Christopher Young here. I’m a network engineer by background, but dabble in a bunch of different stuff including some amateur data science ( mostly coursera courses, Kaggle, etc… ). I also run a Youtube channel on smartphone and have no idea how many devices I have currently in the house, although Apple Homekit is showing more than 270.
I’ve been running Sense for a couple of years now and have found it… ok. But it doesn’t achieve my goals by itself. (I can’t currently acheive my goals without it either though… so I still recommend it all the time! )
I’ve been slowly replacing every powerbar in my house with TP Kasa HS300s ( 24 and counting )to be able to use the sense integration and I HOPE to have the “other” category down to as close to 0 as possible in the next couple of months.
Although Sense is AMAZING as a monitoring tool, where it’s not meeting my goals is around the feedback loop and some of the reporting. With the integration of the Hue lights, TPKasa plugs I SHOULD be able to identify which devices are creating a vampire draw in periods where they aren’t been used at all. I have a TV that draws 18w will turned off. In an ideal world, I’d like to be able to have a report that shows what devices are responsible for the highest vampire draw. Identify if they aren’t been used over a period of time ( ie - these stuff is all turned off between 12am and 7am for the last 6 months, but it’s still consuming X amount of energy ) and then allow me to automatically create a schedule that’s going to turn it off during those hours and then turn them back on in the morning.
My current plan is to do this manually by exporting the data or using the python library, but give these are supported integrations, I would expect that Sense should be able to do this for me out of the box.
As I’m almost hitting the point where I’ve got all the pugs instrumented properly, I’m hoping to be able to dive into the data and really cut out usage and save some $$$ in 2021.
Hi @chris_young! Ryan has actually moved over to the Product team, so I’ll be the main contact for you on the Sense Community moving forward.
Definitely glad to hear that Sense has been useful for you so far - and that you recommend it!
While it might be something you’re already aware of, you can customize your Standby threshold for a smart plug or dedicated circuit device. You can observe your devices when they are not operating and set the threshold accordingly. Below is a bit more information on what the feature does and how to set it up.
The other part of your request is noted, and I’ll pass along the feedback to the team. I’d add that while that data isn’t exportable, you can see which of your detected devices attribute to your Always On via the web or mobile app. An example explanation I gave in a separate thread is below with visuals.
Hi - I’m Kraig. I bought the Sense Energy Monitor Aug of 2020. I retired from the local Power Company where I was a Protection & Control Tech.
I enjoy having finger-tip data and automating my house as much as possible. Energy monitoring was the next logical step. Since it is hard to determine electrical devices from their signature only, I have added several smart plugs to assist in having accurate reading and devices listed in my energy monitor.
I have propane for my typical high usage appliances so my electrical consumption is lower than most houses my size.
The Sense monitor is working how I expected and have not regretting purchasing it.
Hello All, My name is Sudhakar! I am BI Developer by profession and I live in Richmond, VA.
I have been using Sense from Dec 2018. It came with Solar (4.03 KWh). It has recognized 40+ devices so far. Working from Home model is putting stress on the solar system. But it is understandable.
Everyday I go to App and see usage, trends, devices… it never stop amazes me to learn about it.
Why I am here? I recently started developing mobile apps. The sense App is so nice, simple and well designed. I am curious to know, how it was built. I know, I cannot get all the info. But like Xcode or something else, Where the visuals are coming from, what language is being used etc for the learning purpose. I do not worry about models being run to identify the devices rather pulling data to display aesthetically.
Sal here. Just learned about sense and dove in. Got it installed right after getting it and it’s been fun watching what uses energy.
What brought you here? YouTube video
How long have you been using Sense? 1mo
What do you do for work? Signal Engineer
What other smart home tech do you have? Nest Hello, Thermostat, & 2 Protect
What’s your favorite type of barbecue? Maple Whiskey brine for anything!
