Looking for a recommendation, I have purchased one unit and 14 CTs. If i made a one for one i would need 22 ports (if i used a single CT on the doubles and us the doubled option. Id like to see if I can combine the rooms to fit everything onto one controller. I have read that you can do this by using a headphone splitter and connect 2 CTs to one jack. Has anyone done this? Example, can I use 2 CTs, one on ACupstairs and AC downstairs and use the double option? Or would it be recommended that any double breaker should get its own port? Im not adverse to getting 2 base units, but like the single pane view. Open to opinions.
I have the following breaker configuration.
Left Side
2 x 40 Range
2 x 30 Dryer
2 x 30 Water heater
20 Kitchen GFI
20 Washer
20 Microwave
20 Bath GFI
15 OIS R&C(?)
15 Dishwasher
2 x 25 AC Downstairs
2 x 30 pool subpanel
Right side
2x 60 Heat upstairs
15 bed 2 and 3
15 lights
15 master bed receptacles
15 master bed lights and smokes
15 game lights
15 bed 4
15 living room
20 Dining room, kitchen GFCI
2 x 45 heat down
2 x 20 AC upstairs
IMHO it’s a rare residence that needs more than a dozen measurements to understand everything that’s going on. My advice is to triage your loads and select what are both interesting and variable. A first cut might be:
2 - mains
1 water heater
1 AC downstairs
1 AC upstairs
1 Heat upstairs
2(1) Dryer
1 Heat downstairs
2 (1) pool subpanel
2(1) Range
1 Dishwasher, Microwave, Kitchen GFI, Dining room, kitchen GFI
1 Bedroom receptacles and lights
0 computed unmeasured stuff (mains - sum(loads))
Where I note 2(1) I mean you can use 2 or use a combiner strategy.
The heat is a biggie, so I’d like to know more: Is it resistance heat? baseboards, radiant panels or furnace?
At the end of the day, this will give you solid measurements of everything that’s significant. The kitchen combo will tell you the total for all those loads. If you look at a daily plot, you will be able to see the individual loads better than a Sense would ever sort it out.
I really doubt you would ever regret not getting a second unit.
Thanks, can you or someone comment on how many CTs you can use with the headphone splitter method? i could combine 3 or 4? I do not have enough slack to loop forwards and backwards to use one CT for multiple circuits
Heat is electric, im in nc so it doesnt get terribly cold.
You can combine any number of CTs to the extent that you can find splitters that do it. The limitations are:
The CTs must all be the same model and capable of the total aggregate amps that you expect.
They must each be oriented so as to be in phase, so CTs on one leg would need to be oriented opposite to CTs on circuits of the other leg.
Examples:
Three 20A circuits with total expected Amps of less than 50A can be combined using three identical 50A CTs. Or two 50A CTs with one circuit on one and two circuits (same leg) running through the other.
Using two CTs for a 50A double breaker, the total Amps is potentially 100A so you would need two identical 100A CTs combined (or both conductors through one 100A CT in opposite directions).
There are advantages to combining conductors into one CT. Cost is one, but also the CTs are working at full range.
If it’s baseboards, they are probably 240V resistance loads so most likely one CT with “double”.