Sense Energy Monitor - Track Electricity Usage in Real Time and Save Money - Meets Rigorous ETL/Intertek Safety Standards

I'm Thailand customer who want to try this cool gadget.Of course, the warranty will automatically voided.And i'm fully awared my risk and acknowledged.I hope my review could provided valuable information for other international customer.And you may use it at your own risk.My electrical system. (In Thailand, which is common in EU-standard.)Is 1 Phase (Non-split like US), 220 Volt, 50 HertzWhich means... i have 2 wire goes to my house.One is LINE, another one is NEUTRAL.And voltage across Line-Neutral is 220 Volt.I'm am Mechanical Engineer and have some basic knowledge about electrical system.So, i'm doing this on my own (With my Dad's help) without certified electrician.We use extremely caution, and use probe to double check which wire is Live (Always have electricity) and which line is Neutral.Installation step :(Find the picture) I detach the main-panel and on the left side.You will see main circuit-breaker with two big black-wire (That coming from power-line) connected to it.Black wire on the LEFT pass thought breaker and connected to upper uninsulated Bus-bar. (This is Neutral zero Volt)Black wire on the RIGHT pass through breaker and distribute electricity through all of Circuit-breaker on the right. (This is Line 220 Volt)For electrical wiring, i have two breaker empty (the 6th and the 7th)So, the Black-wire (Power supply & voltage sensing to SENSE) goes to 6th breaker.And White-wire obviously goes to upper busbar (Neutral)For the Current sensing (The clamp), just attached only one to the Line.Setup :When i switch on the power.The app show that something wrong with the installation :)I just continue and go to the main screen.And yes, its showing Power consumption for only one phase.Testing :I do initial testing, like turn on the light.Use the Induction hobs, oven.The app show the power consumption very accurate.Problem :Yes, i use this in Thailand.So, after 3 hour of data-sampling. The main menu indicate warning say about"Sense detected an installation problem and unable to fix automatically. Support team will take a look."Because i use only one phase with abnormal 220 Volt.And SENSE probably cannot analyse my current and voltage data to map electronic devices in my house.I'll try to contact SENSE team... if they could make my account as an exception.And analyst my data...Another problem is, when SENSE was running for a while.The real time data of Power (Watt) indicate the app seem to be shift. and its getting larger by the time passed.For example, on the 10:45 its showing live feed of data on 10:40.I thought this might be internet connection or bug. So, i reset my router and SENSE.Its still happening and three hour passed. The gap was larger.Like.. on 13:50, SENSE live-feed time showing data from 13.35 !Conclusion :Regardless to problems (exclude i cause by using it in Thailand).I'm satisfy with the futuristic concept of tracking power consumption in household.The setup was quite simple, If you have electrical knowledge.If you don't, just call professional guy to take care that for ya.I can't try this AI-feature yet. But still love it !Update : 2/2/2020Day 0After SENSE detected installation problem and cannot analyse electrical signal to map my house appliance.I've sent an email to support team to unlock or by-pass.And at the end of day, App show that installation diagnosis is OK and start listening now.Day 1My Pressure booster water pump was detected. (Brand : Grundfos)App saying that most user voted this might be 97% match to the "Pump"I do some verification, on the pump on.. see if SENSE detect this pump.And yep, this is definitely the pump.Day 2Sense notify that two new device detected.Heater & Motor...Identify the "heater" was a little bit difficult.Because i have... Water heater, Rice cooker, Induction stove ?But after i click at the usage data. I can see that this Heater was active around 6 p.m.At that time, i was't shower or use the stove !So, 100% this is rice-cooker. (Electrolux-brand)App suggest Coffee maker 50% & Rice cooker with 40% confidence, Good guess !For motor, i just click and see the activity.This one was active on 11:00 p.m. until 8:00 in the morning.Also, it keep cycling ON-OFF for 50-70 times during nightApp suggest this one was A/C with 97% confidence !

