@samwooly1 I have a 400 amp service but the meter is freestanding in my yard 100 feet from my house. I could put Sense in that panel, but it would be exposed to water and would get below freezing. What is your suggestion for this scenario?
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Welcome to the community @nicholasporter
I’m trying to picture how you are wired leaving the meter. I’m thinking the CT clamps would fit around both wires on each leg right at the meter. But do all the wires follow the same path from there? Are the bundled in the same pipe until they get to your house? If so, the clamps can go where these wires make their split to separate panels. Anywhere downstream of the meter and upstream of the panels.
If your wires split right away and say feed two locations then at the pole is the only place
I don’t think actual water would get in your panel but humidity would be an issue. I don’t feel low temperatures would have any effect at all as mine is in an uninsulated garage
@samwooly1 I’ve got (2) 200 AMP breakers in that panel and then 2 separate conduits running from the panel to the house. On the house I have 2 more panels (the city made me attach these to the house for a disconnecting means…long story). From those 2 panels the wires go inside to a junction box and split to 2 sub panels inside the house. See pictures (turns out new users can only post 1 image, so I uploaded the image of the junction box).
Can I just take Sense current sensors and put them around the 2 hot wires for each panel (4 in total, so each current sensor would wrap around 2 wires instead of 1)?
I think I’m understanding correctly when I say this, yes, put each clamp around 2 cables.
It appears you have cooper instead of aluminum wire so they should fit around them just fine and close properly. If it were me, I would zip tie them closed just to be sure.
It appears your feed is coming from the bottom and that looks to be a good place for the clamps.
If @RyanAtSense sees this he may be able to lift the image restriction or I think it’s only for a day or teo
Would you hook onto the top wires (wires in the house feeding the sub panels) or the bottom wires (wires that come in from the two panels on the outside of the house)?
I would place around the wires coming from the meter which looks like they are feeding in the bottom of that panel. It just looks like more room there for orientation and to keep separate as much as possible.
You will just want to make sure that when you clamp 2 wires that they are the same leg. If you were to clamp one of each leg I could see problems. You’ll probably have to trace from meter unless it’s easy to tell in the panel you have ouctured
Right now my Sense is in the panel about 10 feet away from this box. Should I move the Sense into the junction box or leave it in the panel? If I move it into the junction box how do I supply power to it?
Moved to a new thread, as not really Feature Request related. Please ‘like’ that thread if you support that request.
I would highly recommend bringing this to the Support team. You can reach them via https://www.sense.com/contact
@samwooly1 I got everything put together and the clamps don’t go over the 2 wires. Are there bigger clamp sizes available?
I do not believe so. You must have aluminum wire instead of copper. Cooper is half the size to carry the same current but cost about triple what aluminum does. I’m not sure if there will be a workaround for this situation.
I know they do sell extension leads but you might want to contact support and see if they offer bigger clamps.
We only have one size for the CT sensors. We do publish the specs on the compatibility page: https://help.sense.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006132768-Compatible-electrical-panel-configurations
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