Category: Always On

I found myself spending more the I wanted on electricity and discovered Sense to help monitor some aging devices in my home. I found effective use of Kasa smart plugs can help reduce some phantom loads and cut Always On expenses. Sense integrating TPLink HS300 power strips allow me to see individual device usage and curve the draw of power hungry devices. Also Sense allows me to evaluate the energy usage from my old Wash/Dryer and HVAC as I shop for replacements. Sense has provide invaluable insight into my electrical usage!

A week or so after installing Sense, I began to study the trending for our Always On load. After reading that the “average” Sense user runs only 288 W always on, I seriously questioned the 1,550 W level I was seeing. My family and I enjoy a good life here in New England including several televisions, couple refrigerators, relatively large house…but 1,550 W all the time !?!? I figured something was wrong with the breaker panel installation, Sense unit calibration, app, malfunctioning appliance, etc. I took some time on a Saturday morning walking around the house unplugging and re-plugging power strips, cycling appliances, furnace, well pump, banks of lights, exercise equipment, audio equipment… Nothing. But finally, I looked outside and I knew I’d found it. I have three lengthy heat tapes for preventing ice-dams during the winter. And without Sense to highlight the energy load, I’d been leaving them on all winter to ensure the living room drywall damage we suffered a few years back didn’t happen again. Turns out those heat cables were totaling 1,075 W….24 hours a day….since November. Found them in mid March (1 week after installing Sense). At my energy rates, that’s $202 per month. I’m going to say I wouldn’t have remembered they were on until gong out to do some spring cleanup in the yard another month or two down the road. Sense will have paid for itself in under two months. And have since identified almost another 100 W always on loads that I’ve remedied with smart power strips, LED bulbs, motion detecting timer switches and some smart switches / ceiling fan controls. Still bringing the average always on up across all Sense users, but I’ll take it from where i was.

[Note: this story is from a Sense employee]

I put a TP-Link HS110 on the power strip that powers the whole office and turned things on/off one by one. To my surprise the room was using 80W at idle, 60W of which was the subwoofer. Switching the sub from ON to AUTO mode makes it use 10W when idle, but I now use Sense to turn on the HS110 whenever I’m using the office and turn it off when I’m not. I only use the office once a week for a few hours so this was about $80/yr I was wasting for no reason.