WV2-A Energy Sensor and Gateway for Analog Meters

I hate to leave a bad review here, but this just didn't live up to it's promised expectations.I had hoped to use this to document and address the severe energy efficiency issues with the home I'm renting with the property management. It would also have been great for helping me optimize some of the home automation I have set up in regards to the AC unit. I found 3 issues that I just couldn't resolve, and eventually ended up returning the product for a refund in frustration.1. - The "gateway", a device that connects your sensor to your home network, needs a major overhaul. It can be connected to your home network in one of two ways. You can connect it via ethernet cable to your home modem or router if somehow it's close enough where you have it set up. For most of us, that's just not feasible. The challenge here is when you attempt to connect it to your wireless network. The device can't be configured for wireless connectivity by connecting via cable. It has to detect no ethernet connection and not connect to a wireless connection before it goes into a setup mode. It then creates an "Ad Hoc" network so you can connect wirelessly. The problem is you can't connect to this network on an Android phone or computer running Windows 8.1 or 10. Their support site has links that take you to a command prompt way to work around that, but I tried on two different Windows 10 computers and it just doesn't work. I also tried on a laptop with Linux, and it would connect, but couldn't browse the configuration page afterward. In the end, this step needs to be modernized and simplified for the typical end user.2. - The sensor was able to pick up the difference between the silver face of my meter and the black text on it as I pointed it at those areas, but no matter how much I turned up the sensitivity, I couldn't get it to react to the spinning plate in the meter. I spent an hour and a half trying different positioning, but in the end, the sensor just wouldn't work on my meter. That being said, it did work conceptually when I tested against black and silver media but didn't work practically with my electric meter. I beleive that either I had a malfunctioning sensor or that support could have helped through this issue with time. That brings me to the deal breaker...3. - The Wattvision support is non-existant! The phone number that is listed for support sounds like it's being redirected to someone's cell phone, not a support department. The first time I called, I got an operator message telling me that the number that I dialed was unavailable after letting it ring a handful of times. The next time I called, I got a voicemail system on the first ring, and I left contact info and a brief description of my issue. Since I couldn't reach anyone on the phone, I followed up with a ticket opened via their support email address. This quickly replied back letting me know a ticket was opened and I could access it on their site, but that's where it sat and died. It's now been over 75 hours (3+ days) since it was opened and I've not received a call nor an email from them following up on the issue. I checked the site to see if there was a response there, and there was nothing.In the end, I've had a VERY crummy experience, but I didn't rate it 1 star because there is hope and a need for this product. If Wattvision can step up their support, and the setup of the device be simplified, this has a LOT of promise. I obviously can't rely on it to resolve my current needs, but if my local utility company doesn't step up to smart meters in the next couple years, I'll check back in and see if it's worth getting later. Hopefully by then they've stepped up their game.

I'm totally amazed with the simplicity and at the convenience of this meter! As a owner of a small familiar hotel, i was very worried about the permanent increasing in the energy consumption month by month, sometimes even if we were booked at 50%, the monthly bill comes as if it was full.After installing this Wattvision meter everything changes... now at my house or at work, i know who, when and how is the energy being wasted. I discovered new things that was not working well at my hotel and now i'am able to correct them thanks to the functionality of "live history". For example rooms that were booked and not reported, this meter help me notice that.Brilliant application, brilliant product... and the best is the fast and agile customer service when installing. We are very very happy. Thanks Wattvision!

I could not get the WiFi to work. After reading several articles online I found that windows OS does not like ADHOC networks. I tried several command line commands via netsh but had no luck.I then spent hours running cat 6 cable to it only to find that the device isn't reporting data properly. It will only report info when you initially plug in the unit, then it will stop. The sensor light stays lit along with the link light of course.Another thing that is strange is when I unplug the sensor the sensor light just stays on. I left it unplugged for several minutes and the sensor light stays on. Also when I plug in the sensor the light goes out. I reseat it and the light stays back on. Seems very strange to me. Also the link light stay lit when I unplug Ethernet. I don't get it.Also I think its terrible there is no smartphone app for this just a website where if you want more than 180 days of history you have to pay $10 a month!! The whole idea of this thing is for me to save money. Lastly I think there should be a windows/mac app for this.

The biggest problem with the Wattvision energy sensor is that you have to be able to run a cable from the device into your house. In my case this was impossible. I wouldn't even have been able to drill a hole in the wall. But I did have an unused Cat6 cable available that conveniently ran from near the meter's location to the location in the basement of my ISP's router. When I emailed the company to see if this would work their primary response was that it would invalidate the warranty. Huh? Anyway, I went ahead. I crimped RJ11 connectors onto each end of the Cat6 cable, plugged Wattvision's cable into one side of an RJ11 connector and the Cat6 cable into the other side, then plugged the other end of the Cat6 cable into the Wattvision gateway in the basement. It worked fine. The device uploads metered electricity use every few seconds to Wattvision's website where you can view a realtime image of your use. However, if you download the raw data all you get is the reading at hourly intervals, which is no use if you are trying to determine which devices in the house use what power. The only way to get fine detail like this is to subscribe to Wattvision's monthly service, which seems kind of chintzy when you just forked out $250 for about $10-worth of electronics. Still, the info is useful if not as detailed as I would have liked. But if you have a smart meter, you can get all the same data and trap it locally for less than $100.