My question is simple, has Sense changed/updated their HVAC detection this summer? My forced AC used to be reliably detected, but the past several weeks or month it stopped and is maybe detected 50% of the time. Sense has missed the off signature a lot, resulting in Sense saying the AC has been on for hours and hours when it hasn’t. That usage also meant that there was a direct mismatch in the power meter and devices tab. Just last night, two new motors and another HVAC were detected, but none of that has been updated, serviced, cleaned, or even touched at all.
Has anyone else seen their HVAC detections change this summer? Was it for the better or worse?
For Sense developers, is there a way to do a basic query of the power meter, compare that with the totals from the devices section, and then use ML/AI to help figure out where the mismatch, if there is one, is from? Example: if my mains say I’m using 5,000w but there’s only 1,000w of current on devices, but Sense thinks my 4,000w AC is on, then maybe it should go back in time and reanalyze for an off signature it may have missed?
I can provide screenshots if anyone is interested, but I’m not sure they’re necessary for these questions.
I’m checking in with Data Science to just make sure that we haven’t changed anything on our end re: HVAC detection, but I’m pretty sure the answer is no.
Your other point is a fair one. We did a video with our Data Science team earlier in 2021 where they mentioned something we’re referring to as Progressive Device Detection, centered around the idea that we’re able to be more accurate if we step beyond detecting things in real-time.
Our team is working on this and you’ll definitely hear and see more about this in the future.
Hi Bryan, I have Sense detection working pretty well for both my AC units, upstairs and downstairs, plus also have them instrumented via my Ecobees and HS110s on the air handlers for each. My experience is that Sense detection does miss some detentions both at the start and the end of the cooling season.
Here’s a view from Home Assistant of my AC power usage for my upstairs unit on top - blue is air handler, purple is compressor / AC. The bottom show what the Ecobee is doing - the blue bars represent cooling cycles. Notice that there are a few blue bars on the top that don’t have matching purple bars - those are missed AC detection cycles. Not many when AC is running fairly regularly, but missing purple bars when the run cycles get more sparse.
