Sense Energy Monitor – Track Electricity Usage in Real Time and Save Money
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I've had it for about 2 weeks and I love it. It's highly accurate in terms of measuring wattage. It'll pick up an iPad tunring on when it's plugged in, about 6 watts. When I turn on lights, the increase is very close to what I expect. Solar measurements are nearly identical to what is displayed one my dual inverters, within 3-6 watts (of as much as 10,000) and that's compared to a display on the inverters that changes constantly.Some people complain about the device identification. In 2 weeks, it's found 8 devices and pretty accurate in the identification. If the label from Sense is wrong, you can easily change it. You also have to realize how identification works. It's just looking for electrical fingerprints which are not simple direct increases/decreases in power usage to be recorded. Many devices are a variation of power usage. I have a space heater that's is a stair climb of power usage when it's turned on. The coffee maker is on and off. A PC changes power usage with nearly every action, a file opening, a video playing, etc. When just monitoring line power, it's not going to identify all the devices in your home one for one, but if you want a great snapshot of your home's usage and solar production with a high degree of accuracy, you'll love this device.
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I’m really impressed with the Sense Solar unit.First, the speed of the unit, it updates multiple times per second and gives you amazing granularity. You can instantly see even a tiny light bulb show up on the meter.Second, after some time, the unit is pretty good at detecting devices. Sometimes it’s a goose chase to find the specific light, fridge or fan that’s identified but it’s pretty easy to do because of the instant resolution on the meter. It does take quite a while for devices to show up and for the most part, only some major devices show up first (I think my coffee maker was first, then furnace blowers, then fridges, then my clothes dryer). My Tesla, TVs, computers, microwave and majority of lights have yet to be “sensed”, but I’m only a couple weeks in. Long story short, at first it’s just a super nice meter, overtime it morphs into a more usable tool. Don’t expect this to tell you everything though.Finally, the support is great. I’ve asked a lot of questions via support and get timely and thoughtful responses.This is a very premium product and well worth the price.For solar owners, I use this way more than my SolarEdge HD-Wave as the reporting is so darn fast and customizable (screenshot attached of a Winter afternoon with solar trimming down and a brief Tesla Charger (240@24A).
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I absolutely love my Sense! I installed it myself included about 15 minutes and it’s working great so far. Detections take some time but once the Sense detects something its VERY accurate. If for some reason it’s not you can always edit the device after detection. You can’t add your own devices, which is a minor annoyance - but they very clearly explain why on their website. The LIVE data (seen in my screenshots) is AWESOME. It’s very cool to see power usage of every single device in my home. I would definitely recommend this to all my friends as a must have for any home. I have not used to solar portion of this so I can’t comment on that. Support is top notch and the product is very high quality. Make sure you have WiFi close to your electrical panel or you’ll need to get the WiFi antenna outside of the electrical panel to get good signal - I found this to be very easy since I just stuck the antenna out one of the holes in the electrical panel. The antenna is inside the wall, so it looks nice and clean. I am not an electrician, but I shut off my power and was extremely careful. Remember even if you shut off your mains those giant cables coming in are HOT. Ideally you should shut the power off at the meter which is very easy, just flip the breaker outside. But still, exercise extreme caution, or better yet, grab an electrician to help. It literally took 15 min or less to install so professional help will be cheap and worth it. Anyway, I love this thing, buy it now! There isn’t anything remotely like it on the market today.(I am NOT a paid reviewer, just an IT guy who loves smart home devices)
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Easy Install, excellent instructions, great customer support. I've had it installed for just under 2 weeks and it has found nine devices. Of those 9, I have been able to positively identify 5. The other 4 I am having fun playing detective trying to identify, as all but one are low frequency and low watts. The one thing I am anxiously waiting for is for Sense to identify a few of my big ticket items, like my main house ducted 3-ton heat pump, my Rec room pair of 1-ton ductless heat pumps, and my swimming pool. All of these have variable frequency drives with soft start motors that probably make it difficult to detect as they ramp up slowly and change over time. I have also noticed that the Sense daily kWh estimate is usually within 1 kWh of the number I get from my utility provider, which convinces me Sense is pretty accurate. It has also told me that I have a pretty high "always on" kWh number, relative to what Sense reports as an average.
