Home Energy Monitoring Systems: The Complete Homeowner's Guide (2026)

Home Energy Monitoring Systems: The Complete Homeowner's Guide (2026)

Quick Answer: A home energy monitoring system uses current transformer (CT) sensors installed in your electrical panel to measure real-time electricity consumption — by whole home, by circuit, or by individual appliance. The best systems in 2026 cost between $150–$350 for hardware, require 1–3 hours to install, and can realistically reduce your electricity bill by 10–25% once you act on the data they reveal.


At a glance:

  • Whole-home monitors (Emporia Vue, Sense) track total usage in real time
  • Circuit-level monitors (Emporia Vue 3, Iotawatt) show exactly which breaker is drawing power
  • The data alone won’t save you money — behavioral change and automation will
  • Panel work involves live electrical components; DIY is feasible but carries real risk
  • ROI is typically 6–24 months depending on your utility rates and usage habits

The Problem: Most Homeowners Have No Idea Where Their Electricity Goes

You get the bill. You see the number. You wince. And then you have absolutely no idea what caused it to jump $40 this month.

That’s the reality for the vast majority of homeowners. The utility meter outside your house tells you total consumption — nothing else. You’re flying blind on where 30–40% of that electricity is actually going.

Here’s what makes this frustrating: in most homes, there are three or four appliances quietly consuming far more power than the owner realizes. The old chest freezer in the garage that “still works fine.” The aging HVAC system that cycles more often than it should. The hot tub on its default heating schedule. The gaming PC left in sleep mode for 18 hours a day.

A home energy monitoring system changes that equation entirely. Instead of guessing, you’re working with real numbers — and real numbers have a way of making decisions obvious.

This guide covers everything: how these systems work, which ones are worth buying in 2026, how to install them safely, and — critically — how to actually use the data to reduce your bill. Most articles stop after the hardware comparison. We’re going further.


What Is a Home Energy Monitoring System?

At its core, a home energy monitor is a device (or set of devices) that measures electrical current flowing through your home’s circuits and translates that into readable data — watts, kilowatt-hours, estimated cost, and usage history.

The most capable systems do this at the circuit level, meaning they can tell you that your HVAC used 4.2 kWh yesterday, your water heater used 2.8 kWh, and your refrigerator is drawing 10% more power than it should.

Less capable (but often more affordable) systems measure only whole-home consumption — useful for tracking trends, but less actionable for pinpointing waste.

How They Actually Work

Current transformer (CT) sensors are the heart of most home energy monitors. These clamp-style sensors snap around the main service conductors or individual circuit wires inside your electrical panel. They don’t require cutting any wires — they measure the magnetic field generated by current flowing through the wire, which is proportional to actual power draw.

The CT sensors connect to a monitoring unit (sometimes called a gateway or hub), which processes the raw sensor data and transmits it — usually via Wi-Fi — to a cloud server where you can view it in an app or dashboard.

Some systems, like Sense, go further by using machine learning to disaggregate appliance signatures — essentially trying to identify individual devices based on the unique electrical “fingerprint” each one creates when it powers on. It’s impressive when it works. We’ll talk about when it doesn’t.


Types of Home Energy Monitors: Which One Is Right for Your Home?

This is where most buying guides oversimplify things. The “best” monitor depends heavily on what you actually want to know.

1. Whole-Home Monitors (Main Feed Only)

These clip onto just the two main service conductors entering your panel. They give you a real-time view of total home consumption and historical trends, but they can’t tell you which circuit or appliance is responsible.

Best for: Homeowners who want to understand usage patterns, catch anomalies, and track whether efficiency upgrades are working.

Limitation: You’ll know your home used 3.4 kWh between 2–4pm, but not what caused it.

2. Circuit-Level Monitors

These add individual CT sensors to multiple breakers inside your panel, giving you per-circuit granularity. You can see your HVAC breaker, water heater, EV charger, and kitchen circuits all separately.

Best for: Homeowners serious about energy optimization, solar monitoring, or managing an EV charger alongside other high-draw appliances.

Limitation: More sensors = more installation complexity. Crowded panels can make this tricky.

3. Utility Smart Meters with API Access

If your utility has deployed smart meters and offers a data API or portal access, you can pull consumption data directly — often at 15-minute intervals. Some platforms (like Google Home Energy, or Home Assistant integrations) can pull this data automatically.

