New User - Device Detection

Identifying Devices in Your Home
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I installed my sense system 3 days ago. It’s been going pretty well with monitoring my usage and seeing how many watts things use.

So far its found 3 devices and asked me to name them. I know for sure that one of them is correct but don’t think the other two are.

The sump pump seems to be right on the money with its turned on and off. However the “Fridge” and “AC” I don’t have a clue to what they are. I tried to turn off the breaker for what I thought was the fridge when sense told me it was on but that didn’t seem to power it off on sense. The same thing with the AC. It was reported on and I asked Nest to turn off both units I have. So thinking sense was confused I looked to see what other names it might be and found Dehumidifier. So i went to see if when that was turned on and off sense agreed. I don’t think it did. I changed the humility from 55 to 50 to get it to turn on and sense didn’t recognize it.

So my question is what should I do? Delete them?

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The secret with all detections is patience. Let it Sense do its watching and naming for week or two before you get serious about manually identifying the things it has found. And remember that when it gives you 3-4 choices for a specific device, those choices were driven by how other users have classified similar devices.

I would say don’t start deleting and trying to do too much to “fix”.

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Ok should I do anything at this point? Change the name back to AC? I’ve also bought a few TP HS110s as some from the forums suggest it might help with detection?

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Name the one you think is correct (Sump Pump)… Set alerts on the other two unnamed devices, at least when you are at home. See if you can figure out what just came on when you receive the alert…

As for the HS110s, read the smartplug FAQ carefully before installing…

The big thing in my mind is to put the HS110s on devices or outlet strips that are least likely for Sense to ever detect (general electronics - computers, routers, modems, AV stuff, etc.), or where Sense might detect part, but not all of the consumption (forced-air furnace).

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5

Oh so you can add a power strip to them too? I thought that might confuse sense as more than one device would be plugged in?

Also can you move them around once sense finds something and its named? Say I plug a Keruig into one and it finds it. Can I then move that to say my Fridge to help it identity that?

I only have 4 coming as I wasn’t sure how well or what they would do for me. So I can get more if they work really well.

I also didnt want to dump a lot of money into them if they didnt work well. Before sense i was on the Z-Wave kick and got tons of their smart plugs and such.

As for setting alerts I tried that and really have no idea what they could be. lol

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@kevin1 provided a great read do you above. All the answers you need for smart plugs is there.
He also pointed me to the same topic but not until I had already started using a compatible smart plug and made some mistakes. I had not educated myself enough before getting started by he got me pointed in the right direction.
What he said above that is very important. Use smart plugs and smart strips for the difficult to detect devices, a Keurig is easily detected. Sense won’t detect things plugged into the smart plugs. If your not careful, you’ll end up with 2 instances of the same device or/and 2 smart plugs when there is only one.
I created a headache for myself by not reading enough.

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@samwooly1 @kevin1 yeah I just read it all. :slight_smile: I guess i’m not sure were I should plug them in as I don’t know what sense can find easy and what it can’t. Below is a list of things that I have around the house. Can you assist with what I might plug in? Sorry if the below is a long and bad list. Its what comes to mind right away and im sure I forgot something.

Basement: Sump pump, Dehumidifier, Air Purifier, Treadmill, Ejector pump, power strip(tv, apple tv, directv client)
Family Room: Power Strip(TV, Sonos playbar, appletv, directv dvr, PS4), sonos play one x 2, lamp, power strip(harmoney remote charger, phone charger, usb charger, laptop charger,)
Living room: Power strip (TV, Apple TV, directv client)
Kitchen: Keurig, Sonos play one, toaster, fridge, microwave/oven combo, stove top, alexa
Laundry room: washer and dryer
Master bedroom: power strp (tv, direct client, apple tv), sonos play one, cell phone chargers, alexa
Office: UPS(modem, network swich, gateway router, cloud key, camera dvr), Synology SAN, lamp
Kids room: lamp, alexa, usb chrager, baby monitor, camera
Garage: Garage door opener, power tool chargers

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I’ll try to help by comparison to my experience but I’ve had sense exactly one month today. @kevin1 has been at this for a couple of years along with a few other “moderators” that will likely give you their input which will be much more accurate.
Your thinking sense will detect something plugged into the plug but that’s not how the plugs work. Sense will detect the plug itself and does not even try to detect what is plugged into it. That part is up to you, you tell sense what is plugged into it. If you change what’s plugged into it, you again have to tell sense. I would not plug anything into a smart plug unless it had already been detected by sense first or it’s something like a power strip with phone chargers and such plugged into it as sense doesn’t detect those devices easily anyway.
Let’s say you use a smart plug. Sense will detect the plug itself and ask you to tell it what’s plugged in. If you toldnit your Keurig then you would get tags and notifications when your Keurig cycles. But now you unplug the Keurig from the plug, those stop as it was never actually detected by sense. And if you plug say a clothing iron into the plug without telling sense you took the Keurig off the plug then you will get notifications for your Keurig when you use the iron. Think of a smart plug as not being a true “detection”. The only reason sense knows is because you told it.
The smart plug thing is a little tricky at first to wrap your head around exactly how they work and how they are integrated.
My Keurig was detected in the first few days. It actually has two heating elements. The one detected was the 1500 watt that activates when you make a cup. There is also a 250watt that turns on for five seconds every minute that has not been detected yet. Look like a little blip across the timeline.
Leave your Keurig off the smart plug and I’d bet it will be detected quickly( I drink 15 plus cups a day).
Anything that heats up detects faster for me like water heater,oven and heat pump heat strips and of course the Keurig.
Followed by inductive loads like heat pump compressor or fridge and freezer compressors.
The microwave was also detected pretty fast.

