Smart Home Energy Monitor with 16 50A Circuit Level Sensors | Vue – Real Time Electricity Monitor/Meter | Solar/Net Metering
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Adams Parker
Product Images
Product Features
- INSTALLS IN CIRCUIT PANEL of most homes with clamp-on sensors. Supports single-phase up to 240VAC line-neutral; single, split-phase 120/240VAC; and three-phase up to 415Y/240VAC (no Delta). Panels with access only to busbars will need flexible sensors available from Emporia Energy.
- 24/7 ENERGY MONITORING: Monitor your home's real power anywhere, anytime to prevent costly repairs, conserve energy, and save costs. Monitor solar / net metering. Light commercial 3 phase option available as a separate bundle. PROTECTED BY A 1-YEAR WARRANTY.
- APPLIANCE MONITORING WITHOUT GUESSWORK: Comes with sixteen (16) 50A sensors to accurately monitor your air conditioner, furnace, water heater, washer, dryer, range, etc.
- LOWER YOUR ELECTRIC BILL: Gauge real-time spending and get actionable notifications to understand where you can save costs.
- REAL-TIME ENERGY DATA: REQUIRES 2.4 GHz WIFI WITH AN INTERNET CONNECTION to monitor energy use with iPhone / Android / Web app. Vue sensors collect energy data and are accurate from ±2%. The Vue is UL and CE Listed for your safety. 1 second data is only available in the app (when actively open) and retained 3 hours. Minute and hour data are retained in the cloud. 1 minute data is retained 7 days, 1 hour data is retained indefinitely. Export cloud data whenever you want in the app.
- INSTALLS IN CIRCUIT PANEL of most homes with clamp-on sensors. Supports single-phase up to 240VAC line-neutral; single, split-phase 120/240VAC; and three-phase up to 415Y/240VAC (no Delta). Panels with access only to busbars will need flexible sensors available from Emporia Energy.
- 24/7 ENERGY MONITORING: Monitor your home's real power anywhere, anytime to prevent costly repairs, conserve energy, and save costs. Monitor solar / net metering. Light commercial 3 phase option available as a separate bundle. PROTECTED BY A 1-YEAR WARRANTY.
- APPLIANCE MONITORING WITHOUT GUESSWORK: Comes with sixteen (16) 50A sensors to accurately monitor your air conditioner, furnace, water heater, washer, dryer, range, etc.
- LOWER YOUR ELECTRIC BILL: Gauge real-time spending and get actionable notifications to understand where you can save costs.
- REAL-TIME ENERGY DATA: REQUIRES 2.4 GHz WIFI WITH AN INTERNET CONNECTION to monitor energy use with iPhone / Android / Web app. Vue sensors collect energy data and are accurate from ±2%. The Vue is UL and CE Listed for your safety. 1 second data is only available in the app (when actively open) and retained 3 hours. Minute and hour data are retained in the cloud. 1 minute data is retained 7 days, 1 hour data is retained indefinitely. Export cloud data whenever you want in the app.
