Sense should only be installed by a licensed electrician. The installation is very straightforward and in most cases, will take less than half an hour, but since your electrical panel is live, it is dangerous for those unqualified. For more details, please consult the Sense Installation Guide. For more details on installing Sense Solar, please consult the Sense Solar Installation Guide. You can also consult the official Sense Knowledge Base for more information.
Panel requirements
Sense works with most split-phase 120/240V 200A residential electrical panels in North America. Your panel must have enough space to fit sensor clamps with HxWxD dimensions of 3.375" x 2" x .75" (85.73 x 50.8 x 19.05mm), and an inside diameter of 1”. Our sensor cables are 46" (116.84cm) long and our power cable is 36" (91.44cm) long. Our current sensors are rated for 200A usage.
Recessed panels
Sense is compatible with recessed panels. You can read more about the installation process here.
Busbar panels
Busbar panels must have enough clearance for the current sensors to clamp around the busbar. Please see above dimensions.
Three-phase panels
Sense is designed to monitor traditional homes in North America with split-phase 240V service, but it can also successfully monitor two out of the three legs of three-phase 208V service. It is important that Sense is powered by a two-pole breaker across the two legs that will be monitored, and that the current sensors are clamped around the service mains for the same two legs. The power consumption of any devices on the third leg will not be monitored, but the monitoring capabilities of Sense will be fully operational on the other two legs.
Parallel feed panels
At this time, Sense does not support a parallel feed configuration. We are working on a solution to better accommodate this configuration and hope to have it available in the near future.
Multiple panels
Sense can work with multiple panels as long as they are subpanels, and the Sense monitor is installed in the main breaker panel. If you have separate service for each panel then Sense can only work with one of them, and you will need multiple Sense monitors to monitor your whole home. The Sense app cannot currently aggregate data from two Sense monitors at once and so, in order to handle a multi-monitor configuration, you will need to create two separate accounts and track one monitor from each account. In the future, we are planning to add multi-monitor compatibility to the app, so stay tuned.
Dedicated 240V breaker
While Sense will function as expected as long as it is installed on a 240V breaker, we recommend Sense be installed on a dedicated breaker in order to comply with varying electrical codes. If your breaker panel is full, we recommend consulting with a local electrician to find the best course of action based on your town’s electrical codes.
Outdoor installation
To install Sense outdoors, it must be enclosed inside an appropriate NEMA-rated enclosure, and adequately protected from the elements. Sense is compatible only in the following environmental conditions:
Relative humidity <90%; IPX0 rating, no water ingress
Temperature: 32-122ÂşF (0-50ÂşC)
Elevation < 9842’ (3,000m)
My monitor didn’t chime after installation
If you hear repeated beeps or no sound at all, this may mean that Sense was not properly installed. Please turn off the breaker that the Sense monitor is connected to and check the following:
- The red and black power wires are connected to a 240V breaker
- The white wire is connected to the neutral bus
- All cables are connected to the Sense monitor
- The labels on the current sensors are facing the same direction (either both towards or both away from the breakers). If your service mains have loops, please follow the wires to determine the appropriate direction.
If all of the above is correct and the Sense monitor still does not chime or beep, reset the breaker that it is installed on and have your installer check for a flashing LED near the monitor’s antenna port. This flashing LED indicates that the monitor is in “pairing mode” and is ready to connect to your mobile device via Bluetooth. You are now ready to set up Sense.
The Sense monitor will only beep or chime during the installation and registration process. Once the monitor has been registered to an account, it will no longer beep or chime when powering up.