Return it. It’s clear that it’s not going to get any better. There are simple energy monitors that tell you the total used per unit of time that integrate with home automation hubs. That’s what I would do if I could do it over. Sense would make me somewhat satisfied if they would update their mobile app to show usage/solar production #s on the main screen and let me specify a start and end date for reports.
I’ve both praised the monitor and been highly critical of it and the marketing @lance.
So I understand where your coming from and how you feel.
I’ll just be blunt here and says that I’ve been downright pissed off with it’s at times due to my expectations. I don’t feel my expectations are really too high, I’ve just gone by the Sense website for its abilities.
That being said, I still think you should keep it. I’ve had mine for about eight months. I do also have a lot more accurate detections than you have. Around 25 native to Sense and then a dozen smart plugs on top of that. I got some of the best of these in the second and third months. It’s does take time and you do have to help identify the right device most of the time, it’s worth it.
Let me ask you this, have you gotten by without the $300 or so you spent on it since purchase? Has it helped you in other ways? Like seeing in real time what’s happening? I also get an accurate usage alert daily from my electric company (boy, I remember SRP, high prices) but it just gives daily totals for the previous day. The real time graph is worth it bye itself to me.
Another thing I look at is all these people that like you said have had it two or three years. These are the real hero’s here. It’s their purchase and use that has built what is here today to a bigger degree than the company that is Sense in my opinion. Without the users, there isn’t the data needed for any detections.
So I guess I see the things that I do have what I feel are valid complaints and weigh that against what I get out of it the way it is right now and add what contribution my data provides to those coming after us to make my final determination of the products value or worth.
It doesn’t eat anything, it was a one time payment.
I urge you to contact support and let them know you are thinking of returning the monitor. See if you can leave it installed right up until the 60 day marker and have them leak at your data on the backend. Your really not in very far and their 60 days is misleading. They should extend this to at least 120 in my opinion.
I hope you don’t jump off too soon.
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Yeah I’m definitely going to keep it up until I have to return it if I do choose to return it. The $300 isn’t really missed but could be put to other things (like more smart plugs). I certainly don’t think the answer to spending $300 is to spend hundreds more on a bunch of smart plugs that will at least tell me what power THEY are using. Right now I’m pulling 3000W but not sure what all it is other than going and looking at what is on. I know some things it isn’t (AC/Washer/Dryer,One Fridge, Microwave, etc) but much of the time it’s the “Always On” and Other and that is it. I don’t know what is going on that my minimum has gone from 800W-900W to 2500W either. Nothing has changed overnight.
Also I was watching the “real time” monitor today and I turned off a PC and there were pluses and minuses happening all over the timeline so even that doesn’t really help much. I noticed today that Sense was reporting I was using well over what my load controller would allow after you subtracted my solar contribution (My load controller is set at 4.5kWh and I was up around 5.5kWh which should have tripped the load controller to pop off my AC that was running but it wasn’t doing so meaning that the LC wasn’t seeing the same load as Sense was. SRP I can see by the hour next day so that helps and I think that is what I get from Sense if I’m not watching it currently. I just felt the marketing was way generous in stating it’s ability (I didn’t see the This Old House ep that everyone refers to but that seems to echo the marketing I’ve seen too). I wasn’t expecting it to pull every last phone charger or anything but I was hoping that it would find the bigger things and I wouldn’t have to keep deleting devices because sometimes it is right and sometimes it is wrong. I’m still giving it time and we’ll see what support says but I feel I’d almost be better going and putting an ammeter on each of my breakers and figure out what room seems to be pulling the electricity then looking to narrow it down from there. More leg work but certainly cheaper.
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Boy do I remember SRP and the load controller, we hated that. If I’m willing to lay for it then I want to use what I want.
