Has anyone made the switch from the Sense monitor to GEM?

[bmwilson55]

Hey all. I am considering purchasing the GEM, and appreciate everyone's feedback on this subject as the sense is all over the energy monitor reviews.

Teken, I have read most of your main GEM post and have seen the benefits you have gained from it, however I am wondering, now that you have had the GEM for several years now (6yrs?), are you still happy that you made the purchase? Thanks!

[Teken]

Hey all. I am considering purchasing the GEM, and appreciate everyone's feedback on this subject as the sense is all over the energy monitor reviews.

Teken, I have read most of your main GEM post and have seen the benefits you have gained from it, however I am wondering, now that you have had the GEM for several years now (6yrs?), are you still happy that you made the purchase? Thanks!

Hello,

Without a doubt the best investment I have ever made in terms of Energy Monitoring, Energy Management, Home Automation, and Force Protection.

If I was to hit upon the key selling points about the GEM & DB they are these in no specific order of importance or relevance.

1. Local First vs Cloud First: Data is stored locally on premises which you manage and control. No worries about privacy and security of your user data. But of course the hardware also supports sending the same information to half a dozen cloud hosted web sites.

Ultimately you will never have to pay more or have to worry about a cloud hosted service folding or start charging you for your personal data.

2. Scale-able: You can purchase a base GEM & DB combination and add on at anytime if and when your needs change.

3. Accuracy: All of the energy, temperature, water, gas, data is extremely accurate. The GEM does not use any of the so called AI / Fuzzy Logic to *Guess* what each circuit is consuming. It tells you 100% what that load is doing, consuming, on vs off, etc.

4. API: The Brultech team has offered an extensive API to integrate with many third party software applications / cloud hosted services.

5. Integration: The Brultech Dash Box system integrates with Smart Energy Groups (SEG), IFTTT, Weather Flow, Open Weather Map, ISY Series Controller, Home Seer. Offers many none standard features which are local to the device which offers more insight, flexibility, and value add:

- Conditional User Defined Email alerts
- IP Tracking: Informs the user who has accessed the Dash Box (DB)
- Multi Billing Options: Fixed, Tiered, TOU, etc
- Local Data Base Support: SQL On Premises
- Free DNS Forwarding: Access your system via friendly name vs IP
- Brultech Portal: Allows Enterprise to have single sign on and access multiple systems
- Packet Forwarding: Forward the data to any off site service / data storage
- Calendar View: You can select any channel and view it in a standard calendar

Short Version:

- Would I purchase again: YES
- Would I recommend Brultech: YES
- Best Value & Accuracy: YES
- Expandable: YES
- Customer Support: The Best
- Local First vs Cloud First
- Reliable & Efficient: YES

As an aside I have owned, tested, and used the Sense and many other so called energy monitoring devices. Comparing the Sense to the GEM is like comparing a Chevette to Corvette.

The Sense product is a toy which hasn't offered any updates, upgrades, or features since product launch. If you're here today it's because you have realized many of these so called machine learning devices simply don't work and there is very little possibility of them ever getting better.

As another data point there isn't an Enterprise, Government, Utility, that has ever installed these toy like products in their consumer base. Unlike Brultech which has the very same in all three which speaks volumes to the accuracy, quality, reliability, and integration.

Merry X-MAS!

[mdiehl]

Probably not the exact place for this post, but since SEG has been mentioned I was wondering if anybody has heard from Sam there? I've started their "Lite" plan and my GEM is in the system and displaying data, but there seems to be little activity from users there and no response from Sam, i.e. "the lights seem to be on, but nobody is home".
Anybody know what might be going on ???