Installer l’Energy Monitor

This is Step 3 of the EMS setup. Start the Autel firmware update first (see Before you go) and do this install while it runs.

Before you start, pick the site case in Wiring diagrams. It shows where the monitor and every sensor go for that site.

Step 1: Photograph the back label

1. Before the monitor goes in the panel, photograph its back label on the homeowner's phone. The label has the serial number and the 6-digit installer PIN.
2. Keep the photo. You enter the PIN at the end of Set Up Energy Management, and it's one of the required closeout photos.

Step 2: Turn off the main breaker and remove the cover

1. Confirm the Autel firmware update has finished, or isn't due to start.
2. Turn off the service disconnect and/or main breakers feeding the panel. The disconnect may be outside this panel.
3. Remove the cover screws and the cover.

Step 3: Mount the monitor

1. Mount the monitor in the panel whose load it manages. That is usually the panel the Autel breaker is in, and it can be a subpanel.
2. Keep it at least 50.8 mm (2 in) from live parts: primary conductors, primary terminals and primary lugs. Insulated cables are fine.
3. Mounting it to the grounded enclosure near the neutral bar is fine. Don't let it touch the panel's interior insulation, and never attach it to an energized part.
4. Leave the side ports reachable until the harness and antenna are connected.

Step 4: Plug in the voltage harness

1. Push the harness's green screw-terminal plug into the port on the right side of the monitor until it clicks.
2. The 16 AWG harness leads can be cut to length to reduce clutter. (This applies to the voltage harness only. Never cut sensor leads.)

Lead roles are in the harness table. In short: black L1 and white N on every install, red L2 on split-phase, and blue L3 spliced to L1 when CT 3 monitors a battery (or on the third phase of a 3-phase service). Otherwise cap blue.

Step 5: Wire power to the monitor

The monitor draws less than 50 mA. With the flexible kit, the monitor and sensor power supply together draw less than 1.5 A.

Pick a supply breaker:

• Two vertically adjacent (stacked) single-pole breakers, or one 2-pole breaker, so L1 and L2 are on opposite legs.
• An empty breaker or a splice into an in-use breaker are both fine.
• Any rating works if the splice wire gauge matches the circuit wire and meets code. 15 A is typical.
• Wire to the breaker closest to the monitor where you can.

Then wire it one of three ways.

5a. Empty breakers

5b. Splice into in-use breakers

Most panels don't have empty breakers. Splice into two stacked in-use breakers.

5c. AFCI or GFCI breaker

On an AFCI/GFCI breaker, neutral lands on the breaker's neutral terminal, not the neutral bus.

Blue L3: battery on CT 3, or 3-phase

1. Battery on CT 3 (the main use): splice blue (L3) to black (L1) in the same L1 connection, on the same breaker. It is CT 3's voltage reference for reading whether the battery is charging or discharging. Split-core: add it to the L1 wire nut. Flex: use a spare port on the L1 Wago. Use a connector listed for the number of conductors.
2. 3-phase 208Y/120 V (the only other use): land blue (L3) on a third adjacent breaker pole, on the third phase.
3. Anything else: cap blue (L3). Solar alone never needs L3.

Step 6: Connect the internet

The monitor connects over Wi-Fi, Ethernet or both. If both are connected, it uses Ethernet. Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz only.

6a. Wi-Fi (most common)

1. Remove a knockout from the panel.
2. Feed the antenna through so the antenna itself is outside the metal enclosure. Inside a wall is fine.
3. Screw the antenna cable onto the coax connector on the left side of the monitor (marked with the Wi-Fi symbol). Make it finger-tight.
4. Seat the knockout plug on the antenna cable in the hole.

6b. Ethernet

1. Run a Cat5e or better cable from the router, switch or modem to the panel.
2. Remove a knockout, feed the cable through and plug it into the RJ45 port on the left side of the monitor (marked with the Ethernet symbol).

Step 7: Install the main sensors (CT 1 and CT 2)

The rule: CT 1 and CT 2 clamp both hots of the breaker the EMS protects, just above or just below it. Nothing may be tapped in between. One sensor per hot conductor, never on the neutral.

