Electricity monitoring-New device called Sense

[b4u2]

https://sense.com/

Anyone here heard of this? After reading up on it I am very intrigued. I have a killawatt and a TED but struggle to use them well enough to figure out what's eating my electricity. Yeah I know the electric dryer and electric tankless water heater eat up electricity but how do I know what true savings I would get if I switched to gas? This device might be the ticket to figuring that out?

Any thoughts?

[bilmar]

Well at $250 for untested technology, it is both risky if unable to to detect which appliance draws what power AND $200 more that similar devices so it needs to find a lot of savings to warrant the steep price...

Bill

[CmFtns]

So from my understanding this only monitors total energy usage from the main breaker and then uses this one statistic to watch when things turn on and off and how many watts those jumps are. It then seems to attempt to "associate" certain jumps in electricity usage to devices based on what it knows about major appliances and how much electricity they use and how and how often they cycle on and off.

Cool concept but I feel like this will only be able to find large, common appliances like the AC, Water Heater, Refrigerator, Coffee maker, etc and will miss small constant drain stuff and uncommon devices

Could you not get a basic energy tracking device for your main breaker and then look at usage and figure this stuff out on your own? I'm thinking of how MMM did it in his electricity usage article... He watched the chart and found out what all the spikes in electricity were.

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/03/25/cut-your-power-bill/

[frugalnacho]

My electric provider (DTE Energy) has a device that links to my meter and gives me real time data usage that I can access on my phone.  It doesn't "sense" which appliance is on, but you are probably as smart as that detector and can figure out the energy fingerprint of all your devices.  It tracks the usage in real time and does a bar graph so you can see your usage at each minute.  Always funny to me when I can pinpoint the exact time we were microwaving something, or when my wife got home and turned the AC on.

The device is provided to customers for free.  You might want to check with your energy provider and see if they offer something similar.

[Tim1965]

Here's a story on it from MIT Technology Review:

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601881/find-out-which-appliance-is-sucking-all-your-power/

[b4u2]

Alliant Energy does not offer a way to monitor my electricity. I do have a time of day meter but have no way to translate the data. This device seems to "dumb it down" by telling you exactly what is turning on and costing. Other devices seem to cost about the same. The devices I have I must not be using correctly or my electric bill wouldn't be $200+ a month. The items that I "think" are costing me the most will also cost me a bunch up front to replace. You have money for me to do that?

If this can narrow down the usage per device doesn't that help? What if it can even break down the cost of that device to then decide if replacement is worth it? My TED device does not seem to collect all the power consumption being used in the house. Maybe I am using it wrong?

[Cadman]

I've also been researching similar products recently, not so much to pinpoint specific appliances, but to track total usage as compared to our solar power generation. So far, I haven't found anything worth spending money on. I'm finding lots of "user friendly" devices that use split current rings to clamp over the breaker mains (no electrician needed is the claim as no wiring is tampered with), but few that connect to a breaker or outlet, so they guesstimate voltage and rely on additional power sources or batteries to do their job.

Edit: One additional comment, if you're hands-on and comfortable in your breaker panel, you can temporarily wire in the kill-a-watt with any of your 15A breakers (or 20A, if you know you won't exceed that load during testing) to track down phantom power consumers.

[b4u2]

I've also been researching similar products recently, not so much to pinpoint specific appliances, but to track total usage as compared to our solar power generation. So far, I haven't found anything worth spending money on. I'm finding lots of "user friendly" devices that use split current rings to clamp over the breaker mains (no electrician needed is the claim as no wiring is tampered with), but few that connect to a breaker or outlet, so they guesstimate voltage and rely on additional power sources or batteries to do their job.

I've done a lot of research also which is why I brought up this device. I would really like to reduce my electric bill but what will it truly save me if I start replacing appliances? That's my struggle. How do i figure a "cost savings" if I can't truly determine which appliance is using the most?

