New Members/Old Members: Introduce yourself!

Hello All,

New to Sense, installing solar so I thought it would be a useful tool to monitor production and ROI

Is there a minimum reply count that has to be met before I can create my own post?

There is a 24 hour hold on new accounts posting new topics to prevent spam and give new users time to understand the forum layout to correctly format and categorize their post. I’ve upgraded your permissions!

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Hi all, I’m a retired engineer with solar on my roof. I’m enjoying the Sense Game" :grin:. Better than crossword puzzlea!

Hello All, I am new to Sense, I just installed my unit about a week ago. Recently we moved into a new to us house that is all electric and we are trying to get a handle on why our electric bills are so high. I am really hoping that the sense will start detecting the power hog devices soon.

Hi @craig.yurchison - welcome to the Sense Community!
We have a resource in the Community for new users that you should definitely check out here.

If you don’t have solar, I might recommend looking at dedicated circuit monitoring with a pair of flex sensors (depending on where you live/what appliances run the most often). You can learn more about them here:

Hi, I’m JV. I installed Sense + Solar in September '21.

I have a PV + Hybrid Inverter + Battery system, with a critical loads panel that backs up the core appliances in my home. I also discharge the battery at night to reduce my grid usage.

Alright, I was unaware of this introduction because I was to upset about not being able to setup solar with micro-inverters, and that took away all of my common decency. I apologize for that.
My name is Jose Valenzuela from Dominican Republic.
I’ve had quite a few energy monitors before deciding to try Sense:

1st an eyedro, which was not bad, but not accurate at all, and the last I had was a (well, 2) Emporia Vue (2 because I have 2 panels, 1 on each floor)

Over time I’ve been “automating” my home as much as possible (light switches, minisplit AC smart controllers, Liftmaster MyQ for my garage), and try to run off of the grid as much as possible.

I have 2 Tesla Powerwalls attached to a Powerwall Gateway 2, an APSystems PV solar system with 38 panels and 13 micro-inverters for about 14.5kWh. We are also almost entirely eliminated our need for fossil fuels. I drive a Tesla Model 3 SR+, and my wife wants to get rid of her QX60, so she’s waiting for the Rivian R1S to finally become available.

As you can see, we’re all about bringing our CO2 fingerprint to a bare minimum (I’m even scouring the possibility of adding a 4-5kWh Wind power generator to help with the power at night and during cloudy/rainy days, but that’s a conversation for another time).

I am on Twitter and Reddit (no other social network).

What else can I say about me?

Other than the issue with setting up solar monitoring in my sense (which should be resolved shortly, I hope), I am really enjoying how it suddenly tells me it found another device. It’s like Christmas every time it finds a new one, and I do have TOO many devices at home (only the kitchen is a real dragon using up power).

Funny how I didn’t even know there was a forum for Sense users until I found myself in trouble. I guess it is human nature, and I’m no different.

In any case, now that I found it, I hope I can share my experiences and any “life-hack” i can find along the way.

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@jj.voliver ,
Welcome to the forum. Glad to have somebody with lots of power monitor and CO2 reduction experience. I’m guessing that Sense will need to help you get set up. It’s also going to be hard to get a full view of your energy usage with Sense because you have the Powerwall (a combo source / load). Try searching for Powerwall on this forum to see what others have done. Enjoy.

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Hey Ryan. It’s good to meet you (and everyone here). Sorry for the delayed reply. I’d also love to hear about your work in new media research. Maybe we can zoom sometime and talk digital art!

A post was split to a new topic: How do you differentiate between two lights with the same electrical signature

Hello,

My name is Bob. I started out many years ago with Google Power Meter and others. I have been on ComED real time pricing until the economics have changed. There is no peak load and the hourly pricing trending above the fixes pricing.

I am going back to more hands on. I installed Sense about 48 hours ago. I have found several loads that I did not know were “as bad as they are”. I have moved my always on from 315 W to 238 W with almost no pain.

I have mutiple targets for further reduction.

It is cool to see the AI working on finding stuff.

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Hi all. My name is Mark from Western Washington State. I recently got a solar system (16KW nominal) for my home and got the Sense with Solar setup as part of the installation. The inverters are at the array, and 240v comes back to the house and is connected to the utility incoming 240v service – they called it grid-intertie. The inverters sync with the utility grid, so I can’t run on just solar with the grid being present (no batteries or other power conversion boxes are present). Sensors are on the incoming solar lines and the incoming utility lines and the Sense box is powered by one of the 240v breakers with a 3rd set of sensors. My WA state utility meter is a net meter, with separate totals for kWh used from the utility and generated kWh returned to the grid. We don’t have Time of Use in WA state, and my utility will give me a 1 kWh credit for each kWh produced over what I consume that I will be used at other times (though I’ve never had a case where I’ve generated more than consumed in a day). My house is all electric, 2 water heaters, electric furnace/stove/oven/dryer, and I charge an EV 1-2 times per week – yeah I know this is a tall order, especially in western WA. I really enjoy looking at the detailed data that Sense provides and downloading my electric usage data from my utility regularly.

Thanks.
Mark

Hi @MarkDodrill and @bobfa - welcome to the Sense community! Looking forward to seeing you around the forums and glad you’re both getting some value out of Sense already.

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Hi All,
I just bought a Sense and have installed it on dual 200A panels. I’m a computer and electrical engineer and software developer and bought this more as a toy than anything - I am not sure I really expect to save any money, and I already know I use a lot of power! My panels also feed subpanels in several outbuildings including some agricultural equipment. Looking forward to interacting with everyone here - I already have several wishlist items and some feedback to share on the device!

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Hello!

Pilot from San Diego, I’ve had sense for a few years now and really starting to use my sense data more. Ive noticed issues with my A/C that sense hasn’t noticed yet so I’m curious if anyone here has any insight. I will post about that when i am able.

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What brought you here? My 2 solar systems don’t work well together and I wanted a single picture of what is happening.
How long have you been using Sense? 3 days now.
What do you do for work? Chief of Operations and Security for an Army data center.
What other smart home tech do you have? Jumped into Hubitat and have the entire house almost with automation events and triggers.
What’s your favorite type of barbecue? Anything from Kinders.

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Hello,
I am brand new to the community - I just installed my sense on Friday the 26th. I am just lurking the forums for now.

Hi @eMatts, welcome! Let us know your favorite barbeque (per the thread rules :slight_smile: )
See you around the forums.

Hrm, that is a tough question. I believe the best kind of BBQ is ALL BBQ. But having to limit it down would probably be anything smoked with a good dry rub.

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