I agree about buying a bunch of smart plugs. I ha e a post where I complained about it. That was before I started using them. I ended up buying a couple HS119’s and a couple HS300’s. That’s 14 in total and I’m glad I did. What I use them for is devices that I’m curious about that I know for a fact that Sense will not detect. They have given me insight to a lot of low power users that actually use much more than I expected.
For my detection expectations, the big hogs were my focus. I wanted the HVAC and water heater mainly but hoped for the stove/oven, dryer and a heated floor. I’m very happy to say that I have all of these for the most part. My heat pump is detected but only the outdoor unit. It still missing the air handler. My stove/oven is 7 detections, one for each element. Water heater is one of my best and the dryer is hit or miss with the dishwasher heating element.
I ha e many more smaller detections on top of that and I’ll be honest, I want more. It’s frustrating when I ha e two garage doors used every single day that are not detected but have a shop vac or blender used a couple times a month and they are.
I think in the weeks to come you’ll see a real improvement. Twice I’ve had four detections in a single day. Getting four by the time I get up in the morning is really exciting. And there is some enjoyment going around to properly identify the correct device.
I’m glad your going to stick out the full 60 days. I do feel that a 60 day return time is pretty lame considering how many times Sense has to see something cycle before it can detect it and device detection is the claim to fame here.
Even with all my complaints, here is how I feel about Sense when it comes down to it.
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I’m going to respectfully represent the other viewpoint:
- You can get many of the reports out of Sense that you want for things like accurate pricing / costing. You just have to know how to use Excel or programming. Sense has a pretty good csv export unlike many devices. I have already written TOU software and spreadsheets to calculate accurate monthly costs.
- Speaking of other simpler devices, I have a Rainforest Eagle, but there’s no comparison. I never use the Eagle for three reason - 1) no solar, 2) weak export, 3) weak UI (plus no device detection or Smartplug connections)
- If you really want to be able to see power data for every circuit in your house, go with Curb or WELServer systems, but that would likely put you into the 1000$+ price category.
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Curb just monitors the breaker power though right? It doesn’t try to get to the individual device if that breaker is say a bedroom or office? So monitoring breakers that are for a single appliance would work great but a bedroom or “lights” or whatever would just show up as a per breaker basis?
Correct - both of those systems only let you see things at the circuit/breaker level, not at the device level. But often, major devices have their own dedicated circuit, especially 220V devices. I didn’t look at either of these two options because my two breaker boxes were already overflowing plus I would have needed something like 80 CTs to monitor them all.
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OK thanks, I thought i was reading it right. I only have one breaker box but it’s definitely full I have 6 240 breakers and 24 110 breakers (No where near your 80 but plenty to pay for and fit in the box).
I’ve had a fairly complete welserver system up and running for almost a decade, and it’s really good for some forms of monitoring, less good for others. It does give me very accurate metrics for both total use and for my solar system…better than the solar system itself does. It gives me temperatures throughout the house and throughout the systems (geothermal HVAC, ERV, hot water boost, mini-duct, etc) and on/off for every large consumer.
It does not give me power metrics per device, or even per breaker. I could add a few more wattmeters to it (like for my “noisy” deep well pump) I suppose, but available wattmeter connections are limited by the welserver and the associated wattmeters are costly. That’s exactly why I invested in Sense…device by device metrics. Unfortunately, in my “noisy” environment, device detection has been limited and quite inaccurate.
As I’ve noted above (and as others have), detection does vary across homes. We have consistent reviews across the board above 4.0, so the detection experience is certainly not uniformly poor. Many here have noted their solid detection experience. Does that mean everything is all good and perfect? Absolutely not; but the truly poor experiences are luckily quite rare. There are many positive experiences shared both here and at sensesaves.sense.com, and others scattered about in our Reviews.
I agree with @samwooly1 in his earlier post: If you’re nearing the 60-day point and are wavering on returning, reach out privately to me (click my name and hit ‘message’ or email me at ryan.l@sense.com) or shoot an email to Support. We’re here to help and will do what we can.