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I believed in this but was really hesitant in getting it until I couldn’t find out why my energy bill was so high. I went plugging in this kWh reader I had but it was a slow process. Decided to order it and it’s exactly what I thought. The technology used to recognize the watts used is great. The fact that it can recognize the change as soon as it happens and reports it goes a long way in understanding the inefficient appliances in your home. Whether it’s bulbs or old appliances it’ll measure it as precisely as anything out there.Once installed this thing will have you running around the house unplugging things just to see what you save. It’s an adventure honestly and you learn a lot about your appliances. You’re old stove? Uses about 3k watts to charge to high. Once it gets to the temp is when it shutters between 3k w and 500w or so. It’s incredible what you learn from these things, it’ll give you a better idea of what to look for in efficient tech. Your iron, heater or anything that creates heat uses pretty much the most energy. You’re fridge idles at 380 watts or so but turns up to 3k watts. This thing is great. Totally recommend it to anyone with the desire to learn about there appliances.Can’t wait for the bubbles to form. Heard it uses machine learning which is cool.
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The following is my opinion based on my experiences. If I recall correctly, I saw this device on This Old House. I bought it because we are adding insulation to our home (all electric). I wanted to see the impact of the new insulation on electric use. This device filled the need.It also has some extra features that I've found useful. It detected our motion light. So I put a notification on the motion light so that I know when it comes on.I wish it had better integration with home automation systems. It does support IFTTT, but I want to keep my setup simply and inside my network if possible. Some of the competition has MQTT integration which would really meet my needs. If I did better research before buying, I would have probably bought something else.
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It took me longer than expected to get the unit working only because I hooked it up wrong but with the help of tech support they were able to explain were I went wrong and after about a week after they helped me solve my wrong install, the unit started to identify the items at the house, I can track in real time what's on and for how long and it has been a great help to me to identify what's being used the most, after seeing the results first hand I highly recommend this for anyone who has an interest in tracking how you energy is being used
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Does it work? Yes! Is it perfect? No. But I've had several other power monitors/trackers and this is the best as of 12/17. They are working on more improvements and the ones giving bad stats on WiFi issues probably have real WiFi issues. I've had mine up for over 2 months without a hiccup. Its extremely accurate when compaired with my power companies bill and my solar side as well. Easy to install and easy to understand. With more users and work on the system by the Sense team I'm positive this can become the #1 energy monitor system.
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I have to admit that i was skeptical of this being that the monitoring of the solar production module by solar edge (inverter) was a lot more expensive. Ok now onto a review where everyone can understand. After about 2 weeks it found all the major electrical items, ac, fridge, freezer, washer, dryer. Again im not expecting for it to find every single thing that gets plugged in like an air purifier, since thats not an appliance every household has. but this metering is spot on. The solar production monitoring is spot on. The consumption is spot on. I love that when you turn on/off a simple light you see the energy consumption go up and down. this simple purchase has made us more aware of what we are doing . installation was a snap. I could of done it myself (but being my father in law is an electrician, use his free help). it took him no more then 5-10 minutes to install. its very simple to do honestly. thank you sense. this truly is an awesome product
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So far so good. Ordered this morning with free same day delivery. Install was a breese - bought a 20A 220 breaker at Home Depot and had it up and running in under 15 minutes.Amazing to watch real-time wattage useage: “Alexa, turn on the pool light” and the graph jumps ~600W, turn off and it drops 500W - it’s a 500W bulb. (See image).Will spend the next few weeks adjusting power and turning things on/off to get a feel for what’s consuming the most.The app says it needs up to 24 hours to calibrate and start to identify things. But so far, just seeing graphs of usage is a great feature.I may update this review after some time passes.
