New Members/Old Members: Introduce yourself!

Getting Started
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Hello everyone!

I joined the Sense community back in September but have been lurking until now. My name is John but my online handle is Faejon. I picked that handle because that is the name of my first EverQuest character from back in 1999. I got my Sense in September before I got solar panels added to my house. I was on a quest to understand my electric power usage and level up my eco-friendly energy footprint.

I’m using the Sense for energy consumption monitoring and using the Enphase Enlighten / Envoy for solar production monitoring. The solar is located outside on the side of the house and is grid tied in to the electric meter while the Sense is in the garage in the main electric panel. If you are interested here is a YouTube video a friend produced for his channel about the install.

I have been running the sense now for about 2 months and the app has detected 15 devices. Some of them are right all of the time and some of them have me scratching my head. To complicate matters my Mother-in-Law lives in the downstairs rooms and has a full kitchen in the garage. So we share one electric Washer and Dryer but between us we have 3 refrigerators, 2 gas ranges / oven, 2 microwaves, 2 dishwashers and 1 upright freezer. This means I have to track down which compressor motor or ice maker is the Sense detecting now.

So far the Sense has been a help in understanding our combined electrical consumption. But, has made me a little more creepy. My wife gets unnerved when I call home from work asking what she is microwaving for lunch :laughing:.

I look forward to reading everyone’s story and hope that I can be of help to others in the future.

John
[edit: Added white space for clarity]

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184

Just installed sense. Was reading for a bit, but now reported an error.

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Hey Ethan. That sounds like something that would be best handled by the Support team. You can reach them at support@sense.com

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Thanks, it seems that the support team has figured it out.

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Hello all.
Have two Sense installs.
One is on the main house
One is with the solar addon on the reptile building.

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Hello everyone,

My name is Mark and I live in Conroe, TX. I work for a local power utility doing commercial energy efficiency.

What brought you here?

  • I love energy efficiency. My job allows me to help lots of people do more energy efficiency projects.
    How long have you been using Sense?
  • I put my sense in around September 2019.
    What do you do for work?
  • I work for a local power utility doing commercial energy efficiency.
    What other smart home tech do you have?
  • I have a smart thermostat from Honeywell. It’s great being able to control my thermostat from my phone. I also have a smart power strip for my TV.
    What’s your favorite type of barbecue?
  • I have not found a barbecue I did not like. One of my favorites is Memphis dry rub from Corky’s. My family is from Memphis and it’s our family BBQ.
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Hello Sense community. I am a new Sense user, but a long time nerd in all areas pertaining to conservation and energy efficiency.

So far, Sense has been working well for me. I have had it installed in my 1000 Sq Ft home in the Chicago area for a week now. Sense has detected 7 devices and I have learned quite a bit about various electrical items I have in my home that I was not able to test with my Kill-A-Watt device.

My main eye opener is the amount of power that is required to run my 1/2 hp HVAC blower motor in my furnace. My furnace is about 12 years old and has a PSC motor that consumes 400 watts when it is running! I had no idea that it used that much electricity and considering the early onset of winter temps here in the midwest (it got down to 6 degrees F here this week), my heater is running with some frequency.

I am looking forward to learning and contributing to the community as I get to spend more time with the data gathered by Sense.

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190

I own a small solar company and have been interested in finding products that can help our customers monitor their own energy consumption in addition to the production of their panels (already provided). We’ve been looking for a better way to give our customers a “bigger picture” perspective of how both solar production and energy consumption affect their bills.

I bought the Sense meter for our own home and have enjoyed picking through our own energy habits to recognize where we can save money.

Looking forward to learning more about the product in this community.

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Sense is ripe for small-geographic evangelists to deploy for customers and then go deep on the data …

Welcome to the discussions.

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I’ve had my Sense installed for just over two weeks. I figured it’s about time I write something here. Three devices have been identified so far: refrigerator after three days, and refrigerator light and microwave after 12 days.

