You bring up a great point: that “always wired” devices that cycle on and off (or are “always on” or even “always always on”), all establish over time what would seem like a recognizable signature on a larger scale.
I’ll call it the meta-signature. Not that this hasn’t been thought about at length before of course:
Sense is no-doubt working on device failure detection (e.g. wonky fridge compressor; bad HVAC) and these meta-signatures are used in that goal, but it would appear that there are much easier potential methods where meta-signatures can be applied:
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A device meta-signature is recognized as Always (always) On at a near-fixed wattage (particularly that device on a smart plug, e.g. a NAS!) and so lends itself to a default OFF alert.
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A device is recognized as having an Always On component and then a further longer-period cycle (hourly/daily) … e.g. a fridge/freezer. OFF alert!
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A device is recognized as having a long-period cycle that is potentially seasonal: “Hey your radiant floor heat is on in the middle of Summer and battling your AC!”
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A device is recognized as having a typical short-period cycle within a long-period cycle triggered by something potentially non-seasonal, e.g. well pump, pool pump, sump pump. “Hey your pump seems to be running for waaaay too long”
Of course, these targets could be treated similarly to the Goals feature, at a device level … but that misses the point of Sense’s (potential) background intelligence. Perhaps a user input device-level Goals feature would be the way to instruct the failure detection, but that would add clutter and confusion and detract from the ideal of Sense just taking care of things by recognizing patterns that humans don’t.
Before we (I) get too excited about the easy implementation of this: Remember that it’s already a very difficult task to reliably do Sense-native device detection so on some level the meta-signature is just added complexity and would seem to only come after the device detection is robust. However, the addition of smart plugs into the Sense system does offer reliable device-level “detection” … and so with that knowledge there is an interim path to a certain level of failure alert autonomy.
AND if you’re thinking “but my device is 240V”: It dawns on me that with my second Sense dedicated to a hot water tank that the Goals actually function in this way so a certain level of failure or reliable frequent-cycling detection is already possible!