Product Specifications
| Brand | EMPORIA ENERGY |
| Power Source | Hardwired |
| Style | Monitor with 16 50A Sensors |
| Color | white |
| Item Weight | 1 Pounds |
| Specification Met | UL |
| Measurement Type | Ammeter |
| Maximum Operating Voltage | 240 Volts |
| UPC | 860001485691 |
| Manufacturer | Emporia Renewable Energy Corp. |
| Part Number | 860001485691 |
| Item Weight | 1 pounds |
| Package Dimensions | 8.82 x 6.57 x 4.61 inches |
| Item model number | VEMT-16-50A-MX |
| Size | whole home monitor with 16 circuit sensors |
| Material | Gen 2 |
| Batteries Included | No |
| Batteries Required | No |
Product Price History
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Great way to monitor electric usage. This is an excellent product and it comes with great support and customer service also.I like it so much I bought a second one for Mom’s home – which is where things went wrong (but appears that this may be due to someone buying a Gen2 and doing a return putting their old original first-generation Vue in the new box and then Amazon sending it to me as ‘new’.)For the real product that I did get earlier (direct from Emporia) -Packaging: Wow – it’s beautiful.Documentation: Clear and concise.Android app: Very good (I’d like to see some tweaks here and there, but it works and gives you access to all the usage details.)Installation: I respect electricity and don’t like getting shocked! But, it really wasn’t difficult to safely install on live panel. I took my time and was careful.Support: Accessible and responsive – both phone and email.Price: Good!What more could you ask for?I’ve always wanted to know how much electricity things were using and have a Kill-A-Watt which works well for things that plug in. But, what about things like lights on switches, heat pumps, cooktops, etc? This device will let you see your total usage on everything, and up to 16 different individual circuits. And since the app shows usage on the whole home and any individual circuit in real time 1-second intervals, it’s quite easy to see electric usage even on circuits that power multiple things. For example, a typical breaker may shut off power to all the lights in one or more rooms. Either have all the lights off and turn just the one you want to check on – or, if other lights on circuit are also on, just use the difference between the usage on that circuit from the amount with and without the light you want to measure being ‘on’. Same technique can be used for receptacle circuits.With the Emporia Vue I was able to see: my modern washing machine draws about 6 watts constantly when it’s ‘Off’. Oral-B toothbrush chargers draw more than 5 watts constantly if plugged in, with or without a toothbrush on the charger – there’s basically no difference if you charge a toothbrush or not. My central A/C draws 10 watts less when my smart Sensi thermostat has it ‘off’ than when it’s in ‘cool’ but not running. These are all little things, but they add up on things that run 24×7. Reduce 24×7 demand by 100 watts, and that’s 72kWh per month. In Hawaii at about 25 cents per kWh, that’s $18/month!The Vue will also give you insight into the big things as well – the usage of electric water heater, clothes dryer, cooktop, oven, etc.I’m glad I bought this, and I’m also glad to see some delays in availability – demand for the product is picking up as more people realize what this can do for their energy awareness/conservation, and hopefully allows Emporia to be successful and continue to offer this at a reasonable price! (It does require Internet/cloud to work and continue working.)
Terrific Energy Monitor. I love the Emporia Vue 2 energy monitor. The monitor is the only monitor that provides detailed info on each individual circuit. Most monitors provide only the mains usage. The only near competitor to the Vue 2 is the Sense. However, I read too many negative reviews regarding the Sense’s ability to determine what devices were being used in the house.The Vue 2 gives accurate information on each circuit. The Vue 2 matches my electrical bill regarding monthly usage per day and month. The total cost is off due to variation of end of month billing dates and add on utility company charges.The charts are functional and fine for my purposes. There is no API for to the feed data to an external program. You can download the raw data in CSV format if you want your own custom reporting. You can use the phone app or the website. You must login into the website to view your household information.I have not experienced any of the device or app issues that some people have reported.Tech support is awesome! They respond, know their stuff, and stay engaged until the issue is resolved.I did the installation myself. There are many You Tube videos that provide guidance. The instructions are simple, easy to follow, and accurate. The installation itself is easy and went relatively quickly. The breaker box will be a little crowded and messy unless you make an effort to wire-mind the cables.The Vue 2 can monitor only 16 circuits/breaker slots. I have 20 breaker slots occupied and 2 mains, so my Vue 2 is full. If you have more than 16 breakers and some are dual pole breakers, you can save a Vue 2 slot by monitoring 1 pole of the dual pole breaker and use a circuit multiplier of 2. If you still have additional breakers to monitor, you will need a second Vue 2 and “nest” the 2nd device under the 1st device. Contact Emporia support for additional questions.It is critical that you understand that when the main breaker is pulled the individual circuits to the house are dead BUT the mains that come from the utility pole into the breaker box are still live and dangerous. If you are not comfortable working around high voltage hire an electrician. Note: Make sure he records the breaker number and breaker amps to Vue 2 circuit number (explained below). Also make sure he dresses the cables neatly. After all he is a professional!As you make the connections you need to record the breaker number and what Vue 2 circuit number the breaker is connected to. This is important since you will need the information to set up the circuits in the monitor software.Once I had the device hooked up and working, I then determined what was connected to each breaker and corresponding Vue 2 circuit by turning on each household device one at a time (A/C, clothes washer, etc.) or by going to each wall outlet and plugging in a portable device that required noticeable watts. By observing what Vue 2 circuit showed an increase in usage I was able to develop a device mapping to Vue 2 circuit number to breaker number.In the VUE 2 software I labeled each Vue 2 circuit with the associated device name, the breaker number, and the breaker amps. This allowed me to have a breaker number to Vue 2 circuit number to device mapping with the circuit amps.The only downside to the Vue 2 is the AMPs reporting. As far as i can tell the individual mains and circuits are correctly reported in AMPs. However, the total of the mains is incorrectly calculated by totaling the two mains. This can be done for Watts/KW but not for AMPs since totaling ignores whether the result is from a 120 or 240 circuit if only 1 leg is being monitored. Either use the main with the biggest AMP usage or total the individual Vue 2 circuits to get a decent estimate. Emporia support says they want to fix this issue but there is no timeline.Yes I would buy this product again and recommend it to a friend.
