The updated Detailed Usage views in the Sense Home app give you a clearer picture of how your energy use changes over time—both overall and by individual device. It's a helpful way to keep an eye on devices that use a lot of energy or to spot unusual changes in your home's usage patterns, especially as you compare one period of time to another.
The views allow you to dig into what’s driving your energy consumption. This article describes how to navigate the views and ends by linking to a blog where one Sense user discusses the process he developed to save on his energy bill.
The Basics
Detailed Usage shows historical usage at daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or billing cycle granularity.
Detailed Usage - Month View - Dollars
Detailed Usage - Month View - Kilowatts
The percentages in the device breakdown are based on total usage for the period shown on the chart.
Each bar on the usage chart represents an interval within the selected period:
- On Daily view, each bar represents an hour
- On Weekly, Monthly, and Billing Cycle views, each bar represents one day
- On Year view, each bar represents a month
- Individual devices with usage recorded during the period shown on the chart are listed in the Device breakdown below the chart
To change the unit your usage amounts are displayed in, tap the dollar bill icon or the kWh "bolt" icon (top right corner near the calendar icon) and select your preference. If you don't see an icon, check in Settings > Electricity Info to confirm that "Show Cost" is enabled.
The Details
How to Navigate the Chart
Scroll left or right to view the prior or next period of the same length (so, scroll left on Month view to see the previous month)
Tap on an interval in the chart to see the next smallest interval that contains the one they tapped:
- In Year view, tapping a month leads to that month
- In Month or Billing Cycle view, tapping a day leads to the week that contains that day
- In Week view, tapping a day leads to that day
- In Day view, hours are not tappable
Use the calendar icon in the top bar to navigate to any period type.
Device Breakdown
The device breakdown includes any device with recorded usage during the period shown on the chart, sorted by percent of total usage for the same period.
With Heat Pump Selected<> </>
- Select a device on the breakdown by tapping it. To de-select a device and return to the main view of total usage, tap the selected device again.
- The selected device moves to the top of the breakdown, and expands to show additional details about that device’s total usage in $ (if enabled)
- The chart will highlight the selected device’s usage
- The summary will show the total usage for that device out of total usage for the period shown, for example: $22 / $38
- Tapping the arrow to the right of the selected device in the breakdown will bring you to the device details page, should you wish to learn more about that device
Note: In some cases, usage for a device may be rounded down to $0 and 0 kWh - in these cases, the device’s usage is <.5¢ and <.05 kWh. “Other” is always sorted to the bottom of the list.
Crosshairs Mode
To see details about a specific interval on the chart, tap and hold to enable crosshairs mode
Crosshairs mode with Heat Pump selected
The selected interval will be highlighted on the chart, and the summary will show details for that interval with a link to jump to detailed usage for that month or day
- If a device is selected when entering crosshairs mode, the details in the summary will reflect that device’s usage
- To view a different interval’s details, tap or slide over different bars on the chart
- To exit crosshairs mode, tap outside the chart in the summary bar, device breakdown, or top app bar
Device Details Card
On Device Details, the usage card shows either the current month or billing cycle depending on the user’s settings
- Users may scroll horizontally to view previous periods on the card
- To access other time periods and features such as crosshairs mode, tap the upper right corner of the card to access the full detailed usage feature.
Compare Previous Usage Card
From the calendar menu, you can select between no comparison (default) and Compare Previous.
Note: When changing the period length (to switch from month to week, for example) comparison is automatically turned off to avoid confusion about what day(s) the comparison data comes from. When you've selected the desired start date and period, just choose the comparison option once again.
In comparison view, you can access all of the other features of detailed usage, including crosshairs and selecting a device.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. How do I switch between cost in dollars and the number of kWh being used?
You can toggle between dollars and kWh in your Usage views by:
First, go to Settings > Electricity Info and toggle to turn on Show Cost , then
Then, you can toggle back and forth directly within the Dashboard > Show Usage view by tapping on the dollar bill icon or the "bolt" to see the other
2. Why don’t my devices add up to 100%?
The primary reason for this is likely rounding - the values you see in the app are rounded to a consistent format, and at times that makes it impossible to have those numbers add to 100% without impacting the integrity of the data.
3. Why do some devices show 0%, $0, and/or 0 kWh?
When you see a device on your detailed usage page, it means it had some usage recorded during the time shown on the chart. If the usage values for that device are showing 0, it means that the device’s usage was less than .05%, .5¢, and/or .05 kWh.
4. My solar no longer shows up here - is it broken?
No, it’s not broken. We’ve made the decision to maintain separate views for detailed usage data and solar production vs usage data. You can view your solar production compared to your usage on the Solar page.
5. The web app looks different. Why?
We recommend that you use the Sense Home app on your mobile iOS or Android device for the best experience. The web app has not been updated from the legacy usage chart, and is still using an older endpoint. This means the style of the data on the web will be different, and, as the updated version on mobile addressed several underlying bugs, there may be slight differences in the data itself.
Resources
For more information on how to use these views to save, see our blog: "One User's Method For Getting the Most Out of Sense"