New Blog on Sense Methodology

[kevin1]

Hi folks,
I just finished my second article on my methodology for getting the most out my Sense, and reducing Other, here:

One User’s Method For Getting The Most Out of Sense - Sense Blog

I wanted to link here so other users, like me, can ask questions or share additional methodology ideas that work for them.

The three key ideas embodied in my article are:

1. There are plenty more tools, beyond Sense AI for analyzing device-by-device usage in your home: A roamer smart plug, dedicated smart plugs, DCM (Direct Circuit Measurement), the Sense Power Meter and WattCheck all have roles to play.

2. It’s helpful to create a home inventory spreadsheet of electrical usage, outside of Sense to collect usage and other information from all possible sources.

3. Sense really has two different power/energy usage “ledgers”, one for Dynamic (on/off & variable usage), and one for Always On usage. It’s important to itemize each. Different tools in the Sense “toolkit” enable you measure both of these components for each device.

Enjoy, and don’t be shy to offer your questions and thoughts.

[kevin1]

A couple users reminded me of a few additional “Tuning tools” available for observing and recording power beyond those directly available from Sense.

1. Other smart plugs and smart switches that report power to Home Assistant. The Sense Home Assistant Integration includes an Emulated Kasa capability that be programmed to send power usage information either measured or calculated in Home Assistant to Sense via the Kasa Integration. Devices created via Emulated Kasa look just like Kasa Smart plugs. More information here.

Emulated Kasa

2. Other smart plugs and smart switches that have proprietary (not accessible via Home Assistant) access to power information - one can read and transcribe any Always On power into the the Always On power list and all the power info into your spreadsheet. One example I saw the other day, was the EVE Energy smart plug, which measures power, but only gives the data in 5 minute increments from the EVE app itself. Here I can see my Subwoofer uses 0W when off (the EVE plug actually turns it off), and uses 24W of dynamic power on average when on.

3. There’s also @jefflayman “indicator bulb” approach, outlined here.

Hue indicator bulb

I have the Philips Hue system of light bulbs and hub. I had that system before I got Sense, so the fact that it integrates data into Sense was a bonus. A very small bonus, since my usage of all Hue bulbs comes to less than 1kWh per month. That is simply because the Hue bulbs I have are located where they don’t get much use, for example the front porch. I came up with a plan to get more mileage out of this integration and hopefully reduce my Other by identifying illumination demand using Hue …

[kevin1]

I have has one more question from a user about creating the Inventory Spreadsheet.

If I have had Sense for a while and have a Buch of devices, is there a way to automatically create the Inventory Spreadsheet ?

The answer is yes ! Here’s how:

1. Go to the Dashboard Yearly Usage for the previous year in the Sense web app (home.sense.com). Hit the Export button in the upper right (circled in orange). Select “Day” resolution and download.

2. Open the resulting CSV file in Excel (or your other favorite spreadsheet). My directions are for Excel. Select the entire area of the table coming out of Sense.

3. Select “Summarize as Pivot Table” from the Data menu. Configure the Pivot Table like this.

4. You’ll end up with a resulting table that looks like this, with all the devices on during that previous year. Voila, a good starting point for your Home Inventory - copy an paste into your new spreadsheet.

[kevin1]

One more addition on Methodology - here’s a decision tree that illustrates the methodology.