I’ve had Sense operational for around 3 weeks now, and one of the first items it identified was my AC (day 2 or 3), and it’s been consistently logged ever since. Today I installed a KP115 on a UPS powering a media server and a couple external hard drives and speakers, and an HS300 in the bedroom to power a TV, Roku, soundbar, air purifier, and white noise machine. These additions were simply an attempt to pull some wattage out of my Other and Always On categories. Surprisingly, one of the first things I noticed was that my Other category didn’t shrink, but grew astronomically (about 2,500W), and my AC suddenly “turned off” in the late afternoon of a 90-degree day (it runs constantly from noon until after 9 p.m. on days like this).
Why are the smart plugs seemingly tripping up the Sense detection, and is there anything I can do to help it re-discover the AC?
@BlueCalcite, I don’t think that “AC off” and the large Other can be blamed on the KP115. If Sense sees a device turn on then not turn off for a long period time, it assumes it may have missed an off detection eventually does an “undetected off”. The length of time varies based on type of device. I did some analysis against my Ecobee thermostat data a while back and found that Sense was doing the the “undetected off” about mid-day during a full day AC run similar to the situation you are describing. That AC “off” is kicking all the continuing AC usage into Other.
I understand what you’re saying, but this is the first time it’s behaved this way. In the past few weeks, there’s been at least a couple days each week where it’s been high 80s or 90s, and it has logged the AC as turning on sometime during the noon hour and running continuously until sundown or later (9+ hours). It hasn’t interpreted the continuous runtime as a missed off signature. Today it was 90 degrees and, during the prime heat of the day, it relegated the AC to Other sometime during the 20 minutes it took me to set up the KP115 and HS300, no more than 4 or 5 hours into its operation. That just strikes me as suspicious.
@BlueCalcite, who knows ? It might be interesting to note if it happens again now that you are beyond installing the new smartplugs. I have a bunch (more than Sense advises) and they do add a software execution load onto the Sense monitor. I just looked at my 2022 AC runs and there are far fewer Sense misses between what the Ecobee runtime commands suggest the hourly energy usage should be vs. what Sense is seeing. Here’s the worst one I found.
All is normal again this morning. The AC finally turned off sometime after I went to bed, and was then detected the first time it kicked on again in the middle of the night.
I’m going to guess your new always on UPS is why your other has jumped.
Also, the UPS counts as 1 and then the smart plug on the other end is recounting the same wattage a second time. The plug needs to be designated as off the UPS.
