Skip to content

panel-energy

Per-circuit energy monitor for the house panel: CT per circuit -> ESP32 (ESPHome) -> Home Assistant on the Plex server -> Energy dashboard / Grafana. Goal: find where kWh go and cut the bill. Repo: ~/panel-energy (local only, no remote yet). Related: kitchen-hub, tesla-automation.

Open

  • Owner: breaker count + panel photo (sets channel count).
  • Owner: utility + rate plan (flat / time-of-use / demand).
  • Owner: smart meter data available (app, Green Button)?
  • Owner: personal only, or possible EmbeddedEra product?
  • Pick hardware (repo docs/options.md); recommended Emporia Vue 3 reflashed with ESPHome.

Decisions

  • Leg balancing is secondary: US split-phase bills total kWh, imbalance costs nothing on the bill. Savings = big consumers, baseline, failing appliances, TOU shifting. 2026-11-07.
  • Buy before build: Vue 3 + ESPHome first, CircuitSetup ATM90E32 second, custom board only with a stated reason. 2026-11-07.

Gotchas

  • ESPHome 2026.4.0 broke the emporia-vue component; users pinned 2026.3.3. Check before choosing a version.
  • HA recorder purges raw states after 10 days; long-term hourly statistics are kept.

Log

  • 2026-11-07: checked "balancing saves energy in Puerto Rico": no. LUMA residential = per-kWh + fixed charge, no residential demand charge; demand (kVA) only on commercial. Balance matters for generator/inverter backup. README updated.
  • 2026-11-07: project started; repo ~/panel-energy with README, docs/options.md (sourced), ROADMAP.md. Commit 7916e36.