• Monitor in the main panel: the main breaker. Usually the service conductors between the meter and the main breaker.
• Monitor in a subpanel: that subpanel's feeder conductors, at the feeder breaker or the subpanel lugs.
• The arrow always points toward the load (into the panel the breaker feeds). If CT 3 is on a battery, the battery is the load: the app shows a negative value while the battery exports.
• Port 1 on L1 is recommended, not required.
• Never clamp the mains on solar or battery conductors, a parallel feeder, or anything downstream of another breaker.

Solar or battery on site?

• Breaker-fed (backfed) solar or battery in the panel: the mains stay at the protected breaker, as above. They then read the home's net load.
• Line-side (supply-side) tap, case A10: the mains go below the tap, between the tap and the main breaker. CT 3 never goes on the tap.
• Battery tied in between two breakers, cases A7a and A7b: see the diagram before you clamp anything.

See Wiring diagrams for every case.

Step 8: Install CT 3 and CT 4

CT 4 always goes on the EV charger (Autel). CT 3 goes on one of these:

1. Open the clasp on a 50 A branch CT and place it around a hot conductor (never the neutral) of the circuit. Snap it shut.
2. Turn it so the arrow points toward the load. On a battery or solar line, the battery or inverter is the load.
3. Plug CT 4 into port 4 and CT 3 into port 3.
4. Write down what CT 3 is on. You enter it in the app.

Step 9: Dress the leads

1. Don't cut, shorten, splice or extend any sensor lead. Coil the excess and tie it off.
2. Keep each CT's leads twisted and in their factory screw-terminal positions.
3. Route leads so they don't touch live terminals or buses, don't block ventilation openings and stay clear of breaker arc venting.
4. Keep every sensor lead inside the panel where the monitor is mounted. Never run leads between panels.

Step 10: Photograph the sensors

Before the cover goes on, take CT placement photos on the homeowner's phone:

• Wide enough to trace each main sensor to its conductor and each lead to its port.
• With every arrow or "Load" label readable.
• Leads that snake out of frame, or a plug that looks like it straddles two ports, fail review.

These are required closeout photos. See Before you leave.

Step 11: Cover on, power on

1. Finish all cabling first. Once the cover is on, the antenna connector, Ethernet port and sensor ports can't be reached.
2. Replace the cover and its screws.
3. Turn back on every breaker you turned off, then the main.
4. Check the status light within a few seconds: - Purple with a blue blink: powered and ready for setup. Continue. - Orange: the harness doesn't match the service type. Fix it now, before you leave the panel. Recheck Step 5. - No light: no power. Recheck the harness and the supply breaker.

Step 12: Set up the EMS

Continue with EMS setup, Step 4. Check the Autel app first: the firmware update should be finished and the factory reset done.

Two Energy Monitors (main panel + subpanel)

Some homes need two Energy Monitors. This applies only when both are true:

• The Autel circuit is in a subpanel, and
• Both the main service and the subpanel feeder need load management to stay within their ratings (the load calculation fails at both levels without it).

Install each monitor with Steps 1–11, one panel at a time. All sensors for a monitor stay inside the panel where that monitor is mounted.

Subpanel monitor

• CT 1–2 on the subpanel's feeder conductors, arrows toward the subpanel's breakers, so it measures the whole subpanel.
• CT 4 on the Autel.
• Voltage harness on breakers in the subpanel.
• App: Subpanel, rating = the feeder breaker.

Main panel monitor

• CT 1–2 on the service conductors per Step 7, including the solar and battery cases.
• CT 3 and CT 4 on other circuits in the main panel. Never on the subpanel's feeder breaker: the subpanel monitor covers the feeder.
• App: Main panel, rating = the main breaker.

Configuration

• Read each rating from the breaker label itself. The EMS enforces exactly what you enter.
• Both monitors need an internet connection. Check Wi-Fi at both panels, or run Ethernet to each.
• The charging limit is set by whichever panel has less headroom at that moment. If either monitor loses power or its connection, charging pauses after a short safety timeout.
• See cases B1 and B2. Call NeoCharge before scheduling a two-monitor job.