A review of Emporia Energy Smart EV Charger is our today’s discussion topic. We shall try to describe the current topic in possible detail. The Emporia EV Charger is the smart EV charger to choose from if you want extensive integration and thorough energy monitoring.
Pros of Emporia Energy Smart EV Charger
- Excellent design and construction
- Minute-level telemetry of the energy
- Whole-home energy monitoring integration with the VUE unit
- Great application
Cons of Emporia Energy Smart EV Charger
- With a white device, there is no choice for a white cable
- No connection to outside DC charging services
Emporia Energy Smart EV Charger
I’ve bought two electric vehicles in the past year: a Kia EV6 and a Polestar 2. The “smart” Level 2 fast AC EV chargers, which are Wi-Fi and app-connected. And can give you an accounting of your energy use (in kilowatt-hours and dollar equivalents). As well as may use for intelligent scheduling with your energy provider for off-peak charging, have particularly caught my attention.
I tried each of the top competitors for the best smart home EV charger, with the exception of Tesla’s home charger. ChargePoint, Electrify America, Grizzle-E Smart, and Emporia Energy.
The Emporia Energy unit is my preferred one, even though I enjoy them all for various reasons. Why? Price, the degree of telemetry detail for energy use. The calibre of the apps, and the possibility of whole-home energy monitoring.
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Design and Construction Quality; A Review of Emporia Energy Smart EV Charger
You may anticipate that the Emporia EV Charger would sacrifice industrial design and construction quality. And have fewer features because it costs around $100 to $200 less than its top competitors, but that’s not the case.
I thought the craftsmanship was superb. Additionally, the Emporia features a sleek, flat. And clean appearance (available in white or black) that blends in with the majority of garage and home exterior colours.
In a future model, I’d prefer the choice of a white chord rather than a black one. But that’s nitpicking. When the rope winds up, it’s hard to tell that my unit is there because it locates outside my garage.
Installation and Technicalities
The rectangular gadget has rounded corners and coveres in weatherproof plastic. On the front, it includes four LEDs that display the system power status (green). Wi-Fi connection status (multicolor), charge status (multicolor), and malfunction status (orange). It includes a sturdy 24-foot charge line and a hefty SAE J1772 connection handle for the EV. If you own a Tesla, you’ll also need a J1772 converter, which is available through Tesla and other vendors.
Eight drywall anchors use to secure the device in place; a mounting bracket include (see the installation and usage guide) (PDF). If you’re drilling into solid concrete, you’ll need a different drill bit and anchors.
You will need a 240V 14-50 NEMA outlet (you may alternatively use a 6-50 NEMA outlet, like I do, and use an adapter cable). As well as a breaker, in order to install the Emporia or any other EV charger, for that matter. Because the NEMA standard only permits an 80 percent usage of the circuit, in my instance, I could accommodate a 50A breaker. Which results in a maximum charge power of 39A/40A.
Any product advertising 48A/50A output needs a dedicated circuit, such as the well-known ChargePoint device. The Emporia device has a maximum charge power of 48A but requires a dedicated circuit (without a NEMA receptacle). And a 60A or higher breaker to achieve this. To find out if your home can even handle a 60A or greater service. You should speak with an electrician.
During initial configuration, the device can also be stepped down to 15/20/25/40/45A breakers. Which will reduce your charging power.
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Remember that if you are charging overnight, the power output of 32A, 40A, or 48A won’t make much of a difference. Especially if you are conducting a partial charge or top-off rather than charging from, say, 10 or 20 percent battery. In the latter scenario, you might need to start a few hours sooner; for most families. It won’t matter if it takes 4 or 6 hours to charge completely.
The installation is simple after mounting and connecting to electricity. You first download the Emporia Energy app (for iOS and Android), select “Add a Device,” then pair your Bluetooth device with the device. And configure it to connect to your Wi-Fi network.
Only 2.4GHz networks support, which seems standard for a smart EV charging. Even though the 2.4GHz SSIDs in our area heavily populate, we have no trouble connecting to our house WiFi.
App Emporia; A Review of Emporia Energy Smart EV Charger
Because Emporia Energy’s product is a whole-home energy hub, it stands apart from the other clever EV chargers. While the charger alone may be purchased for $399 to charge an EV, the firm also offers it for $564 as part of an integrated package that includes 16 circuit sensors. Its Emporia Vue energy monitor, which interfaces with your circuit panel (PDF), and four smart plugs.
The Vue and the smart plugs were not available for me to test, but the prospect of having a whole-home energy management. And monitoring system is highly appealing. I don’t have a solar power system, but I’d definitely check into this option if I did. The Vue can also modify your EV charger to automatically charge your car to utilise any surplus energy produced by your solar power system.
In addition, the Emporia app works with smart thermostats from Ecobee, Emerson Sensi, Honeywell Total Connect (Sorry, no Nest or Amazon). Bluetooth-enabled home backup batteries from Emporia Energy, and EVs with SmartCar data API network access.
The SmartCar function intrigues me since it can detect remote charging from anywhere, not just from an Emporia device. I didn’t get the chance to test it out.
The primary graph view of the app displays your energy usage down to the second, if necessary. And lists the devices you have integrated for monitoring (Charger, SmartCar-connected EVs, Thermostats, Smart Plugs, Batteries. And Circuits). This information is also displayed on the app’s home screen.
If your circuit can handle it, you can see the live throughput of the charger. For instance, as it rises from a few amps to the full 48A and as it slows down at the conclusion of the charge cycle. The graph view will also provide views of energy usage measured in kilowatt-hours, amps, equivalent gallons of gasoline, vehicle miles, CO2 offset, and even trees, by the minute, hour, day, week, month. And year. If you’ve selected your energy supplier—in my example, FPL—it may also display in the daily logs and graph views how much energy you used in dollars, broken down by charge.
In order to maximise when to charge your car, the gadget may also configure charging schedules based on whether you’re signed up for “time of use” billing or if your utility supplier bills on a peak or off-peak cycle. I don’t have scheduling enabled in the app since, in my situation, FPL doesn’t suggest a Time-of-Consume plan or care if I use energy during peak or off-peak hours. However, I would enable it and look into these services if I lived somewhere else where my energy consumption had an influence on my cost.
The one drawback I can think of is that Emporia Energy doesn’t control a charging network. So you won’t receive consolidated billing information as you would with applications from Tesla, ChargePoint. Or Electrify America when used with their home chargers. Nevertheless, I don’t frequently utilise those networks because I charge primarily at home.
To Sum Up
If you purchase the Emporia EV Charger as part of an integrated solution with Emporia Energy’s Vue unit and associated sensors, you can manage your vehicle’s energy use with whole-home monitoring. This is helpful for solar users who want to charge their vehicles with extra energy.
The device contains other functions, such as scheduling options to optimise charging times according to peak or off-peak cycles, which can help you save money on power bills even if you don’t purchase the smart EV charger as an integrated solution. If you want an effective approach to manage your home energy system and monitor your vehicle’s energy use, Emporia’s smart EV charger is something to take into consideration as it has all these capabilities in one compact gadget.
