On the solar tab I’ve got a suggestion. Maybe I’m not reading it correctly or understand how it works, or have a utility company that’s different than others.
When I’m producing solar I see it and it’s accurate compared to my solar edge app as well. I understand that “usage” is what my home has used.
The “from grid” I understand as well it’s my total use through my breaker box. The “to grid” is my issue.
My bi-directional meter gives the utility company the difference between last month and this month and that kw usage what I pay them for… If my difference is a negative balance then that’s what the “to grid” should represent and they credit me back about 1/3 of the cost of a kw I’d pay for.
I wish the calculations on my solar tab would represent that instead. If I know and input the date of start of service to the utility then it’s a simple calculation based on what sense already has in the spread sheet.
Maybe other utility companies do it differently if so having a way to change in my app for my type would be nice. As far as I know this is how Ameren in Missouri does it.
Thanks for listening.
What you are looking for is Net Usage energy vs. “to grid” and “from grid” which are the billing inputs if one does not have net metering. There’s a good reason for Sense to break these out specifically, because both of those cannot be calculated from your Solar Production and Total Usage data, unlike Net Usage.
But I agree, it would be nice if in the next step Sense would adjust the solar graphs and displays based on your treatment of solar billing (a switch in the pricing setup tab).
This is definitely on top of my wish list. My “powered by solar” % is always way lower than what I’m actually able to utilize given my net metering agreement with the local electric utility. It would be neat to see one field that shows “self consumption” (a solaredge term) or what I like to call “live loads” and another that shows the amount of energy consumed that was produced by solar given a net metering agreement.
If more people request this it might be seen by the Sense builders and implement it.
@Jameshandshy Right?!? I can’t imagine there aren’t more of us that would want it and it seems like a very simple upgrade to the software considering that’s it’s already tracking all of this info, it’s just not displaying it this way…
I have power home solar and am in Missouri, you?
I would also like this feature. Here was my Solar stats from yesterday (great sunny day here in Maryland). “Powered by solar” should really reflect 100%+ because my production was higher than my usage.
I agree. Mine looks similar.
I understand the sense number, it’s academically interesting and demonstrates the duck curve problem in one simple number… But I wish it told me net %, not direct usage % at least in the Billing timescale.
More preferred would be both. Net / self.
In your case. 106% powered by solar / 33% immediate.
Totally agree, my numbers look the same and at least that daily summary calculation should be updated to represent net metering. If you aren’t net metering (maybe using a battery or something) your situation might be different.
But like you, yesterday, my meter went backwards 8 kWh over a 24 hour period but sense says 33% from solar.
I think a solution could be to allow a setting on the solar setup to confirm you are net metering and then in that case, summarize your solar hourly and/or daily data to represent that.
Hopefully more people read this topic and request the same features.
I agree with the thread but I think that we just need two terms. I think the Sense team is right with the phrase “Powered by Solar” because it’s an accurate representation of how much solar power your home directly consumes. However, I do care about “Production vs Usage” more than the “Powered by Solar.” My opinion is put both those on the same…so then you can work on changing patterns to capture more of your own production.
Hey all, Sorry to reply so late. Interestingly enough, I just received my email summary of March energy consumption and it showed that I produced “83% from solar” when both the app and the website shows I only produced 28%. This difference is explained by net metering. So I wrote to Sense (again) to let them know how many of us would likely appreciate a simple checkbox in the home info page where you can let them know if your utility allows net metering or not. I’d appreciate if you all wrote in to Sense as well. This seems like such a simple fix that I imagine hundreds, if not thousands, of us would appreciate.
I’m in Portland OR.
I just requested a change to this too, I’d like to see my powered by solar based on net metering, I regularly produce 3-4x what I use.
Hi everyone,
I’m new to the community but I’ve had Sense installed for about two years now. I agree with this topic and would like to contribute. Who should I contact to make this feature request?
Welcome !
Sorry, but what you should do is a little buried in the “Using the Product Wishlist forum” bullets…
- “Search the Product Wishlist forum first and ‘like’ existing Wishlist items instead of re-posting! Use the comments section to discuss any how you’d like to see the feature implemented.”
I am new to this community and this is my first blog post. The reason I decided to join the community was because of this topic. I really like the solar feature, but the percentage Powered by Solar represented in the app is not very useful to me, when I view it on a monthly basis. I now understand that it is because of net metering. My request to Sense would be to provide a new value based on Production / Use. Thanks.
Hmm ok so maybe someone can clear up my confusion. I reread the post a couple times trying to figure it out. Here’s my screenshot and the number seem to add up perfectly so I am definitely missing something.
(18.6 - 1.9) / 28.8 = 58%
I think what you are seeing is that for people who have basic net metering, the current “Powered by Solar” calculation isn’t especially helpful or meaningful. A household on net metering primarily cares about the Solar Production / Total Usage ratio or percentage. Whereas if you have a higher buy price for “from grid” and lower sell price for “to grid”, then the current percentage is more helpful.
@sbradbury, How much does your utility charge “from grid” and how much do they credit you “to grid” per kWh ? Is it 17c and 14c… I guess when you are pumping out that much energy to the grid and the differential is small, like 3c, you really don’t care how much of your solar is going against actually usage.