Or partner with Curb or Ted, etc. The large draw devices are on their own circuits already. They can be cleanly isolated. Sense detects the burners on our stove separately and conflates one of them with the oven. We have 2 dryers. Sense sees them as the same device.
We could get the stove, the oven, the 2 air conditioners, and the 2 dryers, isolated immediately. Curb should be great at that, but Sense struggles. Seems like Sense has more potential on computers, printers, tvs, coffee pots, microwaves, dehumidifiers, etc.
Mystery devices could be tied to a circuit to help track them down.
I would absolutely love to have an option to add more CTs with some kind of âproâ Sense device or an add-on unit. I probably would lean towards some kind of add-on unit so it could be in a sub-panel and not physically connected to the main sensor.
I nearly went with Curb for this very reason but at the time Sense seemed to offer better data granularity. Iâm kind of on the fence about still going and adding Curb. My $300 experiment with Sense hasnât quite lived up to what I really wanted and what the Sense marketing made it sound like. I still love the concept and all the people Iâve been able to interact with, just getting a bit impatient with the device itself.
I just ordered Curb. I think the combination will be good. I expect I can integrate the data myself.
It doesnât really make financial sense, but at this point, Iâm pretty invested in Sense. Itâs now a hobby and cheaper than a boat, etc. It seems to be a really neat approach, but it needs to work better. Iâm rooting for them and trying to help with constructive criticism, etc.
I initially picked Smappee over Sense because they provided data access at the time. Eventually I realized they were just doing it wrong and werenât going to change. Sense is much better. Makes you realized how much a good company outlook/attitude is worth.
Not sure about the electrical code and âsmart plugsâ can be nice, but I would like an add on unit (my thoughts would be a unit mounted externally of the panel with an ethernet port) that would strictly monitor pre-device breakers and implement that data to the bubbles.
Many large consumers are on their own breaker and Sense seems to have trouble with most so this would give absolute data to whats going on while giving the main monitor âreliefâ from trying to figure out that wattage noise if thatâs even possible.
FYI, I for one would pay for something that gives me hard data and let Sense take care of the âthis is fun to knowâ items. I realize many will argue this is what the Sense monitor is supposed to do, but I donât ever see detection being consistently perfect (or close to) all the time.
I know of all the other devices out there, was just thinking itâd be a nice integration being the UI is nice and is already built.
The cost of hardware is nothing in the grand scheme of things and the integration between units would be much better than anything 3rd party because they obviously made or designed the units.
Even being able to use one or more sense units to monitor individual branches or equipment. I donât really have a need for it right now but if I had heatpump(s) or furnaces or other expensive equipment it would be worth the investment to monitor that device/branch specifically. Especially so if sense implements failure modes or fault detection.
@johhawkes Advantage of sense is it can measure million times per second. I donât think TED can do that?
@wesman7776,
I like how sense works, It is really simple to setup and can detect a lot of devices with just five connections.
I love the real-time power stats. It has helped me a lot.
I was only thinking of TED for my brother as sense doesnât support his setup and is not likely to in the next few years. Monitoring power at a million times per second is not much of an issue with his well set out breaker panel. (mine is a mess and spread over two panels). TED, for my brotherâs setup, would cost over $US1,000.
I agree with the original poster â the ability to add a few CTâs would be a great improvement. Smart plugs are now an option for 120v items that Sense has not identified, but Sense has not been able to recognize major 240v devices: the heat pump and the water pump.
I would like this feature as well.
perhaps a separate sense unit that acts as a slave to the main Sense device with more CTâs
Iâd like to monitor my electric stove, dryer, hot tub, and 2 AC units, water pump, etc.
@tom2
Have you contacted support about having them look into why those 240 detections arenât coming?
My water heater, heat pump, dryer, auxiliary heat strips and stove/oven have all been detected within the first few months. The only 240 device yet to be detected in my home is my air handler fan.
duanetiemann - what are your thoughts thus far about the Curb product? I too was very hopeful about Sense but seems like it just takes forever to actually be of any value. I think ML has a way to go. Additionally, I would love to have a single account and multiple monitors for multiple properties. Just canât believe everything must be tied to a single email address and only one sense detector per email address. What Iâd really like to do is connect something to my vacation rental which has two panels. That way I can monitor usage when Iâm renting out to track energy use and tie it to rental income, etc. Can I do two panels with the Curb? Do you like it? Was it worth the cost?
Iâve had trouble with Curb support not being responsive. I was trying to automate retrieval of the real time data. Took forever because support wouldnât help. However, I did find one guy, Zack, in sales that was quite helpful.
I much prefer the Sense community. Nice forum. Engaged people. Plenty of support.
But Sense just basically doesnât work well. And Curb does. Their reliance on CTs prevents them from reporting below the circuit level, though. They donât seem to know about smart plugs yet. Right now, I think a combination of Curb and smart plugs is the way to go for me. Though I have to combine the data myself. Of course, you wouldnât need smart plugs.
Curb can readily support multiple panels. In fact, Zack says 1 Curb could cover multiple panels if theyâre close. However, when you buy a Curb, it comes with a default mix of CTs. I ended up getting 3 Curbs because I didnât know you could not only specify the CTs you wanted, but also that they would automatically upgrade you to the 18 CT version if you ask for enough CTs. Their documentation leads you to believe those are only available to installers. I could have saved a lot of money if I had I run across Zack earlier.
Curb is more expensive, but it is accurate. That counts for a lot, especially when money is involved.
I hope Sense improves. I really like them. But damn. Reality.
I intend to revisit the data this summer when our air conditioners are running. I expect Sense will miss a lot of that consumption, but maybe⌠It really helps to have something to compare the Sense numbers to.
Why I personally think Sense is better is due to the fact that the details extend beyond the circuit. If I ha e a coffee maker and a toaster on the same 20 amp single pole circuit, Sense can detect them separately. With Curb, they will always be combined. Of course we all know Sense is not going to detect everything and improvements in detection donât happen overnight.
Curbs design doesnât allow for the growth that Sense does.
Just my 2 cents
I guess that Iâm fortunate that sense has accurately detected all my hogs. My air handler is the only 240 device not detected but only draws 400-450 watts, not a hog in my book.
I can definitely see the value in having CTâs for a device that is wanted but not detected or would likely never be.
My hope is Sense keeps refining the product detections and the day comes when all our desired devices are natively detected.
I didnât really want to jump on the smart plug bandwagon because I felt Sense was made for this, but I eventually did hoping to help future users get their detections just like has been done for me.
I can see where added CTâs would also be beneficial for future device detection also.
Accuracy of Sense was brought up in the original post. If we are talking about accuracy of KWH, Sense has been as within a couple percent of my bill.
Just to clarify. CTs in general seem credible. Sense does accurately measure overall consumption. Because that is done with itâs pair of CTs.
The challenge comes with subdividing that load out. That is gnarly signal processing. Itâs easy to miss device starts and stops. And a lot has to get dumped into AlwaysOn or Other. There is a lot of detail on this in the Data Analysis topic.
