If there’s a device you’d like to suggest that’s not included currently, just comment on this thread and I can add it to the options. You can select up to three options in your vote. On July 21st, this poll will end and we’ll take a look at the highest voted icons and come back with a couple that make the most sense to put out in a future release.
What Sense device icon would you most like to see added to the App?
Leaf blower and lawn mower are choices in the app already. I’d like to see edger and string trimmer added. Or maybe consolidate them all to “yard power tool” or something like that like there is for just “power tool” and let the icon remain the lawn mower.
I personally would vote against anything that would be on for long stretches of time and either show up in Always On or would fall to Unknown. In particular:
Anything network-related (firewall, AP, switch, smart hub) would be “Always On” almost all of the time.
Grow lights and landscape lighting would run for many hours at a time, and if Sense assumes a missed “off” transition after ~4 hours, the usage for these items would just fall back to Unknown at that point (because they typically run for more than four hours at a time).
Granted, if people had these devices on smart plugs that reported usage, it would be different, and the ability to use the smart plug as a timer for turning on/off lighting could be useful. However, networking equipment is something that I wouldn’t be willing to “waste” one of my ~20 smart plugs for (unless I did it where my UPS plugs in and I had a generic “network/server rack” device to account for all of that usage).
Based on some of what I’ve read from Sense Employees, always on devices are harder for Sense to recognize because they are always on and Sense is looking for consistently similar patterns, many of which have a start and stop.
If always on devices are setup and associated with a device icon, people like myself and many others on the forum, can add Kasa or Wemo plugs and associate them with those devices. This would help Sense identify those always on devices.
As for unknown, you must remember that you’re unknown is different from that of someone else. For a good 50% of my day I have 0 kwh of unknown. I’ve been able to give Sense enough data to recognize the unknown devices. I would also say that the unknown bubble is probably the most hated bubble by everyone on this forum.
Lastly, the 20 limit has been exceeded by myself and at least 4-5 other’s that I’m aware of. Get a HS300 and put it on your network equipment. You’ll be able to see how much you spend on internet on top of what you pay the ISP. For example my networking equipment uses 66.1 watts, and that’s a significant amount of power that I’ve been able to identify.
While I agree with you that things like an AP might not be appropriate my reasoning is different. In many cases, like I have, AP’s are POE via a POE Switch. Since the switch would actually be the connected device the power just draws from the switch and there’s no real reason to list the POE devices. There are exceptions such as with UniFi who has the stupidest proprietary POE system on earth, which does require that you plug it in.
I would argue that you’re on the late train here. Corded power tools have become tales to pass onto grand kids. That was a slight phase/fad between gas powered (which is still dominating @ probably close to 99%) and what most everyone, not wanting gas, is going to, battery powered.
That’s a good one, but most people would call this an “Instant pot” now. But since instant pot hasn’t been blessed with genericization yet (i.e. google, xerox, kleenex, dumpster, bubble wrap), Pressure Cooker would be appropriate.
I’m not saying that always on devices don’t need to be recognized. I’m saying that the team should prioritize icons for devices that aren’t always on.
For the unknown usage, I applaud your efforts at identifying everything. I would challenge you, however, to have a grow light not on a smart plug that runs for 6+ hours per day continuously and never falls into the unknown category. I have read on several threads about Sense thinking that it missed an “off” transition and moving the usage to the unknown category, when, in reality, the device just has a very long cycle time. Again, this is simply about effort by the team to create icons for these devices.
Finally (and unrelated to the actual purpose of the thread), I have a Unifi setup in my house. All of the APs are powered by the switch. No extra plugs. It’s a fairly new setup, so maybe some of their older stuff (or cheaper stuff, I don’t know) has some other PoE implementation as you describe.
This might very well be the case now. It used to be that only their switches or their injector would work. Sometimes we could get a switch capable of passive 24 to work, but their standards are different than almost anyone else.
But in order to do that we need to have an Easter Egg hunt… so it can’t be obvious! So maybe if you name a device “metamorphosis” it will transform into a Trogdor icon …
I was among those who voted for a Ceiling Fan icon in the poll above. On my part, at least, that was based more on hope than reality. I have several ceiling fans, and it would be nice if Sense found them. Yet I doubt it will, because they all have soft start circuitry. If I look at the main power meter when I turn on a ceiling fan, there is no spike like other motor-powered devices. Neither do the blades of the ceiling fan immediately start rotating at full velocity. Instead, they gradually spin up to speed. Turning a fan off does give a nice, abrupt change of energy use, but Sense needs to identify both the Off and the On.
My ceiling fans are all directly wired, so I am not aware of any good way to measure them via integration. DCM could measure the circuit to which the fans are connected, but would not distinguish between electricity usage of the fan and of the lights, which are part of the same fixture. That leaves native device detection as the only way to see ceiling fans.
I see that a lot of other people voted for ceiling fans. I’m curious: does anyone have a natively detected ceiling fan, or are all of us who voted for them just wishful thinkers? If you have native detection, I would like to hear about your physical device and what Sense sees when it starts.
While I don’t have any that are natively detected (mainly because I leave them on 24/7 (100 deg or 0 deg outside). Mine are all BAFs and I guess there’s a hope that one day I’ll be able to integrate the two, however very unlikely I’m sure.
On the other side I do know exactly how much power they consume so I would be able to add it to that list and I do have switches that will monitor the power as well.