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The moderators listed in this post we all great sources of knowledge and experience

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@samwooly1 Sounds like I might not have needed to get the smart plugs just yet. lol Maybe ill just keep them in the box and wait for a week or two. My thinking was that sense would take the power signature from the plug and use it as a way to learn something then I could move it to something else. Looks like it doesn’t work that way. No worries though…

Did you turn on Network Device Identification? I just found it yesterday and wondered how “private” it was. I’d like to help sense find stuff around the house but don’t want it collecting extra private or sensitive data.

and I just found what you mean by the Keurig. I see it turn on every minute for about 10 seconds after it’s been on and used.

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In order to use the plugs with sense yeah have to have network identification enabled. At setup I enabled it because of what it’s vision is for the future from what I understand. I think it has more to do with crowdsourcing about devices to build data for future detections. I’m probably only half right about that but I don’t have any problems with security. Remember this is all on your network. So as long as you have your network properly setup with a secure password, it’s safe.
Your going to love seeing that unmistakable Keurig blip even when the machine is off!
Here it is

image

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@samwooly1 should I reset my sense and start over? I feel like ive been doing it all wrong for the past few days. Like ive been turning the heat down when I see my heat strips come on to save energy or changing light bulbs out. Testing stuff here and there trying to get sense to find it. lol I’m worried I confused it some.

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I’ll tell you what I did. I told everyone in the family that the first month we would go on like sense wasn’t here. Not trying to save it make changes and living as we always have. I think it helped but others here with way more knowledge and experience disagree. Either way, that’s what I’ve done (today is 30 days).
I have never done a reset. I have deleted probably 5 or 6 devices and have mixed feelings about some of those deletions.
My personal opinion about you resetting? NO WAY!!!
Your just getting started and I don’t believe you’ve done anything to damage or hinder sense in any way. If your having detections (even if slow) and they are even somewhat reliable, be patient. This is absolutely the hardest part for me. I’m not patient but have done much better with coaching from existing users.
I’m going to guess that your still thinking about the product page for sense before purchase and all the beautiful screenshots of bubbles with detections and reading the capabilities. Yeah, a lot of us feel misled a little. The reality is a slower process than one expects with ups and downs along the way. Don’t get me wrong, while I do feel the product claims make statements and give the impression the product is further along than it actually is, I love it! I have more good to say about it than bad for sure.
Trying not to look at it constantly wasnhard for me, I just had to walk away for a few days at one point. It’s just not something you can rush and you can’t “train” or “help” it learn. You can help in small ways like if it shows your fridge is on and it’s not,’you can report that it’s not on,
That does help in a way.
The best suggestion I can give is to read, read and read some more. Also, don’t be afraid to ask questions. A lot of questions have already been answered but there are new ones every day. Remember the names of those moderators for sure. @kevin1, @pswired, @oshawapilot @MachoDrone, @frankwin.hooglander and of course @RyanAtSense are all people that really know what they are talking about and have been very helpful to me.
Patience!

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My advice - if you want to start dialing down the Always On in your house, put the HS110s on all the power strips that have electronics on them. Sense won’t find those devices on the plugs for the foreseeable future. And based on my experience, it’s a waste of an HS110 to watch individual electronic devices. Better to watch a whole power strip of them.

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@samwooly1 ok I wont reset it. I’ll just leave it for now. My biggest issue is that its wrong for at least the fridge and whatever AC is right now.

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@kevin1 I can do that. So take the 4 I have an add them to any and every power strip? I think ill do the two in the family room. Maybe 1 in the office for the UPS and computer stuff. And the last one in the master bedroom I guess. Maybe I should get a few more with that mind set. lol

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That’s my thought. Most of your other stuff with motors/compressors and heating elements has a good chance of being found by Sense. Garage doors without battery backup likely to be found, with battery not likely.

Smartplugs lower Always On by claiming their part of Always On… I wouldn’t totally go whole hog buying up many more HS110s just yet. Can’t say why :wink:

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If you post an image for the waveforms for those two, someone will likely be able to help identify. The one thing I do when sense names something on its own is to go and change the name immediately.
Say it finds something and calls it “fridge”. I go change the name to “fridge ???”. I do that because if you change the name then sense won’t change it again if it changes it’s mind about what it thinks it is. I’ve had bad luck when I didn’t change the name and take control and sense not only changed the name from its original onme but also “combined” with another device and so, when that happens, it’s gone. It would have been okay but sense combined it with my oven and it wasn’t correct so I lost both the new “heat 2” and “oven” over it.
I then use additional question marks or take them away based on accuracy. If it reports the device correctly a few times I’ll delete a mark or if it keeps getting them wrong ill add one.

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Here is the “fridge”.

image1.png

Here is the “AC” or dehumidifier.

image2.png

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@kevin1your making me think an update is coming out soon. Or that they’d don’t work on a beta software build. :slight_smile:

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