1.0 X multiplier. CT sensors measure Total current passing through the sensor, so will measure the sum of the current passing through each wire. Fitting this way gives much more accurate readings.
The unit is really easy to configure. Connecting to WiFi is easy and the App is very intuitive.
If you want to properly monitor power consumption in your home then this is by far the best option on the market.
We are in dispute with our supplier about billing so bought this as a way to see where all the electricity is going. I’m so glad I did, it’s brilliant!
I would not recommend a DIY install if you have to open your fuse box to install it, but as a qualified and experienced electrician it was a doddle. The app works well although I could not get it to complete install on my Android phone so I jumped on my iPad and it worked first time. Now I can log into my account on any device, including my Android phone, and get all the info I need. We have Solar panels too and it works well telling me the split of power supply between them And the grid. Worth every penny.
Very easy to install, gives a complete overview of your electrical consumption.
Very pleased, we now know exactly the consumption from our CSU. My electrician fitted the unit and it was easy to set up the wifi connection.
The reports are brilliant.
As an electrician it was easy to install. Would not fit in a uk consumer unit(fuse board) so had to mount a box for it to fit in.
Works well and has helped me cut down on some energy usage.
The app is good and easy to use
Well packaged, delivery was only a few days, easy to install. You get two CT for incoming power for some reason both are 200 amps. I will use this as another CT to a circuit.. It’s easy to set up and hopefully it will help us discover why our electricity bill are sooooo high. It could have added some sprial wrap to keep it looking tidy.
Ultimately I did my research before purchasing the first unit, so I knew it would be a challenge to fit, and I was happy with that. The second unit was fitted quicker and easier as the electrical consumer unit was slightly larger. I’m more than happy with the Emporia Vue 2, otherwise there would have been no chance of me buying the second one.
This is a must have if you have a lot of electrical circuits and want to know what is being used where, but due to the size of UK electrical consumer units, I’d only recommend it if you are perfectly happy tinkering around inside the breaker box, or would consider installation by a qualified electrician. Do not get this confused with smart meters or cheaper energy meters, as it is vastly superior in its capacity to provide information. I hope that Emporia continue to develop their app platform, and maybe make some UK aimed products/smart plugs.
You get what you pay for unlike other energy monitoring products which are expensive and have to pay subscription fee to view in there cloud.
This product is a Win Wi