Need help with new setup - suggestions?

[Atticka]

Hello,

I'm putting together a list of CT's I need and have a few questions.

First, I'd like to setup a single ECM-1240 for now, I only have a few loads I want to monitor at first and I will most likely get a second ECM in the future.

200A Entry, single panel
CH1 - SPLIT-200, Qty2 (main)
CH2 - Micro-80, Qty4 (heating & AC)
Aux1 - Micro-50, Qty2 (spa)
Aux2 - Micro-40, Qty1 (water heater)
Aux3 - Micro-40, Qty5 (15A-S circuits,Fridge, kitchen, hall, bath, mostly lights and plugs)
Aux4 - Micro-40, Qty2 (dryer, 30A-D)
Aux5 - Micro-40, Qty3 (15A-S circuits, office and basement)

Questions:
1) On CH2 my furnace (central air) is connected to 125A-D (double) breaker with no neutral, this seems way over spec but I assume this is needed to handle the inrush current when the system first turns on. Also, the AC is on a 30A-D breaker (I'll need to verify if its connected to neutral or not). Questions is, can I get away with a single Micro-80 on the furnace and two Micro-80's on the AC (or one Micro-80 on the AC if no neutral is used?), guidance on this would be great.

2) I'd like to also monitor the stove (40A-D breaker), is there any place I can add this load or will I need to wait until I get a second ECM?

Any thoughts or recommendations would be welcome.

Thanks,

Scott

[ben]

200A Entry, single panel
CH1 - SPLIT-200, Qty2 (main)
CH2 - Micro-80, Qty4 (heating & AC)
Aux1 - Micro-50, Qty2 (spa)
Aux2 - Micro-40, Qty1 (water heater)
Aux3 - Micro-40, Qty5 (15A-S circuits,Fridge, kitchen, hall, bath, mostly lights and plugs)
Aux4 - Micro-40, Qty2 (dryer, 30A-D)
Aux5 - Micro-40, Qty3 (15A-S circuits, office and basement)

Micro-50s can't currently be used with AUX channels unfortunately. You'd have to use 2 80s there.

Questions:
1) On CH2 my furnace (central air) is connected to 125A-D (double) breaker with no neutral, this seems way over spec but I assume this is needed to handle the inrush current when the system first turns on. Also, the AC is on a 30A-D breaker (I'll need to verify if its connected to neutral or not). Questions is, can I get away with a single Micro-80 on the furnace and two Micro-80's on the AC (or one Micro-80 on the AC if no neutral is used?), guidance on this would be great.

The Micro-80s won't able to fit the cable used for the 125A breaker. You'd have to use a Split or Micro-100, the wire might not be easy to deal with though.

The CTs would have to be of the same type, so you'd be stuck using Micro-100s for that setup.

2) I'd like to also monitor the stove (40A-D breaker), is there any place I can add this load or will I need to wait until I get a second ECM?

You can combine up to 5 CTs, maximum 160A on AUX channels. AUX2 looks like it could hold it (2 M40s).

Ben

[Atticka]

Thank you for the reply Ben, much appreciated.

Still not %100 clear on the number of CT's needed for the CH2 setup...

I'll go with the Micro-100 for the furnace\AC channel as they have a better cost vs. the split CT. For this setup can I use three CT's, one for the furnace (no neutral) and two for the AC with neutral? On the CT rules page it says two per channel, and four if I use a "special configuration", what is this?

Or, should I just go with four M100 CT's on CH2? Considering AC and heat will never run at the same time this shouldn't cause an issue.

[ben]

I responded to your email from yesterday.

You could do 4 Micro-100s, can't do 3 on the same channel as it would double the readings from all 3 CTs.

Ben

[Peter_V]

If you aren't planning on running the Dryer and the Stove at the same time, you could use one channel to monitor both of them.
If you care about being specific, then you could make a note of when each was run.