To date, the devices that my Sense has detected have all been rather large and regular consumers of electricity:
Fridge 183W, once an hour
Hot Tub 6315W, each evening
Oven 2293W, most evenings
Dryer 4545W, several times each weekend
Sump 495W, frequency dependent on rainfall
So I thought it was likely that the devices size and frequency played into what was getting detected. This morning proved that theory wrong, as a new device was detected. That new device appears to be the condensate pump on my gas furnace, which runs infrequently and draws only 53W, running for 9 seconds at a time.
Yet things that I would consider simple devices to detect, like my toaster (886W every morning), Coffee Maker (813W each morning) and Dishwasher (1724W when heat/dry element is on) go undetected.
Has anyone else been surprised by some odd devices that show up before what you might consider a simple device to detect?
Yes. I had a ceiling fan that draws 31W (on the medium setting) detected within the first week. I still have not had the defrost cycle on my fridge picked up, and that seems to be a really common one. Dishwasher hasn’t been detected either. Neither has the pressure cooker (but the waffle maker has been!).
My 1000W Pentair 1/2 HP pool pump that ran continuously for a month before I closed up the pool for the winter was never detected. However, I have a Device 1 that sounds a lot like your condensation pump on the gas furnace that was detected within a couple of weeks.
@pete2 How did you figure out it was the condensation pump when it only runs for a few seconds?
The list of community names suggested that it might be that pump, so I went down to the basement where the furnace is and poured a cup of water into the opening at the top of the pump where the line from the furnace runs. After it switched on for its brief run it appeared on the device’s power meter page.