I do not want one long-term, just want to put something on each leg of my panel so I can get some insight on peak amp draw to size up a portable generator.

Have seen plenty of them on Amazon but they do not show historic high data, just real time.

I have a Sense and I like it.

Emporia Vue - they have a version that only monitors both legs for about $85. You can graph the usage in seconds, minutes, days, months, etc - download to csv if you want. I think a 1 sec interval is a fine a resolution as it provides. Will also give you peak demand in a 15 minute window in kWh, but you would need to download data to excel to find peak amps. Our last two energy providers have been coop - one is Texas, now in NW Arkansas- they provide pseudo real time (15 min block) usage info on their app - wish they all did that.

Thanks, I should see if my smart meter pics up similar data

Thought I'd update this. Smartmeter Texas website gives me 24 months of history. My largest 15-min demand was 1.49 kWhrs which equates to 6000 watts over that period. I am going to add a 20% fudge factor (6000/0.8) which gets me to a generator providing 7,500W or basically exactly this
https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Westinghouse-WGEN9500TFC-Portable-Generator/p145336.html

For reference: 1850sq ft house, 1 story, 3 ton A/C. 04 build. Peak demand came when I was also running an 8000btu window unit on a hot 104* day.

This unit ends up on sale routinely, typically see on den of tools YouTube in deals of the week. He has Facebook which i dont do amd somewhere has spreadsheet of historical prices.

Putting a 20% fudge might be a bit of overkill. It's likely that your single highest usage in a 24 month period had nearly everything in the house running.

How is your water heated? How do you dry clothes? How does your oven and range work?
Just asking because I think you could easily stay plenty comfortable with a modicum of energy management when the generator is running.

If that highest usage was on an August afternoon while with the washing machine churning away, a load in the dryer, the WH running while there was a meatloaf in the oven and two burners on the stove all while you were out in the garage airing up the tires on your truck.

Yeah you're not wrong, something like this is closer
https://factorypure.com/products/firman-t08071-8000w-10000w-electric-start-tri-fuel-gas-propane-natural-gas-generator-new

drummer0415 said:

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I have a Sense and I like it.

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I have a Sense and it has worked well for me too.

Dill-Ag13 said:

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Yeah you're not wrong, something like this is closer
https://factorypure.com/products/firman-t08071-8000w-10000w-electric-start-tri-fuel-gas-propane-natural-gas-generator-new

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I should clarify I'd be running it on natural gas so this is a 5500/6900 unit.