Electrician came Monday to install our monitor. Since the breaker box is flush-mounted in a peg-board panel we looked at external install but he was able to place Sense unit high in the box so the antenna protrudes above the box. Sense activated fine & passed all tests but remains offline despite several power & wifi cycles.
The antenna lies between wire runs rising vertically from the box so I’m of the mind the “offline” issue stems from this configuration. Can I buy an antenna extension so it can be placed away from these wire runs? What connector would Sense require?
Or should I pay the electrician to come back and do an external install (grrrr).
Hi, thanks for letting us know about this. One of our specialists checked your unit and we discovered a known issue that does not let your Sense monitor communicate with us properly. We fixed the problem. Please log out of the app & and then log back in - this should get you up and running again. Let us know if you are still seeing any problems!
How about the main question? Are there other antennas we can get for when wifi is weak? Is it a standard connector?
Our installer had a similar problem with the flush breaker box. On mine he drilled a 1/2 inch hole in the drywall below the panel to mount the antenna in and routed the antenna wire out a knockout in the bottom of the box.
That did it Maarja. Thank you. I suspected someone looked & acted. I appreciate the confirmation – and the assistance.
Steve
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I did a parallel post to Sense Users Group Facebook page and received some info from other users: Sense Energy Users | Electrician came Monday to install our monitor
I enjoyed the parade of plateaus as Sense captured usage – up to the completion of recalabration yesterday.
Here is how it has appeared since (attached).
Thoughts?
Steve
My antenna is inside the breaker box… I found no easy and good way of getting it out, as the box is flush with the outside wall. What I need to do is drill through the back of the box and into the garage and place the antenna there… But that requires more preparation. I placed a Wifi router in the garage to get a strong enough signal 
I’ve ordered the high gain antenna recommended above to replace Sense’s. It comes with a short cable so I will be able to mount it on the surface away from the power runs. If that doesn’t allow Sense to communicate with the App I’ll try the wifi extender recommended.
I did receive an e-mail yesterday indicating my unit is reporting negative wattage readings(?). Hopefully the patch they are sending will bring it back.
/S/
Please post back up - my unit is right at the edge of good signal, I get a drop-off about once a month or so when I have to reboot my router to get it to pick up again.
A new antenna may help, it may not, but for $12 bucks it’s worth a shot if you find out it helps you. I also have a stronger router I can try linking it to, but want to try to keep that separate from Sense for now if I can.
Can’t tell if antenna helped or not. I tried moving the sensor leads (literally turning the clips over and clamping on the same locations) and I got positive readings – consistently for a couple of days. Since I alerted Sense to the change and success they looked and reported the change corrupted the data so they reset the device. That took me back to negative readings and I so reported. They reset the monitor again yesterday evening & it provided positive readings for about an hour. Now I’m back to negative wattage on both legs.
Its been going on three weeks since the install & the damn thing is not working! GRRRR
With the factory antenna, I got a borderline wifi connection (power panel outside / router inside). The first replacement antenna I tried failed miserably.
I did find a TP Link directional antenna that let me aim it towards my router. My router showed a much improved connection, so I’m hoping this keeps my Sense from dropping offline: http://amzn.to/2EwSV7a My Netgear router shows the wifi device connection quality and it went from 1 bar to 2 bars (out of 3). I’ll take what I can get.
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