To merge or not to merge?

[spikeygg]

Hi everyone!

I’ve been using the Sense for two and a half weeks. It has detected a few things and so far everything has been pretty accurate. Today, however, it detected three devices at the same time.

1. Coffee Maker
2. Appliance Light
3. Motor 1

The Coffee Maker is accurate (I think, I’ll know more tomorrow when the pot gets used again). I played around for a while looking for the Appliance Light and I found it, it’s the Fridge light when I open the door. I spent even more time looking for the Motor 1 and I found it later this evening, it’s my Dryer – but only when the dryer goes into wrinkle-free cycle mode (after the dryer completes the normal cycle). On both of #2 and #3 I’ve realized that I can combine those items with their actual device:

• Fridge + Appliance Light (I ended up renaming it to Fridge Light)
• Dryer + Motor 1 (I renamed this one to Dryer Overrun)

I kind of like the idea of being able to track the appliance light separately from the cost of the fridge running (and when the last time the fridge was opened). The wrinkle-free cycle mode vs. actual dryer operation might be useful too to know if we’re leaving the clothes in the dryer for too long after it’s finished. Anyway, maybe I’m over thinking this and I’d like to know how the community folks approach this… do you merge these devices or keep them separate?

Thanks,
-Greg

[ixu]

@samwooly1 and others have gone deeper on this:

@samwooly1

I choose to keep them separate because I don’t want a notification or the usage to be combine for the door light, dispenser and compressor. I want the cycles of the compressor to be able to be tracked so I can see the actual running cost to keep things cold.
I also find it interesting how many times the door gets opened a month, about 700.

When not merging, nomenclature becomes your friend … Fridge Compressor; Fridge Light and so on as you have done.

Device Grouping vs. Merging is probably in a future update.

[dianecarolmark]

I wanted to add myself as a fan of keeping different components of devices separate, and of device grouping as a future feature!

In my case, refrigerator components are really the only devices I have that have significant separate components, though that may in part be because my sister’s clothes dryer motor hasn’t been detected yet.