Been using Sense since 2018 and found it extremely valuable. Now, they’re breaking up with me (discontinuing the hardware monitor when my utility doesn’t have Sense meters yet) and there’s no clarity around what to expect if hardware fails starting 2026.
I’m starting to research what a replacement system would look like in case the Sense monitor does actually fail before I end up buying a new house.
First, my plan, then other alternatives. I’m have just moved into a second temporary home that we will live in for a year until major renovations are finished at our original home (which has an existing Sense w solar, plus a second monitor that I used solely for DCM for EVs and floor heaters). I actually nabbed a Sense for the new temp home, albeit without solar / DCM / flex sensors thanks to the newly developer single-CT-pair features for EV/solar/variable HVAC. Will install in a couple weeks. I plan to now user the former DCM unit as my spare. As far as saving data, I actually use Export to save mine by year, after having swapped out a Sense unit in 2019, and discovering that accounts are strongly tied to monitors, and a second monitor cannot directly replace a failed monitor on the same email.
If I didn’t already have the “spares” inventory and didn’t want to go that route, I would probalby try to make Home Assistant work for me via all their smart device, solar, and EV integrations. The challenge there is that you have to do some integration in the HA Energy panel, plus you’ll have to learn about some of the monitoring ugliness that Sense beautifully hides - differences in sample rates, attribution of measurements (Is that 5 min energy measurement linked to 12AM or 11:59:59.9999 PM ? (this matters when summarizing hourly, daily, monthly and even yearly activity).