When looking to install a Gen 2, there's a few things to lookout for related to the installation possibilities and how we can work with them.
1) "Inaccessible" main lines - Some electrical panels and consumer units will have different main line connections into the panel breakers. Some of these situations include bus bars, or "hidden" mains behind a protective plate and more. In general, we have a few different CT styles that can work better than the default 200A CT's included with each kit. Those can be found on our shop page here. If not sure whether or not your mains are capable of being monitored, feel free to take a picture of the panel (with cover off so you can see breakers/wiring) and send that to the Customer Support team for clarification.
2) Solar-ready, or "by-passed" solar - This would be a situation where the solar (generation) has its own connection to the utility meter outside of your regular system consumption circuits. This situation is tough for us to monitor correctly because the 200A CT's need to be installed on a location on the main lines where they can see backfed power to measure correctly. In these environments where the solar has its own connection to the meter, that backfed power is skipping the 200A CT's and we'd only be able to capture the consumption in the system. We're going to be adding app functionality in the future to allow for customized sensor relationships to help in these situations.
3) "High-leg" voltage - In situations where your electrical system has one line-to-neutral (phase) voltage higher than the others, the Gen 2 will not work correctly. The device uses averaged voltage for on-device calculations, so in situations where that average is too far off from the baseline voltage measurements it can cause measurement discrepancies.
4) Line-to-neutral voltage higher than ~264V, or line amperage higher than 250A - These are hardware level limitations on the Gen 2. We do not have any products that can monitor power higher than those values.
5) Four Mains - If you have 4 mains coming into your panel, your best option would be skipping mains' monitoring completely. As long as you can cover all the circuits with 50A CT's, you're going to have total usage and accurate measurements. The reason I say that is because the monitor has only 3 top ports for monitoring mains. There's also another solution that would be adding an Utility Connect if you are in a region that supports Zigbee (it’s another monitor we sell, that has to be provisioned by the Utility Company to read consumption from your net meter) and make it your mains, and nest the Gen 2 under the Utility Connect, but for that, you'd need to buy an Utility Connect and have it provisioned by the utility, what can take a while.
If you have any questions about the potential of a Gen 2 on your electrical system, reach out to Customer Support with any details/pictures you have available and we can help clarify installation possibilities for your situation.
Feedback and Suggestions
This knowledge base is pretty new for the Emporia team. Our goal is to provide all of the information we can to help you manage your energy in better ways. If this article wasn't helpful, or we could be more clarifying on any points please reach out to the Customer Support team and we'll certainly work to improve these guides.