I am sure the electric tankless water heater is a big part. I want to switch to gas but the house was not set up to run a gas water heater, same with the dryer. So what might it cost me to have gas set up and then buy these appliances to replace? Yes I can reap some of the cost back selling the appliances but I still need a way to figure a break even point.

[CmFtns]

Alliant Energy does not offer a way to monitor my electricity. I do have a time of day meter but have no way to translate the data. This device seems to "dumb it down" by telling you exactly what is turning on and costing. Other devices seem to cost about the same. The devices I have I must not be using correctly or my electric bill wouldn't be $200+ a month. The items that I "think" are costing me the most will also cost me a bunch up front to replace. You have money for me to do that?

If this can narrow down the usage per device doesn't that help? What if it can even break down the cost of that device to then decide if replacement is worth it? My TED device does not seem to collect all the power consumption being used in the house. Maybe I am using it wrong?

Is this the TED device you are talking about?
http://www.theenergydetective.com/


If so then that seems like it gives all the data you could ever ask for... and also it uses those same clamps around wires to record power usage that the new sense device you want uses so it seems they would both record the same usage...

[b4u2]

Mine is ancient and did not come with software. ted-101 rdu

[KarefulKactus15]

I like the concept.  I dont like 250$ for untested technology  ;(  .   Maybe I will be a late adopter though.  I actually *wished* something used software to detect different appliances when I was measuring my energy consumption.

[CmFtns]

I want one of those fancy smart thermostats that cost $250 so it can look cool on my wall and can automatically control the A/C from my phone but I don't have one

I want an Infared Camera attachment to my phone that costs $250 to find air leaks and badly insulated parts of my house but I don't have one

and I want this sense product that you are considering that also costs... $250 so I can see cool graphs of my electricity usage but again... I don't have one

Now I can go and spend $750 to get this stuff today but I really think these things appeal more as cool toys than as devices that will actually pay for themselves... I've managed to control my electricity usage extremely well even without any of these toys. Your meter should display your total current KW usage... That is the only statistic you need to diagnose what your devices use and bring your electricity usage from facepunch to badassity.

If your meter does not show you current drain then you can use one of these clamped around your main wire in breaker box... just make sure not to touch anything in there:

Clamp Meter

[b4u2]

I want one of those fancy smart thermostats that cost $250 so it can look cool on my wall and can automatically control the A/C from my phone but I don't have one

I want an Infared Camera attachment to my phone that costs $250 to find air leaks and badly insulated parts of my house but I don't have one

and I want this sense product that you are considering that also costs... $250 so I can see cool graphs of my electricity usage but again... I don't have one

Now I can go and spend $750 to get this stuff today but I really think these things appeal more as cool toys than as devices that will actually pay for themselves... I've managed to control my electricity usage extremely well even without any of these toys. Your meter should display your total current KW usage... That is the only statistic you need to diagnose what your devices use and bring your electricity usage from facepunch to badassity.

If your meter does not show you current drain then you can use one of these clamped around your main wire in breaker box... just make sure not to touch anything in there:

Clamp Meter

At least you put something in this post besides being a smart ass. The clamp might actually work. Then I can test each A/C device to determine what might be using the most. I have a sump pump that runs a lot, dehumidifier, dryer, water heater, and so on so it makes it tough to determine where I might reap some savings if I bought new equipment.

[zephyr911]

I'm thinking about putting Sense or something like it into rentals in the future, if I can get some kind of indication that tenants will actually take an interest in the information it provides and use it to reduce consumption. Right now I don't know enough about it to decide.

[CmFtns]

At least you put something in this post besides being a smart ass. The clamp might actually work. Then I can test each A/C device to determine what might be using the most. I have a sump pump that runs a lot, dehumidifier, dryer, water heater, and so on so it makes it tough to determine where I might reap some savings if I bought new equipment.

Only meant to be a little bit smart ass but mostly just to point out that there are lots of relatively new smart devices out there in this kind of price range marketed to "pay for themselves" but in reality there's simpler/cheaper ways to do this stuff. I would love to have a tricked out smart house but I think the market is still to new and a little out of reach price wise for most people however cool they may be...

