A few thoughts from a new user

Share your Sense stories
1

I have been using Sense (solar) since January 1st. I feel that the pace of device discovery has been pleasing. I feared it would take months to discover as many devices as my unit has since install. The first few days I was anxious that my house wiring and power provision would be incompatible. Soon Sense was reporting new device detections several times a week.

At this time I have 15 devices on my list. Two have not be positively identified by me. There were two others that I deleted, and one deleted by support but re-discovered since. There is one device (a seed germination heating pad) that was deleted by sense, then rediscovered. It stuck after I again identified and filled in the product information.

I adopted Hue lighting and this has helped. I only have 5 bulbs in use at this time.

Today I have adopted the mantra “Sense gets better over time.” Support has deleted a few devices because of inaccurate detection, only because I reported a problem. They have not always deleted a device when I report, Sometimes they try a tweek and that device is reported better. As I said, only once has Sense reported that it deleted a device when I had not reported or interacted with support.

I deleted my Central Heat. It worked really remarkably well for about 8 days, but then started indicating On when I knew it was not on. I did some testing and interacted with support. Last interaction I actually unplugged the furnace when it reported on but was not running. Sense reported Off. Several days later I tried this again and it Sense did not report Off. I left it unplugged and 40 minute later Sense still showed it as On. I deleted the device.

I have has similar fits with the Dishwasher, and deleted it this week. I get false reports on my Oven and Instant Pot fairly often. These are very brief and infrequent so I have decided to tolerate them and let Sense get better.

I hope these thoughts are useful to new users: We tend to think in binary terms and our system of education often reinforces binary thinking. Something is either on or off and you can confirm this by looking at it. True/False, On/Off, 1/0. Out of the box I realize that I both want and expected a binary system in Sense. It may take some time for Sense to satisfy those expectations. While the quick detections are gratifying, some do not prove useful over time.

2

On another front: The Hue lamp in my hallway is on a wall switch sensor and switches on when we traverse the hall in the dark. Often it still shows as On for 10-12 minutes after it has actually turned off. I could understand if Sense only polled the Hue hub every 2 minutes. But 10-12 minutes? The Hue lamps in the Living and Dining rooms no longer indicate on for more than ~30 seconds after I switch them off (by hand). They more often indicate off immediately.

3

I’m also new with a total of 21 detections of which 17 are still active. My start date was January 15th.
Here is what I wanted to tell you. A lot of the most reliable detections have gone to pot. They don’t report accurately anymore, if at all. There are also confusions between others wher the wrong device is reported. I just want you to be aware and ready in case this happens for you.
It’s very frustrating.
I’m following the advice in the many topics from users and especially moderators on being patient.
I’m not saying what’s happening for me currently is necessarily bad, just part of the process I guess.

I’ve done a little deleting but I’m trying to give it time. It’s been about 8 days since my last detection and these problems began.