Hi all,
Don here, living in eastern Mass. Just got Sense+Solar installed 2 days ago. Having some issues now after it worked well for the first 6 hours. Looks like a calibration issue, though not sure why it worked at first. Support has been contacted. Anyway, I’m looking forward to that getting fixed so I can get on with analyzing my energy usage.
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Hi everyone,
My name is Josh. I live in the Pensacola FL area.
Installed Sense shortly after moving into a new home with a solar installation. Very happy with it.
Enjoy reading the forum.
Joshua
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Hi, I am new to the forum but have had a Sense device for about a year. I have struggled with power issues sadly
Hi, I’m Greg. We just moved into our forever home in Elgin, IL - a Chicago suburb. I installed our Sense about two weeks ago. It has discovered 4 devices so far. The house uses only 70 Watts when nothing is turned on. I’ve also used the power meter to see how much power various things consume and found a few surprises. The bathroom light bars with 3 decorative globes use 120 Watts! These will be the first to switch to LEDs at about 12 Watts.
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Hello, been a sense user for about a year, just stumbled across this forum and figured i would check it out.
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Hello from Everett Washington!
I’ve been familiar with Sense for a year or so (from some youtube videos on installation and usage) and had it installed by our solar installer.
I’m a desktop support analyst at a NW Hospital, so monitoring tools are something I appreciate quite a . Although I think we are still in the break in period for Sense figuring out our energy production/usage, (I will be looking over the forums for this negative usage figure I’m seeing during the day during peak solar production) I’m loving the data I’m seeing about when things are on and off.
I’m not so much a BBQ aficionado, but I do love my wife’s home made hummus
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Welcome! Any tips on hummus-making? My wife recently swore off of store-bought hummus because of the (unrecycleable in our city) plastic packaging, but she has yet to really fall in love with anything she’s made at home.
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As much as Sense is highly dependent upon power variations and can benefit from smooth grid supply, hummus (IMHO) is highly dependent upon the oil/garlic/salt variations (requires experimentation: “detection”), quality of chickpeas and even more so perhaps the tahini … and it should all end up not too smooth. Think Sense busy house waveform not Pure Sine UPS output. 
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Hi, I am a proud new Wiser Energy Monitor along with Sense software since three days.
I love to see how detailed information I get right from Day 1 with the Power Meter. I already identified my devices consuption patterns before Sense’s AI did!
I am a physicist who loves electricity ; electrons are no secrets for me!
Hello from Edmonds, Washington. I am a recently retired system software developer. Had developed a prototype NILM energy monitor on my own. Went to my first (and only) NILM conference in 2016 in Vancouver. Talked to one of the Sense developers at a poster session and realized Sense was already shipping what I was trying to do. Moved to a new house not long after that had split panel service and Sense did not support it with a single device at the time. Checked again recently, and now they do, so just installed it and got it working yesterday.
Anxious for it to start identifying devices. Curious to read through blogs and posts here to learn more about exactly how it goes about doing so.
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@csaether, glad to welcome you to the forums. Fun to have folks like you here who know what NILM means 
I’m a fan of the application of machine learning to NILM. Here’s a post I put together with some complied wisdom on how Sense does its magic plus why it misses stuff.
Thanks. I’m finding navigating the various posts and forums confusing, but have not used this discussion board before.
A bit discouraging that only the coffee pot and fridge have shown up after two days. I was hoping I could see an event in real time, like turning on a set of room lights, and label it immediately.
And I don’t suppose there is any way to see the data my device is sending back? If I wanted to try and analyze it myself someday?
Hi @csaether. Welcome to the Sense forums, we’re glad to have you. Provided some responses to your initial questions/points below. If you have any more questions, I just ask you message me directly or move them to a relevant thread 
.
For Sense, two days is a pretty short amount of time. When I first got my Sense installed earlier this year, I started noticing more devices being added around the ~2 week mark. You’ll notice in the forums that some folks net more detections earlier on while others took longer. Detection definitely does vary a bit home-to-home. The good news is that Sense has already started detecting things in your home, so that should only improve with time.
Via the Power Meter, you can see real-time jumps and dips in usage and correlate them with what’s on in your home. Labeling devices manually, however, is not something we’re pursuing. That being said, there are several integrations (including Smart Plugs) that allow for instantaneous detection. I have a few Kasa HS300’s hooked up to my entertainment system and my desk (screenshot of my device list below). Most of my devices connected via smart plug operate at less than <40W, with several larger ~100W electronics (my PC, Macbook charger, etc.)
@csaether,
You have inspired me to pen another topic on how I think Sense works, that pulls together some of my earlier postulations. I would suggest that any new user, like yourself, try using the new little “Solvvy” icon on the lower right when you have questions you want to ask about Sense… It did a pretty good job guiding me to information when I asked “How does Sense work ?” Try it !
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Hello everyone. Let me start by saying I live alone, have new energy efficient appliances and live in a 1700sq ft ranch style house in Kentucky.
I used a Kill-A-Watt device in 2019 to track and reduce my usage footprint to prepare for purchasing a home solar system. In 2019, I averaged 427kWh per month.
