As a trusted solar panel installer in Calgary, Panel Upgrade Experts encourages homeowners to actively monitor their solar energy production and household electricity use. One of the most effective tools for this is the Sense energy monitoring application, which provides real-time insights into your home’s power generation and consumption.
What Is Sense?
Sense is a smart, machine-learning home energy monitoring device. It connects directly to your home’s electrical panel to measure how much electricity your appliances and devices are using in real time. By identifying patterns in your power consumption, Sense helps you pinpoint inefficiencies, detect potential problems, and lower your utility bills.
How Does Sense Work?
The Sense monitor is installed inside your electrical panel by a licensed electrician. For homes with solar panels, the system includes an additional set of sensors that connect to your inverter wiring to measure both solar generation and household usage. Once installed, Sense begins detecting the flow of electricity within about 30 minutes, gathering high-resolution data every second.
Data Collection and Appliance Detection
Sense uses machine learning to recognize the unique “electronic signatures” of appliances and devices. It excels at identifying high-consumption items such as water heaters, dryers, toasters, and air conditioners. Smaller, low-wattage devices like laptops or game consoles are more difficult to identify precisely, but Sense can sometimes detect them if all other appliances are turned off during setup.
Monitoring Through the Smartphone App
The Sense monitor connects to your Wi-Fi network and uploads data securely to the cloud. You can view all your information through the Sense smartphone app, available on iOS and Android. The dashboard displays your power usage as interactive circles that vary in size and color depending on each appliance’s draw and category, giving you an instant visual overview of your home’s energy behavior.
How Homeowners Benefit from Sense
Sense provides detailed, real-time feedback on both solar generation and household electricity consumption. By knowing exactly where your energy is going, you can make smarter choices to reduce waste and improve efficiency.
The monitor can also alert you to potential equipment issues. For example, it may detect when a device is drawing power even while turned off, or when a sump pump or space heater is left running unnecessarily. For solar homeowners, Sense tracks exactly how much energy your panels produce at any given moment, allowing you to compare generation to usage and maximize your solar investment.
Using the historical charts and performance summaries, you can view daily, weekly, or monthly energy profiles that help refine your habits over time. When combined with a properly designed solar system from Panel Upgrade Experts, Sense becomes a powerful tool to lower your energy costs year-round.
Get the Most From Your Solar Investment
If you’re ready to improve your energy awareness, consider pairing your solar installation with a home energy monitor like Sense. It’s an effective way to take control of your power use and make the most of every kilowatt your panels generate.
Learn more about the Sense energy monitor on their official website: https://sense.com.