Best for: Renters, or homeowners who don’t want to open their electrical panel.

Limitation: 15-minute intervals are far too coarse for real-time feedback. And not all utilities offer this.

4. Smart Plug / Outlet Monitors

Devices like the TP-Link Kasa EP25, or the Shelly Plug S, measure consumption at the outlet level. You plug them in like any adapter; they track whatever’s connected.

Best for: Monitoring specific high-draw appliances — a window AC, a space heater, a refrigerator — without touching your panel.

Limitation: You need one per outlet you want to monitor. They don’t scale well to whole-home monitoring.


Type Comparison Table

TypeGranularityPanel Access RequiredApprox. CostReal-Time?
Whole-home CT monitorTotal home onlyYes (clamp on mains)$100–$200Yes
Circuit-level CT monitorPer-breakerYes (clamp per circuit)$150–$400+Yes
Utility smart meter API15-min intervalsNoFree–$10/moNo
Smart plugsPer-outletNo$15–$35 eachYes
AI disaggregation (Sense)Appliance-level (estimated)Yes$299Yes

The 2026 Home Energy Monitor Lineup: Honest Comparisons

Emporia Vue 3

The Emporia Vue has become the default recommendation for most homeowners who want circuit-level monitoring without breaking the bank. The Vue 3 updated the hardware and expanded the sensor count — it comes with 16 CT sensors included, with support for up to 50 circuits.

The app has improved considerably. Historical data visualization is clean, cost estimates are configurable to your actual utility rate including time-of-use tiers, and the Home Assistant integration is genuinely good.

What people don’t tell you: Installation takes longer than the box implies if you have a crowded panel. Routing 16 sensor cables neatly takes patience. Also, the device-level disaggregation (their “smart device detection”) is a secondary feature — don’t buy it for that.

Realistic use case: A homeowner with a 200A panel, an EV charger, solar, and a heat pump who wants to know exactly how much each system uses. This is where Emporia shines.


Sense Energy Monitor

Sense takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of circuit-level sensors, it uses two main CT clamps and applies machine learning to identify individual appliances from the whole-home waveform. The idea is elegant — no additional sensors per circuit needed.

In practice, Sense has a mixed reputation in the smart home community. It’s genuinely impressive when it correctly identifies your refrigerator, HVAC compressor, or dishwasher. It’s also the subject of considerable frustration when, after six months, it still hasn’t “learned” your dryer.

What people don’t tell you: Device detection accuracy varies wildly by home. Homes with older wiring, multiple appliances of the same type, or certain inverter-based appliances (like modern heat pumps or EVs) are particularly hard for Sense to disaggregate. Sense themselves acknowledge this.

The subscription model for some advanced features is also a consideration. That said, Sense is genuinely useful as a whole-home monitor even if the device detection never fully materializes.

Realistic use case: Tech-curious homeowners who want a capable whole-home monitor and are willing to trade some installation simplicity for the possibility of appliance-level insight.


Shelly EM / Shelly Pro 3EM

Shelly has built a strong following among the Home Assistant / DIY automation crowd, and for good reason. The Shelly EM is a compact, affordable unit (often $50–$80) with solid local API support and no mandatory cloud dependence.

The Pro 3EM handles three-phase power natively — important in homes with three-phase service (less common in standard US residential, more common in Europe and some Canadian installations).

What people don’t tell you: Shelly’s app is functional but nowhere near as polished as Emporia or Sense. If you want a clean consumer experience, Shelly isn’t it. If you’re comfortable with Home Assistant, MQTT, or building your own dashboards, Shelly is remarkably capable and flexible.


Iotawatt

Iotawatt is the open-source, locally-hosted option for homeowners who don’t want their energy data living on someone else’s servers. It supports up to 14 CT inputs, stores data locally, and integrates with Grafana, InfluxDB, and Home Assistant out of the box.

What people don’t tell you: Setup requires more technical comfort than most consumer products. But once running, it’s rock solid — no cloud dependency, no subscription risk, no service discontinuation risk. Long-term owners consistently praise it for reliability.

Realistic use case: Privacy-conscious homeowners, solar/battery storage setups requiring precise bidirectional monitoring, and home automation enthusiasts building custom dashboards.


