Does anyone know if there’s a smart plug available for a 220W clothes dryer? 6 months in and Sense still hasn’t identified yet and I really want to track energy draw from that device.
It won’t integrate directly with Sense (it could if you use the TP-Link emulation, but that’s a technical hurdle for most people) but I plan on getting an Aeotec heavy duty plug for monitoring my dryer and integrating it into my Hubitat ecosystem.
Interesting. Too bad its not plug and play.
For 220/240, you’re going to want the new Flex Sensors. Added cost, but pretty easy to add.
Hey @teach-1. Sounds like Dedicated Circuit Monitoring might be a good fit for you for your EV detection as well. You can learn more in the link Kevin shared above, as well as in our release notes here: What's new in: V33 (iOS/Android) V12 (Web): Dedicated Circuit Monitoring
Yeah, sorry, should be 220V; watts a lot higher.
I’d seen the announcement, but find almost no details. Like, how many 240 volt circuits can I “add-on” (my complex home needs about 5), what do they cost, where do I buy them (the link on the Sense website fails), does this interfere with my solar monitoring, how do these get wired in, how they get configured, etc.
I’ve been nudging Sense to either partner with or directly offer some way to monitor high energy240v circuits that it completely fails to detect for more than a year, and I am hopeful that this may be the answer, but I can’t tell from what’s been published.
After almost two years, Sense reliably monitors only about 15 of my 173 electrical devices, and misses a handful of those that consume the most power…like my geothermal.
Hi @Andy,
Right now, the Flex CTs use the same “second port” that you (and I) use for solar monitoring. I’m looking at ways to use my second, play-around Sense to do Dedicated Circuit monitoring. I’ll be happy for now if I can get both my EVs monitored accurately using the Second Sense. The “second port” can monitor
- A single 120V or 240V unbalanced (with neutral wire) circuit
- Two circuits - two 120V (why bother), one 120V and one balanced 240V, or 2 balanced 240V. My Tesla chargers don’t require a neutral so I think I’ll be able to do both of them.
Some day, I’m hoping I can use all 4 CTs on the second Sense so I can get to a couple of other 240V loads.
Hi @andy - we’ve posted about Dedicated Circuit Monitoring here, where you can also find new help resources below containing all the information you’ve requested. Let me know if anything is missing here.
I would use a Flex for my dryer if Sense doesn’t ID it soon. Have an EV that plugs into a standard 110v outlet that’s not strictly dedicated, but overnight charging works for me. I’ve been using a Kill-o-watt device for a year to measure usage, which I record and add to my monthly energy use spreadsheet.
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I use a simple Kasa HS110 on my Ford Fusion Energi for charging. It never charges at more than 900W, well below the HS110 max.
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My Sense found my dryer but it only recognizes the energy for the heating element. Granted that’s the majority of the energy it uses. Fwiw I installed the flex sensors for my Mitsubishi mini and multi splits and the setup was painless.
Good to know, thanks.
FWIW, my Sense found my gas igniter, but not the motor. Here are the stats from the HS110 I put on it.
The last screenshot shows the native detection of the gas igniter.
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My Sense has identified at least part of my electric dryer – doesn’t seem to be 100% consistent though.
As great as the dedicated circuit monitoring is, two additional devices only get you so far. I’d love nothing more than if Sense came out with their own HS110-style devices. In theory these might be able to offload some of the processing from the main Sense device in order to bypass the pesky ‘20 device limit’.
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Yes, two devices, especially if it’s at the expense of my solar monitoring, is pretty useless. Based on what I’m reading, this seems mainly a marketing gimic, essentially re-labeling the device they already had and adding a bit of user interface.
I’ve been nudging for more than a year for Sense to partner with (or build) a capability to monitor 240v circuits. I have five that sense seems unable to track, essentially leaving 50% of the power unaccounted for. Such a device would need to be a wire in, not a plug-in, for most such circuits.
A gimmick infers that there’s no substance behind it. As a user who doesn’t have solar but does have two 220v mini splits, it is 100% utility to me.
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While I understand the frustration about the limited relevance of dedicated circuit monitoring to your current configuration, it’s a step in the direction you mentioned “nudging us” towards over the last year and addresses a major pain point for a large portion of our user base. We had the Beta group for this feature fill up within about ~20 minutes, which has never happened and is just one example of how many folks have been waiting for something like this.
I’m not sure what gave you that impression. Taking into account existing hardware limitations, this was a huge undertaking for our engineering team (and others). If you peel back the layers of what’s actually changing here, the hardware change from Solar Sensors to Flex Sensors was actually one of the lightest pieces of work that went into this release.
As the first iteration of the dedicated circuit monitoring capability, and we only hope to build on it in the future.
It sounds like you have a specific use-case here for some of the devices you’re looking to track, and are looking forward to a solution where Sense is “built into the panel”. I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but we do have large partners/investors in the utility meter (Landis + Gyr) and home panels (Schneider Electric).
Since you’re only seeing what we’re doing today in the public-facing realm, I’d remain optimistic that we’re pursuing longer-term solutions involving some iteration of what you’ve mentioned above. In the meantime, we’re still prioritizing initiatives that have the most significant impact on the largest amount of our users and what they’d like to see from Sense in the future.
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Really appreciate the update. Sorry to hear it took lots of work to provide a feeble work around.
For my situation, and many (most) of the folks I’ve communicated with, one single device would solve 90+% of the Sense gaps. That’s a 240 v version of the Kasa HS110 that can be “wired in”. It would either go into the panel or into an electrical box installed between the panel and the 240 v device. That would require NO changes to Sense, and use existing user interfaces.
I know that works with existing Sense, because some folks here in the US have purchased the European HS110 plug in device and hacked together wiring for it. While it works fine with Sense, unfortunately it’s also a violation of US electrical codes.
For a heat pump, for example, this sensor would be inserted into the 240v line between the panel and the heat pump, typically in a small electrical box. It would then talk to Sense, just like any other Kasa device. Same for my (very electrically noisy) variable speed deep well pump, my dryer, my mini-duct system, etc, etc.
Such a device would also work for dedicated high power 120 v circuits.
What I can’t understand is why a device that solves so many of Sense’s sensing gaps isn’t a priority. If I were the product manager for Sense, this would be at/near the top of my list.
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