Not perfect but pretty good. I’ve been wanting to be able to monitor my home’s electrical usage for some time now, not just from a standpoint of trying to minimize our electricity bills but also from a standpoint of situational awareness and equipment health status. I’d like to know if my well pump is running more than usual, if my oven has been left on, or if my heat pump is having a harder time starting up than it usually does. And, with a little effort, Emporia lets me set notifications for each of those things.Emporia tells me that the so-called “50A” sensors actually saturate at 75A, and will not be damaged if you go beyond that—they’ll simply fail to report any additional current. It makes sense that they’ve allowed some margin above the nominal value—a 50A breaker might easily let you draw 100A for several seconds without tripping. But that’s good to know if, like me, you have a 60A emergency heat circuit in your air handler that you want to monitor.There are alternatives out there. The most widely known one is probably Sense (also sold as Wiser Energy), which tries to infer based on only sensing your main lines what loads are running. That’s a neat idea, and certainly easier to install because of so many fewer sensors, but I can’t say I really trust their computer to be able to tell the difference between all the various loads in a house just from looking at the combined draw. Plus, Sense costs twice as much as Emporia—and I needed two monitors because I have two completely separate panels in my house (neither is a subpanel of the other), so I was doubly sensitive to price. Another interesting option, though, is called IotaWatt. Its price tag is comparable to Sense, but like the Emporia it relies on individual circuit sensors rather than guesswork (although you only get 14 sensors, including the mains). And the IotaWatt is open source, so you don’t have to rely on a company like Emporia to keep supporting the software ecosystem in the future (on the flip side, though, you’re almost certainly looking at having to fiddle more with the software, and I’d expect it to be a lot harder to contrive a way of looking at the data when you’re not at home on your local network). Another interesting option, although it won’t work for most people, is the Emporia “Vue Utility Connect wireless energy monitor.” If you happen to be in one of the relatively few markets using the appropriate Zigbee-connected smart meter, that cheap little device can tell you your total power draw by simply asking your existing smart meter what’s happening. Not as informative as being able to monitor 16 individual circuits, but not bad for the price tag and ease of installation.I also like how the Emporia ecosystem includes smart plugs to monitor individual devices. I bought some of those also because I wanted to be able to schedule the on and off time of certain equipment, and being able to monitor the power draw of that specific service is handy. You can nest the device to put it under the appropriate circuit in the app.If you’re getting the 16-branch-sensor version like I did, there’s no getting around the fact that it’s going to turn the inside of your breaker box into a rat’s nest. I don’t care for that, but I don’t have any better ideas. The Sense approach of only monitoring the mains is the only way around it that I can see, and as I said I don’t really trust that.The app feels a little dodgy. Sometimes the branch circuits don’t show up unless I fiddle with the time scale. Changing the name of a circuit doesn’t update until you leave the menu, so it can get confusing if you’re renaming several at once. And I ended up remaking all of them because when I finished typing them all in the first time it suggested I take a picture of the inside of my breaker box—and navigating from the Emporia app to my camera seemed to abort the entire setup process. It also failed to update firmware and said it would do it overnight instead. And even after it’s all set up, the high resolution data by the second—which is the only glimpse into how hard a motor is starting—disappears quickly (3 hours), in many cases preventing you from comparing to previous runs of that equipment if you haven’t explicitly gone to the effort of saving it. I would’ve appreciated emporia saving the peak draw from each circuit over