If you’re still around, I have a question for you. I’m not an electrician, but I do understand things a bit. My problem seems similar to yours. Here’s my set up (installed by previous owner):
I didn’t quite realize that the sub panels are running in parallel and I had an electrician install the Sense in the big panel that you see. The other sub-panels are elsewhere in the house with the shutoffs next to the large panel. Because I have that run under the large panel and the subpanel shut offs, can I move the clamps down there around the main before the split and then keep the Sense powered from within that larger panel? I’d get an electrician to come back to do that if it would work. My only worry is if there is some reason that running the Sense off of only one panel will affect whether it can detect devices that are connected to the other sub panels. Would love any help!
For anyone curious, I did get an electrician to come back and get this to work. He popped the panel on the trough below the larger panel and connected the clamps to the mains before they split to the subs. So now the sense is reading all electric usage in the house! Success!
That’s great! I believe I misunderstood your panel setup. I thought you were saying that the subpanels were in parallel to the main panel (which wouldn’t make them subs) rather than parallel to each other. Thought it was some configuration I had never heard of, thus why I sent you over to Support! Glad it was a simple fix.
Actually, they are parallel to the “main” panel. My set up is that there is a single main line coming out of the meter into the trough at the bottom of the picture. Then it is split into 4 parallel runs. One goes to the panel in the picture, and three others go to other panels throughout the house. So, really, there is no ‘main’ panel. I have the clamps on the single line that is BEFORE the branching occurs (right off the line coming out of the meter). So yes, these are all in parallel, but because I’m reading the main before it parallelizes (not sure that’s a real word!), it seems to work. I’m reading everything correctly and the app seems to be happy with the setup.
I have been waiting to be able to combine 2 sense units into one DISPLAY. I’m not interested in exporting and combining, I just want to see on one application the results from my home, shop and separate panel for office/well pump/furnace. It’s now late March 2019. I’ll read theses posts and when the improvements are available I buy the necessary equipment or at the end of the year my unit will be available for a penny-on-the-dollar price. Thank you.
What’s your setup @dave4?
Is it two panels you are monitoring at the same location? If so, how many electric meter set by the power company do you have?
What I’m getting at is you may be able to monitor two panels from one sense. I know it’s rated for 200 amps but I’ve read where others have done it without issue.
I will draw the layout of my system and send it to you right after dinner (lunch if you are on the coast).
Some details – One meter for power from Electric company
One meter from Solar. Net metering.
The sense is on the main panel in my shop.
There is no sense in the house – 75 feet away.
There is a Generac auto-switch connected to the main house panel and a feed to the shop where it goes to a panel controlling the well pump, office, and gas furnace.
So when the power goes off the house can remain livable and office housing all computer/internet equipment stays workable including heat.
House 200A (guess), Shop 200A (guess), Generac 11kw.
@dave4
I see your setup and the difficulty involved. I’m assuming at the pole that you have 2 meters, one for solar and one for grid power. If that’s the case then I’m wondering if sense could be installed there instead. You’d have to enlist the help of the power company because the tamper tag would need replaced and you wouldn’t want to mess with power directly at the meter. Placing the sense CT’s directly after the meter where the lugs are would be possible to monitor both of your panels. As for what sense would do at those distances with detection is something I don’t know about.
There was a picture on here where someone had a similar setup but had a picture of their meter service panel. I ha ent been able to locate it again but if I do, I’ll give you the link.
Maybe @kevin1 or @pswired would know if sense would be effective at those distances. It all depends on how your meter is wired and if you can get the clamps around the wires feeding the house and the shop.
Great, this picture could be very useful for others with 2 panels that are having trouble getting them both monitored. There is another thread where people share their setup that this would be an excellent candidate for.
The only thing I would suggest differently is to place the Sense monitor inside, through the conduit into another panel or on the wall. That way, reception would t be an issue and you would ha e access easily.
Please implement native multi-sensor support in the software! I have 400A service split to two panels, so I don’t think the current sensors could fit around the main lines even if I had the power company open up their utility panel. I’ve got one unit on one of the panels for now and just ordered a second unit for the other. I just hate to have to monitor them separately on two different devices and try to add up all the figures…
I think you could get the clamps to fit if copper was used. No way for aluminum. Would be nice to know for sure if someone has a clamp around a four hundred amp copper setup as users would have the option to change their feed wires to copper for a single Sense installation for 400a service.
My guess is that Sense has that “in the works” but it’s not the highest priority for a small company … and it introduces some complex issues that are maybe best tackled after more immediate concerns are ironed out.
You’ll find many references to this issue in the Community and I won’t belabor the issue here:
@RyanAtSense may have better suggestions for bumping this issue.
One thing you can do is monitor your max. current on each panel (set Goals to that effect) and after some peak usage determine if you are significantly <200A overall. Then (if the clamps actually do fit) you could clamp them on the mains. This seems like an unlikely solution and strictly speaking you should avoid it but it could work if you have modest usage. How many EVs do you have?
Meanwhile, if you get involved in the Community your voice, in my experience, will be heard.
Thanks, I did discover some of those other threads after I posted on this one and read through them. I definitely understand that Sense is still a small company and this may not rise to the highest priority. However it does feel like there is a significant number of community members and users who care enough to invest in something like this, that are willing to help out, and even willing to double their investment in order to get a good read on their total energy use across multiple panels (or multiple homes). Device detection is definitely the unique feature of Sense and one they should continue to invest in, though frankly I’d be happier with the ability to monitor all energy use for my home, and have a way to manually identify devices (even if it meant only turning one device on at a time and flagging it, or purchasing smart plugs that you connect to a device for 24 hours, etc.).
I have a relatively new construction home (6 years), with the 400A mains splitting off to a backup generator for one panel (that panel is located in my mechanical room indoors), and then the rest is split outside the house to go to a pool equipment area and to another 200A panel in the mechanical room that isn’t powered by the generator. So in a perfect world I’d be able to clamp onto the 400A mains outside and monitor everything. But since that’s not supported with the hardware, at least having the ability to tie the data from two units on the 200A mains into a single account would be nice. Yes, it costs me twice as much but at least the total usage should match my electric bill.
I previously installed a Brultech GreenEye monitor with 32 channels plus the mains monitored, which I could also only install on one panel, and the software and reliability are a total waste (no good real-time tracking capabilities either). I’m trying to get to the bottom of an issue that’s been bothering me since we built the house - our electric bills are ~$400-700 a month. Suspecting that some of that is caused by heavy use of a poorly installed 6-zone geothermal HVAC unit, we invested in making some optimizations only to find it hasn’t moved the needle much. So Sense seemed like a great way to find some savings and identify the culprit. But for now at least, it seems I may need to have two accounts and monitor on two devices or constantly log in/out. ixu, I do like your suggestion on seeing if I’m actually exceeding 200A overall. I have one Tesla Model 3 though I only charge it a couple times a month since I work from home and don’t commute with it. The charger draws 16A and charges for about 10-12 hours for a full charge.
