Every wanted to know exactly what in your home uses how much energy and when? I did and found a fantastic solution by watching TV one afternoon. True story.
We had solar panels installed when we had to replace our roof a few years ago. When we did, we wanted to know what appliances in our home were power hungry little devils and which were efficient little angels. After all, when the State allows you to sell back extra power to the grid, you get efficient fast.
That's where the Sense Home Energy Monitor came in.
I first saw it on an episode of This Old House and they showed how the Sense not only tracks energy usage and solar production (if you purchase the additional module) but it learns what devices you have in your home and lets you track them independently in real time. That's those red and orange circles on the image above show how much energy is being used. They pop up and down and you can see spikes in usage.
Like many families we had a general idea of our energy usage, after all we got a bill every month, then wondered why all our LED lightbulbs weren't making that much of a difference. Turns out we were on the right track in the wrong race.
Using the Sense app we could turn on certain devices, then after a little while (appliances were almost immediate, the plug in cars took a few weeks) a little circle pops up on the app showing exactly how much energy a device is using.
As I looked at the app, proud I might add, the garage keg fridge and AC kicked on.
Oh my lord.
We were able to track down random light bulbs still running at 60 and 100 watts as well as use the data to influence purchasing decisions, costing us a few bucks up front but saving us money each day moving forward.
The Sense is also handy for the babysitter or kiddos at home swearing up one side and down another that, "no Dad, we didn't watch TV." Instead of having to put a hand on it, I simply glance at the Sense app and see that, in fact, the TV has not turned on since yesterday. Well done kids. Although I see you used the toaster oven...how was dinner?
I highly recommend Sense not just for their device but that they respond and actually act on app feedback. We all know having a great app with no support is pretty much useless.
You can find the Sense on Amazon through this affiliate link. If you need to learn more about what that means, please visit my Resource page for a detailed description.
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