I purchased an Electric Vehicle in March, 2020 and
installed a 9.6kW grid-tied solar system in June, 2020. Then I decided I needed some way to micro manage my electric usage.
Purchased and installed Sense, with solar option in September, 2020, so I’m new to this. I have also purchased 2 HS300 power strips. Can’t find any HS110 plugs.
So far, Sense has detected my Microwave, Dryer, Garage Door opener, Water Heater and Furnace. One HS300 has my WiFi, Stereo, Projector TV and Cell signal booster. Haven’t installed the second HS300.
As of this post, my “Always on = 67W”. I’m assuming this is: gfi plugs, smoke detectors and my security system (console and camera’s). More research needs to be done.
All other devices are turned off (power strips) or unplugged when not being used. This includes, but not limited to: water heater, computer, printer, stereo, speakers, bass, TV’s, Apple TV’s, Chrome-cast, microwave and stove.
I switch my water heater on every three days and yes, the water stays hot for showers. I run the dishwasher while the water heater is on. I wash cloths in cold water. In the summer, I hang my cloths outside to dry. When the house is quite at bedtime, I’m using 90W (Always On + WiFi and Uninterrupted Power Supply). This is until the refrigerator kicks on.
I have a portable inverter/battery system that charges with solar. I use this to charge my iPhone, iPad and rechargeable batteries.
I also have a DIY solar system in my detached garage. It runs a garage door opener, lights and I use it to charge my weed eater and blower batteries.
I look forward to reading everyone’s comments and post.
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9 posts were split to a new topic: Another Mystery Device - 213W
Hi All - New member here in the SF Bay Area…
Only 3 days into my data collection, so not a lot to report yet…but looking forward to reporting my experience here soon!
The only big hiccup… I installed Sense in the evening because I didn’t want to turn the power off while my solar was producing electricity… I didn’t realize until after my installation that I couldn’t set-up my solar sensors because it needs to detect activity on the solar CTs… So I had to wait until the next morning.
The next morning all was going well, and then at around 9am I got an in-app alert that “Sense detects a problem and is trying to resolve it automatically” (or something like that), and to “not make any changes to Sense and check back in a few hours”…
So I thought to myself “oh, I better keep my system configuration stable and delay my solar sensor installation”… A little while later, I looked at the data and my usage had dropped to zero (wow, the sensors are broken!)… And then they went negative…
A light bulb flashed over my head… A-ha! My solar is producing energy and is confusing the consumption metrics!!! Ha, ha, ha…
So I set-up and configured my solar sensors and everything went back to normal (or so I thought)…
Everything looked fine, solar production looked good…and was following my SolarEdge production numbers… Usage looked good, but was creeping up as my wife was doing laundry and other things… All looked well with the world…
My wife shut everything down right before leaving for grocery shopping (everything that can be turned off anyway)… Yet usage was continuing to creep up!!! Well, the refrigerator is running so perhaps that explains it… I shrugged my shoulders and left…
While grocery shopping, I looked at my app and my usage continued to creep up!!! How is this possible??? Then I looked at the overlay of my solar production and my home consumption and noticed that they were both increasing in precise parallel trending… A-ha! So my usage was creeping up because the sun was creeping up and somehow was impacting my usage numbers!!! What??? I looked at my usage numbers and noticed that I was producing 2,000 Watts and that 1750 Watts were being consumed by my home and I was sending 250 Watts to the grid… That made no sense at all… I looked at my SolarEdge app and confirmed that I was producing 2,000 Watts, but I didn’t have any way to know what was being sent to the grid versus being consumed by my house from the SolarEdge app… So I figured I would wait until I got home to troubleshoot…
Got home and went immediately to my utility meter… It showed that I was sending 1,750 Watts were being sent to the grid (not being consumed as indicated by the Sense mobile app)! After several tests, yes…the metrics were criss-crossed… Consumption was reporting the actual energy I was sending to the grid, and the Watts Sent to Grid was reporting my actual consumption!
Surely I must have done something wonky during the wiring and installation in my electrical panel… So I opened it up and confirmed that everything was installed perfectly…
Ended up reporting this to the Sense Support team, and they fixed it on their end!
Not sure if I want to reset my data (and eliminate the bad data), or just let it run acknowledging that 24-48 hours of bad data in the large scheme of things won’t really matter…
Again…Looking forward to contributing to the Sense Community!
Hey AndyP, I’m a PHIUS+ Rater (which means I am boots on the ground inspector for Passive House projects PHIUS is certifying). I’ve recently remodeled my 1907 home to achieve Net Zero Energy performance here in Portland OR. Where is your Passive House located? Did you certify it to a standard?
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Hey Jim, I’ve converted my 1907 home here in Portland OR to an all electric net zero energy home using all of the same tech (although I wish I had induction range). Where is home? Are you on track for net zero energy?
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Howdy!
I’m Rick, just installed my Sense.
I’m an IT guy / Software Dev PM
Have lots of smart home tech, all hubbed through SmartThings
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