I’m a low energy use case. Going back 11 years my largest gas/electric bill has been $49.05, the lowest -26.63. In California we get credits in April and October and the negative bill was a credit month. This is for a 1246 sq. ft. townhouse. I used to have a roommate, but haven’t in over 10 years, so I get to do things my way! I have NEVER turned on my heater and do not have A/C. I have a dishwasher that I also have never turned on since I purchased the place in 2004.

I’d say I’m an excellent cost cutter, and I have no problems living below my means. So, Sense appealed to me because I’ve had some concerns with my refrigerator. Since Sense has been installed I have REALLY got to see how much the fridge uses. It turns on about 35 minutes out of every hour, using 154 watts and is about 35% of my total bill. It appears that the frequency it turns on is typical, but I may be able to find something more efficient.

As a cost cutter/vampire, I don’t usually turn on lights frequently. My kitchen recessed lights turn on automatically when my motion sensor picks me up around 4 am. They are only on less than 5 minutes. My bathroom globe vanity lights are also used about the same amount daily. Other than that I like it cold and dark in my place! I’m on TOU and I do not do ANYTHING during that time. From 4pm to 9pm no TV, cooking or electronics going other than maybe a tablet. I do all of my clothes washing only during “Super off-peak” times (normally start a load about 3:45am and am able to dry before leaving for work.)

I’m not optimistic about many more detections in my place, but I am hoping for the garage door opener, gas water heater (unlikely), my computer. I know LED lights are difficult and most of my lighting is, so those are unlikely too. I’m guessing it will detect the light bulb inside the range too.

Some other IOT devices I have are: HDHomeRun, MyQ Garage door, Bond controlling three ceiling fans, Nest thermostat and smoke alarm, one Google home, two Insignia smart speakers, chromecast, Bloomsky weather station, a couple of receptacles, and a SmartThings hub with door contacts, a leak sensor by my water heater, and a motion sensor which picks up most of the living area and finally a Schlage door lock.

My always on stays around 68 watts, so I haven’t changed anything there. I can live with that. If I could get solar I would. One of my friends recently did and his overage was more than my total usage. 145 kWh over; my usage 133kWh. When it gets easy and common for condo/townhome owners to do so, I will.

You may wonder, why do I have to watch my expenses so much and do everything so tight? It’s mostly because I’m a single income residence. The other thing is I have much of my income taken away from me before I can get to it! I currently have 31% taken out for 401K. Because of that I have very little for other expenses as I can barely cover my fixed expenses!

I better wrap up this intro to me because TOU is upon me…

Kevin

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193

Welcome @zobparker and @Kevin_K!

@zobparker, are you aware of our Partnerships program? We’re partnered with many solar installers across the country. You can learn more here: Pro - Sense.com

@Kevin_K, your savings are admirable. Hopefully Sense can help you eek out even more. You may enjoy these two blog articles; smart plugs sound like a great fit for your home.

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Hey people new sense solar installed today… Looking forward to playing with it.
Jim from st Louis

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A post was split to a new topic: New install: Device detection

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Patrick, Quebec City.

Been using Sense for almost 6 months now.
Happy to know that my utility is not ripping me off.
Happy to know when my heaters are kicking hard.

Sad to know that the “comparison” of consumption is unreasonable since where we live is one of the worst North America winter places and we heat with electricity, so it makes me feel bad, when it shouldn’t.

Sad to see that the device detection is really bad.
I’ve reset the device once, and both times it was “empty”, it only detected devices the first weeks, then silence… Like it simply doesn’t want to put effort in detecting after some time.
And, for real, there are high consuming devices at home that are frequently turned on and off daily.

Anyway, it’s a good device, it has potential, but from my readings on this community, I’ve seen some disappointment that concerns me.

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We do have ‘compare’ functionality within the app, that will make comparisons with those in your immediate locale. However, if they aren’t a lot of other Sense users around you, there won’t be a population to compare with. More on that feature here: How Does Your Energy Usage Compare? - Sense Blog

Device detection absolutely varies across homes. It is not universally ‘bad’ however, and the experiences of many attest to this. If you’ve had nothing detected after the first few weeks, that sounds pretty abnormal and I’d encourage you to reach out to the Support team.

