I have a new task for my Sense. I want it to detect this dehumidifier. There will be a fan signal and a compressor signal. I can tell by turning it on and off that it uses about 800 watts when both are running.
I really want to track the cost to see if the cost of reducing the humidity is offset by being comfortable at a higher room temperature. (Sense still hasn’t recognized my Lennox HVAC after over a year but I will circle back to that somewhere else.)
Will turning the dehumidifier off and on help by giving your servers more data or do I just wait and see?
Is there a list of every device by manufacturer and model that is in the Sense recognized device database?
Just wait. Sense will probably pick it up quickly since dehumidifiers cycle a lot. Turning it on and off manually is not a good idea because the usage pattern may look different with manual intervention, which could delay detection or result in a less accurate device model once it’s detected.
Re: list of devices, no. Sense has a chance of detecting a device even if it’s never been seen before across the user base, as long as it behaves in a predictable way and provides some “cues” in its usage signature.
Sense, I gather that the TP-Link HS110 smart plugs integrate with the Sense app? I didn’t realize that. So, I could plug the dehumidifier into one of these plugs and I could tell Sense that plug is the dehumidifier and I’m set. Correct?
Go for the Smart Plugs … you’ll be happy with the knowledge that the waveform/usage is exclusive to the humidifier. Caveat: Get a single-socket one for a device like that … the HS300 (strip) would work but it’s not ideal and ideally safe loading higher wattage devices on a strip.
A dehumidifier adds heat to the space so the equation is “interesting”.
What kind of Lennox system do you have relative to your space? My HVAC/thermodynamics 101 knowledge tells me you want to have a “small” HVAC system that runs at a low level vs. a “big” one that blasts cold and cycles frequently if your goal is also to reduce humidity. i.e. an inverter system with variable speed fans/compressor.
Personally, I’d give Sense a few more weeks to detect the dehumidifier and use the smartplug on something else. My dehumidifier is one of the most reliably detected devices with native detection.
That said, a smartplug is guaranteed to do the trick if you want data now.
