Convert Solar CTs to DCM CTs

[glencsutton]

I want to do this, as my Tesla and Solar Edge monitoring basically duplicates what I get from Sense. I will use the two middle port CTs to monitor a well circuit and an A/C.

Is there some way to change the configuration without going through a factory reset? I’d like to keep all the devices Sense has detected, but will do the factory reset if there is no other option.

[kevin1]

@glencsutton, at least for my Tesla SolarEdge setup, you can’t swap the Sense solar CTs over to DCM usage without affecting the behavior my Sense, since Sense uses the Solar CTs to build Total Usage. Move the Sense solar CTs to DCM and Total Usage only gives net usage and goes negative much of the time. You can’t use the Tesla data to fill for this Sense internal usage of the solar data.

ps: I actually bought a second Sense to do just DCM, so I have that Sense behaving the way yours likely would if you did this. I had to go through the whole solar setup process on the second Sense first, because the second Sense would make it through setup / signal check when seeing negative Total Usage. Once through solar setup, I could move the CTs and redo setup as DCM, but only after I had Sense support disable the solar option.

Dedicated Circuit Monitoring (DCM) if you already have Sense Solar?

Several Sense Solar users, including @andy, have raised the question fo how they might take advantage of DCM, since their second monitor port is already occupied with solar monitoring. I have done a little experimenting and been able to test an approach for Solar users, by using a second Sense monitor for its DCM capacity. I currently have 2 x 240V devices monitored by my new Sense, a Tesla charger and sub panel for all my floor heating coils. A few caveats upfront: Pricey - you have to buy a…

[glencsutton]

Thanks for the response. I too actually use a second Sense for additional circuit monitoring on a subpanel with DCM on that one.

To make sure I understand, to convert an existing solar Sense to DCM would be:

1. Make sure Sense is currently operating correctly
2. Move CTs to DCM circuit or circuits to be monitored
3. Ask Sense Support to change over the Sense from solar to DCM (No factory reset required)

Thanks again for the help

[kevin1]

Yup, that’s the way I did it with my second Sense. No factory reset required to go from functioning Sense in solar mode (though I wasn’t really in Solar mode - Sense forced my new install there because it looked like Solar on the mains) to DCM mode, though I didn’t have much accumulated history, because I had started with essentially a new solar install. I looked all over for a way to switch off solar mode, but from what I tried, once a Sense Monitor is in solar mode, Sense doesn’t want to offer an easy way out, with good reason (switching out of solar on your main Sense would truly screw up your data).

Just to highlight my full process:

• Buy second Sense monitor and Flex cable
• Install the Sense, with the mains CTs on my mains, and the secondary (middle port) CTs installed on a single hot line of my two BALANCED (no neutral connection) 240V device.
• Run setup on the Sense, by creating a second account. For me, the setup process got stuck, then support eventually pushed it through, but it jumped to a Solar configuration, even though my second set of CTs weren’t on a solar backfeed. I suspect that Sense sees negative power on my mains (solar producing are than I am using) and automatically trips to solar.
• Ask Sense support to disable the Solar so I could go through the DCM setup process. They did.
• Execute DCM setup - for both devices, I couldn’t use the breakers to turn the devices on. I had to use the thermostat to start a floor loop and had to manually start the charging process for the EV. But in the end, setup worked !

I now have two 240V DCM devices registering on my second Sense account.

[glencsutton]

Thanks, I’ll probably have to trick my Sense the way you did, since one of the circuits I want to monitor is a well, and I can’t control when it turns on, it turns on when the water level in tank gets low. I’ll probably temporarily put it on the Tesla charger circuit and just start the charging process to fool it.