What’s There to Detect?

[kevin1]

I recently put some of the network infrastructure devices in my house on smartplugs because none of them have been detected yet (no surprise since they are always running), and I was interested in seeing what the power consumption profilelooks like. Turns out, at the resolution the smartplugs see things (1-2 samples / sec), they all look about the same, small continuous power levels with only slight fluctuations.

Apple AirPort Extreme Basestation (used as AP and Router) - 10 W

Cable signal amplifier - 7W

16 Port Gb Ethernet Switch - 5W

Arris Surfboard 1Gb/sec down Cable Modem (only running at 400Mb down)

Gives me a pretty good rationale for putting everything electronic that starts solely with an AC to low voltage DC power supply on a power strip/smart-plug pair, if I want to monitor. I can’t see how Sense would ever detect this stuff, so it’s just going to end up in Always On. Maybe there’s more to see if I was looking at the microsecond scale.

[jasonemoyer]

I have all my network gear, switch/modem/Synology behind a smart plug and they pull a consistent 86w. Decided to not separate them. I guess with a smart strip I could but not sure it is worth it.

[ben3]

I’ve got all of mine behind an APC UPS. I put a smart plug between the UPS and the outlet and see about 150W. Synology, cable modem, POE for 3 APs, network switch, cable signal amp, UniFi USG.

[samheidie]

Same, everything run to a battery backup with the HS110 between it.

I don’t think anything of the sort will ever be detected for two reasons:

1. Erratic patterns based off everyones different usage
2. Small wattage