New Blog on Sense Methodology

[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 …