Whole-House Energy Monitoring System
Emporia vs Eyedro vs ??? for whole home electricity monitoring
After reading Allison Bailes’ article https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/home-electricity-monitoring
I began looking into whole house monitoring on a circuit by circuit level as part of our energy retrofit.
However, Emporia tops out at 200A, and it’s looking like we’ll need to go to the next step up, 400A, due to space considerations. (need to go tankless as I can’t fit the second tank in my space without knocking out a wall)
Has anyone here had any experience with Eyedro Home, which claims to go up to 400A? Or is there any experience with other systems out there?
(Hint: maybe someone from GBA could write a survey article in this area?)
The main things I’m looking for are whole-house monitoring (up to 400A) plus the ability to add together pairs of circuits; the latter is because the tankless wants 2 50A circuits. By contrast, my heat pump only needs up to about 17A.
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Not exactly what you asked, but here is a start - I have not updated it in a few years.
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/question/energy-monitoring-systems-which-is-best-combo-of-affordability-ease-of-operation-and-accuracy
Thanks. The other thread is just what I’m looking for.
Two other thoughts
First, although you may have up to a 100amp draw with the tankless electric WH, there are "smart" panels out there that may let you keep your total panel at 200amps. You just need something to manage concurrent high draws. The other high draws are typically oven, car charger, dryer. The smart panels will let you put more than one of those on the same circuit and prioritize them. So you could have the water heater and the car EV charger on the same circuit and the smarts of the panel charge the car when there is no hot water draw, but prioritize the WH whenever it calls for power. The smart panels are not cheap, but the upcharge might be less than the upcharge to go to 400 amp service + 400 amp panel + energy monitoring system for 400 amp.
Here is a gba article about them, but it is old: https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/reinventing-the-electric-service-panel
In addition to the brand in the article (which I presume is a startup?), Schneider (Square D), Leviton and Legrand all make a smart panel. If I was building and in the market for a load center anyway, I would certainly consider one of the smart panels.
Second, I understand the issue of limited space. However, I would go to great lengths to avoid a whole house tankless electric. Options include putting a HP WH in a conditioned attic (in a pan, with a trapped drain to exterior), if you have both a washer and dryer replacing that with a single unit HP W/D (GE makes one), and using the gained space for a HP WH, or mounting two short fat (lowboy) traditional electric resistance tanks inline, but mounted high, such as on a shelf over a W/D. If those together are insufficient you could add a mini tankless (or mini tank) under sinks. If your hot water triangle is small enough, several sinks can share a mini tankless or mini tank. There are many ways to get creative to avoid a tankless electric WH.
Also this thread may be of interest in regards to the WH:
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/question/lowboy-hpwh
Wow my condolences, 400 Amps! This is about the only time a tankless electric makes any sense.
My choices from the utility are either 200A or 400A. I have to do an upgrade anyways from the present 100A in order to fit in the heat pump, and my circumstances are such that I’ve been commanded to put up a private pole and run underground for the short distance from the pole to my house.
So if I have to do all that infrastructure work anyways, the incremental cost to go to 400A isn’t that much, even though ironically considering I’m putting in 15-16 kW of PV, my average power consumption over the year will be close to zero. But of course we need to design for peak draw.
I’m still playing with the numbers a bit, eg downsizing the backup heat as well as the WH tankless. Technically, with the ATW system, input to the tankless should normally be more like 120-130F rather than the groundwater 42F, so I don’t need such a big tankless. It’d take 2 simultaneous failures of both the heat pump and backup heat to require the heavy tankless.
You might want to look at the Leviton load centers that have monitoring built in. I am doing a 200A service upgrade and I am probably going with one.
Also you could split your 400A service to 2x200A panels, right?
I believe you can run two Emporia monitors at the same time. Their tech support is really helpful in my experience and could confirm that quickly for you.
If you are having to replace the smaller panel with a newer one anyways, just go SPAN or other smart panel. Keep in mind with Leviton, last I checked, you can turn off breakers remotely but you cannot turn them back on, also you have to use their proprietary breakers. SPAN allows for common off-the-shelf breakers.
… or I could realize I’m a dumkopf and because the tankless is getting its input from the outlet of the thermal storage tank which is hooked up to the backup electric boiler anyways, I really didn’t need such a big capacity.
I managed to juggle the numbers and downsize components enough I’m down to 180A per the code worksheet. Apollo 13, we are go!