Eyedro

Eyedro is a Canadian brand with a stronger presence in the commercial monitoring space, though their residential units work well. Pricing is competitive with Emporia, and the portal is clean. Less community support than the others listed, which is a real-world consideration for troubleshooting.


Brand Comparison Table

MonitorPrice (2026)Circuit SensorsApp QualityLocal/CloudAI DetectionBest For
Emporia Vue 3~$169–$229Up to 50 circuitsGoodCloud + HABasicMost homeowners, solar, EV
Sense Energy~$2992 (whole-home)ExcellentCloudYes (variable)Whole-home + appliance ID
Shelly EM~$50–$802BasicLocal + CloudNoDIY/HA users, budget
Iotawatt~$95–$165Up to 14Grafana/customLocal onlyNoPrivacy-focused, advanced users
Eyedro~$149–$199Up to 8GoodCloudNoStraightforward whole-home

Installation: DIY vs. Hiring an Electrician

Let’s be direct about something that most product pages gloss over: installing a home energy monitor requires working inside your electrical panel. The CT sensors clip around wires, and accessing those wires means opening a box where exposed conductors can carry 200 amps of live current.

That is not a setup where “just be careful” is adequate safety advice.

What DIY Installation Actually Involves

  1. Turning off your main breaker (which de-energizes most of the panel)
  2. Removing the panel cover
  3. Routing CT sensor leads to the monitoring unit
  4. Clamping sensors onto the main service conductors or individual circuit wires
  5. Connecting the monitoring unit to a power source (usually a dedicated outlet near the panel)
  6. Running the Wi-Fi setup and app configuration

Here’s the part that catches people off guard: Turning off your main breaker does NOT de-energize the service conductors — the thick cables coming from the utility into the top of your panel. Those remain live at all times unless the utility disconnects your service at the meter. Touching them is potentially fatal.

On most residential installs, the main service conductors are covered by a separate shroud inside the panel, and the CT sensors for the mains clamp around these conductors — close to (but not touching) the live portions. Most experienced DIYers complete this without incident, but awareness of what’s live and what isn’t is non-negotiable.


When to Hire an Electrician

ScenarioDIY Feasible?Recommendation
Modern panel, room for sensors, basic electrical comfortYesDIY with care
Crowded panel, sensors need routing through tight spacesMarginalConsider electrician for install
Federal Pacific or older panel with questionable conditionNoElectrician required
Three-phase serviceDepends on unitUsually hire out
No comfort around live electrical componentsNoHire electrician
Rental property (landlord responsibility)Check leaseConsult landlord/electrician

Electrician cost estimate: Expect $150–$350 for a standard installation depending on your region and panel condition. For a $200 monitor, that’s meaningful — but it’s not unreasonable for the peace of mind.


Step-by-Step: Installing an Emporia Vue 3 (DIY Guide)

⚠️ Safety first: If you’re uncertain about any step, stop and call a licensed electrician. This guide assumes basic electrical safety awareness and a standard residential single-phase 200A panel.

What you’ll need:

  • Emporia Vue 3 kit (sensors, gateway, mounting hardware)
  • Phillips head screwdriver
  • Flathead screwdriver
  • Outlet near your panel (or a short extension cord temporarily)
  • Phone with the Emporia app downloaded

Step 1: Turn off your main breaker. This cuts power to most of the panel. Remember: the service conductors at the top remain live.

Step 2: Remove the panel cover. Unscrew the panel cover screws and set aside. You’ll now see your circuit breakers and their associated wiring.

Step 3: Identify your main conductors. The two thick conductors (typically black and red/black) feeding the main breaker carry your full 200A service. The CT sensors for total home monitoring clamp around these.

Step 4: Clamp the main CT sensors. Each sensor has a hinged clamp. Open it, wrap it around the conductor, and close it. One sensor per conductor. The arrow on the sensor indicates current direction — typically toward the panel.

Step 5: Identify circuits to monitor. For circuit-level monitoring, identify the wires for each circuit you want to track. HVAC, water heater, EV charger, and the main kitchen circuit are usually the highest priority.

Step 6: Clamp circuit sensors. Each circuit sensor clamps around a single wire (not both wires in a standard 120V circuit). For 240V circuits (HVAC, water heater), you’ll need one sensor per conductor.

Step 7: Route sensor cables to the gateway. Keep sensor cables tidy and away from circuit breakers where possible. The gateway typically mounts on the outside of the panel or nearby wall.

