Sense Energy Monitor

I've wondered how well these would work. The concept is ingenious but I'd think that differentiating some devices from others based only on the the power use signal that it monitors would be tough. For example, I have two water heaters that are the same model and size yet they serve different parts of the house. How would I know which was being used based only on its electrical use signature?

Thanks for sharing.

As I installed new energy hogs ( two heat pumps and a volt electric car charger) I would install Hialeah ez read meter to track use. The srec 1&2pv arrays each have their own meter

Result... heat pumps sip energy, the car charger gobbles it

What's the MSRP?

I'm happy with my Effergy - but that looks pretty darn neat.

Ok, ya that's up there - and didn't realize it also needed a 220/240 circuit. That seems a bit odd. Pretty neat though, regardless.

mellow said:

You can share a 220 but it is better to have a dedicated one, it uses that and the clamps to read the difference in the electrical signatures and to power the unit (it doesn't use much power itself).

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How would you legally tap two devices off the same breaker? My recollection is no wiring junctions permitted within a breaker panel, and double-stabbing a breaker is also disallowed.

Oh no, you can have junctions and wire nuts in the can (panel box). You can certainly have more than one “load” per 240 breaker. Some devices require dedicated circuits but they’re specific.

33 times on - holy crap. I should pay more attention to ours, maybe. The start up load is big - likely getting a bigger cushion tank should be on my radar.

At 6 minutes over 33 starts, it’s running just 10 seconds per start. Definitely a tank problem, not just kids leaving a hose on. Even with no concurrent draw, it should take more than 10 seconds to fill a tank, on a typically-configured system.

BrotherBart said:

When that happened with my well pump the check valve down in the well on the pump had corroded. So it was pumping up the tank, draining back down into the well and doing it all over again over and over. Caught it because of the high KwH usage on the efergy.

It happened early in the billing period. If not for the monitor I would have had to take out a second mortgage to pay the electric bill.

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Seen this too. Also very common is a corrosion hole in the downpipe from the pump to the well head. Same result of pressure leaking into the casing until the pressure switch kicks the well back on.

mellow said:

I have two of the same garage door openers, it does not split them apart, but that is OK to me as I can still see what the both of them use combined for power. Some things it still has yet to detect like my fridge and tv's but it is detecting new devices every week or so, the fun part is tracking them down as it will say it is "Motor 1" but it won't tell me what it is but it gives me a list of possible devices and a % of what Motor 1 was in other homes. My big power hogs like the water heater and hvac were picked up within the first couple weeks.

Another nice thing is I can better estimate what my power bill will be for that month.

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Seems like it should have a "training" mode where you can turn something on manually and then register that device within the Sense when the load is detected. Of course you might need to turn off all the other breakers to avoid confounds.

Ashful said:

How would you legally tap two devices off the same breaker? My recollection is no wiring junctions permitted within a breaker panel, and double-stabbing a breaker is also disallowed

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Sorry for missing this one. As someone else replied, code allows multiple circuit's to be fed from one breaker. The key thing which is not code is unless the breaker lugs are rated for multiple wires (very rare, darn close to non existent) you can only have one wire per lug on the breaker. So you just run a short wire from a lug on the breaker to a suitable wire nut somewhere in the panel and then connect two or more circuits.

Note that PV circuits are an exception and need to be connected to a dedicated breaker permanently labeled with no other circuits on the breaker. On most panels, the PV breaker also needs to be installed at the farthest location away from the incoming feeder breaker.

mellow said:

Maybe that graph is deceiving but that is from 12:01am to 10am. Several showers were taken hence the green bump in the graph around 7am from the pump running. It is a brand new gould pump and tank is fine, not bleeding any pressure, it was saying it was on for 5 minutes over the 10 hours.

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I got that, but what I say remains. 33 starts at an average of 10 seconds run time each, seems to indicate a problem. I'm used to a well tank taking somewhere beyond a minute to fill.

Quick math, if your pump is rated 10 GPM at its set depth and pressure, it would take 2 minutes to fill an average expansion tank with a 20 gallon drawdown rating, and that's with no appliance running. Now, add a shower a 2 GPM, and it will take 2.5 minutes for the same tank fill.

How do you get a total run time of 5 minutes with 33 pump starts?

Wouldn’t setting it up in any way that it must start and stop more frequently (esp. 33x in 10 hours, at 10 seconds per start) be a great way to shorten pump life and maximize electrical usage?

I’d be thinking you’d be justified in going about 30x larger on your storage tank, such that you can have two long fills per day.