Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Review Emporia Vue Gen 1. (Rating 3 out of 5 stars) Very easy to install and low priced. However, the fact that this device does not measure the actual voltage is disappointing. The voltage measurement is needed to calculate the complex power (VA), the real power (W) and the reactive power (VAR), so the app displays a wrong value for real power in watts in some cases. For example, I opened the breakers for all circuits except for the one that powers my fridge, the app showed 2.7 Amps and 327 Watts. I found that the 2.7 Amps was the correct RMS value of the current since I measured it with a clamp meter, but I knew that not all of that current value counted towards real power. Thus, I used an energy monitor to measure the power drawn by the fridge which was 185 Watts and found a 0.57 power factor due to the inductive load (compressor running). In this case the difference between the app 327 Watts and the real value 185 Watts is 142 Watts for an appliance that is running 24/7. Additionally, this device assumes a constant 120V which might not be the case due to distribution feeder loading conditions and/or house location in the distribution feeder. These factors can lead to big discrepancies with the utility kWh count. Review of newer model Emporia Vue Gen 2. (Rating 4.5 out of 5 stars) I got contacted by the Emporia Vue support team and was given the newer Emporia Vue Gen 2 to try out. This newer version does feature the voltage measurement which deals with large error of unity power factor that the previous version had. It was very easy to install and the price is reasonable. The app seems to be more responsive and displays more accurate information. I was able to export my consumption data in kWh to a .csv file, but could not find the voltage data which is necessary for basic power quality analysis. Also, it would be great if a feature to combine circuits were available for better monitoring in case where the lights of a room are in one circuit and the receptacles in another. There is a multiplier function in the configuration settings that can be used for most double pole breaker loads such as mini-split air conditioning units because the supply voltage 240V is fed by only two-wires (2 hots) and 1 safety ground wire. In a case where the load requires both 240V and 120V (internal electronics) then the current will not be the same and the multiplier might no be a good approximation. This type of loads will usually require at least 4 wires (2 hots, 1 neutral, 1 ground) which is a situation where the combining of circuits is the most appropriate to use. Overall, this newer version is much better than the previous one. There are a few things that can be improved, but it is a great option for household energy monitoring.