Cables were fine, but not
Cables were fine, but not needed. Sense review: 2.5
stars. Not quite bad, but not OK either.
When it works, it does fine, but it took quite a while to get it to work. The AI that senses what your loads are, is a bit intrusive and it may take months or longer before the loads are figured out, if ever.
Before solar, the sense system decided to reverse the polarities of the measured grid currents. I responded by reversing the transformers so that it would read correctly, but was told not to make changes as it confuses the AI (which is easily confused...). I am a retired engineer who had installed all of the breaker panels in the home as well so some of the circuits so I didn't need to have an electrician to install or make changes.
This was why I hadn't wanted to do a full reset since you then have to start all over. None the less decided to do a reset, since it still wasn't working properly following the change over to solar. I bought the flex version prior to having solar. Once solar was working, I requested change over to solar mode. The flex version has the exact same hardware and cost as 'solar.'
Subsequently the AI or a tech decided that my sensors were reversed and it swapped things so that house loads were not displaying (negative values), though the solar was correct at that time.
Following the reset and the solar 'calibration,' things were briefly better; correct polarities on both grid power and solar power, until the AI (?) again decided that my current transformers (unchanged, recommended orientation) were backwards and it reversed the polarity of the grid currents, so that energy usage was no longer displayed properly, and I'd lost the prior history for no benefit from the reset.
There only appears to be much delayed e-mail only tech support. I haven't found how to talk to an actual person who has the ability to correct issues. Like so many companies, rather than properly supporting the product, it appears they've gone to relying upon their users to provide guidance to correct problems. My problems were ones that could only be remedied by not having the AI change things or tech support correcting the problems created by the AI.
I think their AI kept getting confused as when I'm not making solar power, the inverter, and a few small continuous loads on that circuit would show as 'negative' solar power which is normally a positive value. Even without other loads the inverter draws a couple Watts. Later they got better about not assuming everything was right. It is finally working properly now after considerable issues, iterations, and delays in the Sense system getting it right. The AI or a tech would try something, and I'd lose another day to hear via e-mail that it was now fixed, when it wasn't. Eventually it was bumped up a level or two and dealt with to get everything working. The friend who uses a Sense system for monitoring his more standard solar system (direct feed to his main panel), noted that he won't be recommending it to others after this either.
My impression is that the 'mains' value is now: Mains = Solar + Grid. Normally the 'Mains' value would just be the grid measured value. Thus the Grid value, becomes; Grid = Mains - Solar. The system only measures 'Grid' and 'Solar' Circuit that includes other loads so it isn't as accurate as if I fed solar power from the inverter alone to the main breakers. When making more solar power than house usage, power is exported to the grid (a negative value for 'Grid' power). Mains / Grid power for power consumption is a positive value, whereas Solar power is generation is positive, but negative when it represents consumption.
The house 'Mains' value representing consumption is itself always a positive value. This may also correct for the double counting associated with the loads on the solar circuit.: It deducts the negative wattage on the solar CT's from the grid value, since the 'base load' on this circuit is already shown in the grid monitoring CTs. It is a bit confusing, but when only consuming power with no solar input the grid value will represent entire house loads only, including the loads on the solar current transformers (CTs) and these negatives are deducted from the grid value so they aren't double counted for actual house consumption excluding those from the solar circuit.
Though many people have a dedicated line to receive the solar power, my solar power is fed into a shared, but lightly used 50A circuit. My ground mounted solar power feed is at the other end of the home from where the meter was located. Direct solar feed would have been a considerable and unnecessary expense. Understandably, the solar power value underestimates the total solar power due to the other loads, but I can refer to the inverter's phone app or web page to get these values. This experience has also prompted me to go ahead and run the cables needed to have the inverter collect the grid measured power (two additional CTs). So far things have been working OK for about 2 weeks now.