the last day, week, and month. So on the whole I’m not feeling like it’s a very polished experience.The one second sample rate frequently misses startup spikes. If you’re really only concerned with total energy usage, that might not matter, but if you have an interest in how hard a motor is starting then that’s a bit disappointing. The one-second data is also only saved for three hours, which isn’t a lot of time. I wish they would save the peak consumption per hour and per day, ideally from a quick enough sample to catch startup peaks reliably.I’d like to be able to set a notification for power draw between two bounds rather than just above or below a threshold. If I want to recognize a hard start of my air handler but not confuse emergency heat with a hard start, I need that kind of functionality.If I’m understanding things correctly, setting the time scale to minute or hour or day shows me how much energy has been consumed so far during this minute or hour or day (etc) even if it just started seconds ago. I don’t see a way to view my usage over the last rolling 24 hours, or 60 minutes, or 60 seconds, which makes it hard to understand how much energy I’m using right now as opposed to one unit of time ago.About a week after installing the sensors, I accidentally hit the breaker to my heat pump while turning on another breaker that was new and quite stiff. The next morning, I got a bunch of notifications that I had configured to alert me when the system was in emergency (resistive) heat mode. I found my error with a quick investigation and remedied it before a lot of energy was wasted.In all, it could be better but I like it.
Great hardware but sad UI. If you’re looking for the best monitor at the lowest price, this is definitely it. If you’re looking for just the best monitor, this might be it — but that depends on your level of technical savvy. The Sense is simpler to install, has MUCH better UI and reports, but substantially less accurate AND it costs 3-4x more.The Vue hardware is really nice and gives you direct, circuit by circuit, monitoring — which is great. BUT their app is just…sad. It is simplistic, doesn’t consider complex situations (like multiple panels) at all, and offers extremely limited smarts when it comes to charting, analysis, and data management.Notice I didn’t say “bad”. It works. You can use it. If you have a simple setup and you’re not too particular about logical data presentation or meaningful analysis, you may not even notice how little thought (much less expertise!) went into this app. But if you want to go any deeper than that, good luck. You either need to pay more for Sense, or put on your techie hat and dive into one of the online tutorials to flash your device or custom code routines to regularly pull the data and then build your own analyses.So, it gets 4 stars. It really does work and the hardware, in particular, works well. I like it a lot. And if you’ve got a simple use profile, you’ll like it a lot. But if you have a complex situation or want more than very basic stats — be prepared for a good deal of additional effort on your part. (Sadly the company doesn’t appear to recognize how poor their app is so unlikely any help is coming from that sector.)
Lo ho installato da ormai un anno e posso dire che si tratta di un prodotto valido.Pro:- lettura sufficientemente affidabile, non certo come un contatore , ma utilissimo per avere una stima dei consumi. Rispetto al contatore dell’enel ho apprezzato una differenza su base bimestrale di circa il 4% in meno.- Si può integrare con script di terze parti in home assistant- L’app è minimale ma fatta bene tutto sommatoContro:- il prezzo. Cento euro per un apparecchio del genere sono veramente troppi. Da prendere se proprio, come me, non si vuole perdere tempo a smanettare con microcontrollori vari.- si dipende in tutto e per tutto dal produttore per quanto riguarda il funzionamento. Se domani l’azienda fallisse, l’oggettino diventerebbe un bel fermacarte poichè non vi è modo di farlo funzionare off-line archiviando i tati su un server locale.In definitiva è un prodotto plug n play che fa quello che promette discretamente bene. Da evitare se si vuole una maggior flessibilità nel trattamento dei dati rilevati. In questo caso bisogna orientarsi ad altri prodotti anche molto più economici.
