What's new in: V33 (iOS/Android) V12 (Web): Dedicated Circuit Monitoring

News & Announcements App Release Notes
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We’re very excited to announce v33 for iOS and Android, enabling you to net instant detection of two 120V or 240V dedicated circuits and control how your smart plug and dedicated circuit devices behave in-app.

Note: For Android users, this update now requires you to be running Android version 5.0 Lollipop (at least).

Dedicated Circuit Monitoring

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With Dedicated Circuit Monitoring, you can utilize the middle port with Flex Sensors to monitor up to two 120V or 240V dedicated circuits (if not being used by solar, a generator, or 400A split-service monitoring.)

Dedicated Circuit Monitoring is a great way to accurately monitor devices like your HVAC system, hot water heater, variable speed motors, mini-split heat pumps, and both level 1 and level 2 EV chargers. Devices tracked via dedicated circuit monitoring appear and behave like all other devices in the Sense app, with the ability to review historical data by day, week, month, year, or billing cycle and set notifications for when the device turns on, off, or runs for a certain period of time.

Following installation of Flex Sensors, users can navigate to Settings > My Home > Connected Devices > Dedicated Circuit Monitoring in the app and follow the prompts to complete Dedicated Circuit Monitoring installation.

Note: While Dedicated Circuit devices can be managed and see in the web app, setup requires a mobile device.

Standby Threshold

This release introduces a new Standby state for smart plug and dedicated circuit devices, allowing you to manually configure when these devices should transition between On and a new middle state: Standby. When a device is in its Standby state, it will be shown as active in the Devices list, but will not have a bubble, giving you the ability to curate your Now screen and notifications, prioritizing the loads that matter most. This replaces the existing Idle state, available on some smart plug devices.

You can access the Standby settings via the Device Settings screen for any smart plug or dedicated circuit device. Any pre-existing smart plugs that have idle or Always On wattage calculated for them will prepopulate their Standby threshold with this value. If they do not have either of these calculated, they will default to a threshold of 0W, preserving current behavior.

You can learn more about the two thresholds that control Standby transitions via this Learn article also available in your Standby setting screens.

New help resources for Dedicated Circuit Monitoring and Standby Threshold are below:

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I received my set today and both clamps are labeled with a solar sign. Is it correct?

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Yes, this is correct @andrei.loban

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Thanks, going to install then

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Got mine installed for the dedicated 240V circuits for my 4 zone mini split system and electric heat kit. Fortunately the HVAC installers left plenty of extra wire to work with, which made things really easy.

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Really looking forward to having an accurate way to track HVAC consumption.

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Curious I see you put a single clamp on both poles of a 240 breaker. Is that correct? I thought one clamp per wire so in case of a 240 you would have to use both clamps.

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I concur with @ritchierich that this installation does not look correct. See the installation guide here: Install Guide : Sense with Dedicated Circuit Monitoring - Sense.com

There is an option to monitor 2x 240V devices (provided they’re not connected to the neutral bus) which you can see here: Install Guide : Sense with Dedicated Circuit : 2 Loads - Sense.com

If the 240V loads are connected to the neutral bus, it is still possible but installation is a bit more challenging. You can find details of that here: Install Guide : Sense with Dedicated Circuit : Advanced - Sense.com

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@ritchierich For balanced 240VAC loads (no return path on a neutral) only one clamp is needed as the current path is a closed loop between the two split phase 240VAC wires. But you are correct both wires should not go through the clamp. He is not going to read any current with that setup.

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I have an installation question. I am trying to monitor a single 240V circuit, following the installation guide:

3. Clamp the other Flex sensor around the remaining ungrounded conductor attached to the breaker. The direction of the Sense logo sticker on each sensor must face the circuit breaker.

My sensors have the solar logo instead. Should the solar logo sticker face the circuit breaker? The other way around? Or it doesn’t matter as long as they are both the same.

Thanks

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Do your sensors have two stickers, a solar logo and a Sense home logo? The Sense logo side/non-solar logo side should face the breaker.

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No, just the solar sticker, the other side is blank. Thanks for the info I think this is how I installed, I’ll double check later when I get home.

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Thanks for the info. Flex sensors should have two stickers on them, so sounds like there was a little sticker mixup with yours. I’ve passed along to the team.

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Mine came with just the solar stickers as well. Installation was done with those stickers facing the breakers. Will this work or do they need to be reversed?

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Unfortunately, yes, they will need to be reversed. The non-solar/house logo side must face the breaker.

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Thanks for pointing out my mistake. These are both 240V devices with no neutral connection. If I’m not mistaken, the install I shared in my photo would actually read double the actual current since the wires are entering the CT clamp from opposite sides (and thereby would add together rather than cancel out).

FWIW, my sensors also did not have both stickers. If I could share a couple suggestions on the installation guide:

  • Add notes about sensors that may lack the Sense logo stickers
  • Clarify the ‘240V/120V’ language on the Advanced setup guide to make it clear it does not mean “240V or 120V”, but rather “Mixed 240V and 120V”
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@kelchm, putting the clamp over both 240VAC wires in the same direction through the clamp will cancel out your current reading of the circuit. This is because the current going out will cancel out with the current returning. In order to read the current on both of the 240VAC split phases you would need to “cross” the wires as shown in the advanced setup. This is not needed for a balanced loads and you can put the current clamp on one of the 240VAC wires.

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Thanks for the feedback. I’ve added clarification to the lines referring to stickers. That is a manufacturing error that we’re working to remedy.

I’ll also take a look at the Advanced page and adjust some of that copy.

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All good. Two 240 loads, HW heater and mini split. Both up and running. Thank you!

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I did get my CTs adjusted, but have hit an issue with the setup procedure for the two specific devices I wanted to monitor (4 zone Mitsubishi mini split and electric heat kit). The problem is that I have no way to force the electric heat to turn on — the controlls are such that it only turns on when it detects that the return temperature has not increased over X period of time.

Basically, by the time I let the system get up and running after turning on ‘breaker 1’, the app seems to “time out” and force me to restart the setup process well before the 20-30 minutes that would be needed for the electric heat to kick on.

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Hey @kelchm. It sounds like you’re familiar with your electric heat and there’s no way to manually turn them on via breaker reset, etc. Sense needs to see “some” activity coming through the flex sensors during set-up. Is it possible to time set-up while the heat is running?

If you need to, you could always set-up Dedicated Circuit Monitoring with 1 circuit until your electric heat is on next (if noticeable). The next time you see your heat kicks on, just click on the feature again and you can go through the set-up process with your desired two circuit set-up.