What I did is just flip every breaker except one and got usage to 0 watts and tested the large appliances and hardwired devices one by one at the meter. For the 120v plug in devices I used my kill a watt plug in meter to measure the watts. I also identified any devices that had a passive drain.

Once I knew what everything used I could figure out what every device cost's per use or per hour or to leave on all the time and make decisions about usage or replacement

[b4u2]

At least you put something in this post besides being a smart ass. The clamp might actually work. Then I can test each A/C device to determine what might be using the most. I have a sump pump that runs a lot, dehumidifier, dryer, water heater, and so on so it makes it tough to determine where I might reap some savings if I bought new equipment.

Only meant to be a little bit smart ass but mostly just to point out that there are lots of relatively new smart devices out there in this kind of price range marketed to "pay for themselves" but in reality there's simpler/cheaper ways to do this stuff. I would love to have a tricked out smart house but I think the market is still to new and a little out of reach price wise for most people however cool they may be...

What I did is just flip every breaker except one and got usage to 0 watts and tested the large appliances and hardwired devices one by one at the meter. For the 120v plug in devices I used my kill a watt plug in meter to measure the watts. I also identified any devices that had a passive drain.

Once I knew what everything used I could figure out what every device cost's per use or per hour or to leave on all the time and make decisions about usage or replacement

That's actually not a bad idea. I have a killawatt just not sure I've used it properly. I did test the fridge and freezer. If I recall correctly the freezer was about $3 a month, if i figured the cost per hour correctly. The fridge seemed reasonable as well. I am just not sure how to test the dryer and tankless water heater. My electric bill is $2,400 a year so if a device costs me $200 but saves me XXX per year then it might be worth it? The clamp might be a cheap way for me to try and determine what each one is using???

[Syonyk]

I understand what this device is doing, but I expect it'll be wrong in a lot of cases, especially for people on this forum who have non-standard power use patterns.

You're probably better off with a Kill-a-Watt on normal appliances, and a clamp type meter for big circuits.  Or just find the major spikes in your smart meter output, if that's an option.

I don't think this particular device is likely to save you $250 on power.  The reality is that the big stuff is subject to obvious control (the thermostat, if you have electric heating or cooling), and a lot of the other stuff isn't worth the time or energy - Energy Star has done a great job on standby power use, and almost nothing uses transformer based wall warts anymore (that get noticeably warm).  Switching power supplies with zero output use incredibly small amounts of power.

I want one of those fancy smart thermostats that cost $250 so it can look cool on my wall and can automatically control the A/C from my phone but I don't have one

Depending on your heating system, a Nest or similar can be worth it, though if you're paying $250 for a Nest, you're paying retail, sucker. ;)  You shouldn't pay more than about $200.

At least for me, I'm confident that it will save me money over time, because I have a heat pump, and the Nest has a variety of interesting algorithms for "not running the backup coils" - as compared to a cheaper thermostat I had with the heat pump, which would panic and turn the backup coils on any time there was more than a few degree difference of actual vs requested.  I was "cooking the house" before we moved in (trying to drive out volatile organics), and if it was 70 degrees inside/outside and I requested 90 inside, it'd turn on the coils, despite the system being entirely capable of doing it with the heat pump.

Also, the auto-away feature is pretty nice.  If we're away from the house, the thermostat will automatically bump the temperature up (or down in the winter) until you come back - and you can still tell it "Hey, I'm on my way home, so get started now."

Given that my backup coils seem to draw about 15kW, or over $1/hr, not running them is a big deal.

[b4u2]

A household of 5 this electric tankless water heater could be bleeding me dry? Lot of laundry as well with an electric dryer. Clothes hanging would be great and we did it as a kid but right now I can't fit it into our time schedule. I am just curious if i could save money since this is a rather large bill. Plenty of used appliances here on Craigslist so I could try and test it out that way. During the warm months my gas bill is just the required minimum ($10.32)and my average is $32 a month.