I was looking for a power monitoring solution that can be used completely local to my network without reaching out to the internet. The IoTaWatt seems to be one of only a few I was able to find, and seems to have the best support with this forum.
What is your return policy if I test it out and just don’t like how it works? (not talking about faulty hardware)
Thanks
John Vickers
I think I’ll pass on this opportunity.
Odd way to answer the question, I take that to mean you do not allow returns.
Well yeah it takes time to create/package/ship. Last thing you want is someone saying ‘I don’t like the enclosure shade of grey’ and then tying up time for arranging returns.
Do you have questions that could be answered prior to purchasing that would help you make an informed decision?
I understand not wanting to deal with returns as a small business, I was only asking what the policy was. I could also see accepting returns with a restocking fee for the trouble. It is one thing when you are getting a $40 sensor to test in your home automation system, but a $400 price tag is getting up there on something that you don’t know for sure will properly integrate with your home automation system.
From what I can read in the documentation and questions on the forum, I am pretty sure this has all the features I am looking for in terms of it’s own functionality.
The main concern is wireless being the only communication channel when it needs to be put in the electrical room. I have had issues with wireless devices in areas like that before. I much prefer to rely on wired communications wherever possible (especially in electrical rooms).
The other likely issue is just integration with the rest of my home automation system. I am HA based and it looks like there is pretty good integration there.
As I am sure everyone on this forum knows, splicing together all of these various technologies for home automation doesn’t always work as advertised, and sometimes things just don’t work together as expected.
I have been following IoTaWatt for many years, and other products for years (decades?) before that.
You didn’t really state what your goals are, other than local only. (Note that IoTaWatt does need access to NTP and the server is not easily configurable.)
This is not Amazon, so it doesn’t come with 2-day shipping and free returns. I do understand your concern as spending money for something that doesn’t meet your needs is no fun. I have been considering getting a battery operated Stihl Kombi head. I have had great results with their products before. I have a few Ego products and the battery doesn’t really last long enough. The information provided by Stihl is not sufficient to know if it will work for my needs. My local dealer’s policy appears to be, “you bought it, it’s yours”. I said no thanks. I am going to wait till I can hear about more real world experience.
With IoTaWatt you have lots of information available. You can ask any questions you have. If you run into issues you will get help. That is fairly priceless.
I use HA, but I don’t have IoTaWatt going to it. I use InfluxDB and Grafana for visualization. It all depends on what you are trying to do and why.
Maybe test with an ESP8266 dev board (e.g. NodeMCU, like used in the IoTaWatt) and see what your Wi-Fi quality is like in that location? If it’s bad you could set up an additional Wi-Fi access point or repeater nearby.