From the App — Compare Your Energy Use

Sense is committed to helping people understand and monitor the way electricity is being used throughout their home, and so we are pleased to announce that we have improved the Sense app’s Compare feature.

The Compare reports offer peer-to-peer insights. You can use this report to understand your home’s usage in the relation to other homes. Such knowledge can both motivate and reassure you as you get to know your usage and, where possible, look for choices that can help save more energy – and money.

What is the Compare feature?

Use the Compare reports to discover whether your home’s usage is within a range that compares favorably to neighboring homes.

How does it work?

As you use energy throughout the month, you’ll likely notice peaks or dips in your usage. These changes in usage can be contextual (changes in the weather) or specific (you hosted your in-laws for a long weekend or you went away for a week). Compare reports help you identify how those peaks or dips are compare to other homes. They can also help you zero in on inefficiencies in your home’s usage.

With our most recent release, comparisons are more clear and helpful because of three new features:

1. 1. 1. Comparison Summaries provide a clear statement that helps you understand how you are doing and how many Watts your home’s devices have used so far in that month. If it’s useful, you may want to dig into the Usage summary above the Compare report to refine comparisons to days, weeks, months, years, or invoice periods.
      2. Dimension Chips define the parameters we are using to define “similar” homes (zip code, square footage). To generate this comparison, you’re able to add basic information about your home in the Home Details (Settings > My Home). That information helps us tailor your comparison. We will continue to add in points of comparison automatically, so no action is needed from you. 
      3. Location Control allows you to toggle between different locations to broaden or refine your comparison. By default, comparisons are generated based on “all Sense homes” (all homes in the U.S. that use Sense), and you can now choose which comparison you want to see:
      •   My Area shows all Sense homes in your zip code
      •   My State shows Sense homes in your state
      •   Anywhere will let you compare to all Sense homes

When to use Compare

Use Compare as much as you want! It will take about a month for Sense to collect enough information about your home to generate a full comparison. Until your Sense account has collected more than two days of consumption data, you will not see the Compare reports at all. Instead, the Sense app will remind you to wait for more data. After two days, comparisons are unlocked and will improve gradually through the first month as more days of data are collected. Once your usage hits 30 days of consumption data, the comparison will be based on a rolling 30 days. 

Over time, you will certainly want to return to Compare reports as your home’s usage with the seasons or after notable spikes in use (or lack of use). You will also want to use Compare reports after you make significant changes to your home’s device usages, like adding an EV charger or a new pool pump, or replacing the furnace with a heat pump.

Just as your home evolves, the Compare reports will also evolve, and as more homes become Sense-enabled, and your comparisons will become increasingly informative.

Resources
Learn: AC energy use comparison
How do I download my data?
Learn about Sense Compare