Hi folks, a number of people have asked about how long it takes Sense to detect things, and what they should expect. I wanted to post my history in a graphical form starting from a complete Device Reset I did on Aug 2, 2017. Detection was probably a little less refined back then, but still worked reasonably well in my house, though just like mileage, your results could vary greatly. The chart below shows the first detection of each device that Sense found, in terms of the number of days after my reset.
Yes, there is a device called Deleted Device. That’s a name I added for devices that were detected, then detected and now show up without Names in the export files. Just to be clear, some devices that I have deleted also have names in this graph.
I deleted a bunch of devices around day 514, but many were quickly rediscovered under new names that came direct from the crowdsourced names, rather than my naming. Hence the repletion of similar sounding devices.
Some devices that were detected later were actually found quite quickly by Sense - the Power Washer, Saw and second Vacuum were “found” within a day of actual usage, I just hadn’t used them until later in the reset cycle. The same goes for seasonal stuff like AC units - they don’t get found until they see some regular usage.
ps: White Lightning is our Tesla Model S and Tesla is our Model 3.
Devices that were “detected twice” were merged into the same device and not recounted.
I have two unknown devices that I am still working to identify.
Your count is probably correct, didn’t have my glasses and even the plus size iPhone is a struggle to see.
I would have a similar number had sense and I not deleted so many but I want higher accuracy right now.
Including the smartplugs is a good idea. There are also other weird types of devices that exist in my data thanks to various merges and unmerges over time, and the fact that exports done in one year may have a different working set of devices vs. the next year. But here’s the broader picture with smartplugs and merges.
It will be interesting to see an overlay of what one does compared to the other.
Funny, I can see exactly where the HS300’s came into play. Those are definitely my favorite Sense “add on” devices. It looks like I added the two I got at the same time you did. Amazon $55 sale timing.
Your fans get detected very well, mine do not. My air handler is the fan I would like to have but has yet to be added. The other fans are ceiling fans and I really don’t care about them as they are such low wattage anyway.
I tried an experiment for a week during the day while I was the only one home where I set the fan to turn on and off multiple time an hour while disabling the rest of the system. I though this might help Sense pick it up, it appears I was wrong. It’s the only 240 device left in our home not detected.
Not yet ready to overlay my last generation of detections vs. my current ones, but did a full reset of my Sense account around April 6, 2019. This time I had many smart plugs already installed at the start. I also saw 7 detections in the first day or so.
ps: I’m still sorting out all the “Vacuums” and “Motors”. We had construction going on at our house so many of those might be tools our contractor was using. We’ll see which ones survive the end of construction.
ive had sense for just over a month, sense detected about 10 devices in the first 2 weeks but has been silent for some time now. Am i being too impatient? it has not detected big things like pool pump or dryer yet.
Also i was curious why does the website not have energy used bill period like the app? it only has day month or year.
I posted one of these graphs earlier, but I just updated with one new detection. My detection rates may vary from yours because I had Sense for about 2 years, before I moved to a new unit due to some issues with the old one. This is the graph for my new account / unit. About 20 detections in the first month, including a couple of variants of my Dryer that must correspond to different heating modes.
Well I’m in week 6. Only detected my Stove top, microwave and water heater/heat pump.
Had major mix ups with oven and dryer detections. Yesterday was more fun when it auto “combine” one of the dryer phase with my oven. May end up deleting those.
Remember, I have had two years of Sense training on my specific devices including my 240V Oven and Dryer, prior to my “clean start” in April. I think I had similar experiences back then.
Please let support and @RyanAtSense know about your “combine”.
I’ve been trying to get them to do away with this as every time it has happened, it’s ruined good detections.
I’ve had to delete them all
I had Fridge and Fridge 2 detected when I woke up this morning (Sense has been up and running for around a week). I have 2 fridges. However, the items detected were not the fridges. In fact I could not find them. I waited and watched and when Fridge 2 was on (according to app), I unplugged both fridges and the power was still being used by Fridge 2. Then same thing later for Fridge (that one I flipped the breaker off for that fridge ) but the app still showed it consuming power. I ended up deleting the devices from the app because I could not determine what they were. I am assuming that those signatures will then get re-detect later on either correctly as some other devices or back as fridge and fridge 2?
I guess I just wanted to ensure that I didn’t commit them to the “other” land and that they would never be detected again.
unplugging or flipping a breaker off on a fridge may not look the same to Sense as a thermostatic off. So you might be wrong about the fridge not being detected. The bubbles for my Subzero fridges don’t disappear when I flip the breaker off.
Deleting unknown detections probably isn’t helpful. They will likely come back again with the same designations. Better to use this approach to figure out what the Fridge devices really are:
Remember also that fridges are combinations of different electrical components themselves: fan(s) + compressor + defrost heating element + light(s) … each of which Sense can detect as different devices.
Beyond following @kevin1’s advice, look at the waveforms for “Fridge” and “Fridge 2” and compare them. Knowing your likely fridge power consumption helps. A good place to dig deeper and do some comparing is here:
It wasn’t that the devices didn’t register as a notification off in the app, but it was also still consuming power (wattage was like 138 - 141w) while I had the fridge breakers off, nevertheless, I will take the tips from you and the video in an attempt to better understand what is happening in my house rather than do the knee-jerk delete action.
Good luck… I thought that you might have been relying on a an off notification or the bubbles when you said this.
You’re doing the right thing if you are looking at the waveform in the main Power Meter. If that doesn’t go down when you unplug or flip the associated breaker, then it was likely off.
Just as I had submitted that previous message, my sense re-recognized the fridges so I will take a look at the threads you mentioned and the videos to help me determine what to look at. Maybe those two are the same fridge with the different mods of operations and need to be merged, but I’ll definitely look at what is happening before I take action.
Yes, in both cases they were still consuming power. Weird thing is that if it wasn’t the fridges, I have absolutely no idea what they are at the moment, but, I don’t mind the detective work either
Can’t wait til it recognizes my Model 3 (and ya I saw all the EV threads and challenges ). My solar should be online next week so can’t wait for that to get in the mix too!
Garage Door opener and water heater are working exactly as expected.
