The “Other” category seems to be the bane of any Sense user’s experience – it’s offers no insight into what devices are consuming power and therefore no value towards more intelligent energy usage. In a typical month, my “Other” hangs around 30% of my usage – usually more than any single device. As I assume is the case for most enthusiastic Sense users, my ideal case would be to see my “Other” eliminated completely and my overall consumption accurately allocated to each device that contributed. Despite their impressive work thus far, I understand that Sense’s native detection will likely never be able to 100% separate and allocate total usage across all devices on it’s own – which is where smart outlets and DCM become necessary. But as of now, Sense users may not necessarily be getting, or know how to get, the maximum benefit from add-ons like DCM and Smart Outlets / Power Strips. I’m currently experiencing this with a KP-115 plug and HS-300 strip I have on hand, as well as the DCM I would like to add in the near future.
My proposal is for better insights into “Other” usage to help a user to better allocate DCM and smart outlets to where they would offer the most benefit. While what is considered “most beneficial” may vary between users, I feel most would want to reduce the amount of usage being attributed to “Other” and get better insight on what devices are contributing to “Other” (even if they are never recognized in the device list).
One of the easiest ways to provide such insight would be to enable the Power Meter for “Other” as originally suggested here, which gives a basic idea of what devices are contributing to “Other”. This way we could estimate what the biggest contributors to “Other” are without having to sort through the noise from known devices.
I think the enhanced proposal I posted (post #15) under this previous thread may offer even more value. A way to “Filter” devices from the main Power Meter (I’m picturing a dropdown checkbox list of known devices) would offer value in many ways by making it easier to see how each device contributes to overall usage. Similar to this suggestion. In the context of this enhancement suggestion, it would allow the user to visualize “Other” usage against known device(s) usage on the same timescale. We could then see if changes in “Other” usage coincide with events from known devices to better assess where add-ons would provide the most benefit. Example: a spike in “Other” usage at the same time as A/C compressor start-up may suggest HVAC fan is a main contributor to “Other” (assuming HVAC fan isn’t already a known device). This may also suggest that Sense’s learned power usage waveform for the A/C compressor isn’t very accurate, and that the A/C compressor may be a great candidate for DCM.
The overall point or “problem to be solved” is this… I’m a Sense user holding a pair of flex sensors or a smart outlet/strip (that I plan on using exclusively for measuring power consumption, not remote on/off control). How do I know where these add-ons would be best employed? Currently I find this very difficult to determine.