Step 8: Connect the gateway to power. The Vue 3 uses a standard outlet connection. Use the outlet near your panel.

Step 9: Replace the panel cover. Restore your main breaker.

Step 10: Configure the app. Add your device in the Emporia app, connect to your Wi-Fi network, label each sensor to match your circuits, and enter your utility rate (including any time-of-use tiers if applicable).

Step 11: Verify readings. Turn on a known high-draw appliance (like an electric oven or hair dryer) and confirm the corresponding circuit sensor spikes in the app. If readings look wrong, check sensor orientation.


Understanding the Data: The Part Most People Skip

Here’s an uncomfortable truth: a significant number of people install a home energy monitor, check the app for a few weeks, and then stop looking at it. The device becomes a data collection tool that nobody acts on.

The information is only valuable if you develop a habit of reviewing it and know what to look for.

Key Metrics and What They Actually Mean

Watts vs. kWh: Watts is instantaneous power draw. Kilowatt-hours (kWh) is consumption over time — and it’s what your utility bills you for. 1 kWh = 1,000 watts running for one hour. A 1,500W space heater running for 2 hours uses 3 kWh. At $0.15/kWh, that’s $0.45. Run it every day for a month, that’s $13.50 — and that’s a modest rate.

Baseline load: This is what your home consumes when everything “off” is actually drawing standby power. Open your app at 3am. Whatever your home is drawing then — that’s baseline. For most homes it’s 200–600 watts. Anything consistently above 600W at idle deserves investigation.

Time-of-use optimization: If your utility offers time-of-use (TOU) pricing, electricity is cheaper during off-peak hours (often 9pm–6am) and significantly more expensive during peak hours. Your monitor lets you see which high-draw appliances are running during peak hours and shift them strategically. A dishwasher running at 11pm instead of 7pm can make a measurable difference over a year.

Demand charges: Less common in residential billing, but some utilities charge commercial-style demand charges based on your peak consumption within a billing period. If your utility does this, your monitor helps you avoid accidentally running multiple high-draw appliances simultaneously — which can spike your peak and inflate your bill disproportionately.


10 Ways to Actually Reduce Your Bill Using Monitor Data

This is where the investment pays off. The monitor doesn’t reduce your bill — what you do with the information does.

1. Find the phantom loads. Sort your circuits by overnight baseline draw. Any circuit drawing more than 10–15W while “everything is off” is worth investigating. Common culprits: old desktop computers, cable boxes, aging AV receivers.

2. Identify inefficient appliances. Compare your refrigerator’s daily kWh against the manufacturer spec. A refrigerator drawing 30% more power than spec often means a failing door seal, dirty condenser coils, or a dying compressor — all fixable before replacement is necessary.

3. Quantify your HVAC efficiency. Track your HVAC kWh per degree of outdoor temperature difference. If that number spikes, it often means a refrigerant issue, dirty filters, or duct leaks — all diagnosable before your next utility bill arrives.

4. Time your EV charging. If your utility has off-peak rates, scheduling your EV to charge at 1am instead of 7pm is one of the highest-ROI actions a monitor can enable. The energy savings over a year can easily exceed $200–$400 for an average EV.

5. Verify solar production vs. consumption. Homeowners with solar panels who install circuit-level monitoring quickly get a clear picture of self-consumption ratio — how much of their solar production they’re actually using vs. exporting. This informs battery storage decisions and behavioral shifts.

6. Catch appliance failures early. A water heater with a failing heating element often shows an unusual consumption pattern weeks before it fails entirely. Catching this proactively versus replacing it after a cold shower is real-world value.

7. Validate efficiency upgrades. Did that new heat pump water heater actually reduce water heating costs by 60% like the spec sheet promised? Your monitor tells you. This level of feedback loop is genuinely useful for future upgrade decisions.

8. Find “always on” small appliances. A second TV, a mini-fridge in a rarely-used room, a dehumidifier running year-round — small constant loads add up. A device drawing 50W continuously adds about $52/year at $0.12/kWh. Most homes have several of these hidden.

9. Understand seasonal patterns. Year-over-year comparison by month is one of the most underused features of energy monitors. If August 2025 used 20% more electricity than August 2024 with similar weather, something changed — and the circuit-level data can tell you what.

10. Negotiate better utility rates. Some utilities offer budget billing, demand response programs, or EV charging incentives. Coming to that conversation with actual consumption data — and documented usage patterns — gives you a much stronger position.


