Heat 3 = Toaster.. Or does it? Average run time 26 minutes!

Technical Questions
1

Had a device detected on 2/27 named Heat 3… It suggested it was the Toaster… Today I finally got around to verifying that it is the toaster (turned on, watched the bubble appear, turned off, disappeared)…

Then I decided to look at my notes…

Average Watts:855
Average Runtime: 26 Minutes

Any ideas for me on this? Thanks!

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2

Here’s what I’d do…

  • set notifications so it alerts you when it thinks the toaster is ON
  • assumie it’s also picking up something else with similar power consumption (but longer on) as the same device
  • when you get alerted, falsely, that the toaster is on, flag it in the app as Not On (via Device / Manage / Report a Problem)
  • (and this step is less important for now) see if you can identify what is actually triggering it.

The last step is just for interest and also something you can include in an e-mail to support@sense.com. It may be that the average is a software bug in the initial detection side of things. Or it may be that there are two similar devices and Sense needs the additional input to the automatic process (the Not On report) to help them be identified separately.

Hope that helps

Dave

1 Like
3

I’ve been using sense about a month now and am in no way an expert. I’m still learning a lot about it but I’ve noticed toasters and coffee makers commonly both use around 800 to 900 watts and their startup heat signatures seem to be similar. My coffee pot was detected early on as it’s used every morning. My toaster is only used once or twice a week. But the 1st time I used my toaster after my coffee maker was detected, sense didn’t seem to know the difference. With a 26 min run time, yours may actually be your coffee maker…

4

You may want to either leave it as heat 3 or name it but set the “this is a guess” switch then use both coffee maker and toaster for a couple weeks at the same time and see if sense sorts them out on its own.

I’ve tried the “device not on” for some things but unless you’re really sure, that method might make it worse. I think sense can see more detail of the signature than we can and it seems to adjust itself over time.

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5

Thanks mate… Great advice.

6

OK so here’s what it is… The hair dryer and toaster appear to be the same for Sense… So which do I name it??

It identified it as 1 device but when I turn my toaster on/off it shows up and goes away and same for the hair dryer…

7

Going to plan!

Now switch the hair dryer on and, when the bubble is displayed, go to the toaster device, settings, manage, report a problem and click “device not on”.

That should help Sense distinguish between the two - in this case there are differences. The heating elements may be very similar, but the motor signature in the dryer, albeit a small part of the power usage, should help Sense sort this out.

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8

So I should keep the toaster as is? I’ve reported the toaster as not on when it’s been the air steamer numerous times (thought it was the hair dryer, but it’s the air steamer / iron)…

It still shows up every time as toaster…

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