I’m a Chief Information Officer for a Diagnostic Laboratory. I thought originally that a neurio was the way to go; however, the product got acquired by another company and I did not find that it was providing at all what I was looking for. Then I found Sense. I’m definitely a data guy so I installed Sense myself and the Solar CTs on July 25th. I purchased a home last year and installed an 8.71kWh solar system. We have a small home with a pool/spa, AC that we run when we want and a Tesla M3AWD EV (hence the size of the solar system). What I find amazing is the near real-time data flow and the sensitivity to showing extremely small spikes. Not what I’m used to seeing from the ex-neurio or on PVOutput.org. I now have 3 devices that have popped up so I’m glad to see if working. I’m definitely a Smart Home guy as well.
I only post on product-oriented forums. Not FB, Twitter, Reddit, etc.
My name is Tom, and I recently bought the Sense. I discovered the product while watching “Ask This Old House” on TV, and thought it was a really cool concept. I’ve always been a techy, and ML improvements in the recent years have really intrigued me. I am looking forward to what the Sense can bring to me knowledge wise on how my home is using energy.
Hi, I am Andy, a retired computer engineer and technology enthusiast. We recently built a Passive House and I was hoping for a large energy reduction. I originally installed three sense units (one on each panel) 6 weeks ago because I didn’t believe the electric company, but turns out the sense readings add up exactly to what I am being billed. I think the bottom line is that most of my always on usage is computers, servers, smart home hubs, etc, These Sense devices have been super to understand my total usage but I have to admit I am quite impatient waiting for device identification with only a handful done so far.
I have used Sense for about 2 weeks. Sense started to dectect some devices yesterday.
I bought Sense in order to monitor the loads in our house, to prevent overload/outage. However, I found that it can not monitor the current (Amps) of the 2 main lines seperately. I don’t know if one of them is reaching the limit.
If one or both phases/legs of your panel reaches maximum load (rare, because breakers would probably trip before that happens) Sense should still comfortably show that load in the main Power Meter, possibly with a plateaued waveform. There is significant over-tolerance with the Sense clamps, they are converting the current (amps) in the main wires into millamps (through induction).
You can activate Sense Labs if you haven’t already and you may get some indications of what’s going on the Power Quality or Motor Stalls.
There are plenty of existing topics that likely cover your issue but feel free to create a post with your issue since here is not the place for an extensive troubleshoot dialog. Welcome!
My understanding of what @PaulDelSolar is requesting is an old request seen in this forum -
“Track use by phase” in the Product Wishlist forum discussion from Jan 2018.
Paul, search for this forum discussion and add your vote by clicking on the ‘like’ (heart).
Jim here. I finished building a new home this year and I did all of the electrical design and install. Planned for solar and Sense from the get-go. It is an all-electric home with super efficient devices like induction cook top, hybrid hot water heater, LED lights, and mini-split HVAC. I am also a quantitative researcher who loves data so I wanted Sense to know where I am wasting energy and to ID places where I could fine tune my devices or home design. Most of the devices/appliances are limited in smart functionality. I also installed Phyn for water monitoring since we are 100% rainwater, and I really like how I can train it by turning on a device, seeing what Phyn thinks it is, and then correcting it. Installed Sense about 3 months ago and have reduced phantom loads and wasted usage based on info.
Bonjour, je m’appelle Patrice Lemieux je suis technicien en télécommunications à Hydro-Quebec. Je suis un passionné autodidacte multidisciplinaire. Je suis du Québec au Canada.
Hello, my name is Patrice Lemieux. I am a telecommunications technician at Hydro-Quebec. I am a multidisciplinary self-taught enthusiast. I am from Quebec in Canada.
Hi, I’m Matthew English from Woodland, PA, I have 15 years of IT experience and over ten years of specialized experience designing, deploying, and supporting high-quality fiber and wireless networks in apartment communities, townhome communities, and college campuses. I help internet service companies to provide multi-family properties with turnkey bulk TV and internet service.
WHO I WORK WITH:
• Small and medium businesses
• Apartments buildings and multi-family communities
• College campuses and student housing
• IT teams
WHY IT WORKS: Integrated networks are vital to how we live today, so they need to be well designed and reliable. With a diversified skill set and years of hands-on experience, I design powerful, cost-effective solutions and solve complex problems to help my clients reach their goals. I hold 30 technical certifications because I like to keep my skills current, deploy new technologies, and be a subject matter expert and technical leader. As a team leader, I develop technical skills and customer service skills as well as providing quality assurance and operational oversight. I started in IT at age 15 by shadowing someone in a computer repair shop until I learned enough to get hired on. 15 years and 30 certifications later, I’m still passionate about IT and contributing to my organization’s vision, growth, and profitability.