Please, let’s try and avoid this thread becoming another rehashing of device detection issues. This is a thread for new users to introduce themselves. As always, Support is the best channel to try and get those issues solved.

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Hello, everyone. I’m Mike from Ames, Iowa.

I installed my Sense unit in March 2017 (I saw it on a Facebook ad - that might be the only time a Facebook ad actually showed me something relevant to me). My initial response was “Huh, that’s cool. Whatever, a Facebook ad.” Then I kept thinking about it, and I tried to remember what it was called, and only managed to stumble on it again a few days later.

I bought my house in 2015, and I knew that all of the incandescent bulbs were awful, but I would just replace them with LEDs when they burned out. After a couple months of Sense, I saw just how awful they were. Sure, I could have spent 5 seconds adding up the wattage on these bulbs, but it was almost like a badge of shame seeing those huge “Light” bubbles in Sense that made me switch out working incandescents for LEDs.

After about 10 months with Sense, I contacted a local solar panel installer to get solar put on my roof (I wanted solar anyway, but actually quantifying energy use and knowing that Sense would gather the solar production alongside electrical consumption pushed me the extra step I needed). Thankfully I didn’t have to convince my wife too much. I just had to remind her of those images of polar bears on the melting ice. :slight_smile: Solar panels went online in May 2018. In the last 19 months, I’ve generated nearly 10MWh.

I’m in software development, and, much to the chagrin of my wife, I like tech. I’m trying to reign it in, but I did just pick up a couple Kasa HS300 power strips so I could start to piece apart my Always On (identify and, where possible, eliminate) which currently sits around 125W. We have several Amazon Echo devices and Nest Protects that (I think) contribute a fair amount to the Always On. I was surprised to find out my desktop computer (which I use about once a week to play games with friends) consumes 5W all the time (that is, when OFF, not sleeping). The HS300 helped me knock that one out (and since it can be controlled remotely, it’s no big deal - I just turn it on with my phone before turning on the computer).

As for barbecue, (please don’t kick me off of here for this) to me, the meat is mostly (I said mostly, not completely!) a vehicle for delivering sauce to my mouth.

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Sense is mostly (I said mostly, not completely!) a vehicle for delivering candy to my eyes?

Don’t quote me on that; note that it’s a question!

Welcome to the joys of electrical maximalism in pursuit of electrical minimalism. I think.

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qrnef… My desktop gets used a lot. I have a power strip with everything needed to power it, plugged into it. When I am done I turn it off. Have it in a place that is very convenient to turn on and off. Still working on solar, mentally… Hi hi my 2 cents…Gerry

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I am a new sense member as of today. My motivation is that I am into saving electricity in order to come closer to match my solar system output as it degrades so that I have a zero trueup at year’s end. I am an energy consultant focusing on solar PV solar energy. I also have a Buoy water monitor to enable me to remotely shut off my water when traveling due to degrading piping in my house(had three leaks so far). I do not post on Reddit or Twitter. Pulled pork and brisket are my favorite barbecue. I had trouble finding alicensed electrician to install my sense and would recommend to anyone in the East Bay Massis Zadoor at 925-216-8894.

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Hey everyone!

Names Cody. Live in greater Lansing Area of Michigan! New to sense. It’s been running a day now! Little background on me. I work in the skilled trades. I am a licensed fire alarm contractor with a degree in Alternative Energy. I was formerly obsessed with energy usage until my wife moved in and I just gave up.

Saw sense in this old house and thought about it for a long time. Well my energy provider continues to take more and more of my money. I’m determined to see where the hell its going!

First 24! I already see a distinguished pattern or my mini split heat pump. And my oven and stove have a very distinctive usage pattern. I went in and filled out my make and models of all major appliances. I don’t know if this speeds up recognition or not. But I’m patiently waiting for signal check to be complete!!

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