Wireless (or partially so) monitoring devices include Open Energy Monitor:
https://openenergymonitor.org/emon/
If that is any help to you.
Rgds
Damon
Thanks, I scheduled someone to come over in the coming week to look at a small solar panel addition project, but aside from that, I will be discussing a few other things with them, such as doing a better job of getting data out of my inverter, better understanding how my batteries are functioning and seeing if the TED5000 can be extended to this comparatively new circuit or if we need to take a fresh approach. I'll also ask if they can give me any language I can write down to get back to folks here as to what seems to be going wrong with the PLC/TED5000.
I don't mean to be impatient with the well-intended responses, it's just that aside from having partially given up on it, my inability to understand what is going on to prevent the ted5000 from fully gathering data, or to describe it in meaningful terms, leaves me impatient and frustrated. To put it another way, I had 38.5 months of leasing an EV (the lease has ended so I am for the moment back to just driving a gasoline vehicle), but no data-based understanding of how those nightly EV charging loads were integrating into the rest of my home's energy use.
I have in the past indeed had to trouble-shoot and identify which items were on which circuits. The gateway, as it stands, appears to be plugged in over the last few years on a circuit where there are no issues in it gathering any data other than from the one distant garage circuit.
The area (or circuit(s?)?) I am complaining about, to try to describe it a bit better, came about like this:
The house was built 32 years ago by someone else, has 200 amps (I'm told this is double what was really needed or code?) and, if I understood correctly, it all (or most) went into a well-established panel that is about 50 feet away. So far so good - no issues with how that was functioning. When I went to install an EV Charge station in the garage (240 Volts at up to about 30 or 40 amps) we looked at the existing garage wiring and it just could not tolerate another load like that. So, we drilled a hole in the concrete wall and created a new panel that took power directly (if I understood correctly) from the grid power coming into the home.... so bypassing what is going into the main established panel and decreasing power to it (if I understand correctly). I don't remember the numbers, but I think there is about 50 to 100 amps going into that new panel (and does this decrease the power going to the old panel by the same amount?). The new panel supports only the one EV charge station, maybe a few overhead lights, and another couple of sockets, though one of those sockets is also 240 Volts (such as if I want to plug in a second EV or perhaps a dryer someday).
So, in theory, everything has been kept very simple. Because this new panel "bypasses" (as far as I know) the entirety of the old panel and system, I wanted to put a new TED5000 inductive coil on it, but at the same time I didn't quite process until later that this separateness of the new panel might also mean that PLC might be interfered with?
There may be several ways in which I have not provided enough information, but one to clear up may be to explain that my garage is separated from the main house (where the main panel is) by anywhere from two to six to eight feet of earth and two concrete walls both of which are very difficult to drill through. Further, we do not have some of the original plans (specifically - we have not figured out where the electric power comes from the main panel into the garage).
On the main panel, the garage circuit breaker is just one switch and not two (maybe 10-20 amps?) and it was clear, when we went to look at what we needed to do, that in order to operate EVSE in the garage and not have an issue, that we needed to find a way to get more power into the garage. The existing garage circuit we have left in place and it still powers most of what it used to power.
I was given some advice at one point that, if it all possible, I should avoid "messing with" the main panel, and so far I have done that. This pertains not only to the relatively minor issue of the garage/EVSE but also to questions around the new solar inverter and batteries and related, and so this is why, for the moment, the entirety of my main panel is in theory tied-in to the peak amp limitations imposed by my inverter (around 33 amps I think) even if for 20+ years it was theoretically (as far as I know) up in that 150-200 amps range.
I haven't had any prominent circuit breaker issues show up, whether before or after the modifications. I can't remember the last time I tripped a breaker, if ever.
PS, edit: I just took a look at the new panel (the one that was put in for the garage modifications, so I could have a 240 Volt EV charge station) and when I put in my new solar inverter and batteries, apparently there were further modifications done to it. On what appear to be four of the switches (grouped by 2) there is this spelled out:
"Photovoltaic Electric Power Source"
"Breakers are Backfed"
"Max Output 55 amps at 240 VAC"
Probably someone capable tried to walk me through the meaning of some of this 2-3 years ago, but it didn't properly take. As far as I know, the charging of an EV at 120 Volts could be done from a different main-panel-fed battery-and-solar-fed circuit during an outage, but would not be done on the 240 Volt circuits. Hopefully I'll get some good input this week from the consultant as to what can or cannot be done to extend the PLC-related device to reading the new panel, or whether I should get an alternative device.
It may also be useful for people here to know that when dealing with highly technical issues, I tend either to need to hire someone to take care of it, or if I try to deal with it myself, I tend to not be impatient and not very capable, so that can help people here not spend time trying to come up with great ideas for how it could get done by me. I'm just not very good, so far in this life, with DIY.