Sense helps optimize water heater settings

Device: Water Heater
Make: A. O. Smith
Model:
Estimated Savings:

We have your normal electric tank water heater but also have a recirculation system it’s connected to. We knew it did cost us extra money each month to have instant hot water by having a pump run and the extra load of keeping the water in the pipes the same temperature of the tank. After testing different run times for the temperature controlled pump, we were able to determine the perfect “happy medium” to keep the convenience of instant hot water and balance the cost to where we were comfortable. Without Sense I would have left it setup in the original configuration that was making our water heater makeup almost 20% of our electric bill. Now that is down to 13%. We are probably saving much more because now the family is “aware” of the cost of hot water in general and they don’t leave water running standing at the sink and I’ve noticed that showers have gotten shorter for all four of us.

Heat Pump Hot Water Heater

Device: Water Heater
Make: GE
Model:
Estimated Savings:

I have used the Sense device for two years and have monitored many household devices. Recently I saw a large spike in usage of the heat pump hot water heater. It was caused by the compressor failing and the heater switching to full electric heat. If it was not for Sense I may never had been able to quickly diagnose the electrical use increase. Quick fix under warranty! Who knows how long it could have gone unnoticed! Thanks Sense!

The case of the Ridiculous Power Bill

Device: Heat Pump
Make:
Model:
Estimated Savings:

I moved into a house built in 1978, and I have been working to improve the efficiency since I purchased it. This winter though I was in for a real shock when I saw a $350 power bill. For one person. My previous, much newer house my average bill was around $90 with natural gas costs of around $30 This house is all electric, (now with solar panels!) so I was determined to find out where all that electricity was going. Before Sense I really didn’t know if the house wasn’t insulated right, or was my Heat Pump equipment faulty. Given the equipment age I kind of had my suspicions, but when you are talking about HVAC gear or replacing windows, it’s a huge investment to make the wrong call, and I needed to know if I should replace the HVAC unit, or dump that money into new windows. The $400 Sense device, coupled with an inexpensive infrared camera helped definitively solve that mystery. It turns out my 41 year old heater core and 20 year old heat pump were eating away at power like a competitive pie eater during a pie shortage. The windows were actually relatively intact, though I do need a pair of more efficient doors at some point. Prior to installing the Sense I was actually leaning towards doing the windows, which wouldn’t have fixed the issue and would have probably meant it would be a few years of $300 bills before I could fix it. With my new state of the art system I have already seen a roughly $200 per month reduction during the coldest winter months.