I’ve had Sense running for like 20 months now and it’s still haven’t found more than 10 devices in my house, and I"m thinking the first six months a lot of “bad” data was generated because of travel + renovation, etc. so I wasn’t using devices “normally” and maybe this has caused the device detection to be “fooled” what it is? Now that we’re in our house and things are relatively stable, maybe a reset to defaults and start collecting data again is in order? Has anyone tried doing this?
I’ve had Sense tor 14 months now, no significant equipment changes (except a replacement Sense two months ago), and have similar device discovery experience. About 8 devices detected and some of those pretty un-reliably.
Deep Sigh.
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I had to rest mine for reasons not related to device detection. Its been about 9 months now after the reset and it still hasnt found every device that was detected before the reset. It has found others but it has never rediscovered a computer that is used regularly and the Roomba battery charger that it had detected before the reset.
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I reset mine 8 months ago and it has failed to discover half of the previous devices. Big things like the stove top, the washing machine and small devices like the laser printer come to mind.
A full reset was the recommendation of the Sense tech rep, in order to allow my unit to be recognized. Seemed strange at the time.
And has the full reset made device detection any better?
I have the same problems. Sense thinks we gave 3 refrigerators plus an ice maker. Wrong, one fridge with a builtin ice maker. I have about 6 devices that have been accurately identified, pathetic performance record for almost 2 years of operation. I must admit this is the most money I ever paid to be an alpha tester.
The one thing I get from Sense most often is aggrevation over it’s inability to ID equipment in the house and the lack of access to historical data. What does Sense do with all that data that is streaming to them from our homes and why can’t we see what it is and be able to make use of it too?
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I’m definitely frustrated that Sense can’t identify more, or empower additional to help with the discovery, I’ve definitely named everything detected (detailed as possible, etc.). However, I am happy at the over all ability to see that stuff is being used, so when I see my “Other” category very high when I know it should not be, I run around the house looking for stuff, and it’s definitely saved some money here and there. So of course I hope it would be better, but then again nothing is perfect.
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ABSOLUTELY! The difference between Sense’s marketing and the reality is shameful.
And, no, resetting hasn’t improved my situation either…still very few devices and those not very accurately.
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I’m glad to report that Sense has identified my Ice Cruncher/Distributor (called it an Ice Maker…no!), and that it estimates the operating cost at 12 cents/year (probably pretty close). I certainly wish it could reliably report my water heater, geothermal heat pump, and dryer, but so far that’s spotty. Completely missing are my stove, oven, washer, well pump, refrigerator, etc, etc. Collectively these make up the bulk of my several thousand dollar electric bill…and I have a large solar system.
Still, Sense detecting and monitoring 12 cents per year certainly justifies the hundreds of dollars and the endless hours I’ve spent on this trash!
))-
It’s interesting reading the comments here, I’ve confirmed that the 10 devices Sense has identified are working great, but I’m curious if I’ll find something different if I reset it. It’s almost like I want to have a second sense hooked up and compare what another one would find, etc. Trying to think of how much trouble it was to figure out and document the 10 devices, on the fence at whether I should reset it or not. As with everyone else, tickets to Sense didn’t seem to find anything odd about my home, but it’s always a shock to me to read how people found lots of devices or that their “Other” category is almost done to 0, etc. Don’t know what the right answer is.
I have had to reset 3 times and each time it has detected fewer devices. My advice would be, If you have to reset then reset. If you reset hoping to find more devices… Well mine did the opposite.
I haven’t had sense long but the logic I’m employing now is to delete a detected device that seems inaccurate hoping a re-detect is more accurate given the assumption that out of the total history of usage, an inaccurate detection is preventing sense from looking at the historical and present data “it thinks” belongs to that device. If I’m correct, deleting should free up sense to look at it again and maybe do better the next time around with more data.
So far the only thing I can say for sure is the re-detects the 2nd or 3rd time around do look different than previous but I can’t say it’s given me fully trustworthy results yet.
I’m approaching my 3rd month of having sense installed and currently have 20 active devices found. A few comprise components of a total system, some are 2 sides of a 240v device. And I’ve deleted quite a few I wasn’t happy with in the last month.
I’m about to delete my dryer heat again as everytime it’s detected a dryer heat, it also shows as on when I use my oven. Early on in February I used both at the same time, since I started deleting my dryer, I try to use one at a time with no overlap. Donno. Training myself I guess. 
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@Andy Geezaloo, several thousand?!?!?!
This is what I would think as well. Just delete the devices that Sense is incorrect about so that the data isn’t being ignored. I would do this with a bit of intelligence though. If what has been detected is a component of a larger appliance, that’s probably good to hold onto even if it is annoying. Sense may eventually detect other components. And if it doesn’t, the component it did detect may just be the most power hungry.
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It can take a while. Recently (after 14 months) Sense detected our dryer. Unfortunately, it only detected the motor, which it says draws about 30 watts, not the heater which is about 5KW. That goes into “Other”, which isn’t very useful for knowing how much power we’re using for doing laundry. No sign of it finding the washer, either.
wow… I stand corrected.
I have a gas dryer and stove so that’s not something I can experience. my only experiences have been with the Refrigerator (doesn’t detect the light, but I rarely open the fridge anyway relative to others since I live alone and mostly go out or food)
The dehumidifier (detected the 600W compressor and finally, after 2 months, detected the 59W blower that runs just as consistently. I expect though, that the fact that they start at the “exact” same time and the blower continues to run after the compressor turns off probably took a while to figure out).
That’s pretty much it. It sort of has the agitator on the washing machine, and I’m guessing a heater in the dishwasher.
Just to chime in a little - I reset mine after hanging on to hope that things would get better after 14 months… it didn’t. It’s exactly the same after 3 months. What’s weird is that my EV was finally re-sensed a few days ago - but then it showed data for that three months in my overview sections. That had never happened with other devices before. Some things it had sensed prior to my reset still haven’t come back. It’s still disappointing. I still don’t look at it until I get some e-mail or notification from these forums as a reminder that I have a little orange brick hanging out in my basement. Dumb things like a brownout or a quick half second power outage throwing the Sense offline even though it’s powered back on is still annoying.
I’ve stopped recommending it to anybody. I haven’t seen any solid device detection improvements since I installed in October of 2016.
Yup, and we spent hundreds for the privilege of being a Guinea pig.
I wonder what it is that makes the experience so different for different people. Mine has found 30 devices which include most of my big power hogs. I’ve had it since September of last year. I still haven’t found out why my “always on” is so high but at least it does give me a really good estimate of what my power bill will be, and I hope in a few weeks I can track down the vampires.
It does seem to vary dramatically. After fourteen months I’ve found about 8 devices and those not reliably.
This is exactly what the Sense App needs. We should be able to help by using some proactive tools in the app to mark and help identify equipment. I should be able to add a device to my profile then have sense listen while I turn it on and off several times. Kind of like how you setup your fingerprint id on your iphone.
I would assume that Sense has a database of equipment signatures they have created in their testing labs or through partnerships with the equipment manufacturers and that this additional layer of testing data would help better identify it in my environment. They could also use this data to add to their signature database way faster than what it is doing now not to mention add equipment and signatures that are quite a bit older than what a manufacturer would provide today.
Sense does tell you that training features are not included because it’s algorithms rely on the natural environment and dozens of indicators, but in my judgement more data is better than less in making this detection more accurate and reliable. Even if you don’t tie it directly live identification of the device you should start collecting this input as it will only make it work better/faster IMHO.
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