In order to track your power usage with your solar energy generation, you need to know how much electricity is extra in order to control certain major loads like charging your EV or HVAC. Most home energy monitoring systems are complicated to set up, complicated to use and can be very expensive.

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2MuchSun has developed the PowerMC ($89) to be an affordable and easy to use WiFi power sensor.  It can work "out of the box "with no set up with the SolarAdapter because it's designed to be completely separate with or without connecting to your home network. PowerMC includes a built-in lightweight MQTT broker/server to communicate directly with the SolarAdapter.

PowerMC's basic configuration can monitor the input to your split-phase main panel up to 200A.  If your solar generation feeds into one of the circuits in your main panel, then that is all you need for the SolarAdapter or SolarEVSE. Otherwise, you can buy an additional CT (current transformer) to determine the extra power if your solar generation system doesn't allow you to export the data to the SolarAdapter or SolarEVSE

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PowerMC installation will require an electrician if you are not comfortable with opening up your main panel. PowerMC will also require power from a single 120V breaker either dedicated or shared. The small PowerMC control module and CTs remain inside the main panel. The external antenna can be easily fed to the outside of the main panel for increased signal strength.

Other features include software CT reversal for mains and solar, publishing data to its internal MQTT broker or an external REST API server such as Emoncms, a web page server to allow any browser to interact and view data, and automatic firmware updates. The Show Data feature views the data and format being sent for both analysis and troubleshooting.

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For those networks and devices that support mDNS (multicast DNS), only the name of the PowerMC is needed to access its user interface instead of knowing the assigned IP address.  The PowerMC is not cloud-based so it can work without an Internet connection.  In addition, it can also use its internal network so no need to even have a home network.

Features:

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• Works with all US split phase home main panels

• Two split core 200A capable CTs (current transformers)

• Supports a third split core 100A CT for solar (option)

• Works "out of the box" with the SolarAdapter or SolarEVSE - configuration free and no home network or Internet connection needed

• External antenna

• Lightweight MQTT broker

• Supports sending data via REST API like Emoncms

• Configurable update rates from 1 to 15 seconds

• View data being sent via Show Data

• LED Power and connection indicators

• WiFi STA/AP 2.4GHz with WPS support

• Signal strength and connection indicators

• Basic HTML user interface for compatibility with all browsers

• Open-source firmware

• Automatic firmware updates via the Internet

• Supports mDNS addressing

• Internal AC/DC 2W RU certified power supply

• 1 year warranty

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