What third party energy monitoring solution should I buy?

Most modern solar systems will come with a system for monitoring your solar production. But most will not come with a system for monitoring both production and household energy consumption on the same screen.

That's a shame because seeing how your solar and your consumption work together allows you to:

• identify appliances that can be shifted to daytime use to maximise self consumption
• identify high usage appliances which can be used less 
• identify high usage appliances which can be upgraded to more efficient models
• get a much better feel for how you use energy
• avoid bill shock - if your solar stops working or your usage rockets you should be able to see in advance

Which 3rd party monitors do we recommend?

Cheap and cheerful

Dius Powersensor ($299) :

Expensive (but very, very good)

If you want something that is a more permanent and better featured solution, I’d recommend Solar Analytics. It costs about $500 installed and $6 per month thereafter but will tell you exactly how your system is performing and automatically warn you if the performance drops, among many other things.

Here is a screenshot from my system: