We’re happy to announce some new updates to the Always On features in both the mobile (v26) and Web (v7) apps.
This release brings several improvements to how Always On devices are shown in the Sense app.
The Always On view now contains a new “Stats” card, similar to the one in Device Detail views. It contains an estimated yearly cost of your Always On devices, the average percent of monthly usage consumed by those devices, and a new comparison widget, showing how your current Always On usage compares to the Always On load of other Sense users… You’ll notice that this is similar to what we include in the new Monthly Email Report. Further cross-user comparison is a hotly requested feature and this is the first step in that direction for the mobile and Web apps.
Additionally, there are some new features of particular interest to those with smart plugs:
Sense will now detect if a smart plug device is an Always On device or if some component of it should fall under Always On. Tthe Always On component of a smart plug device will be subsumed under the Always On bubble in the Bubble view. If a smart plug device has both an Always On mode and a mode where it uses more wattage, like a smart TV that always consumes 5W but uses 150W when On, a new device bubble will appear accounting for the additional wattage. If you tap the device bubble, it will show you the usage accounted for by the device’s Always On component.
In the Always On screen, you will see a breakdown of your Always On smart plug devices. This just applies to smart plug devices for now, but will include more connected devices in the future.
In the Devices view, you will see your Always On smart plug devices nested under Always On. If the device starts using more than just its attributed Always On usage, it will move out from under that list and occupy the space of a typical device.
With the addition of smart plugs being tracked as Always On devices, some clarification should be useful between terms like Always On, Always On component, and Idle states. In short, Always On represents the low percentile of your power consumption over the past 24-48 hour period. To calculate a smart plug device’s Always On component, Sense will look at its consumption data over the past 24 hour period (not 48) and attempt to find a low percentile baseline wattage, similar to how the core Always On value is calculated. Lastly, Idle is also smart plug specific and is calculated when a device spends a significant amount of time higher than its lowest, non-zero baseline wattage. An Idle state is not necessarily constant. You can find a more thorough breakdown of these terms here.
A quick note for smart plug users: Your Always On calculation might take a few days to change to the new format (which includes smart plug Always On devices), due to the rolling nature of firmware releases.
As always, let us know what you think in the comments!
