The Solar screen of the Sense app (available if you have Sense Solar) shows five primary usage stats. Solar stats can be accessed by double-tapping the Solar bubble, tapping the solar production icon, or accessing the Solar card via the Dashboard screen.
To Enlarge this image, click here, or see below for the same info
Report image, top left
In the image on the left, you see at top the % of your house's usage that is currently powered by solar, along with info about the three contributors: Home, Solar, and Grid. These can be explained as follows.
% of usage currently powered by solar
- (Solar / To Grid) * 100 = % of usage from solar (rounded)
In this example:
- (253 / 472) * 100 = 53.60 rounded to 54%
Home
The wattage your home is currently producing.
To Grid
The live amount currently being sent to or from the grid.
Solar
The current amount of solar being produced.
Report image, right
The larger report image, on the right, shows several critical metrics, as follows:
Total usage
Your total, whole-home consumption for the period selected. The given cost is based on your billing rate, if provided.
- Production - Net Solar = Total Usage
In this example:
- 16.1 - (-33.1) - 49.2
Production
The raw amount of solar produced by your panels based on the current time constraint.
The $ metric is covered by your sell-back rate, if you've added that to the app.
To Grid
Your usage is pulled from the grid and not covered by solar. If you configure it, the given cost is based on your billing rate. This is measured by the amount of power pushed "upstream" into the Meter from the solar panels.
The $ metric is covered by your solar sell-back rate, if you've added that to the app.
From Grid
Your usage is pulled from the grid and not covered by solar.
The $ metric is covered by the price you pay your utility per kWh, and Sense uses either a default rate or a price you're added to the app.
Powered by Solar
The % Powered by Solar number refers to the amount of consumption that is being drawn from solar, relative to total consumption; however, this percentage does not consider solar energy sent to the grid. You can think of the Powered by Solar number as reflecting the percentage of your home's usage that was directly powered by your solar production.
The formula used to calculate the 'Powered by Solar' number is as follows:
- Total usage - From Grid = Powered by Solar raw number
- THEN
- (Powered by Solar raw number / Total Usage) * 100 = Powered by Solar % (rounded)
In this example:
- 13.8-11 = 2.8
- Then
- (13.8/11) *100=20.29%, Rounded to 20%
For example, if you consume 10kWh in the same period that you produce 10kWh of solar, you would be 100% powered by solar.
However, if you produced 10kWh during the daylight hours and consumed 5kWh during these hours plus another 5kWh at night (a total consumption of 10kWh for the day), only 5kWh would actually be covered by your solar production. The other 5kWh produced would be sent back to the grid as excess production. You would be 50% Powered By Solar for that day.
Net Solar (Production)
Net production (kWh) measures your total solar production minus consumption over a selected time period. It’s shown in kWh and as a percentage. If your solar production exceeds your usage, you’ll see a positive kWh value and a percentage over 100%. If your usage exceeds your solar production, you’ll see a negative kWh value and a percentage less than 100%.
- Net Production (kWh): Production - Total Usage
- Net Production (%): production / usage x 100
In this example:
- 2.9-13.8 = -10.9 kWh
- (2.9/13.8)*100 = 21%
Self Powered
Determines how much solar has enabled your home to fully self power. This means solar produces More than your home would take from the gird.
The Self Powered metric does not mean that you do not pull any energy from the grid. Hypothetically, your home could push 100% of its produced solar to the grid and still be 100% self-powered. This is because your home would have pushed back to the grid more energy than it pulled from the grid.
This means this number will not go under 0% or exceed 100%
- (Production/Total usage)*100 = Self Powered THEN (Round to the nearest integer) or stop measuring at 0 or 100%
In this Example
- (2.9/13.8)*100 = 21.014 Rounded to 21%