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Always On costing a bundle

Device: Other Electronics
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I’ve got a Sense system that was recommended and installed by my electrician last February. It was never really meant to be a cost saving item, more of a hobby/interest item for entertainment. But I got hooked. My Always On was running at about 950W all the time and I couldn’t figure out what it was! I started chasing big users and have gotten it down now to 339W. Not only did this journey help me learn about my house (we just moved in last year), but alerted me to a mini-fridge that wasn’t sealing correctly, a wine fridge that was running way too frequently, an old A/C unit that wasn’t efficient, and then a whole slew of smaller electronics that I use sporadically, but were drawing a ton of power because I wasn’t unplugging them!
I’ve been using Sense Solar as a bit of a personal challenge and trying to make sure I lower my usage as much as possible below the production because in Massachusetts I actually get full credit for overproduction!

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baseboard heater sky rocketed electric bills

Device: Other Heater
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I bought my house and the electric company put me on equal payments like previous owner, slowly slowly the equal payment went up to $680 a month. I called the solar company and seeing the bills they mentioned we don’t have any solution that can help with that much usage, and person from solar company suggested i use a device called Sense (used by one of his friend). Got sense installed and very soon it detected the 3 base board heaters in the family room racking up all the usage. immediately turned it off and my equal payments are down to $220 now from $680. My energy consumption is 78% down month over month compare to each month last year. With sense i rooted out old freezer , super old AC. no device at home goes undetected now. Bought a new 2nd holiday house and very first energy related device I will be installing will be a new Sense monitor.

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I was paying for my neighbors energy bill!

Device: Mystery Device
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Last year I moved into a new apartment, about 1200 sq. ft. But after the first full month my electricity bill was in excess of $200! Granted it was summertime with 106 degree temps but that just seemed outrageous to me considering I would set my thermostat to 80 when I left for the day and would only lower it to 78 when I was home. Management told me it was because I was on the sunny side of the building and that the previous tenants bill was similar to mine. No matter what I did I could not lower my bill. Fast forward one year later. My last month’s bill was even more outrageous. Given how careful I had been I was convinced either something was powering on constantly or someone else was on my electric meter. After I had the Sense Meter installed I instantly saw something using massive amounts of power even when everything in my home was off (excluding appliances like the fridge). I isolated the usage down to one breaker in my box. I called management and showed them what I was seeing and they sent someone out the next day. Sure enough my upstairs neighbor was tied into my meter! For over a year I was paying for someone else’s power usage. They would constantly leave their A/C running because their bill was always so low every month. I knew something was wrong and I don’t know how else I would have been able to prove my case without Sense! Thank you!

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Sense Is Helping Us Become Net Zero!

Device: Other Device
Make: Solar Panels
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We installed solar panels just before the end of last year (2018) and installed a new Sense Monitor at the same time. We have 15 rooftop panels on our old DC rowhouse, a 4.875 kW array in total. Our goal is to see if we can be a net zero energy home by the end of 2019.

Our electric bill while it varies from month to month can be as much as $1,000 per year especially after AC use during the hot DC summers. As a sustainability guru and Architect, when I heard that Sense was a smart home energy monitor capable of detecting appliances and other home devices, I was all in and ready to get one installed.

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Sense got me to kick out my renter; Saved my life

Device: Oven
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My roommate (he / his) had been renting a room off me for about a year. He moved in with me 3 days after I bought my house, so I’ve never actually seen what a “normal” electric bill should look like.

After I received a $450 electric bill in the mail I bought Sense. I installed it myself, and Sense went right to work!

After about a week I realized that my roommate had sometimes been getting high, then in a case of the munchies, preheating the oven, and then passing out. Subsequently leaving the oven on and falling asleep overnight (GASP 😶) I was very….. Displeased with this.

So he was given one last chance, which he broke the next night, when he turned the stove, on put his food on, and went upstairs to his room to play Xbox, I noticed it when the smoke alarms went off, he didn’t. (there was a smoke alarm, going off, IN HIS ROOM).

Being quite upset 😡 I threw his food out the window and shut the stove off. He came down half an hour later (after his game) and was confused that the food he had left burning on the stove was missing. I asked him why he left the stove on unsupervised, and his response to this day astonishes me! He said “cooking isn’t something that needs supervision.” (In case you didn’t know, cooking **IS** something that needs supervision)

His lease was then terminated.

So by leaving the 8,000 Watt oven on overnight it would effectively double my power bill for the week. Doing so 5 times in a week would be the same as 1 month of regular usage!

His rent sure wasn’t covering an extra $400 per month.

So not only has Sense saved $4,800 per year. It has also helped to remove a dangerous Fire Hazard (renter) from probably burning down my house as I lay sleeping in it. I have no problem saying, Sense has literally saved my life.