Specify devices that are currently unknown

To help with the data analysis, and to see what devices people are using (as opposed to what is already detected by Sense), what if users were able to enter a device’s attributes to essentially be a wish list of items they’d like to be eventually able to be seen.

Eg. Say I have a device like a TV that I’d like to be detected. I would enter information like

  1. Device Type: TV
  2. Manufacturer: BigName TV Manufacturer
  3. Model #: abc123xyz
  4. Voltage: 120V (as opposed to 240V)
  5. Which side of mains the power usage shows up on (Left or Right) (This might help in data analysis by halving the data to look at)
  6. Approximate power usage: 120 watts
  7. Standby power (if known): 6 watts

This would allow better data analysis for Sense by knowing what devices people wanted to track. Maybe it would even help if we tagged a device we put in at times we turn it on and turn it off.

While I realize that there is no guarantee that our device will be recognized somewhere down the road, I think it might help with both data analysis and popularity of specific devices.

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As an expansion on that approach, how about allowing the users to specify a date/time period when that device was turned on/off to provide insight into the data analysis. Presumably a user could wait until their house was showing a stable power draw then selectively turn on key devices they want to track and flag that to the data team to they could have the power profile for more known devices.

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Thanks for the suggestion, @miracj! We’re looking at ways that users can help to improve device detection. In that vein, the ability to provide more details on appliances is something we’re looking into!

@ronlh42, thank you as well! With that approach, there is the risk that the devices won’t be running in their usual context. We have a couple of blog articles that touch on this idea: How Sense Learns About Your Devices - Sense Blog & How Does Sense Detect My Devices? - Sense Blog

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This became a Released Feature in v27 in Jun 2019.
The Home Inventory / Home Details is currently used:

  • to help Sense improve device detection over time with some helpful clues
  • for the similar homes comparison also added in v27.