You can only hook-up to solar in home - I want to register power generation from off site. How can I put solar farm power generation detection into Sense? Thank you.
I assume that you are talking about a shared power farm, correct?
Yes . I belong to a solar farm in Londonderry Vt maybe 20 miles from my home .
Is there currently a way to plug that information from that farm in . It’s recoded on my electric bill here in Vt.
And I also wonder if the whole house batteries in my home would have any effect on the Sense . I sell the power I don’t use on them back to Green Mountain Power when they have to buy more expensive Power out side the state . The contract is for ten years and they pay me 28.44 a month.
I might also add here also that you App. is very hard to use . I just found out how hard because my wife just had a look at it . She is a systems analyst and uses this kind of thing all day everyday. And she could figure out lots of things on you App. So I would think that besides “getting up to speed “ on all things electrical . ( witch I have no reason to believe your not ) It would make sense to make your web app. more user friendly.
I don’t think you can use Sense for the farm
You are going to need to mix exported Sense data with outside data from your shared solar farm to do what you seem to want to achieve. Today Sense only aggregates data from a few sources - your house mains, connected solar, plus smartplugs, Philips Hue systems and some networked home electronics.
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Interesting, is that perhaps the field near Magic Mountain on Rt11? We’re in NH near the CT river, and drive across there frequently.
Unfortunately, I know of no way to enter data of any kind, either usage or solar generation, but I suggest that you should contact support directly.
I am curious about your storage batteries, which I normally see attached to an array of panels, and definitely not 20 miles from the solar array. Do you perhaps have both home solar and a deal with the solar farm? If they are home panels, then Sense could monitor both generation (regardless of local storage or grid storage) and track what you sell back to the grid. In recent months we’ve been generating more than we use, and Sense accurately tracks our positive solar and our negative Liberty Utilities usage. They bank that for us to use in the winter, but unfortunately our system doesn’t generate enough spring/summer/fall surplus to carry us thru the winters.
So how am a supposed to calculate my bill so I can tell Sense what my bill is , so I get an idea how much I’m saving by using the Sense ? And if there is away to do it . Would it not be smart to explain that under you solar section . Or if not , then say that on your solar section .
We most have thousands at least of Vermonters who belong to solar farms here in Vermont so obviously we want the most out of our systems. And other states have solar farms to . It seems (to me anyway ) that one would want the people who worry the most about energy to get and use a product first . So that we then can tell others your product is good . If I’m wrong please tell me and I’ll understand.
Support at Sense or support at Green Mt power ?
Yes it’s the one near magic mountain.
No I have no home solar power .
While I make money my solar panels, they will pay for themselves in 11 years of the 30 they last . And they are insured and maintained by the solar farm company . I also can sell every six months one or more solar panels back to the solar farm ,if I need to . ( I don’t think that’s going to happen )
The batteries are made by Sonnen one of several battery companies that sell them .
Mine is better then the rest and one reason among many is that they take a longer time to charge and discharged . They also can’t catch fire or explode as many other lithium batteries can .
There is around a two thousand dollar up front rebate . Or you can choose to be paid monthly. That over 10 years is around 3,000 dollars. I picked that one so I get 28.44 a month from Green Mt. power . At that time we can renegotiate the contract . My batteries are supposed to last longer then most .
Sonnen dose some charity work by donating there batteries. And they do work with large groups like condos and other organizations.
Green Mt. uses the power when from my batteries when they have out of state that costs more and pollute more .
My state has 60-70% power from Hydro. ( I protested against them making the dames in Canada back in the 80’s )
I can tell green Mt. anytime that I need the power from my batteries.
And they say they know when I will need them and won’t shut them off . I guess when they know a big storm is coming .
But I lose money and I lose money big time on them in the long run .
So I do it because it’s likely to help the environment. It will help me when the power goes out ( it did for 4 hours lately ) . It’s fool proof I don’t have do anything when the power goes out . And when I die my wife is not going to have pay or fool with our power needs .
Big picture will it help ? … Maybe my grand kids will make it a few more days when the climate goes to hell.
Unfortunately there is not a way to do what you’re asking without some manual extrapolation, as @kevin1 mentioned.
This is a use case I have not come across before in the Sense userbase, though you’re correct that it’s not necessarily uncommon in the wider world of solar. Supporting it would either require a hardware solution or connection via some API that is offered by the off-site solar provider, which may or may not exist.
One (involved) method I can imagine is converting online solar data (from pvoutput.org for example) into a mV stream and fudging that (with hardware that I believe exists) into the Sense solar input directly (no CT). Wouldn’t that be fun!
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Really interesting configuration, and one I’ve never seen before. So, mostly your batteries are your “back-up generator” for power outages, without all the hassle of back-up generators, and charge from the grid….neat!
I don’t understand how batteries, any number of them, can possibly help Green Mountain power with their rates, because power storage for peaks needs to be on a massive level (reservoirs on top of mountains with pumps and generators, for example) to benefit the grid in any meaningful way. But, I’m certainly not a power engineer so what do I know.
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Sorry, missed your first question. Support at Sense, because what you apparently want to do is to tell sense about your share of the solar, rather than have it meter it.
A guess: Electrical rates are highly non-linear. At peak usage you could have large cost benefits while having minimal energy cost benefits.
So what the e mail address or phone number for the Sense tech support people?
Green Mountain power would not have this system in place if they didn’t think it would save them power . They as I said pay me 28.44 a month for the next ten years . That’s around 3,400 bucks .
Or I could have taken an up front rebate for around 2,000.
Green Mountain knows they will need that much from me .
However I lose the total amount I could get . Because they need the power more in more urban areas ( you’d have to look up how much more they do )
All people who sign up are charged 2 bucks so Green Mt. can pay to watch your system. It’s of course on the internet.( i included that in my pay back time .)
My guess is most power companies have some algorithm for figuring out who what were and why they need more power .
Do I save ? no not at all .
I looked at consumer Reports and they have a propane generator that would power my whole house for under 2,000 that’s rated very high .
Over all , big picture,my cost for my system cost me 24,000 .
But like anything else somebody’s got to try these things out . To get the kinks out and hopefully volume will lower the price .
You can get much cheaper batteries as well . But this seemed from my research and the knowledge of people I’ve talked in my area that it’s the best. And like Tesla the do charity work themselves.
I got problems with Tesla on a lot of different levels and not just about there batteries but that’s another subject.
Thanks for your help so far .
Now I got to figure out how to get the things Sense has not found on to there system .
After tryin for a long time . I tried to get my wife to help . She’s a systems analyst and dose this sort of thing everyday , all day . And so far she hasn’t been able to help me .
It’s clear to me and I bet others that the Sense app is not user friendly.
Although I do realize there is a lot of technology they have to get up to speed on .
But it would seem to me that if they want more sales they should make the app more user friendly first .
Why not for instance have on the same page you see the power usage have a place you can plug in what’s making it go up .
At some point I will ,or someone will walk me threw the process .
It also would seem to me that if you find a place where they don’t have the technology to solve the problems, that they put up a list of what they don’t have yet . Rather then making you search each time to find that out .
Anyway thanks for your help so far .
This would be a worthwhile read. It explains the trouble with doing what you describe and offers some useful tips on how you can still help Sense to learn. The "Training" Challenge and How You Can Help - Sense Blog
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