The Carbon card (under Dashboard) tells you how much carbon your utility is using to provide energy at a given time. Carbon Intensity (CI) tells you when the electricity coming into your house is the cleanest (or dirtiest).
Renewable resources like solar or wind use very little carbon, and though natural gas is a carbon source, it uses much less carbon that coal or oil uses. Your utility will likely use different mixes of fuel resources throughout the day. The higher the CI measurement, the higher the carbon emissions and the greater the related environmental impact.
Sense forecasts the Carbon Intensity for your region so you can see when the carbon impact of your energy use will be lowest and then choose when to do things like run your dishwasher, do a load of laundry, charge your car, or use other high-energy devices whose timing can be shifted. We measure CI in pounds per kWh starting from nearly 0 and ranging up to approximately 2 lbs/kWh. The average CI across the U.S. is 1, which is close to the CI score for natural gas.
In some regions, the Carbon Intensity line will be relatively flat: this indicates that your carbon impact will be mostly consistent throughout the day, so you don’t need to worry much about when to do high-energy tasks. (However, you can still reduce your carbon impact by using less energy overall.)
How do I use the Carbon report?
Take a look at how your usage compares to the carbon intensity line for previous days to find areas for improvement.
You can use Carbon Intensity to minimize the carbon emissions of the electricity you use every day.
To access your Carbon Intensity:
- Navigate to Dashboard > Carbon > Carbon Intensity
- If the text reads “Enter your postal code to enable”, you must tap the card and enter in your zip code to display relevant data.
- If the text reads “No data available for your area”, Carbon data is not available for your region at this time. You can hide the card by tapping “Hide Card”.
Once you access the Carbon Intensity card, you'll see several different data points available:
- Regional Carbon Intensity (red line)
- Regional Forecasted Carbon Intensity (dotted line)
- Regional Carbon Intensity in Real-time (‘Now’ overlay)
- US Avg. CI on the Y-Axis (~1.0 lbs/kWh) shows you how your regional CI compares to the national average.
- Usage and Solar production for day, week, month, year and billing.
- “Your Avg CI (lbs/kWh)” for your home. ‘Your Avg CI’ lets you know how well you optimize loads during hours with high or low carbon intensity. To learn more about Carbon Intensity, check here.
You can also:
- Look at your historical average Carbon Intensity
- Selecting ‘WK’, ‘MO’ or ‘YR’ will show “Your Avg. CI (lbs/kWh)” for the selected time frame.
- Scroll down to see the Fuel Mix providing electricity to your home in real-time
Frequently asked questions
How are carbon intensity and fuel mix related?
Carbon intensity varies depending on the fuel sources that utilities use to generate energy over the course of a day, week, month, year, or billing period. In the Sense app, you see the aggregate score for all the fuel sources in your region at any given point in time, as well as the proportions of each fuel in the mix. The CI score varies dynamically.
Where does the carbon data come from and how often is it updated?
We’re using Singularity Energy’s Carbonara platform to update carbon intensity data every 5 minutes.
Is this feature available on the web?
No, currently only a mobile version is available.
Why isn’t carbon data available for my area?
Sense uses grid-emission data provided by regional balancing authorities across the U.S. Many of these regions report data in five-minute intervals, but others have a significant delay. Today, the Carbon Intensity feature is only available for regions that report data in nearly real-time.
How does this work with community solar or clean energy programs through my utility?
Community solar and clean energy programs use carbon offsets to reduce the subscriber’s overall carbon emissions, but electricity is still delivered by the utility provider. When you use a kWh of electricity, it’s being generated by the fuel sources that are powering the grid at that moment. Even if you participate in a clean energy or solar program, the Carbon Intensity feature can help you reduce your carbon impact by using energy when the least carbon intensive fuel sources are powering the regional electricity grid.
What if I have solar?
The carbon intensity feature does not account for your solar. It focuses on energy that’s being produced by the grid.