There are two ways to get the Sense Home App. The first is with a Sense Home Energy Monitor, available to purchase now on sense.com. The second is with a Sense-enabled electric Smart Meter, which will begin to roll out in select locations across the United States. We’re partnering with a growing number of electricity providers nationwide to get Sense installed on next-generation Smart Meters. You might be eligible to use Sense if you’ve recently gotten a new Smart Meter installed in your home and were told by your provider that it’s capable of running our app.

Our goal is to have Sense running on Smart Meters in millions of homes throughout the United States by the end of the decade.

Sense is an iOS and Android mobile app that helps you easily manage your home energy use directly from your phone. It uses software that analyzes your home’s electrical currents over 1 million times each second, giving you a real-time picture of your home’s energy use, as well as identifying specific appliances by recognizing their unique electrical signature.

From day one, Sense provides a real-time view of your overall energy use, with tips on how to save and be more efficient. It works in the background to automatically identify common devices that cycle on and off frequently. Over time, Sense gets smarter, telling you which devices are used, how often, and for how long. These details empower you to find ways to save energy, and money.

These are some examples of how Sense helps you save:

• Right from the beginning, you’ll be able to see how much energy your whole home consumes, helping you track and understand if you’re using more energy than the average home in your area during peak, and off-peak hours.
• As Sense works in the background, you’ll be able to tell Sense about your home and the devices you use most. Sense will provide you with helpful insight into how much energy these common devices use, giving you tips to help you save from the start.
• Many devices in your home consume energy even when not in use. Sense helps you identify these sources of energy waste, giving you insight into which should be replaced or upgraded.
• In the summer, you might measure how much less electricity is used by fans than air conditioners and decide to incorporate attic or ceiling fans into your home’s cooling system to save money, while staying comfortable.
• Some devices like sump pumps and dehumidifiers cycle on and off throughout the day, but can get stuck “on” causing high bills or issues with the device. With Sense, you can see if devices are running more than expected — you can even set an alert to take action right away.

We’re partnering with a growing number of electricity providers nationwide to get Sense installed on next-generation Smart Meters. Our first deployment will be in partnership with National Grid in Central Upstate New York, beginning this fall. We are actively working to develop partnerships with providers across the United States and will provide updates as new Sense-enabled Smart Meters roll out.

You’re placing your trust in us, when you invite us into your homes. We don’t take this lightly. We’re committed to protecting your privacy and safety by granting you full control over the information you choose to share, while relentlessly striving to ensure your data is secure. This involves several precautions:

• All communications between the Sense-enabled electric meter, the Sense cloud servers, and Sense Home app are encrypted. We use AES 128-bit encryption and TLS/SSL (HTTPS).
• Sense stores all data in cloud servers using Amazon Web Services (AWS). Your home’s device data is collected and processed by automated systems that power the Sense Home app, send notifications, and generate email reports. Access to these production systems is limited to a very small group of Sense engineering team members.
• Personally identifiable information (PII), like email address and account information, is stored in systems that are physically separate from application data. Sense Support employees will, on occasion, need to access some of your data to troubleshoot an issue, but we will always ask you for permission before we do.
• Sense never shares any of the accumulated data with 3rd parties unless a user explicitly opts-in. You could be offered such a choice on a case-by-case basis, such as a utility wanting to provide discounts/services to its customers in exchange for sharing limited power data.

Yes, getting the Sense Home App and your smart meter connected to your home’s Wi-Fi is needed to provide you with the powerful, personalized home energy insights you expect from us. Sense’s Wi-Fi requirements are no different from many other IoT devices you may already have in your home, such as having a modern Wi-Fi router and strong signal strength between your electric smart meter and the router. If you want more particular information on Wi-Fi requirements, visit help.sense.com.

Yes, it is. Neither Sense nor your utility charge subscription fees to use the Sense Home App, and we won’t sell your personal data. Energy programs in your state allow Sense to be paid when you reduce your energy use or shift the times you use your appliances for when energy is less in demand. You save money, your utility can better manage the grid, and everyone benefits. Plus, the environment benefits too, which makes us very happy. In fact, it’s our mission.

It may be surprising, but your electricity provider is actually incentivized to help you save energy. A provider does not always make more profit by selling more electricity. By encouraging energy efficiency, the utility works to ensure grid stability and avoid brownouts. Sense is an important tool to help you identify choices you can make to save electricity throughout your home now and all year, as seasons—and usage—change.