Any experience with "Sense Power Monitor" ?

[sw_ross]

https://sense.com/

Saw it first on This Old House. Been seeing more of it since then.
Keeps track of power usage by various devices in the home.
Has CT's that attach to L1 and L2 and it gradually "learns" the houses devices based on time of day usage, etc.
Data is accessed via app on phone.

 

[hbiss]

We've talked about it here before a couple of times. Just another techie toy to waste money on. It's not as smart as they want you to believe.

-Hal

 

[Adamjamma]

it only allows you to graph usage at different times of day, not specify appliances. If you want to track individual appliances you need extra smaller clamps or toroids around the various conductors... each running to a sensor.
They all work just like your clamp meter but in a smaller package and permanently installed.
Some techies like to run them hooked into small computer systems to log everything... have not actually seen the need but to follow certain gear for testing is sometimes fun and they make small units that fit in wall plug spot as well, to monitor specifically what is plugged in to a spot. I have used that in past jobs to check types of equipment made by companies, and to show differences between light bulb styles...

 

[AdrianWint]

These devices seem to becoming very popular here in the UK. Some seem to be (incorrectly) sold as "smart meters".

The ones I have seen have a few drawbacks:

i). They only measure the current drawn. They do not sense the voltage (they assume it). So really the display isn't Watts but VA.

ii). Since they don't sense the voltage they are unable to determine the power factor and hence correctly cope with non-resistive loads. The units I have seen tend to over measure when presented with a real inductive/resistive load - they have to assume that all the current goes into doing work (Watts) and that none is reactive.

On the feed to my home I have both a "power monitor" and a true multi-function power meter (takes a voltage reference as well as a current). At low loads (<5A or so, mostly inductive/capacitive eg. PCs, TVs etc) the "power monitor" tends to give a reading which may be out by as much as 25%