What Happens To Other and Always On When I Put an Undetected Device On a Smartplug

Technical Questions
1

I am new here. I apologize if I am repeating the same question, I just need more details.

I installed Sense about a week ago. It found all of the Phillips Hue lights, the freezer and dryer. It did not find the refrigerator, washing machine, dishwasher or any other devices or equipment. I still have the “always on” and “other” bubble. (How long does it take to find everything?)

I know the “always on” is most likely the cable modem, security cameras and switch.

If I plug those devices into a smart power strip will I still see them in the “always on” bubble?

Or will Sense figure out what they are and add them as duplicates? I see from the comments I can delete duplicates later.

The same question applies for “other.”

Will Sense add the refrigerator using the smart plug and remove it from the “other” bubble?

Or will Sense add the refrigerator from the smart plug and leave it in the “other” bubble?

Or will Sense add the refrigerator from the smart plug and add it as a duplicate that i can delete later?

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@Elliott, I’m going to move your posting to a new question. The general answer is that most devices have both a dynamic / switched and Always On components to them - so it takes a little more digging to understand what you will see when you add a smart plug.

For instance, my upstairs furnace on a smart plug uses a constant 8W (Always On) to power the internal control board and the associated thermostat. When the AC kicks in, the furnace blower turns on, causing the usage to go to 350W. That additional 342W is what I would call a dynamic power component. Sense native detection is only capable of finding dynamic components with short on and off transitions.

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So when you add a smartplug, here’s what happens:

  • Sense sees the measurements from the smartplugs as a new device
  • Sense subtracts off the entire usage of the device(s) on the smartplug(s), as well as all the other devices it has detected as on at that point in time (including the house level Always On) to calculate the Other bubble.
  • Sense does not currently subtract off the calculated Always On for the smartplug from the total house Always On.
  • If Sense has detected a device or part of a device on a smart plug, you can choose to do one of two things. 1) Remove the smart plug if Sense is consistent enough and is detecting enough of the dynamic power usage from that device or 2) keep the device on the smartplug and Manage the smartplug to tell Sense that the smartplug includes one or more of the device detections, to prevent double counting.
  • So just to restate you have to think about the device on the smartplug as having potentially two different components, an Always On part and a dynamic part. Each get’s treated a little differently for purposes of accounting. When you add a device on a smartplug, Sense will subtract off the full usage of that device (Always On and dynamic) to get Other. But the Always On component from the smartplug is NOT subtracted from the house level Always On.
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