Hello all, this is a bit of an update after ~2.5 weeks of Sense and I have to say it seems to be doing quite well for me so far. I do have a few questions I’d like to ask as explained a bit further down but first a general update. This evening will mark a full 16 days of sense and I’ve got 10 devices detected so far, mostly larger power appliances but some smaller as well. My largest device is my hot tub heater at ~5.5kW and my smallest is my chest freezer at ~62W. If anyone is interested in more details on my detection history, just ask and I can share but I am more interested in the following:
I mainly have 2 topics of interest:
First, Device detection conflation between Oven (Sense identified device) and Dryer (Not yet identified by Sense) or occasionally my Air Fryer (Sense identified device) and Dryer. I wouldn’t say I’m very concerned given how early I am into life with Sense but definitely interested in suggestions on assisting Sense to know the difference.
Second, I had an interesting case of how a device cycle appeared to be detected by Sense and how it got documented. In short, my water heater vent fan came on and was detected while sense app appeared to show it was on until ~8:38pm (I confirmed it was still on at about 8:35pm) but after it shut off, Sense documented it off in timeline and device power meter at ~8:28pm. Anyone else seen this? Possible bug or is it expected for Sense to review signal after off and make “corrections” to off time if it identifies a possible error?
For this, I’d recommend giving Sense a few more weeks of house data.
If you notice this device conflation issue is becoming a long-term issue, support@sense.com can usually help with those.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, with more data Sense should self-correct here over time. I only mention this because you’re pretty early on and Sense is still actively building an energy profile for your home and devices. If you notice this happening repeatedly I’d add this into your support request.
I fully accept that response. I understand with time that the understanding of my home’s devices will improve and definitely expected this to be the case for device conflation. Regarding that, is it beneficial to go to “Report problem” and “device is not on” during any time the conflation occurs for the incorrect device running?
As for the recorded off time with water heater, I can see how this will be improved with time but was curious if it is common to see conflicting data between how the “Now” and “Devices” view show a device turning off and what the documented “Timeline” and device specific “Power Meter” show after the fact. It was curious that the ‘live’ view, if you will, showed one thing (which seemed accurate based on my observations) while what the historical or recorded data showed was different.
I can definitely reach out to support if these issues continue but thank you for the input.
No problem, @jben.07. I asked around a little bit and got the same core response on what you should do here in the short and long-term. Since you’re extremely understanding, I went through and added some detail to a few of the things that could be happening at a deeper level (these are trying times).
this could be an issue with the duration model for this device. especially with a new install, Sense could still be learning about how long to expect the fan to be on. this should improve with time and more instances as sense continues to learn
it could be a simple conflation issue where there was an ‘off’ event that looked sufficiently similar to the fan’s expected ‘off’ event. again, it’s something that should improve as sense learns
@ixu I appreciate the link to read through. Anyone ever thought of making this a bit more easily accessible? Given these mistaken cycles are about 15 seconds in my case, I have to react quick to dive in the several menus to select this before it shuts off. Even putting an option to indicate a device was not on after the fact may be useful for this.
@JustinAtSense Thanks a lot! As an electrical engineer, I really appreciate you sharing the details as to how Sense is “thinking” as it learns devices. I can also appreciate the true technical complexity and detail going on in the signal analysis that Sense performs as I’ve been involved in a few signal analysis projects for my day job.
In any event, I think the system has been doing quite well in my case overall. Very few issues and a pretty fast learning curve once it finally started picking up devices.
It’s been discussed in the Community in a nebulous fashion I believe and I think I posted some thoughts regarding swiping left/right in the Device list. This seems like as good a place as any to think that out again:
Make the Device list sortable in different ways.
A swipe left/right on a listed Devices or Category (e.g. Always On) could show options like “Not On” or “Expand/Collapse”.
If #1 & #2 are satisfied, a Device that is on briefly (but is not actually on) would be quicker to tag as “Not On”.
In theory one could add “Not Off” or “Actually On”.
