Export a monthly / billing period .csv file at 1 hour granularity. This utility can also take 1 year at daily granularity, though Sense daily data is less sensitive to data drops. And exported data with 1 year hourly resolution is too big for the free service I’m using to host the app (at least for my export files).
Select the plugs you want to look at. I include Total Usage, as a default baseline. If you have days with 1 hours drops in your Total Usage, you have bigger problems.
Hit and Go ! and it will plot. Add and change the list as you like. The list is currently not persistent between uploads of new .csv files.
How it Works and How to Interpret:
This web app reads in the exported .csv and marks missing hourly data for each and every device. It then rolls the data up into daily status - if 1 or more hours of data is missing for the device, then the day is marked as having a drop. Missing hourly data means different things for different device types so an reddish orange “drop” for a day for a specific device means that for at least 1 hour in that day:
Total Usage, Solar Production - the Sense Monitor was out or had data drops lasting an hour, the configuration was borked (negative mains) or the power or network were disconnected.
Always On - all the above, plus a lag effect. If Total Usage is lost Always On will take 24 hours to produce data again.
Kasa Integration - all the first bullet, plus the smart plug is turned off, the smart plug sees 0W for the hour, or issues with the Sense / smart plug connection (more specifics on all three possible causes below in the discussion) . For Kasa smart plugs the connection is all via the local network, so your local network or the Sense monitor could be causing the problem.
DCM - all the first bullet. Not sure if there are any other conditions that could cause missing data.
Hue, Wiser - all the first bullet. Not sure if there are other conditions because I haven’t experimented enough.
Does it count 0W as drop? I have a couple of devices which are part of HS300s, that show mostly drops. They also are the only two devices that are almost always 0W. They other devices on the HS300s show no drops.
On Kasa smart plugs ? That’s a very good question. My earlier experiments here showed that a few conditions including a measured 0W (actually less than 1/2W) on a Kasa smart plug resulted in hourly missing data in export - the 3rd situation below
A Real Disconnect
Button shows “n/a” - likely networking problem. Could be anything from WiFi issues, router issues, too many smart plugs or an unpowered smartplug.
Smart Plug turned off
Botton shows “off” - No surprise here, the smart plug is turned off.
Smart Plug / Sense combo sees “zero” power
Button shows “on”, but icon is greyed out and there is no power reading. Power has fallen below Sense’s threshold for “off”, 0.5W (may change in the future).
Working On Behavior
You can compare to a smart plug’s working “on” behavior below.
But I hesitated to include that condition because a few of my smart plugs are producing large numbers of exported “true zeros”, including my Washing Machine which hovers just below 1/2 W. I’m going to have to do some forensics on my Washing Machine (Kasa) and Canon Printer (Wiser) to truly understand. Here’s a list of the largest producers of hourly “true zeros” vs. dropped hours in export, by year over the past 5+ years. A very mixed bag, but mostly Washing Machine, Canon Printer Traveller (Kasa) and Solar Production with mostly other Kasa smart plugs thrown in.
In my case, I can chart the holiday season activities with the drop map. The day that the mantel light and Christmas tree were first plugged in and switched on, and the day they were unplugged and switched off. The three days the desk plug was used to charge Christmas presents (this is always turned on, but usually zero). Lastly, the two days that the television was on showing holiday movies causing the HDMI splitter which is always on but has a standby of less than 0.5W (peak is only 2W).
Feel free to post - I think the maps are kind of fun (I’m just be total geek).
ps: I updated the “How to Interpret” to include the zero case you are clearly seeing. But I still want to try to understand how that is different from the case when Sense exports “true zeros” for an hour.