I am Brian, I am a mechanical engineer and have worked at a home automation company so sense fits right in with my energy saving needs. A few days in and to be honest I feel a little blind sided by how long it is going to take sense to potentially find devices in my house. I see some users have been using Sense for 2 years and only have 10 devices or so found, I hope that is not the case here. Once I read through the forum and aligned my expectations based on that I can see that it is a journey. Hoping the best and looking forward to the system finding it’s first device. Cheers!
EDIT: Not sure if the team at Sense gave me a boost but my system has found my fridge light and a coffee maker since this post.
Hello All! I’m Scott. I lead the educational technology for a large high school district in Illinois.
I just installed my Sense 5 days ago and it started discovering some items just yesterday. I wanted to learn more about the power draw across my house because my bills are always in the $200-300+ levels year around. Just realizing my exterior patio string lights draw 500w was worth the price of entry… through smart automations, those lights come on at dusk and turn off at 10pm… regardless of whether we are on the patio or not… depending on the time of year that could be 2-4+kw a day
I have move just about as much as possible to Smart tech. I leverage 6 Amazon Echo(es) for family voice convenience, and 2 Apple HomePod(s) for me and HomeKit for automations and my used. My wireless mesh network is Plume. I beta test for Plume as well. (It you are looking for a new mesh network, I cannot more highly recommend Plume.
Currently I run:
Lutron Caseta - ~50 devices
Hue ~ 15 bulbs (where it is much more difficult to simply replace the switch)
Ecobee Thermostats - 2 (with 6 sensors)
iSmartGate - Garage Door Opener
Level Lock - deadbols(s)
Meross - (2) outdoor outlets
IHome - (5) indoor outlets, (2) Leak Sensors
Sorry to all this offends, but I am not a fan of anything barbecue or pulled… the closest I’ll get is the occasional BBQ potato chip…
I am active on Reddit u/scott_weidig in the r/smarthome, r/shortcuts, r/teslamotors, r/TeslaModel3, r/HomeKit, and r/Liverpool subreddits. Looking at r/sense it is pretty quiet there.
Looking forward to learning more about my power environment via Sense and connecting with the Sense community.
Hi, I’m Marcus, I’m a software engineer. I just bought a house at the beginning of this year; I live in North Central Florida so I’ve been pretty quickly adopting smart home tools both for fun, and for hopeful energy conservation.
What brought you here? I originally heard about this from an episode of Ask This Old House, but I didn’t remember it until I started looking to see if there was any way to track utility usage in Home Assistant. I found an article that was very DIY, but it mentioned Sense and after doing some comparisons between different options, this seemed like a good option for me.
How long have you been using Sense? About a week
What other smart home tech do you have? I’ve got a Raspberry Pi with Home Assistant and 4 Inovelli (Z-wave) smart switches, and an Ecobee thermostat with a couple room sensors on the way. I’m planning on more switches and other z-wave stuff once I’ve got my budget better sorted out.
What’s your favorite type of barbecue? Not sure, I’d never really thought about different “types” of BBQ. I do hope to get a grill at some point, though.
I’m most active on the SA forums, though I’ll lurk and comment on Reddit from time to time; usually only looking at Twitter if someone shares a tweet.
Hi, I’m Pat.
I use to be a facility & project manager supporting communications and data centers for the military. Had enough time to retire when it quit being fun. Now I’m a fire alarm technician. I started out as an electrician and got involved with my condo’s board sub-metering contract. Seeing the state of the submeters, thought I would have something to compare it to. I’ve been using Wiser (It was $50 cheaper at the time) for around two weeks now. So far it has found my microwave, stove, dryer, and iron. There is still around 100w other which is mostly electronics. Surprised it hasn’t id’d my washer yet. Don’t have any other smart home tech. Living in Hawaii I have to go with the Kalua Pork bbq.
My name is Bill and I’m a software developer from Houston who is thinking about retirement. Got my Sense a week ago, trying to get a detailed demand baseline before getting a solar system designed.
