I like the new insights into solar production but I think it is missing something that would be very useful. My electric utility let’s me “bank” the solar production for the period of 4/1 to 3/31. I would like to request a feature that calculates the ongoing solar power bank. To be useful, we should be able to set up the start and end of the solar bank period. Sense has all the available data to make this simple calculation and keep a tally of the credit (Consumption and return to grid).
Are you saying that your power is banked on a yearly basis with 4/1 as the start ? If it is banked against future usage for the rest of the year, I think that that is really the same as net metering on a yearly basis (with your particular starting point). How often do you pay your bill ?
Yes, I have net-metering and my utility shows me my balance with each monthly statement. My bills are monthly and with $0 balance, I produce about 9700 kw a year. I usually get to October with a +4000 kw credit and slowly eat at it through Nov-Feb. March is usually a surplus month. April 1st my bank resets and I start banking my production - consumption delta. I would like this feature to provide a live bank balance.
My net metering plan is the same way. However, Sense isn’t perfectly in sync with my utility, so while it might give a general idea to see what Sense thinks is my bank, it won’t be perfect.
My solar system was slightly higher than what my utility allowed, so only 99% of my production counts towards my net metering bank, which increases the difference between what Sense might calculate and what my utility calculates.
Really, there are three possible numbers: what the inverter reports, what Sense reports, and what the utility reports. The last one is the only one that matters when thinking about a net metering bank (or at least one that impacts your bill).
Wait, where is the bank feature in Sense?! I google and looked in my app but see nothing like that. I can see live <> grid and solar, but not monthly credits / surplus.
No “bank” feature per se. But if you look at your billing periods (or other periods) in Trends > Usage, you can subtract your total usage from your solar production to see how much you are adding or subtracting from the “bank” that period. The only challenge is that Sense only shows trend summaries for fixed periods (day, week, month, year, bill), so you can’t see the “bank” for period offset from one of those without doing a little more arithmetic.