Get some Sense...

[SabrToothSqrl]

I'm not sure my stress could take building my own, but not a bad idea.
No idea how the burnt bulb situation would work, but as for changing the TV, it would never show your old one again, and it would have to learn the new one.

It managed to separate my fridge and the fridge light, so that's... interesting...

It knows nothing of circuits or how things are plugged in, so you have to think of it in terms of load and electrical noise.

If it detects something I can actually move from one outlet to another, I will let you know and test that out.

I can't very easily move my GDO or fridge

 

[DarkMatter]

Had you ever thought of making your own electric meter with something like a Raspberry PI ?
this should be fairly easy, and a lot cheaper.

That's going to be completely missing 90% of the features that make this cool. It can pick out individual devices not just show overall power usage.

 

[ORB]

One way of detecting an individual electrical load would be for this device to process, recognize and store the electronic "signature" defined by the rise time of the load startup current or other features of that current waveform. Very interesting. If you replaced a given compact fluorescent lamp with an LED, for example, it would detect that and need to "relearn" that event.

 

[Max*]

Had you ever thought of making your own electric meter with something like a Raspberry PI ?
this should be fairly easy, and a lot cheaper.

The software portion of it would not be trivial.

As a side note, there is a startup (maybe they're not startup anymore...) company that's trying to do something very similar for cybersecurity. It's a digital cybersecurtiy intrusion detector. They monitor the digital pulse/footprint of various mission critical hardware, and if they detect an anomaly, they notify the operator.

So if writing the software for the Raspberry PI to match various digital signatures were trivial, there'd be a lot of DIYers doing it. I'm not saying someone can't do it, but it's not going to be a weekend project.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

One way of detecting an individual electrical load would be for this device to process, recognize and store the electronic "signature" defined by the rise time of the load startup current or other features of that current waveform. Very interesting. If you replaced a given compact fluorescent lamp with an LED, for example, it would detect that and need to "relearn" that event.

I believe that's exactly how this works.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Well, no new devices discovered... the rate of identification seems to have slowed. Still hasn't 'found' my Tesla if it even can.

Also, my well pump, which was showing on/off just fine... now no longer shows. I haven't changed the pump, nor my water use habits. I emailed them... let's see what happens...

My heat pump uses a lot less power than I thought it did, assuming this gizmo is correct. it shows 848 watts on average for the heat pump. I thought it would be closer to 2,000 watts to run. I can compare the run time of said heat pump vs. my eco bee for the month of Dec, and see what's what. The house is dual source. Heat Pump + Propane.

 

[wesley888]

Can you intentionally turn off and on a device and tell "Sense" what it is?

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Can you intentionally turn off and on a device and tell "Sense" what it is?

You cannot, although I'd like this option.

 

[wesley888]

Aww, that sucks. It would have been so much easier to configure the system.

 

[wesley888]

I was just about to buy a Sense to try it out before I saw your post. I guess I'm going to get a Smappee to try out then.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

I did not know this thing existed

Energy monitor - Smappee

it seems very similar, but has a web interface as well... I hope I made the right choice. the Smappee also has free ship... something I was irked about w/Sense.

The sense can pull voltage info from each leg, the Smappee wouldn't have that data, since it's hooked to only 1 leg via a 120 outlet... interesting...

 

[wesley888]

Hmm... I just read whole bunch of reviews. Look like Smappee has the same problem as Sense. It can't easily identify devices. I have to keep looking.

 

[Max*]

I told my wife about this device, she goes "o that's cool, you should get it". She's such an enabler.


After reading some more reviews both about Sense and Smappee, I think I'll wait for something more... finished to come to the market.

 

[wesley888]

Agree

 

[brkaus]

These things look to me like they are trying to do the impossible.

90% of my lights have dimmers. Going to look different most if the time.

I have 1 DC Inverter controlled heat pump, fully variable for 45-100%. 2 other matching dual stage heat pumps. What happens as the load changes?

EV can pull different amounts.

Lots of computers that are mostly on.

It just seams like the impossible. Cool, yes, but without customized training I don't see how it would be successful except in the easiest situations.

Now if they also enabled multiple CTs so you could tag specific circuits then it would have a chance.

 

[SabrToothSqrl]

Given enough time and data, I think you could find most things. But I agree, I'd like training option. Something like 'turn the device on and off 5x' then give it a name.

 

[HankLloydRight]

It's probably hosting an ad-hoc network over WiFi, which is what the phone is connecting to. I don't think NFC can be used for this sort of thing. Just be sure the device disappears from the list of WiFi networks once it's configured. Needing to be close to it is not sufficient for security purposes (antennas can be magical).

It's probably Bluetooth Low Energy, which doesn't require pairing and not nearly as complicated as an ad-hoc wi-fi setup.

 

[wesley888]

I have an idea, instead of monitoring the entire house to start with, just have it monitor one fuse at a time. That should give the Sensor much cleaner picture to identify the devices on that single line. I just bought one. Will see if this plan works out.

 

[mspohr]

Had you ever thought of making your own electric meter with something like a Raspberry PI ?
this should be fairly easy, and a lot cheaper.

I'm building this Open Energy Monitor with an Arduino (simpler and more reliable than a Pi) reporting to Pachube/Xively. My solar (Enphase) is on PVOutput.org. I've got everything working but still need to package it up so it doesn't have wires running all over the place. I have 7 current monitors for various high current items like spa, car, heaters, etc.
How to build an arduino energy monitor | OpenEnergyMonitor

 

[mspohr]

Very interesting; thanks for posting.

I'm concerned about how it connects to your WiFi network without needing to be configured with the keys. I'm guessing they're using some sort of WPS hook into the router, which is a huge security hole. I have mine disabled. Without a direct user interface of some sort, you need to "lower your shields" for a while to get some sort of connection, then get in and lock things down again. I presume that's an option; just be careful and don't leave your back door open.

Also, the recently highlighted risks for IOT devices in general. Not to be too tin-foil-hat about it, but consider that Sense probably knows when somebody's at home or not. At least, it has no way to control the devices in the house.

Agree with Garlan... Interesting, but not fully baked yet.

EDIT: looking at the competition (SMAPPEE), perhaps Sense also has a Hotspot configuration page. If so, that's good too, but again be sure the hotspot gets disabled after configuration is complete.

Actually, WPS is much more secure than manually entering keys. It requires you to physically press a button and establishes an encrypted secure connection. Much harder to hack than PIN codes.
(It's interesting that they only known hack of WPS has been through its "PIN mode" which was put in to make it retro compatible. Best to just turn off the PIN mode.)