+1 I’ve been waiting over two years now for this feature for my manual interlocked generator.
Any updates?
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Hey @bradley.jones.home and @matt1, there are currently no updates on this feature.
It is clear that enough users are requesting a non-ata generator monitor that sense should consider it.
They could add the option so that when operating in “flex sensor” power, you just get a generator power monitor and temporarily suspend any mods to their algorithms for appliance detection. The utility would also serve interlock users to alert them when power is back onto the mains, so that you could turn off the generator and switch back to main breaker power. That alone would sell many new units.
I respectfully disagree with the notion that when power is out, so is the network. Not so-at least in my area. I have Verizon Fios and over several years, during every power outage in our community hI have still been able to reconnect to FIOS internet and TV while on the generator. It would be great if the Sense app just told me what my total power was, and when power was restored to the mains…Should not be difficult given the number of added units Sense would sell.
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It’s inconvenient, but the workaround I use to monitor power consumption while on generator is to open the panel and move the primary sensors from the mains over to the generator supply wires that feed the generator breaker.
I bought a set of flex sensors before realizing this interlock configuration is not supported, and this has me thinking of other workarounds.
I plan on testing if I can leave the sensors installed (one set on the mains, the second set on the generator supply) and just alternate between them at the sense box. I would still need to expose the panel to make the change at the Sense, but it would be safer than moving clamps.
An alternative workaround I’m considering would be to just use one set of sensors and clamp them over both sets of wires (provided I have the slack in the wiring). In an interlock configuration, only one set of wires would be energized at any given time. And provided the sensor does not malfunction or its accuracy diminishes by having a second (albeit not in use) wire running through the clamp all the time, this would save the step of opening the panel and switching plugs or moving clamps. I don’t know how the clamp sensors work to say if this is feasible.
Honestly, Sense should prioritize this feature request out of safety concerns. All of these workarounds involve customers exposing their panels more frequently than they would need to if the Sense merely supported the interlock configuration.
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Same issue with the interlocked generator monitoring need. It is the only reason I purchased the unit.
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@A111, those are two great ideas. Did you try them? How did they work?
I can say they didn’t work for me.
The second workaround was a non-starter since I don’t have the slack in my generator wires (which are large b/c I have a 20kW generator). Yes a 20kW that I installed without a transfer switch. Even with a generator this big using a 100A backfeed breaker works just the same as any smaller generator with an interlock bracket.
The first workaround I tried, thinking this was going to do it! Not quite. I actually moved the sense unit external to the panel to make it easier to swap the main CT with the Flex CT and I did it just like you suggested, using only the side port, not the middle port. The result: it kinda works? I was getting a usage graph on the app after the Wi-Fi reconnected, but the wattage was about 63% of what I expected based on the loads that were running. There is some estimating in that number, so I wouldn’t just call that the correction factor without much more scientific testing.
Maybe I should try putting two of my clamp ammeters on the generator wires and get a true wattage reading. Then we can see if there really is a standard correction factor that makes this workaround somewhat helpful?
Others have stated something that may explain why there’s a difference in wattage reading using the flex sensors: that they are calibrated differently or have different internals. Beats me why they’d make them different. You’d think they are the same since the flex sensors can act as main sensors on a 400A split panel system (which I have no knowledge of).
Gets me thinking: could you set it up for a split panel system, placing the flex sensors on our generator wires? They’d only measure current on one set of sensors at a time with our interlock breakers, but who’s to say that situation couldn’t possibly happen to someone using split service panels?!?
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