Sense Virtual Energy Assessments to Help New Yorkers Reduce Energy Bills

Sense has been selected by New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) to help New Yorkers spend less on utility bills and increase the comfort and efficiency of their homes. Sense home intelligence will be used for virtual energy assessments that identify ways to increase home energy efficiency, reduce peak electrical demand, and lower utility bills in a program planned for 300 homes across the state.

The award-winning Sense technology uses innovative machine learning to analyze energy usage in the home. In the Sense app, residents will see how appliances and other devices are using energy and find ways to make their homes more efficient, safer, and more reliable. In addition, the program will direct residents to contractors who can help them address issues, where appropriate.

Remote energy assessments reduce the time, effort, and in-person contact involved in evaluating homes to identify residential efficiency opportunities. Sense and NYSERDA support the development of safer work practices through remote-access and no-touch energy strategies that stimulate market activity and improve consumer engagement.

Over the long term and at scale, the Sense application, which is built into the next-generation Landis+Gyr Revelo® grid edge intelligent electric meters, offers the capability to streamline how home energy assessments are created, reduce their cost and complexity, and make it possible to reduce home visits so that more audits can be conducted, more safely. By analyzing the home’s energy usage, the remote assessments can identify homes that are less efficient and provide recommendations for improvements to homeowners.

This program will support Governor Kathy Hochul’s commitment to electrify at least one million homes and make a million more electrification-ready by improving their energy efficiency and upgrading their electrical systems to accommodate clean heating and cooling.

New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) established some of the nation’s most aggressive energy efficiency and decarbonization goals, but one of the challenges for New York utilities is to improve customer conversion rates for energy efficiency programs. The Sense app can be a force multiplier for utility energy efficiency programs and can also be used to encourage demand flexibility and adoption of electrified appliances. Customer engagement with the Sense app far surpasses utility emails or web portals. Sense users open the app an average of nine times per month and more than half stay actively engaged after 12 months. These high levels of app engagement can translate into higher program participation for utilities who offer the Sense app to customers.

Contractors interested in learning more about the program, including how they can participate are encouraged to contact Sense’s program team at NYHomeAssessment@sense.com.