Realistic ROI Expectations: Honest Numbers

Let’s do the math that most product pages conveniently omit.

Scenario A — Active user, high electricity rates

  • Monitor cost: $229 (Emporia Vue 3)
  • Average monthly bill before: $180
  • Savings identified and acted on: 15% reduction
  • Monthly savings: $27
  • Payback period: ~8.5 months

Scenario B — Passive user, moderate electricity rates

  • Monitor cost: $299 (Sense)
  • Average monthly bill before: $120
  • Savings identified but limited action taken: 8% reduction
  • Monthly savings: $9.60
  • Payback period: ~31 months

Scenario C — Solar homeowner, circuit-level monitoring

  • Monitor cost: $229 (Emporia Vue 3)
  • Value: Optimizing self-consumption, identifying best time to run high-draw appliances
  • Additional annual value: $120–$350 depending on system size and rates
  • Payback period: 8–24 months

The honest caveat: These numbers assume you act on the data. The monitor is a diagnostic tool. A thermometer doesn’t cure a fever — it just tells you the fever exists. The behavior change is where the value materializes.


Cost Breakdown: Total Ownership

Cost ItemRangeNotes
Monitor hardware$50–$350Higher cost = more circuit sensors
Installation (DIY)$0Time investment: 1–3 hours
Installation (electrician)$150–$350Recommended for non-DIYers
Subscription fees$0–$10/moSense has optional premium; most others are free
App/platform replacement$0Only risk if company discontinues product
Total Year 1$200–$700Most common range: $229–$350 all-in (DIY)

Troubleshooting Common Problems

Energy monitors are generally reliable once installed. When issues arise, they tend to fall into predictable categories.

ProblemLikely CauseFix
Reading shows 0W for a circuitSensor on wrong conductor, or sensor not closed fullyRecheck clamp orientation and closure
Total consumption reading is negativeMain CT sensors installed backwardFlip the orientation of one or both main sensors
Circuit reads twice expected valueTwo wires in one CT clamp instead of oneReclamp with one wire per sensor
Wi-Fi drops frequentlyWeak signal near panelAdd a Wi-Fi extender or use a different band
App shows stale/no dataCloud connectivity issue or gateway offlineCheck gateway LED, reboot gateway, check router
HVAC sensor shows erratic valuesInverter-driven variable speed compressorNormal with VFD equipment; Sense has known issues with these
Sense never identifies an applianceComplex electrical signature or similar appliancesExpected behavior; Sense may require 6+ months
Readings don’t match utility billMonitor uses different calculation method or missing circuitsVerify all sensors, check for 240V circuits with only one CT
Gateway gets very warmNormal operation for most unitsNo action needed unless manufacturer warns otherwise
Consumption spike with nothing runningUnmonitored circuitCheck if you have more circuits than sensors

Mistakes Homeowners Actually Make

These aren’t theoretical. These come up repeatedly in support forums and community discussions.

❌ Only monitoring the mains and calling it done. Whole-home data is useful, but if your goal is reducing your bill, you need to know which circuit is responsible. Mains-only monitoring tells you the total; circuit-level tells you the story.

❌ Not entering your actual utility rate. Most monitors default to a generic $0.12/kWh. If you’re in California paying $0.34/kWh in the peak tier, your cost projections are wildly off. Take five minutes to find your actual rate structure.

❌ Installing sensors on 240V circuits with only one CT. A 240V circuit (dryer, HVAC, water heater) uses two conductors. You need a sensor on each to capture total consumption. One sensor reads only half the picture.

❌ Expecting Sense to work immediately. Sense’s learning period is real and can take weeks to months. Reviews that say “Sense is amazing” often come from 6+ months of use. Reviews that say “Sense is useless” often come from week two.

❌ Forgetting to update settings when appliances change. Added a new EV charger? Got a new heat pump? Your monitor’s circuit labels and any automation rules should be updated to reflect the new reality.

❌ Ignoring the baseline. The overnight draw is often the most actionable number in the whole dashboard, and most homeowners never look at it.

❌ Assuming the monitor will pay for itself automatically. It won’t. It shows you opportunities. You have to take them.


Long-Term Ownership: What Changes After Year One

Most of the “discovery” value happens in the first three to six months. You find the surprises, fix the obvious issues, and develop a new intuition for what your home uses.

