That is true, but arguably there’s just as great a variance between my house with a heat pump / EV and my neighbor’s equivalently-sized house with gas heat and no EV.
My utility attempts to correct for this by surveying users on various home characteristics and then binning them for comparison purposes. But it only gets so good, and when they use language that conveys that you’re doing a bad job of energy management compared to your neighbors, people get irritated…
Yeah you got a point there too. It’s really hard to compare 2 different houses’ energy usage, unless you know that the major things at least are “comparable”. I had some solar guys here the other day and I’ve been talking to them for a while. Initially when we started this process they calculated that I was going to need like 23 panels for a 7 kW system based on my usage in our old house. Now they’re down to a 18 panel, 5.5 kW system instead based on the past 7 months in our new house, and after Sense.
I have been on line about a month and my always on is 190 watts. Not bad for a 3000 square foot house.
I have identified all of the power draws and think I can get it down around 100.
So far sense has identified 10 devices but still has a long ways to go. Hoping to get the “other” number down as low as I can.
Stay tuned…
You can build it yourself for under $2/watt. You can use sites like wholesale solar to get an idea on packages that include the racks, grounding, panels, and inverters. Inverters like Solaredge combined with optimizers make for an easy install. Do you plan on a roof mount or ground mount? The hardest part of either configuration is mounting. If you are doing a roof mount you install a boot similar to vent piping over top of a rafter. Drill a hole, fill with 35-year silicon and attach the mount. You can take your time with this step. If your roof pitch is too steep for your comfort a roofer can be contracted for this. Attaching the racks to the mounts and the optimizers and panels to the racks can be done in an afternoon. You have to contract a certified electrician to pull the necessary permits and turn the system on. Based on your earlier post I would shoot for the middle with a 6 kW system. Build it yourself for under $9,000 after credits.
Where do you find this comparison in the app. Mobile? Web? Where? I’m a fairly new user (about 45 days) so maybe it isn’t showing up yet. Thanks!!
It’s not in the app. It’s the monthly email you get from Sense.
As @frankwin.hooglander pointed out about the monthly email.
But you have to enable the option in the app.
On your phone app go to settings, notifications. The last option is for monthly email report.
Thanks - I have it on, but I think you have to have a full calendar month. I had most of January, but no email 30 days in, so hoping Feb will be my “full month” and I’ll get it then.
So I’m in the 2nd month of owning sense, for the first month and a half my always on was around 150W - 225W. I just noticed this last week that it’s now increased to 750W-950W, why is this? Does sense just give up on some “other” items and move them to “always on”? I don’t think I added anything new to the house and if I did I would thing sense would put it in the other bouble.
Always On is just a rolling “almost minimum” of your past 48 hours (actually the 1% point of the last 48 hrs of half second samples). Take a look at your past 48 hours in the Power Meter and see where the near minimum line lies - 225W or nearer 800W? Better yet, post the last 48hrs.
Use zoom out. Depends on type of mouse or touchpad you are using, but scroll wheel on mouse does it. You can also select Day, then decrement the “start” in the URL by a day, or increase the “end” by a day.
Looks like Always On could be north of 750W. Compare against a 200W Always On 48 hr. period a month ago. I’m betting you’ll see some dips below 750W there.
Even though the always on isn’t perfect, I’ve found it’s accurate as a general guideline.
I’ve seen my always on go from 200 to 750 just by having a failing dehumidifier in the summer.
As Kevin said, it looks like your baseline wattage supports what Sense is telling you.
Worth looking at the past 48 hours to see what might be different.
Yes… As suspected, Always On is calculating as expected. Your more recent waveform has dips down to 130W or so. Your older waveform never went below 750W. The difference in Always On is real.
Figure out why your recent Power Meter waveform has the dip regions in blue below, and why your earlier one doesn’t, and you’ll find 600W, at least, that you might be able to do without. The timing of the dip regions may help (or not).
I think I’m the undisputed king of Always On, as in, I have the most Always On stuff running all the time. 
I use about 350 kWh per day, but on a sunny day, I also produce about 150 kWh (should improve quite a bit as we get to the longer summer days).
My Always on is holding pretty steady at about 12,242w and my Other is sitting at about 900w most of the time.
What the heck do you have running, lol.
150 kWh per day! Wow, that is a big array! 350 kWh consumption. What are your top 3 energy consumers?