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I'm giving it 5 stars because I believe they deserve it. However, getting value from it takes an effort. We've had it for about 3 weeks and it has identified 40% of the load so far. That doesn't mean I can associate all the devices it has discovered with things in our house, yet. I can imagine that what they do is very challenging. I like their idea and am rooting for their success. But it still needs to work well in the real world. They're not completely there yet and they know it and are working hard to improve. Good on them.I bought Smappee last year and was quite disappointed with their reporting, so I got Sense and am quite pleased in comparison. Smappee insists on reporting a "typical" day, month, year and so far I've never been able to look at individual days, hours, etc. for devices. They refuse to disclose how their averages are calculated so you can't unwind their reports mathematically. Sense is wonderful in comparison, reporting load for each hour for each device. I notice that when Sense discovers a new device, its history goes back well beyond the reported discovery. You discover that this new device consumed power a couple weeks ago. The total loads for both matches our utility bills.With both, I sometimes find several real world devices reported under the same label. e.g. One burner on our Stove is reported as the same device as our oven. They both offer an opportunity to merge their devices. Not a good idea, IMO. Even if 2 of their devices can be determined to be part of the same appliance, I would worry that there may be some confusion added by committing to that classification. If the best I can know about "heat 6" is that it is either the oven or the right front burner, I don't want to muddle the situation even more.Sense varies in how long it takes to recognize that a device is running. It takes a while to notice the dishwasher has started, but it sees the garage door instantly. It expect it has to do with the components involved.I expect I can help myself a lot by reorganizing our 2 phase breaker box. We have 2 air conditioners, 2 microwaves, 2 washers, 2 dryers, 2 refrigerators, the stove, and oven. Of course, both air conditioners are on the same side, etc. They both can distinguish between their probes on each side of the box, so I can make sure the air conditioners, etc. are on separate sides of the box. I expect that change will mess up reporting a bit, though.It needs to see devices start and stop, so things that are always on are a problem. Of course we could help by turning our cable box(es) etc. off when not in use. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea anyway.
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This is AMAZING!!! I have the highest electric bill and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why! I had the electric company check my house and he didn't know why either. Little did I know that my second floor furnace is ELECTRIC!! My idiot ex-husband is an HVAC guy and why he installed an electric furnace?!?!! Installed this monitor and within an hour my watts jumped to 11,000 when the furnace kicked on!!! I've had it for 2 weeks and ive already cut my electric bill IN HALF!!! Turned the furnace way down and plugged in a small radiator type heater...1500 watts max and now I'm just waiting till the spring to have this stupid furnace replaced with a normal gas one! (SMH) OH, and BONUS...it notifies me on my phone when my electric garage door opens and closes...bonus security system!!
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Took a bit to get going, i have a slightly weird setup. I Setup my sense on a 3 way transfer switch, top grid, middle load and bottom solar (bottom used to be connected to a noisy generator). Support notice my connection and contacted me and I was up and running. Do note that the Solar CT do not do detection, only the main CT do. So if you run full out solar, (Partial grid use) you can't use the solar ct for detection and you have to invert the CT. This worked out great can detect a 4 watt light bulb coming on. Also detect my garage door and sump pump. So the only draw back with my setup, was having the CT's inverted results in that the app will show solar energy as grid and grid a solar, which does not bother me at all. Make any Sense! to you (Joke)!
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This is constantly learning new devices.Is it perfect? No. Does it work? Yes!It’s found so many devices from my ice dispenser to my sump pump but hasn’t found my electric car :)Either way if you want to start answering questions like: how often does my mini fridge turn on or how often does my sump pump turn on, invest in this product.Of course it still is able to answer the first and more important questions such as how much energy does my electric kettle use? Or my electric car. It’s much better to monitor the actual energy consumption because you can see how it companies to something like a dryer or dishwasher which has a power on power off cycle.Very happy with device. I came from a Neurio. I asked them several times to let me help them with their software because the neurio company feels like a company that fired all of their software engineers to save money and then found themselves unable to deliver their product beyond the basic kilowatt functionality. I can attest that this product is still improving.
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Finally a home power sensing device that makes sense (no pun intended). Installed today and with five AC units (big house) its crystal clear second to second what consumes how much power. Absolutely awesome.It did have some initial issues with connecting via Bluetooth after it was installed which you have to do only once to set the Wifi password. After 10 minutes of trying I power cycled both my iPhone 7 and the sense unit, and then it worked flawlessly. Software bugs somewhere I would say..I am also concerned about having to use a web app as in 10 years the company or service may not be there anymore, so having a local option that doesn’t require the web server would be desirable. This used to be how SMA worked with its solar inverters, they now also require you to go through a web portal which fails every so often and then sucks. Another concern is people hacking into the account and being able to tell how many folks are in the house and exactly what they are doing (watching TV, cooking, you name it). Another reason Sense must add a non-web option please!!! But these things can be easily fixed with a bit of political will. The device is very easy to install (but should be installed by an electrician nonetheless!!!) and seems to work flawlesssly.