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I was going to write up my frustrations but this post by dave6 pretty much echoes my experience. Disappointing at best but I’m always hopefully that things will get better.
I have twelve devices that are unknown and I have lost my will to identify them. I just don’t have the patience. I would very much like to know what a few are, as the approach or exceed 1k watts when cycling.
Have you used notifications @conepile?
Setting them for when a device turns on can help identify them easier without you having to search.
You’ll go to use something like an iron and bingo, that’s what heat 4 is.
Good video with tips here:
@RyanAtSense Thanks for the the reply back. I will definitely reach out to you but will do so a little later in August if that is OK. I did find one thing after my “Always On” climbed up to 2500W I went outside and found our pool pump (one of them) was on and running constantly. Of course I didn’t have anything other than the total wattage being consumed in Sense to alert me to this and I just happened on it but my power meter went from 3200W to 1500W instantly when I turned it off and back to it’s timer. Now hopefully my “Always On” will go back to it’s previous state in a couple of days.
I’ve seen the positive mentions and that will be great If and When Sense can identify some more things in my house. It would be nice to know if Support things my electricity is just too noisy too like some have in here to identify things or they think it’s quiet enough that it will happen eventually.
Thanks again and I’ll be reaching out in a couple weeks.
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That a story for “Sense Saves” @lance
Imagine what your bill next reading would have been with that pump running the whole time.
I would think that would cost $5 a day extra pretty easily.
Not really. My energy with SRP is cheap with solar. So we pay .06 on peak and .04 off peak. 6 hours are on peak and 18 are off peak so the total is about 1.67 per day to run the 1.5kWh pump 24X7. Normally it only runs like 12 hours in off peak so it’s .75 per day to run that pump normally.
What it saves me is the power in the evening when I can use that 1.5kWh to run my AC more and not have my demand hit and my LC turn off my AC.
Sense was able to show my that I was using 3K Watts but not where I just happened to be looking at wasps in my pool and go out there and hear the pump running. Had Sense been able to identify my pump then yes I would have caught it sooner. But had I not gone outside when the pump isn’t supposed to be on, I wouldn’t have caught it as the pump runs much of the non-peak time.
I have used notifications and they were driving me crazy as I still couldn’t figure them out. I look at history, times, and other activities that may parallel the unknowns. No luck. In my early days with Sense I would flip breakers off and on to isolate unknowns, and even went as far as getting an induction multimeter to try to identify particular breakers of unknowns. It was like a puzzle and problem solving. It isn’t fun anymore.
For me the frustration is thinking you have achieved something then realizing you haven’t. For me a major goal with Sense is to track A/C usage. I thought I had achieved that, but then one night I accidentally set my A/C to 72 instead of 82. It ran all night!!! But when I looked at Sense, it said it ran about 4 hours, then the full 3,800 Watts went into the Other category for about 3 hours, then it went back into the A/C category. The only other stuff on to interfere was a ceiling fan, a router/Wi-Fi, a couple Echos, a microwave & stove LED displays, and a 328 Watt refrig. Well now Sense is worthless for tracking A/C usage!!!
My Refrigerator runs about 45 minutes out of each hour. For awhile I could track its usage (which is causing me to look for a new refrig). But looking over past hourly data, it has had many days where 3 or 4 straight hours it doesn’t recognize the refrig. Lately, it has gotten to where most the days it doesn’t recognize the refrig. I can turn the refrig off then back on to get it recognized, but sometime it still only recognized for a few minutes then goes away.
I am going to make a decision today rather to call for an RMA to use the 60 day return period. SAD!!!
For me, the Sense readings over a 54 day period are accurate within 0.5% of the utility’s smart meter. So, the Sense at least moves the outside meter to your phone and give you hourly/daily/weekly/monthly totals. (It would be nice though if it could give you billing cycle totals!!! It does ask your billing date, but I don’t see that is being used anywhere. Supposed to be on the Trends tab, but not on my S9+.)