I’m writing the community because I have no idea how to explain this to the service team so they understand it. The “Solar” screen on my app and webpage seem to be incorrect. As a result all of the estimates for solar billing is incorrect as well. The long/short of it, is that it’s doing the following
( Home - Solar = From Grid ) when it should be ( Home = Solar + From Grid ) for example ( to put some numbers behind it ). Home says I’m using 7,000W and my Solar is producing 3,000W, that means I’m using 10,000W in the Home with 7,000 coming from the grid and 3,000w coming from solar. Currently if my Home is at 7,000W and my solar is at 3,000W, it’s saying I’m only using 4,000W from the grid.
My setup:
PV system ties into the main feed via Load Side Taps. The MAIN CT’s are positioned BEFORE the Load Side Taps ( closest to utility ) - so it’s not measuring incoming SOLAR. There is no space after the Load Side Taps as they’re right bumped up against the circuit breaker.
The SOLAR CT’s are around the L1 and L2 of both of my inverters and only measure inverter wattage.
The Solar Screen in the application says that “Home” is equal to my MAIN CT’s
The Solar Screen in the application says that “SOLAR” is equal to my SOLAR CT’s ( and that agrees with my PV setup ).
The Solar Screen in the application says that “From Grid” is equal to my MAIN CT - SOLAR CT.
There’s where the problem resides. I would think that the “From Grid” should equal my MAIN CT and my “Home” should equal “From Grid” plus “Solar”. My MAIN CTs are showing as a positive number which should mean that my energy use in the home is greater than what my solar can provide. If my solar provides more than my home uses than those CT’s should go negative and the direction should flow outward towards the grid.
Oh another interesting note: My SOLAR CT’s show that my PV arrays are generating 2W of power even at midnight. I’m thinking that’s the PV Inverter standby usage but for some reason my setup seems to think it’s power generation.
I’ve tried resetting the app multiple times. Unfortunately due to some bug in the application or my setup, it never detects the PV Inverter shutdown so the wizard doesn’t work and I need to get support involved.
I’ve had at least 5 different tickets open with support and get no further then the last time.
You might want to add some photos of your setup as well as some of the measurements from Sense and from other sources (your PV, if you can see the net from your net meter).
A properly set up Sense system should be very accurate, within 1-2% of your net meter if not closer. Sense can handle the solar feed-in in different locations, and when the configuration is correct, Solar Production will show up on the upper left of the Power Meter with Total Usage (for you house) appearing on the right. In my setup, the MAINS CTs on connected before my smart meter, so they are seeing the net usage, and my SOLAR CTs are on the breaker feed-in for solar. In my case Total Usage = Solar Production + MAINs (net usage).
As you have discovered, there can be bumps in the setup process, and some inverters don’t do the shutdown the way Sense likes to see it. You’re doing the right thing by working with support@sense.com. keep pursuing.
ps: I wouldn’t worry about the measly 2W of power “noise” on the inverter. Many of us see some small residual, as you can see if you search around this forum looking at “solar” setups.
Thank you Kevin. I guess I’m wondering since i really couldn’t complete the setup wizard myself. I know that when you setup solar it asks you if your solar comes in through a breaker or in with the mains. Since i couldn’t do the setup myself because of the inverter shutdown bug, I’m wondering if the wrong value was used and it’s impacting the math.
I can easily add pictures tomorrow when i get back to my main pc. I sent the pictures to support. I can’t really add the solar ct picture since its tucked away in a gutter but hopefully the visuals can help. Heck i could even take a movie showing the usage in the app when i shut down the inverters.
Something i forgot to mention but something that probably needs to be stated. I did a test where i killed my inverters while they were making about 2000w. The main CTs immediately recognized the extra draw which seems to confirm my suspicion that I’m using more from the grid then it says.
I only brought up the trivial usage at midnight because it is always showing production and thought that it might ring a bell with someone. Sounds like it’s nothing though.