Wow, this is a simple way to solve splitting up utility costs for multiple rental units all under the same meter. Rather than getting a whole new sub meter system set up, which will costs thousands and require city permitting, and interacting with the utility company, just get this devise installed. My electriton installed it in about 3 hours. I have this measuring the entire amount of electricity that gets used by an adu on my property. I occupy the main house, and have a tenant in my detached ADU (second unit). This devise measures how much electricity is being used by only the ADU and not the main house. I am sure this could work for house hackers as well because it can be installed to measure individual bedrooms and what not if you set it up to do so.Each month I send my tenant a screenshot of the energy usage. This devise also allows me to input the cost of a KWH and calculates the cost for me! One screenshot is all I need to do to inform my tenant of how much to send me for this months utility bill, I dont even have to think about it.I rarely write reviews, but I went down a very very long rabbit hole of trying to figure out how I can accurately bill the utility costs to the tenant in the second unit, and want to help others out. It was actually my electrician who lead me in this direction. While this devise isn't advertised to be something landlords and house hackers can take advantage of, it absolutely solves a problem and I am very satisfied.Upon discovering this devise I learned there are similar types of devises that measure water use-age as well.Overall this is a gem for those looking for a cheaper and simpler alternative to sub-metering.

I'm not an electrician but I am an engineer and wanted to give an honest review on how someone who is comfortable with technology will experience the installation and operation of the device.INSTALLATIONThe installation is very straightforward and should take 30 minutes, including prep and cleanup. Here are some things that are not immediately obvious from the simple installation guide.* They mentioned that this device should be installed by an electrician. This is likely because you'll be playing in your panel, which cannot be fully turned off. The installation is dead simple.* Your electric panel, if fed by the street, will ALWAYS have live, exposed and energized terminals. The energized and deadly parts are whatever come BEFORE your service disconnect. You will need to put two clamps around insulated ENERGIZED wires. That's the reason the instruction manual asks to get an electrician to install the Sense. You do not want to touch the live terminals ever.* Buy a touchless live voltage detector. Test it on a live circuit, then test it when the circuit is off. Use that to help you confirm that what is off is really off.* The manual mentions it but it's really important. Make sure the clamps are put around the live wires AFTER the clamps are plugged in the sense. You can receive a deadly shock otherwise.* When you are putting clamps around the live wire or your hands are anywhere near the energized terminals, DO IT WITH ONLY ONE HAND. Your other hand will be in your back pocket.* Wear rubber shoes/boots and use common sense.WIFI* Do make sure that the antenna is screwed in all the way and that it is OUTSIDE the panel. Doesn't matter if it's visible to you or stuck inside a wall, it must be outside that metal box* The device only supports 2.4Ghz. While it's touted as a longer range than 5Ghz, the spectrum is usually crowded.* Setup was easy and worked the first time. It doesn't try to provide a seamless experience by capturing the config from your phone, which is a good thing. Devices that try to be too smart and only support 2.4Ghz often fail when the wireless network name (SSID) is the same for both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz.* The sense connects over bluetooth for the initial discover and WiFi configuration. It costs more but provides a solid experience that doesn't involve changing the WiFi on your phone (Like an Amazon Alexa for example).Accuracy* I found the sense to be 5-10% off in a consistent fashion when compared to the meter. This will likely not affect device detection since turning a 100W light bulb on and off produced consistent results on the dashboard.* I wish they'd provide a way to calibrate the sensor for advanced users. For example, turning off all the circuits in the panel except for a circuit that only has a 100W light bulb (Or something equivalent...). Then calibration mode would listen for 1 minute while the user turns the light bulb on and off a few time. Repeat for the different live wire and both clamps would be calibratedDevice detection* You can turn on network device detection in the settings. It will see when network devices turn on and off and try to match their MAC address to an energy pattern* "My Home". You can help the detection algorithm by listing the devices you have in your home. You can simply say you have "1 over" or be more specific with the make and model.* There is integration with other IoT devices. For example, it can connect to a smart thermostat and learn when it turns on the heat/ac/fan and improve the detection of your HVAC system.* It takes a few weeks to see devices appear.* I'll need to come back and edit my review when it finds devices.App and data* The app works well and is easy to use* Electricity cost is fixed with no support for more complex billing schemes. For example, in California, we have a 3-tier system where the more electricity you use, the more expensive it gets.* There's integration with different assistants if that's your thing (Alexa, Google)* Integration with IFTTT is pretty cool and lets you do things like send you an email if you leave the garage door open or if the bathroom light stays on for more than 1 hour.* There is no local interface not support for it. Publishing data to a local MQTT gateway would make this ideal for power users* Data export in CSV is available but needs to be done manually via the web interface.* There is no public API of any kind. You'll find reverse engineered clients on Github but nothing supported by Sense.DETECTION LOG (To be updated regularly08/03 Sense installed. No devices found08/05 No devicesReview update log (Excludes detection updates)08/05 Initial review. 4 stars