My question is can Sense detect a UPS? If so will it also detect the individual items plugged into it? I have all my sensitive equipment (TV, DRV, computers, routers/hub, Etc.) connected to several UPS systems. So far NONE of it has been detected.
Unlikely you’ll see native detections for two reasons.
- Most electronics like TVs, DVRs, routers, etc. don’t have an on/off behavior that is conducive to Sense on/off detection. DC power supplies blur power usage over time. Plus things like TVs , routers, modems move up and down in power usage based on activity level.
- Some UPS will further blur the signatures of these devices, making things even harder for Sense.
My suggestion for you - Invest in a traveller TP-Link / Kasa KP115. Use the Sense integration to observe each device plugged into the UPS for 48 hours. That will give you a good view of how much the device fluctuate in usage, and Sense will also give you an Always On usage value for that device. That knowledge for each device will help you figure out what to do next. Some options:
- Put the UPS on a single smartplug, knowing roughly what each device uses
- If most of the consumption is Always On, you can annotate the all the devices in your Always On.
That’s kinda what I figured it would be. I know how much each item will draw “normally” from prior research. I can watch the UPS amp output screen connected my OLED TV and see the power usage constantly is changing. I don’t worry so much about fluctuations. I care more about identification.
Maybe a smart plug could be useful to find a few items. Problem is almost everything these days is always on in some way if it’s plugged in. I did stumble on to one discovery. How to add devices to the always on. The Sense instructions wasn’t very clear on that how to.
It is extremely unlikely Sense would detect a UPS. However Sense can detect devices behind a UPS.
I have 7-8 UPS’s for my aquariums, office and networking equipment.
One has been plugged in since last winter with nothing connected to it. Was hoping it might be detected as a small charging device (maintaining it’s internal battery) but no luck. I’m not sure if Sense has ever detected a UPS on it’s own.
However Sense did detect an aquarium heater running on the backup side of one of my UPS’s. I’ve since moved it to the surge side of the UPS as to not kill the battery during an outage and it continues to be detected.
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Thanks. That’s helpful. They won’t be too hard to figure out the UPS usual draw and add that to the Always on devices list. I’m guessing the normal draw is pretty small and consistent as a trickle charger with good batteries. But for people like us that small amount adds up when you have a lot of them. I have 6
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