Need some help choosing the right system

[blooperz]

Hello all,

I’ve decided to go with Brultech for my energy monitoring needs, and I think I’m 90% of the way there as far as knowing what to order....but I need some help getting the last 10% of the way there.

I am attaching my breaker panel layout and some additional photos that may help in answering my questions.

Panel Layout:

Main panel.pdf

(4.77 MiB) Downloaded 411 times

Other photos attached below this post

First off a few questions:

1)For the CTs that will go on the solar lines, should I go with split 60’s or split 100’s? I see the 60A is rated for 600v and the 100A is rated for 300v, does this make one better over the other?

2) Should both solar CT’s go into the same channel? I plan on putting my MAINS CTs on separate channels to monitor the legs individually...Should the same be done for solar if I am trying to do net metering, or is it treated like any other breaker?

3) I don’t see any neutrals on any of my 240v breakers? Shouldn’t at least the cooktop and the dryer have a neutral as unbalanced loads? I was planning to get 2 CTs for each 240 breaker, but not sure if that is needed.

4) Where should the MAINs CTs be placed? I am trying to do net metering so not sure if that changes the position..above or below the line taps from solar?

5) Can I use micro 40 Donut CTs for everything shown on the main panel? Does a 240v 30 amp need a CT that covers up to 30 amps or is it doubled at 60 amps? I believe it would be a 30 on each leg?

6) Are the micro 50’s still carried? Based on what I’ve seen on the forums they are more accurate but I can’t find any mention of them in the store...or the micro 40’s accurate enough?

7) Am I correct in needing 42x donut CTs (37 breakers + 5 for the 240v extra line = 42), 2x split 200A , and 2x Split 100/60A (Solar)?

I don’t think I have enough channels that I really need 2 GEMs so I am trying to keep it all on one GEM by pairing up as many 120v breakers into the same channel as possible. I’ve read no more than 2 per channel, so I can definitely pair several and bring my total channel requirement down to 32 ( Assuming 2 channels for the main CTs and 1 channel for the solar CTs). The yellow highlighted breakers in the diagram are ones that I want monitored individually. I figure most of these other breakers are pretty vague and most of them are not used much anyways...and I can always add a GEM later if I really want to separate everything.

The biggest hurdle I am running into is selecting the communication method. I was going to order a dashbox initially so thatI can view everything without using something like homeassistant. Ultimately though I would like to have the data available in home assistant, but I am really confused by the requirements for the integration. Can the Dashbox feed all the info to the home assistant integration with a base GEM (no wifi/ethernet)? Or is a wifi enabled GEM needed if I want to use homeassistant? Can I buy the base GEM later and add a wifi module at a later time? Is a dashbox the only way to natively view the brultech dashboard? Just trying to see if I should skip the dashbox, or order the dashbox and skip the wifi module, or If I need both...

Thanks in advance for any tips and help.

[ben]

First off a few questions:

1)For the CTs that will go on the solar lines, should I go with split 60’s or split 100’s? I see the 60A is rated for 600v and the 100A is rated for 300v, does this make one better over the other?

No difference, the higher rated leads are to accomondate commercial installations (3-phase for example).

2) Should both solar CT’s go into the same channel? I plan on putting my MAINS CTs on separate channels to monitor the legs individually...Should the same be done for solar if I am trying to do net metering, or is it treated like any other breaker?

Your solar may be balanced. If it's not, you may want to break those out also since you're breaking out the mains.

3) I don’t see any neutrals on any of my 240v breakers? Shouldn’t at least the cooktop and the dryer have a neutral as unbalanced loads? I was planning to get 2 CTs for each 240 breaker, but not sure if that is needed.

Yeah those are likely unbalanced. We have a list of common balanced circuits here: https://www.brultech.com/breakers/.

4) Where should the MAINs CTs be placed? I am trying to do net metering so not sure if that changes the position..above or below the line taps from solar?

Typicially with a panel-fed system you monitor at the solar breaker and the main panel. The same sort of setup (in my mind) would be before the line taps.

5) Can I use micro 40 Donut CTs for everything shown on the main panel? Does a 240v 30 amp need a CT that covers up to 30 amps or is it doubled at 60 amps? I believe it would be a 30 on each leg?

Yeah, Micro-40s will work fine. 30 each leg.

6) Are the micro 50’s still carried? Based on what I’ve seen on the forums they are more accurate but I can’t find any mention of them in the store...or the micro 40’s accurate enough?

We no longer carry Micro-50s as we didn't find them to be too much more accurate then the Micro-40s and to simplify our inventory.

7) Am I correct in needing 42x donut CTs (37 breakers + 5 for the 240v extra line = 42), 2x split 200A , and 2x Split 100/60A (Solar)?

Sounds right, my count is the same.

I don’t think I have enough channels that I really need 2 GEMs so I am trying to keep it all on one GEM by pairing up as many 120v breakers into the same channel as possible. I’ve read no more than 2 per channel, so I can definitely pair several and bring my total channel requirement down to 32 ( Assuming 2 channels for the main CTs and 1 channel for the solar CTs). The yellow highlighted breakers in the diagram are ones that I want monitored individually. I figure most of these other breakers are pretty vague and most of them are not used much anyways...and I can always add a GEM later if I really want to separate everything.

We recommend combining no more then 4 Micro-40s per channel (6 max with external splicing).

The biggest hurdle I am running into is selecting the communication method. I was going to order a dashbox initially so thatI can view everything without using something like homeassistant. Ultimately though I would like to have the data available in home assistant, but I am really confused by the requirements for the integration. Can the Dashbox feed all the info to the home assistant integration with a base GEM (no wifi/ethernet)? Or is a wifi enabled GEM needed if I want to use homeassistant? Can I buy the base GEM later and add a wifi module at a later time? Is a dashbox the only way to natively view the brultech dashboard? Just trying to see if I should skip the dashbox, or order the dashbox and skip the wifi module, or If I need both...

Thanks in advance for any tips and help.

For HA, I would go with a WiFi/Ethernet GEM and connect the DashBox up to the 2nd COM port on the GEM. HA requires some back-forth for quick config that needs its own connection.

I was working on some pass-thru of commands before leaving for vacation so it might be possible to do it with just a DashBox in the future.

[blooperz]

Thanks for the reply Ben, I had sent basically the same questions to the support email so please disregard that request.

Thanks for answering all of those…So It sounds like I definitely need the wifi version GEM, but any similar issues if I use homeassistant and skip the dashbox? I may be better off upgrading the hardware my HA instance is running on if that is the case.

[ben]

Thanks for the reply Ben, I had sent basically the same questions to the support email so please disregard that request.

Thanks for answering all of those…So It sounds like I definitely need the wifi version GEM, but any similar issues if I use homeassistant and skip the dashbox? I may be better off upgrading the hardware my HA instance is running on if that is the case.

Both give ways to visualize data. No issue with just using HA. You can also try out Grafana if HA doesn't meet your needs.