What's new in v40 (iOS/Android)

News & Announcements App Release Notes
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Today, we’re releasing v40 to all monitors. This release is available on iOS v39.0 build 1658 & Android v39.0 build 1350 and introduces a new feature to help users better understand their peak energy usage along with some quality improvements to the Sense app and Monthly Email report.

Peak Devices

Sense currently issues a “peak” event alert when your real-time peak has exceeded your previous real-time peak, e.g., “You hit an all-time high energy use peak at 11 am of 12,154 W (previous 10,100 W).” Now, you can see what devices are responsible for a high usage spike to more easily identify malfunctioning appliances and make sure things are running when they are supposed to be. This can be received via email as well as the timeline. Email notifications for Peak Devices can be enabled via Settings > Notifications > Emails > New Peak.

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Monthly Email report updates

We’ve added a new Top Movers section to the Monthly Email report, so you can see what devices cost you more this month compared to last, or what devices you cut your usage of the most month-over-month.

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Other changes

This release also includes a variety of other quality-of-life tweaks to the Sense app, including:

  • Redesigned Usage card on the Trends screen to provide more information at a glance
  • The notifications settings screen has been reorganized for usability
  • New animations to improve the legibility of app graphs
  • Variety of other additional tweaks and bug fixes

Updates (2/25)

Web

To the Web app, we’ve added a new Usage screen. Like on the mobile app, this allows users to see their Usage broken down by the devices that have contributed to it. Taking advantage of the additional real estate that the Web app provides, we’ve also added sorting to this view. Just tap a table heading to re-sort the devices list.

To support the new Usage screen, we have removed the Compare card from the Web App for now. We are looking to bring it back in some future changes. For now, you can access the Compare screen from the mobile app

Sense Labs

We have also removed the AC Energy Comparison project from Sense Labs. As an R&D experiment, it helped us explore the nuances and opportunities in HVAC energy usage. However, the project is no longer maintained and we don’t want to keep stale data in the app.

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Can your current peak be viewed anywhere? Can it be reset as we replace devices?

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Additionally, is there a peak “per device”? It seems like one of the few, and main, devices to have a motor stall would be an AC compressor. That unit could have a stall causing a spike, but if there had been a previous time when it and a fridge or dryer were on at the same time, it may not be a new total spike, just a new spike for the AC.

1 Like
5

Nice idea, tricky implementation when you consider that, at least for native detections, Sense would then have to assume that a (likely) spike is related to the device in question. It adds another layer of complication to what constitues “detection”. That said, correlating a “new peak” to a particular device is useful but this is usually self-evident when comparing device history … meaning, when the detection is integrated over much longer periods of time that some short-lived peak. “Peak per device” becomes “device usage” over your selected time period.

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Two updates have been released today with v40.1:

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The web app update to the usage screen, especially the ability to sort, is great!

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LOVE :heart: the ability to sort!!!

Not only can we now easily see which devices have reported the most usage. We can also see which devices stopped reporting. As well as easily find devices with issues.

Using the sort feature I was dumbfounded at first why my “Pool Filter” (near Buffalo NY) has been using .1kWh per month all winter. Then I remembered I have it switched using a Sonoff Basic that triggers a cheap contactor (to handle the load), the Sonoff itself used the .1kWh.

This brings me to a couple minor (wording) issues discovered with both the web and mobile in device stats.
They both show “$68 Est. cost/year Based on last 30 days” That is incorrect as it’s obviously not based on the last 30 days.
The web version shows “Estimated kWH/year Based on last season 675.7kWh” while the mobile version shows “Est. kWh/yeah Based on last 30 days 675.7kWh”. Mobile should say based on last season.
Examples are of my ‘Pool Filter’ but apply to all devices.
Submitted feedback ticket.
@JustinAtSense

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Just discovered some very interesting, likely unintended but potentially extremely useful things using this new web app ‘Usage’ screen. :grinning:

When you go back to any given time period, Devices appear as they did at that point in time.
You can now view the (usage) history of DELETED devices. Their history is NOT gone forever.
:grin:

Native detected devices appear with the same name they did at that point in time. So if a device was renamed it will appear with the old name.
With the exception of integrations, renamed integrated devices appear with their current name which could be confusing. IE: Kasa plug named ‘AC’ in summer, renamed to ‘Heater’ in winter will appear as ‘Heater’ when going back to summer months. Just something to be aware of.

I imagine this would also allow users to view the history of devices before they were merged.

Did I mention I LOVE :heart: this new feature of the Web platform?

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Thanks for sharing this - renamed devices being visible is a bug that we’ve added to our radar and will ultimately be fixing for mobile parity. It’s probably a low priority, so I wouldn’t expect immediate changes.

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If you mean renamed devices will (eventually) be fixed to show the renamed (current) name for all periods. I think that would be fine.
I hope the fix doesn’t result in deleted devices no longer being visible (when looking back at a time when they still existed) as this is really useful being able to go back and look at deleted devices.

Building upon this I’m wondering if Sense could automatically rename/tag devices as they are deleted or merged, this would be especially helpful if a new device was named the same as the old one. Going back in history the old would display as something like ‘Pump (Deleted 3/2/2022)’ or ‘merged with __ on __’.
A while ago I accidently deleted my ‘Vacuum’, it was rediscovered, I have two devices listed as vacuum in the usage for last year. Not a big deal but a tag would help sort them out.

Additional advantages of this would allow users who replace devices to easily compare the usages of the old vs new device. Going a few steps further and far into the distant future, imagine if Sense could say your new ‘pool pump’ uses __ kWH less than your old ‘pool pump’ when running, you saved $__ per year by upgrading your device.

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I’ll pass this feedback along to the team!

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Can we configure an alert to notify a PEAK at threshold, like 10kw ? I believe that parts of the country have billing based on peak, and it would be helpful to get an alert say at 80%

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I have a HAN device that is connected wireless (zigbee) to my smart meter.
The device uploads it’s info to a (free) service called wattvision.
Provides some nice graphs like this:

Screenshot from 2022-03-06 06-23-25
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Purely seen from the smart meter.

But it also warns me about peak usage:
At 2022-02-24 06:02:03 UTC, meter1 reported 11067 watts, exceeding the threshold you set of 10000 watts by 1067.00 watts. You won’t receive another alert for 30 minutes.
Unfortunately my utility company no longer allows customer to pair a new HAN device with their smart meter. Grandfathered in systems like mine will continue working (for now).
Therefore I think that would be handy feature on sense as well.
There is a separate part where you can suggest new items to be included. Maybe post there as well?