I’m a Linux/Unix sysadmin in northern Virginia with a big house (to hold my 5 sons) with lots of always-on devices like night lights, chargers, and the like, and I wanted to know how much of my power bill was those things, and how much was my wife overriding the ecobee programming and turning the AC down. My Sense was installed at the same time as my brand new 19.1kW solar array on 8/18/2020. I’m still waiting on the county inspection and then the electrical meter swap to be able to turn on my solar, but I just got my first couple of Sense-detected devices this morning (one of my two AC units, and the garage door opener).
I opted not to get the solar monitoring connection/cable (yet) because the Sunpower system is supposed to provide panel-level production information, I figured I could always add the cable to the Sense later if their dashboard turns out to be less useful than advertised.
UPDATE: after just 2 weeks, 14 devices identified with only 2 left I’m trying to “confirm” but think I almost have them locked. Both related to my fridge.
Have been a member from the point solar sense became available.
Sense has discovered 50 devices so far.
Have learned a lot about the unit/project and even installed a few sense units for friends/customers.
Here are my results so far:
Have done a lot with IoT:
Controlling loads &
During the day, controlling charge current of my EV depending on surplus solar energy flowing into the grid.
For a business customer I was able to control their peak load 'demand charge" (measured in 15 minutes usage which determines the price of electricity during the rest of the month).
Big fan of the product, and very impressed with the level/quality of support.
I’m a software engineer - working primarily in retail point of sale systems for national and international retailers for the last 20+ years.
We are in the process of installing a PV system and I’m also trying to gather data so I can size a backup generator appropriately.
Our house was completely rehabbed after a fire last year so everything is very new, house is tight and very efficient. Our base always-on load so far is only about 375w which I am pleased with because we have a pretty extensive home automation/always on tech infrastructure that includes a NAS and a server running 24x7 as well as a Samsung Frame TV that is effectively always on as well.
Hi, everyone. My home now has two weeks on a Sense energy monitor, with four devices discovered. I am retired and I live alone, so I have an erratic domestic schedule. Will this be a problem for the Sense AI’s ability to discover devices? I guess I am about to find out!
Welcome! I don’t think your schedule will have much, if any, impact on the ability to find devices. My Sense has found (among other things) a coffee maker (which, sure, is usually used in the morning, but sometimes it’s at 6AM, sometimes as late as 10AM or 11AM) and the vacuum cleaner. That one really surprises me, because the vacuum is run at all different times, different circuits, (probably) different legs, and the detection is pretty strong.
Erratic is an interesting schedule! Makes me ponder: erratic in time and/or space.
Erratic in space: The vacuum cleaner roving that @qrnef refers to is a good example … but I assume if you are retired and living alone that’s not going to be a factor.
Erratic in time: Interesting question of (time) scale presents itself. Sense is looking at short (and very short) time scales from a solo retired persons perspective. Read: Likely moving a lot faster than you. Ergo, once again, not a factor.
Hi there!
New user here. Name’s Greg, and I live in the Boston suburbs.
We just moved into our big new house two months ago, and the electric bill for the first month was enormous.
I bought a Sense, and installed it in my 400A split panel. I don’t have any other smart energy devices. The Sense has been running for nearly a week now. For the first few days, it wasn’t getting signals, and the device detection was “pending”. After a few days I put in a ticket, and the Sense team fixed the signals issue remotely, and Sense started trying to detect devices.
Right away on the first day it became active, it found 5 devices. Three of them were called fridges/freezers, and I have not been able to verify any of them. It found the microwave and the dryer correctly. Since the first day, it hasn’t found any new devices.
I’ve gone around and entered the make and model of all my appliances, hoping that might help. Unfortunately, so far I’m not making any progress over the past few days.
Looking forward to discussing solutions and ideas with this group.
@z6u84mjtj3ku Welcome, neighbor! Our office (during non-covid times) is in Cambridge, and I’m over in Somerville. I understand the pursuit of devices during the first few days! You’ll notice you will hear the phrase “give it time” a fair amount on these forums when it comes to device detection because Sense really needs to see a lot of regular on/off cycles to pinpoint some of the device signatures.
Having been a new user myself, I recommend going about your day-to-day normally,You might also be interested in checking out our existing integrations (smart plugs are great for smaller devices that might not use a lot of electricity!) and check the forums again at the beginning of October for some really exciting updates that you might be interested in . Feel free to reach out to me directly if you ever need anything!