Simple to Install and Use – Lets Me Choose What to Monitor. When my electric company started to include a demand surcharge for high usage period of the day I needed to get a handle on usage of not only the total demand but also the particulars for AC, Range, etc. No longer wanted to use a plug in watt meter and couldn’t use that with 240V or any of the hardwired appliances. Did check in breaker panel to be sure I had room for meter monitor and that I had a half inch knockout available to install wifi antenna through the box bottom. Got the 16 sensor package to give me maximum items the sensor provides for monitoring. There is a multiplier for two pole 240V breakers so you only need to apply a sensor to one of the wires and adjust during setup. The sensors are directional so have to make sure the arrows point to breaker when clamping on the wires. Best to power down panel but mains would require utility removal of meter to turn off. Took about 30 minutes to install all the sensors and about fifteen minutes to setup individual items. Wire dressing in the box with cable ties a must. Monitors by the second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year. Also gives Monthly 15 minute Peak Demand, which is what my utility bases surcharge on. Final plus is that I was able to add my adjustable Sensi thermostat to the Vue 2 app to monitor and control heating and cooling instead of using the Sensi app. That will save $30 a year in Sensi fees.
I tried this system because I just installed a solar system on the house and wanted to track my net power usage through the grid. In Alberta you can switch plans throughout the year to take advantage of times when you’re producing rather than importing power. This system gives me that data, and I can view it via a website or phone app, which works with no issues.What really attracted me to this was the fact I could also track 16 individual circuits as well. It’s been very informative to see where I’m using power, and again the app / website is easy and convenient.Installation was pretty straight forward as long as you’re comfortable working on your main panel. The app has a step by step guide which walks you through the install. I made a small mistake by hooking up both voltage sensors to the same leg of the panel, and it picked up the error and told me how to correct it.The biggest challenge is definitely dealing with all the extra CTs and wires and the main unit in the panel. I had to move a few breakers around to make room for the unit, and my panel is now completely stuffed with all the extra wires. But there’s no way around that if you want to monitor your circuits at the breaker.I also like this unit because you have the option to switch it over to open source. I don’t care too much, but if you don’t like the idea of sending your private power consumption data to a distant web server, it’s possible to re-flash the unit using ESPHome to make it fully open source so you can keep the monitoring local to your own network.Overall it’s a great product and you get a lot of good, flexible hardware for the price.
Pro setup might be needed. First off this product came very quickly and was pretty straightforward to set up. I caution anyone who has little to no understanding of household electrical Circuitry to hire a professional as you could kill yourself. The online help app Is decent however it could use a little bit of work As this was primarily geared towards European electricity which is different from American electricity. As I said before if you don’t understand the difference higher a professional. This product came with 16 Inductive pick up coils as well as 2 pick up coisles for the main leads. It also has a wiring harness with 4 wires. And they are red black white and blue If you are using a single phase circuit within the United States You will connect the Black wire 2 an empty 15 amp breaker and you will connect the remaining 3 wires to the neutral bus. Make sure that you have a wireless router that has separate 2G and 5G connections. If they are joined you will not be able to get this to work you must have a separate 2G Wi-Fi connection. As this has just gotten installed in my home I will leave feedback at a later date Is as to the performance of this unit. I do expect that it is going to be relatively decent in picking up stuff. I’m sure that it is not as good as their competitor but they are competitor also cost almost double the price And has much less wiring. But for $125. I am willing to take a chance to find out where the energy hog is.
Great insights. Bought unit for 2 main reasons, see what is inefficient (Global warming and carbon footprint is a myth and control) to lower energy bill and also to size the house for the most reasonable whole home generator. It only has 16 leads, so depending on you, you may need 2 of these is you want EVERY circuit monitored. 16 worked for mine because I was not worried about the major appliances I have no control over except for swapping them out. That said, swapping the leads is EASY…IF… you are comfortable getting inside your power panel AND have a detailed knowledge of the security and precautions of doing so.As to accuracy? Will need to wait for a full bill cycle to see and then after I can compare to see if Elec company is honest and if meter is accurate. It has been in for a week, and so far, the information is helpful.
