Put simply, the main Sense AI detection mechanism only “sees” devices that have a narrow, 1 second or so on and off transition. So even though ons and offs might be obvious you, Sense might not be seeing them. This can be especially infuriating for EV users that can see huge usage charging ramps, sometimes over 10kW. That’s why Sense has added a special EV-specific multi-second ramp detector for some of the most common EV models.
And even if Sense “sees” the transitions, if the transitions aren’t matched (on the same as off), unique (substantially different from the pool of transitions it can see) or frequent enough, the Sense AI will be challenged to convert the transitions it does see, into detections.
If you want more answers, you’ll need to look at your water heater from the Sense monitor’s Point of View. Here’s how:
The Power Meter within the Sense phone/tablet app, shown below, is the most similar view to what Sense’s data models “see”. In the app, Sense tags transitions that likely fall into the “fast enough” category. Pairs like the +1,348W on and the -1,358W off are distinctive enough to match up and deem a detection once Sense has seen enough of them. But the dozens of smaller ones between 10W and 30W, may or may not be distinctive enough. And if some portion of those 10W-30W transitions run continuously, day and night, they can even create noise that prevents Sense from detecting other devices in that range.If a device’s ramp is too slow to get tagged, or gets tagged as a bunch of separate segments, then Sense is unlikely to detect it. The Power Meter, with its tags, is extremely useful for gaining insights into how Sense AI “sees” your home, though it doesn’t reflect exactly what Sense “sees”.
