If you are looking for a cost effective way to make your home more efficient, upgraded doors and windows might not be your best first step. The Emporia Energy Monitor offers you the chance to reduce your energy usage by 6% to 34%, for around the same price as a new pair of shoes.
Join us as we explore the features, functionalities, and real-world impact of this cutting-edge device, so you can learn the good and the bad, and ultimately decide if this is the right tool for you.
What's In this Article?
Emporia Energy Monitor Overview
- The Good
First off, the price on this thing is great. In fact, it won our “best value monitor” spot in our list of Best Home Energy Monitors.
Also, this monitor works using dedicated circuit monitoring with up to 16 connections, meaning you can immediately start collecting data and your energy detection will be super accurate. This is a definite plus over monitors that use machine learning.
It’s easy to set up, has great data visuals, and has personalized suggestions for energy savings. All in all, the Emporia Energy Monitor has really good bang for the buck!
- The Bad
Our positive for the Emporia Energy Monitor is also our negative. The dedicated circuit monitoring means that you won’t necessarily be able to monitor every device simultaneously, you have to do more work at the start to set it up (unlike monitors with machine learning), and it can be very bulky in an electrical panel.
1. Is the Emporia Energy Monitor Any Good?
Long story short… Yes! And sometimes, I wish I had chosen this monitor for my personal monitor.
Let me tell you a quick personal story to elaborate. I personally use the Sense Energy Monitor because I like the machine learning a lot. However, there was a point where I was almost positive that something in our house was using an excessive amount of energy.
I was having a really hard time confirming my suspicions because the machine learning wasn’t detecting the exact device due to it’s variable electricity use. Also, I didn’t have dedicated circuit monitoring, meaning that the Sense didn’t come with extra cables that I could hook directly to devices to see what they were doing.
I ended up flipping breakers in my panels and running around my house with my phone in hands for months, whenever I saw unusual spikes in energy usage.
Eventually, I tracked it to a electric resistance heater that was tucked into a corner of my utility room for pre-heating my HRV. It turns out this heater was set to the wrong temperatures AND I didn’t even need it in the first place! Turning off this heater saved us a ton of money!
This could have all been avoided with the Emporia Energy Monitor. If I had this monitor, I could have just taken one of these dedicated circuit monitors (a little jumper cable looking clip) and hooked it to cables around the room until I found this little energy gremlin… case closed!
So in summary, though the Emporia Energy Monitor doesn’t have machine learning, this isn’t always a negative. Especially at this price point, which is exactly why the Emporia got rated as our “Best Value Monitor” in our comparison of the best energy monitors on the market.
2. How Does Emporia Energy Monitor Work?
The Emporia Energy Monitor works by hooking a bunch of easy to install monitors (think of a bunch of little jumper cables) to the wires inside your electrical panel.
Once the device is installed the monitor, it uses precision current and voltage sensors to capture unique electrical signatures and the directions they are flowing… Think of little electrical x-rays looking into your wires and observing the amount and direction of electricity flow.
Once labelled, the data is passed to the monitor’s processing units to sort and present data to users via a user-friendly app. It then looks at what your patterns are and sends you suggestions for decreasing your energy usage. This enables you to gain real-time insights and make the most effective changes to decrease your environmental footprint and energy costs quickly.
3. Is the Emporia Energy Monitor Worth It?
The quick answer… maybe. It depends on your goals (e.g., money, decreased environmental footprint), the monitor you choose, it’s cost, the house you own, and your usage habits before and after installation.
Energy monitors have the potential to slash household energy consumption by anywhere from 6% to an impressive 34%, depending on your usage habits. So, they will definitely decrease your environmental footprint if used right. But they also have a good chance to save you more money on energy bills than what you paid to purchase and install them.
If you want to figure out if the cost will be recouped, take your current electricity bill and subtract the hookup fees. Then multiply the dollar value remaining by 0.15 (15%). Take the cost of the Emporia Energy Monitor and divide it by your dollar value remaining (15% of your energy bill).
This will tell you how many months it will take to recoup your investment. After that, you are making money!
Example:
$250 bill – $50 hookup = $200
$200 x 0.15 = $30
$299 / $30 = 10 months
4. Emporia Energy Monitor Vs Sense
Honestly, I think both of these products are great products and it really depends on what you want.
The Sense Energy Monitor offers machine learning and a more compact design which is great for fitting in cramped electrical panels. See our full review of the Sense Energy Monitor here.
The Emporia Energy Monitor offers dedicated circuit monitoring at a more affordable price.
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Additional Resources
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How to Install Emporia Smart Home Energy Monitor?
Check here for our general description of the steps involved in Home Energy Monitor Installation.
It’s important to understand that the installation of the Emporia Energy Monitor requires work inside of your electrical panel which has real safety concerns. Read the manuals carefully and decide whether you should hire a professional for insurance and safety reasons.