I’ve had the good fortune to work from home all during the pandemic (I for one welcome our new anti-commuting overlords )
Lost power for about three days in the great winter storm of 2021, and that is accelerating my solar plans. First step: new roof! (sigh) Other interests include EMP protection and some kind of energy management platform like Lumin. But I’m 99% ignorant on these topics; really just getting started!
Recent lurker & learner here, and now, new Sense user as of about 10 days ago. Spending way too much time getting a handle on this new (to me) tool. Already impressive, and with seemingly great future potential. That said, I’m glad I was aware of the often lengthy period for device detection – and so with realistic expectations about that, am pleased whenever something new is identified! I’ll post elsewhere, maybe in Feature Requests, about future support for mechanically interlocked (portable) generators. In the meantime, my Sense monitor seems to be working reliably with the aux. CTs monitoring a recent garage addition (240V sub-panel) via DCM.
I also have a pretty simple Z-Wave based home automation setup here (mostly lighting plus a couple of other items), running on Indigo software, hosted on a headless Mac-mini server.
Residing in Central Texas, the February deep-freeze (Polar Vortex) convinced me that I needed to ‘get my house in order’ as it were, with regard to backup power, methods of connecting that power, etc. A small generator and some extension cords seemed good enough in the past, but they just didn’t cut it when it came to 6 degree weather and three days of rolling blackouts, not to mention a transformer failure in the midst of it all!
I got a kick out the the original post in this thread talking about BBQ! So on that front: I currently have a Yoder Smokers pellet smoker. Used to have a stick-burner, but the pellet smoker is way cool and does a fine job (as long as you have 120V to power the auger feed mechanism!). I’ve enjoyed BBQ all over the country, but am still partial to the TX style – simple dry rub, then low & slow on the smoker. That KC ‘Q’ and burnt-ends are pretty tasty too!
Anyway, Sense fits right in with my longtime tech interests and consulting career, and has already confirmed my rough estimate of (upgraded) generator power needs. So off to a good start.
My work involves software analysis of electric distribution utility smart meter data. The idea of getting extremely detailed meter data for some portions of a distribution feeder was exciting to me, so I purchased some Sense units. I’ll utilize Sense exports after the sensors have collected more data to see if/where I can get value from them for grid stability.
I also setup a Sense monitor at a hobby location. I setup solar+battery to power a small island which had previously been diesel only. The many challenges with the system, including poor grounding options and old wiring seemed like a good opportunity for Sense to step in and help identify problems.
Welcome @sense14 ! Your experiences with distribution feeder systems must be interesting. Hoping to hear more as you go forward. FYI - export is good for hourly data. I have gotten spun up recently about using multiple Sense units with Home Assistant and the user-supported Sense integration, which by default, does 2 minute sampling of Sense data from each account and unifies it into common time series database (Influxdb). That might be attractive for your work.
Thanks @kevin1 I will look into the Sense integrations now to start storing as much of my data myself as it will allow. I have the resources available to store everything, and would rather store too much now than find out as I am working with my sample sites that I am missing something I need and have to make a change and wait again to gather data.
Hello. I’m Art and I’ve installed Sense w/ solar in my new home build. We are not fully moved in yet so the house systems are not all online but I’ve been running for two months now. I am in the electrify everything camp. I have 33kw of solar panels on the roof, 10 Tesla batteries and a Tesla Model S. My plan is to be totally off-grid but in April the panels generated 3634kwh and the house drew 3154kwh so I’ll have to do better to meet that goal once we start occupying the place. Hopefully Sense can help.
Hello, My name is Alan. Retired Network Consultant. I had a 2KW Enphase Solar array installed in 2010, and I put in a TED5000/solar at the time. About three months ago the TED5000 died. Wiser electric sent me a very good offer for a Sense/Solar for Earthday. So I bought it, and it arrived today and I installed it took 15 minutes. Its having issues with the Solar calibration. It either cant detect the Inverters being turned off or if they are turned back on. I logged a support case. Hopefully that will be sorted.
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