The Home Details > Device Inventory is great to see but feels partially circuitous in execution.
Agree that “MAJOR APPLIANCES” should be listed above “LESS COMMON DEVICES” as pointed out by @mikejeep47 .
The way I see the Home Details categories evolving in the UI could be that you will eventually see for each of those what proportion of your consumption goes to that category. That might appear in Trends or Now (modal).
So, maybe major categories (highly debatable; just opening up the conversation)?:
- Heating
- Cooling
- Water (aren’t there enough water-related devices to warrant this?)
- Electronics
- Vehicles (putting EVs under “Less Common Devices” seems retro; have Vehicles and then list out Make/Model?; is there a reason to then not also allow for listing of existing non-EV vehicles, just as you list non-electric Water Heaters?)
Major Devices > Major Appliances starts to feel a little “Where am I?”
Missing:
- Washer/Dryer Combo
- Water > Water Heater (solar thermal)
- Water > Water Pump (as opposed to Sump Pump)
- Electronics > Network Device e.g. firewall, switch, PoE switch. etc
For new users, I would guess: Is this the first place they are told to go to make a list? So then the Home Devices list auto-propagates to the Devices as they are detected, right?
It seems like a crucial list (and interface) because it gives Sense users EXPECTATIONS that, given the history of some posts and gripes therein, might reinforce unrealistic expectations. That being said, is there a way in the UI to convey the probability/history of detection success?
I see (blurrily) a clever UI for the Device Inventory as being an opportunity for Sense to convey the nature of the beast: “Trends” currently shows you how your overall consumption Compares with others … Sense could also show some form of “Detection Trends” for devices across the board. e.g. Getting better/Stagnant/Getting worse – like a constantly updating MRI of the Sense Global/Local Brain:
“You have below average detection in your home, let’s see what can be done to improve it”
Lastly, stemming from a conversation with @kevin1 about solar, I also wonder if “Home Devices” shouldn’t contain your Solar specifications. The more details the better. This would help with solar calibration and alerts (e.g. “likely failed inverter”) … as we were discussing. If you say your Home is at 90210 and you have X number of 315W SolarCity panels then there is an expected output … and this data becomes more meaningful when aggregated with neighbors in the same Zip.