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Being I am comfortable with wiring (albeit not electrical) and after hearing about the process on reddit, I opted to install Sense myself in our breaker panel. It's very well laid out in the paper instructions you receive in the box and took me about 35 minutes (slow and cautious) to install the first time.I had to fight with the wifi signal, as our breaker box is recessed behind the wall, so I could not place the antenna outside of the box. I didn't think this would be a large issue, but it was. As soon as I put the metal panel back over the breaker, the connection to the Sense monitor instantly dropped. So I ended up sticking the antenna blindly into an egress hole on the left, and now it magically works :p Additionally, I accidentally installed this device on a split 120v, thinking I knew better than Sense (why would it need 240v to power a small device?). Turns out, it's used to measure OTHER devices on the 2 mains. Thankfully, the device alerted me of this 12 hours after install and told me what to do. Impressive! Moving it to a 240 volt resolve the issue, and it began detecting devices! This whole section was me not following instructions, so not deducting a star from the review.Honestly, this technology is amazing, blows my mind and makes me smile when I see a new device it has discovered on my electrical 'network'. There are monthly (usually even bi-monthly) updates to the device, and the company developers are active on their forum. I very much look forward to seeing where all our energy goes, and where we can reduce unnecessary usage.
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While the install is relatively simple, I strongly recommend calling an electrician to do the job. If you mess up, you could literally kill yourself.Once installed, the setup was a breeze. I instantly gained access to a real-time power usage graph. After about a week, it began recognizing a few devices. I’ve been obsessed with this thing ever since. I’ve already taken what I’ve learned from the app to make changes in my home that will generate tangible savings. For example, I realized that the 6 small incandescent candleabra in the pendants over our kitchen island used more power than all 24 of my recessed LED floods combined. I quickly switched them out for LED filament bulbs.If you geek out on data or want to make an honest effort to reduce your electricity cost/usage, then this device is your best option.
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Harder to install them they think or they say due to the fact that in my panel I had add breakers and had to get a DWP specialist to come over and shut off the power by removing the meter, then it took about almost 3 weeks for it to learn some of the stuff and I left messages for Tec to call me back they did call me back but it took a long time for them to get back to me they answered my questions and I’m still learning and trying to understand all the Different functions of it, it doesn’t allow you to label some of the functions but it’s better than having nothing
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In 4 days it has already paid for itself. Was at work when I noticed a continual electric spike. Sense let me know that it was an electric blanket that was left on. We were able to call a neighbor and have them turn it off while we were at work. Preventing the blanket from burning out, or worse yet, burning the house down. Being able to see real time how electricity is being used is amazingly helpful. We have been able to use to help us lower our usage even more. Definite buy.
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I installed Sense on the 22 of August 18. It has found 8 of 10 important appliances. My "always-on" with sense already bounces around 100 watts. I am very impressed. I have had roof top Solar since Feb 10 2010. I had "Ted 5000" for about two years before it died. Bought a Ted 5000 for my father and installed it the same time. Both my installation and my fathers instalation died the same month. Fishy, Fishy! I did not upgrade. I will never recomend Ted produces . Ted 5000 never gave me the detail that Sense gave me on the first day. I do recommend Sense. I will purchase Sense again for my sons on their bithdays. I just hope the company and its site which is required for its operation stays afloat. I would like to have access to the data. But I do understand it would be a lot of data to deal with. I do track daily Sense usage in a spreadsheet in which I have manually done daily from my inverters and smart meter-sense 2010. The do not match but are close. I track my day-period from solar shutdown to solar shutdown which varies with the time of sunset. Sense uses 12am to 12am. Considering this difference they are pretty close. I have had WattsUp for years. It gives more data but is much more work. Plus you can not use it for 220 volt systems. And you cant easily use it on indivual house curcuits. You can with sense just turn all but one circuit off. Monitor it individual items one at a time. Wish I'd had Sense at its present capablities in 2010. I am very very impressed with Sense. If you have attempted to monitor you use of electricity without it as I have you will love the detail it will give you to the minute. Sense keep on truckin!
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When we purchased our home, I wanted to make sure it was smart. Started out with some home automation things, then solar, battery backup, and now just added Sense to monitor our energy usage. It's been up and running for about 3 weeks and it's found about 7 devices so far. A week after installation, Sense CS reached out to me as they were seeing some issues and it was due to the fact that the battery was throwing things off. We worked through it and it's now monitoring everything properly. I'm waiting for more devices to be discovered so that I can properly analyze our usage but it's definitely has made me more aware of what's using what in our home.I was going to install this myself but my husband veto'd that idea (glad he did) especially since our electrical panel + solar + battery made it much more difficult.
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