Sense ‎12000 Energy Monitor User Guide

does it sum up power usage for a period of time, like every month?

Yes! Trends will show days, weeks, months, and year usage in kilowatts along with $$ spent. You can also break it down into each known device.

will it measure every circuit in the panel and individual appliances?

It does not measure individual circuits, per se. It attaches around your 220V service feed and measures total power consumed continuously. That said, the device watches for appliance and device “signatures” to identify when they come on or turn off. The product has only been on the market for a short while so it’s still learning signatures. This is a monumental task if you think about it with millions of electrical devices out there. You will never identify every little device in your house especially if is rarely used, but it will find the energy hogs which is really what you want to monitor any way. So, although I have been a user for less than 90 days, Sense has great potential over time.

Is it truly worth 300 bucks?

It is worth $300 to me because I’m an Engineer who lives in Arizona and have to feed an air conditioner with electricity for half the year. Because half my electric bill is dependent upon hourly usage totals, calculated each hour between 3 PM and 8 PM. The highest hourly total in a billing period times $16 makes every kW of Demand important. It may well save me more than $300 a year to be able to monitor my on peak usage. If you understand how your billing is done and what
affects the numbers, yes, it can be well worth it.

Most of these complaints are over a year old. Has progress (learning) happened since then?

Yes is the simple answer. It’s a bit more complex than just a simple yes. Sense has provided me with a measurable amount of data that has in turn allowed me to save a great deal of money. I was a really early adopter of the product – had it for a while before installing – once I did – it was like magic – I could see usage that was really wasteful – not all electrical components were recognized – but wow, what has been recognized is amazing. Those persons lodging complaints, IMHO, had misplaced expectations and lack of knowledge of electrical systems.
Side note – It was my goal to save a thousand dollars a year on an All-Electric, 3,000-square-foot house with lots of glass. I’ve done that by changing bulbs, timers, motion sensors, hvac – and at the same improved the overall comfort level of conditioning within the house.

How long until you see a ROI in a standard home? “

In my humble opinion, I don’t think there’s such a thing as standard because there are so many factors involved (local power costs, power cost tiers, people in your household, how many devices in your home, etc,). However I can say that personally, my ROI is projected to be quite fast.
I halved the cost of my power bill in one month. I found out my water heater was using 49.1% of my total power usage, so I set it to turn off in the middle of the night. This dropped me into a lower billing power, and now my power bill is half of what is used to be (~70 – 80$). So in a couple months the sense itself will be payed off.I’ve also noticed that non led lights can use 2 -4 times as much power as a regular bulb, so I will be switching those out.
As the sense is discovering more items, I’m identifying new ways to lower my bill.

It this compatible for Europe 240 volts single phase?

Currently, Sense is only available in the United States and Canada and needs a 240-volt to operate properly.

is there a web app?

Yes! We launched our web application in December. Now our customers can access their Sense energy data from any computer with our web browser, in addition to our iOS/Android apps.