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Add to SafariWhen comparing Sense vs Smart meter with SML interface + Raspberry Pi, the Slant community recommends Sense for most people. In the question“What is the best whole house electricity monitors?” Sense is ranked 3rd while Smart meter with SML interface + Raspberry Pi is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Sense is:
As more houses come online with Sense installations, the library of electronic devices that the Sense system can recognize should improve. The Sense company intends to add more smart features later such as notifying the user if some devices are faulty once they have enough data to build on.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Detecting electronic devices is unique "smart" feature
As more houses come online with Sense installations, the library of electronic devices that the Sense system can recognize should improve. The Sense company intends to add more smart features later such as notifying the user if some devices are faulty once they have enough data to build on.
Pro accurate data
it uses the same meter that your energy provider uses.
Pro cheap
you only need a raspberry pi and one IR sensor
Pro you need no electrician
you can do everything by yourself.
Cons
Con Slightly inaccurate
Measures apparent power (S).
Con Must create & log in to the company's cloud service to access data
If the company ever goes under, this unit could potentially become useless.
Con Slow and unreliable about discovering electronic devices
Discovery of devices/appliances is incredibly slow. Booting up your system for the first time you can expect to wait a minimum of 24 hours before the first device is recognized. One YouTube review (video here) has stated that the Sense unit has only identified 16 appliances in over a month for him. Some electrical appliances may never get recognized at all, especially smaller ones.
Consistent identification of devices cannot be expected when connectivity drops or you have to reboot the sense system.
Multiple items for the same appliance can't be merged or grouped.
In short, the identification of electronic devices is still in it's early stages. It is supposed to improve over time but currently it's not a great experience.
Con needs some work
you have to follow tutorials but there are many available.
