My vote is YES. I’m in the same situation as the original poster - I’d like to know about power usage at the Distribution Panel under the meter base. I’d also think Ethernet would increase the likelyhood of being able to put the IotaWatt unit inside a distribution panel.
The IoTaWatt is not approved for use inside the distribution panel. Even if so rated, you definitely don’t want an ethernet cable running into your breaker panel, those that are rated for inside panel either use an external WiFi antenna or a power-line communication system.
@tom_l, Given that you would still need a voltage reference transformer, I don’t see where POE would be that useful. In the ESP32 prototype, there is no USB power or reference transformer as the unit connects directly top AC for reference and has an on-board DC power supply.
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TL;DR; YES … KISS response that meets the “minimum of 10 characters” requirement 
Absolutely!
We use our iotawatt in a portable distribution panel we use to power a small to medium sized PA rig when we do shows in parks. Sometimes the wifi fails to connect.
As an alternative it would be nice if I could just configure the iotawatt to just be its own AP, so i could connect nearby look at some data and disconnect.
As an aside, it was eye opening seeing how little actual power our rig needs to get very loud.
Just make a hotspot on your phone.