New to the Sense-community…I installed it a week ago after watching the tech for over a year…so far I am relatively pleased but I have a question (well a couple, but will start here)…It has already discovered a number of devices (furnace burner, water heater, garage door opener, 3 fridges)…my question is with my dryer. It is a relatively new LG electric dryer-it detected the dryer, but seems only to have detected the brains of it-not the heater elements, which look to be still running in ‘other’. I would have thought that the algorithm would compare simultaneous draw triggers over time and pair them as a single device? Since it is in ‘other’, I cannot merge the devices, but I cannot get the isolated data of the elements which is the most important part! Any guidance on how this should work? As I am only a week into the install, do I need more historical data?
As an aside, I will give this initial rating- Bought through Amazon and shipped on time and arrived on time. While I am not an actual licensed electrician, I have done enough work in and around panels under guidance to install the device myself- took about 15 minutes and was finished calibrating in a couple hours…so far it has been great!
Heating elements are probably the easiest things for Sense to recognize (and occasionally confuse!). I would guess your dryer would be detected within the next month or so, provided it’s getting used 1-2X/week.
After it’s detected, you’ll have the option to combine the heating element with whatever else is discovered (mine picks up the tumble motor, for example). In the device settings somewhere there’s the option to merge one device with another. Been a while since I’ve used it.
That’s interesting - my dryer’s motor has been detected but I am still waiting for the heating element to be detected. Once I get the heating element I’ll be able to play with the “combine” function. The dryer gets used plenty - about 5 loads a week.
Just for input and consideration, my experience with Sense (since Dec 2017) is that patience often sorts out issues. The tech support people are relative good after patience runs out. My dryer heating elements were detected early on, but the motor that turns the drum is still in the ‘other category’. I suspect this may be due to the characterizes of the dryer and your household.
Also, like you, I installed my own Sense unit and it also went without issue. I have 15 devices identified and of that, three are still mysteries. I also (like some others on this community have reported) have seen confusion with heating element devices (oven, dryer, kiln). The tech support staff have been involved and it is still in the ‘have patience’ stage of being worked out.
One of the advantages of Sense that are not talked about much is the ability to walk around with your Sense meter on and find your own devices based on observations. The best example I have found is my four year old plasma TV. I find the usage varies by up to 200 Watts by what is displayed on my TV screen! Dark movies take less juice than bright or white movies. I also have identified some lights that are candidates for being swapped out with LED’s. Sense has not identified any of these lights or TV, but it does not take a machine learning expert to see them on the meter.
Wish we could find out the denominator number of homes with Sense installed. I wonder if the make & model of the appliance and it’s availability in the data from other users makes that much of a difference in detection time. I’ve only had Sense since February 1 and the clothes dryer was one of the first detected of the 11 known I have so far. Whirlpool Cabrio, one of the common ones you see at Lowe’s, Costco and Best Buy. It would be interesting to search an online detected devices database created by Sense.