Easy to install and works great. My solar client who has been really great to work with reached out to me about consumption monitoring to go with their system. I looked over the work orders from the job and saw that Enphase CT’s which are somewhat bulky didn’t fit in their panel. I had seen this solution before and I decided to give it a try.You will need a drill, your drill bits, wire strippers, and electrical tape. Wear work gloves with rubber coated palms, eye protection and consider having someone else with you while you work, even if they don’t do much.If you feel uncomfortable about working on a live electrical system I would really recommend hiring someone to do this work who is licensed and insured.If you are not going that route and you feel that you can work responsibly it is a pretty easy job. The app tells you everything to do and it’s easy to follow along.I did not apply common sense at first, which would tell us to select circuits from the top of the panel going down on each side and try to keep the sides of the device correspondent to the order of breakers in the panel. I had to pull everything off, tape it up, and recommission it because I couldn’t close the panel cover.As a gift for my homeowners I like that it has purpose, longevity, and isn’t consumable. It’s interesting to talk about which can lead them to someone who needs a referral and wants to get their bill lower.Compared to other solutions like Sense and onboard CT’s from SolarEdge and Enphase this is way better. Since you pick the circuits you get high quality data unlike the Sense. CT’s are cool but it doesn’t tell you why your consumption is up, just that your consumption is up. This would be a great tool to get ahead of true up bills, stay on top of time-of-use, and cut consumption for anyone looking to save on bills.
Very Helpful for Energy Monitoring. This is a great and lower cost tool at measuring energy usage around the home. By easy to understand graphs of circuits, one can see just how efficient or inefficient a furnace is perhaps, or an electric water heater. You can’t tell when a water heater is on or for how long, but with this very versatile unit, you can see exactly how long the water heater took to recover after a shower, clothes washing or just to see how often it comes on to maintain temperature. Same goes for the Furnace in winter and AC in summer. How long they run and how much they draw is easily at your finger tips.I bought the 16 circuit Vue Gen2 model and with my electrical knowledge, had this system installed in about an hour. The only complications that you’ll run into is how well the wiring was ran inside the panel box. There were a few wires that did not go easy on getting the clamps around and remember to install the clamp in the correct direction to the breaker. I had to skin the jacket of some circuits closer to their entry point into the panel to clamp on due to lack of space. Luckily this Vue Gen2 unit is all plastic and fits securely and safely in the panel, and fortunately for me I had a spot in my small panel box for the main Vue unit to live.After the setup process of the app, I was monitoring my house in realtime. I highly recommend this product for anyone who has remote sites or rental homes for an added bit of assurance on knowing what is happening at any given time. This product definitely allows one to see unusual power usage, and even notifications of power loss is a big win for me.***By all means, call an electrician to install this system if you feel the least bit uncomfortable of working in an electrical panel box***
Effective and User-Friendly Electricity Monitor – Nearly Perfect. I recently purchased this electricity monitor, and I’m genuinely impressed with its performance. Installation was a breeze, which was a pleasant surprise. The user manual provided clear instructions, and I had it up and running in 1 hour.The real-time electricity usage display is a standout feature. It’s fascinating to see how different appliances and activities impact my electricity consumption. This monitor has been instrumental in identifying unnecessary energy wastage in my home. By pinpointing these areas, I’ve been able to make more energy-efficient choices, which I anticipate will reflect positively on my electricity bills.One of the most helpful aspects is the ability to track usage over time. The monitor provides a clear, comprehensive view of my electricity consumption patterns. This data is invaluable for making informed decisions about energy use and has helped me understand my household’s energy habits better.However, there’s one feature that could take this monitor from great to perfect: an API for web integration. If I could access my electricity usage data through a website, it would enhance the usability and accessibility of the information. This addition would allow for more detailed analysis and the possibility of integrating the data with other smart home systems.In conclusion, I’m very satisfied with this electricity monitor. It’s easy to install, simple to use, and provides crucial insights into electricity usage. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to gain a better understanding of their energy consumption and looking to make more environmentally friendly and cost-effective choices. A web API in future models would make it an unbeatable product in its category.
Accurate Energy Monitor. This product is excellent and does just about everything you would expect and want. Amps, watts, voltage, it even can calculate approximate cost based on your utility provider, though it doesn’t seem to have the most up to date info. Telemetry to your phone is fast and accurate. It was easy to install. Appearance doesn’t matter much as it sits behind a closed panel, though it does add a significant number of wires as you fit it in place, be wary this may be tough if your panel is small. My only wish is that it were expandable for more CTs. I’ll have to buy another, though it allegedly integrates well into the app with multiple units.
Es la mejor forma de controlar el gasto de energía.
Es la mejor forma de controlar el gasto de energía.