Ok community, here’s some questions about adding Sense to my friends house. See the attached pictures. First the breaker panel says Load Center QO, 1 phase. Is that gonna work? It’s an older house with some newer electrical work done to it.
There’s a ton of breakers (overdone?), thinking of doubling up two circuits and moving 4 onto the 6 breaker. Then adding a 2 pole 15 amp onto positions 2&4.
I’m prepping in advance so Electrician can come prepared, eliminating multiple trips. Any comments / advice on this approach.?
This is a standard residential breaker panel. You can find parts at any Home Depot. Sense will work in this panel. It is designed for split phase. There are 2 legs - 2 phases. Whoever does the installation needs to take plenty of pictures with the cover off for future reference.
Thanks DCDYER, and since I need to make space for a 2pole breaker, ok to move a circuit and double up, on one of the less used circuits is ok…? Or better to put in a tandem…?
My Sense Monitor is sharing the 60A breaker with my 204V Water Heater. That may not be optimal performance for Sense, but I believe it’s working a-ok and the monitor only uses 3W, so there is no 240V breaker small enough to justify putting it on it’s own breaker.
I’ve never done this, but check with support@sense.com and see if sharing a 2-pole breaker with the Sense Monitor is optimal,
Switching a few breakers to tandem won’t break the bank… it will literally take him 15min if he’s a really really slow electrician.
I can not advise you on where to install new breakers. You need to ‘map’ out your circuits in your house. Which breaker supplies electricity to which receptacles, switches, lights, appliances, etc. National Electric Code (NEC) require that all breakers be identified and the list posted at the panel. Create a spreadsheet for your house, list each breaker, what receptacles are on that circuit, and the wattage of each item on that circuit. Total up your wattage to see if that circuit is overloaded. If you are uncertain about how to do this, then you need to call an experienced electrician.
My SENSE monitor shares the 30-AMP breaker with my electric dryer. As @MachoDrone stated, the SENSE unit only pulls a few watts. Because my electric dryer is not frequently used, if I need to turn off the SENSE unit for rebooting, then it’s not a problem for me. I have been using this setup for 4 years and never had a problem. Or you could use @MachoDrone’s idea.
Actually only the ‘black wire’ to the SENSE monitor powers the CPU. The black wire also monitors voltage on leg0. The red wire is only used for monitoring the voltage on the other leg1 (phase). If you have to reboot the SENSE monitor, then you only need to power down the black wire.
Whatever you do, take pictures. Make diagrams, take notes. You don’t want to be constantly pulling the breaker panel cover off to remember how it was installed.
I really don’t want to pea on your corn flakes. But breakers are designed to have so many conductors attached to the terminals. There are devices that allow you to have multiple circuits connected to one breaker Polaris multi-tap connectors come to mind; that would be the easy peasy way out. The Square D HOM panels have some cool breakers that are tandem two-poll with two outboard single breakers, that occupy only two spaces.
What I have done for my self;. I have a two pole 15 amp breaker for the Sense power. CT’s are attached to feeds supplying main house sub panel.
Question for all: I thought I read somewhere that the Sense breaker needed to be opposite the main feed, so I have mine in the absolute bottom. Am I misremembering that? My setup is working so I’m not changing anything, but want to make sure this breaker gets installed in the correct spot.
I don’t think the Sense dual breaker location within the box matters - the voltage measurement should be the same in every slot (within a very narrow margin).
I may be getting Sense breaker placement confused with something I was reading about adding solar to an electric panel which said to add it at the bottom.