After that, the monitor shifts into a different role: anomaly detection. You stop checking the app daily and start relying on alerts — consumption spikes, unusual overnight draws, circuits that suddenly change their pattern.

This is actually where long-term owners get the most value. A $300 HVAC repair caught three weeks early (before a full breakdown in August) because the compressor draw pattern changed — that’s real money.

A few things to plan for:

  • Cloud-dependent monitors carry discontinuation risk. If the company’s service ends, your hardware becomes a doorstop. Iotawatt and Shelly’s local options mitigate this; Emporia and Sense carry more risk here.
  • Firmware updates occasionally change app behavior or introduce bugs. Check community forums before updating.
  • CT sensor failure is rare but possible over 5–7 years. Replacements are typically available separately.

Home Energy Monitoring and Smart Home Integration

If you’re running Home Assistant, the integrations for Emporia, Shelly, and Iotawatt are mature and well-documented. You can build automations that respond to energy data — automatically delaying non-critical loads during peak pricing windows, sending alerts when a circuit exceeds a threshold, or logging data to a local database for long-term analysis that doesn’t depend on any third-party service.

For Google Home and Amazon Alexa users: basic Emporia and Sense integrations exist, but they’re largely read-only. Don’t expect to run energy-based automations through these platforms at the same sophistication level as Home Assistant.


Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Will a home energy monitor work with solar panels?

Yes — and it adds significant value in that context. You’ll want a system that supports bidirectional monitoring (tracking both grid import and solar export), which Emporia Vue 3, Iotawatt, and Shelly Pro 3EM all handle well. Sense also supports solar monitoring with an additional sensor pair.

Q: Can I install a home energy monitor in a renter’s apartment?

Typically no — panel access requires landlord permission, and most landlords won’t allow tenant modifications to the electrical panel. Smart plug monitors are the practical alternative for renters.

Q: Does the monitor affect my home’s electrical system?

No. CT sensors are passive — they don’t touch the conductors, don’t draw meaningful power, and don’t interfere with circuit operation. The monitoring unit draws a small amount of power (typically 2–5W) from its outlet connection.

Q: How accurate are home energy monitors?

Quality CT-based monitors are typically accurate to within 1–2% — more than sufficient for energy management purposes. Sense’s AI-based device detection accuracy is harder to quantify and varies significantly by home.

Q: My utility already has a smart meter. Why do I need a separate monitor?

Utility smart meters report at 15-minute to hourly intervals, and many utilities limit data access to a web portal with limited export options. A home monitor gives you real-time data (second-by-second for most systems), circuit-level granularity, and direct integration with your preferred apps and home automation platforms.

Q: Is the data stored in the cloud? What are the privacy implications?

For Emporia and Sense, yes — data lives in their cloud. Your consumption data is tied to your account. If you have concerns about this, Iotawatt and Shelly’s local-only configurations keep all data on your local network. This is a real consideration worth weighing based on your comfort level.

Q: How often should I check the app?

Daily checking during the first month is useful for building intuition. After that, most long-term users check weekly or rely on alerts. The goal is to build a mental model of your home’s “normal” consumption so you notice when something changes.

Q: What’s the difference between watts and kilowatt-hours on my monitor?

Watts is instantaneous power draw — like the speedometer in your car. Kilowatt-hours is accumulated energy over time — like the odometer. Your utility bills you for kWh, so that’s the number that directly correlates to cost.


The Bottom Line

A home energy monitoring system is one of the few smart home investments that has a genuine, calculable payback period. But it’s not magic — it’s a diagnostic tool.

The homeowners who get the most out of these systems are the ones who spend time understanding what the data actually means, act on the inefficiencies it reveals, and use it as an ongoing anomaly-detection system rather than a novelty they check for a few weeks.

For most homeowners with moderate-to-high electricity bills, the Emporia Vue 3 hits the right balance of price, capability, and usability. If you want whole-home monitoring with the possibility of appliance detection and don’t mind the learning period, Sense is worth the premium. If you want local control and Home Assistant integration, Shelly or Iotawatt are the clear choices.

Whatever system you choose: enter your real utility rate, install circuit-level sensors on your high-draw appliances, set up alerts for unusual consumption, and check your overnight baseline. Do those four things and you’ll get your money back faster than almost any other smart home device you could buy.