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Zanco Tiny T1 phone review

REVIEW – Are you tired of carrying around a smartphone that can double as a piece of workout equipment because it’s so large and heavy? Then you need to take a look at the Zanco Tiny T1 phone. And when I say it’s tiny, I’m not kidding. Just ask G.I. Joe.

What is it?

The Zanco Tiny T1 phone is an insanely small phone that looks like a toy but it’s a real working phone that will work with your existing GSM SIM card for carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile. Sorry, Verizon and Sprint customers, you’ll not be able to use this phone.

What’s in the box?

Zanco Tiny T1 phone
Silicone cover
micro USB charging cable
Reset tool
Neck lanyard
User manual

Hardware specs

Frequency – GSM850 / GSM900 / DCS1800 / PCS1900
2G
Nano SIM
Memory – Flash -32RAM +32ROM
Display – OLED
Bluetooth
Phonebook memory – 300
Memory for SMS – 50
Battery – 200 mAh
Size – 46.7mm x 21mm x 12mm
Weight – 13 grams

Design and features

You really can’t believe how small the Zanco is until you hold one in your hand. It will fit in any pocket you have, including that little watch pocket in your jeans.

For another size reference, here’s the phone next to an SD card.

The phone has a shiny black plastic shell with a small backlit white on black OLED display and a full number pad below it along with call answer and end buttons, a four-way navigation button in the center, and two other menu buttons on either side. The design is a throwback to the candy bar style phones from years ago.

On the back of the phone, you’ll find the speaker at the top and a microphone at the bottom.

On the bottom edge of the Tiny T1 is a micro USB port that is used to charge the phone.

On the right side is a flexible cover that protects the nano SIM card slot.

I tested the phone with the T-mobile SIM card that I use in my Pixel 2 XL and the card fit perfectly with a satisfying spring loaded click.

Did the Zanco Tiny T1 phone survive my 21-year-old Gadgeteer squeeze test? Surprisingly yes it did. Although it was tough to actually squeeze something so tiny. Even though this phone looks like a toy, it isn’t going to break if you breathe on it. I bet it wouldn’t break even if it was thrown across the room. I’m not going to test that theory though.

Using the Zanco to make and receive calls

The user interface is as basic as it gets. There’s a signal strength meter in the upper left corner and a battery status icon in the right corner with one and a half lines for other info below that.

The Tiny T1 doesn’t have iOS or Android, so you can’t just say Hey Google or Hey Siri, call Jeanne at work and have it call the desired number. It does have a phonebook but good luck trying to add new numbers or access numbers that you’ve added using the tiny keys on this phone. Yes, it’s doable, but just barely.

Once you do end up calling out or receiving a call, the call quality is ok. Just don’t accidentally swallow it while you’re talking to someone 😉

And remember, this phone only uses 2G GSM, so you’ll need coverage in your area. It should also go without saying that you won’t be running Fortnite on this phone or accessing the internet with it.

Using the Zanco to make and receive SMS messages



If making a call with this little guy is tough, reading and sending SMS messages will make your eyes cross when reading them from the itty bitty display. The messages display in a ticker tape vertical scroll when you first receive them and that might make you antsy if you’re like me and want to quickly read the message. But replying using the tiny keyboard is brutally painful in a “oh my goodness these keys are tiny” kind of way. You’ll have to go back to the days of pressing a number key several times to get the right letter to build words. But again, it’s doable – if you want to do it.

What I like

  • Cute as a button
  • Fun little backup phone when you absolutely only need to be able to make and receive calls and nothing else

What needs to be improved

  • Make it bigger? Nah!

Final thoughts

I had a lot of fun with the Zanco Tiny T1 phone. But the fun wasn’t in using it to make and receive calls and texts. The fun was putting it in my pocket, going up to a friend and asking them to call me and then watching their face when the phone would ring and I would take it out of my pocket to answer it. It always got a laugh and “no way” comments. Most people also wanted to take a picture of it. So the novelty factor of this phone is very high. The fact that it actually works and can be used as a phone is also pretty cool. Would I use this as a backup phone? Nope. But if I want a tool to make people smile, I know just the one to use.

Price: $65.99
Where to buy: eBay
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Zini Mobile Ltd.

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Zanco Tiny T1 phone review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 14, 2018 at 11:00 am.

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HUGOAI WiFi 1080P HD Wireless Home Security Surveillance Camera with Face Detection review


REVIEW – As technology continues to bring us more innovative gadgets, I am always on the lookout for any device that can perform multiple functions and give me more control and features that I want, in the most affordable way. The HUGOAI WiFi 1080P HD Wireless Home Security Surveillance Camera with Face Detection promises to do just that. Make sure you read to the end of this review.

What is it?

The HUGOAI WiFi 1080P HD Wireless Home Security Surveillance Camera with Face Detection is exactly as its name indicates. It is a small lightweight wireless security camera that provides HD video and images and offers several complimentary features.

What’s in the box


1 x HUGOAI Wireless Camera
1 x Micro USB Cable with Wall Adapter
1 x Base Mounting Plate
1 x Instruction Manual
1 x Wall Anchors and Screws

Design and features

Face Detection & Motion Detection – The HUGOAI camera will send you notifications when members of your family get home and alert you if a stranger is in the house. The motion detection technology monitors movements and pushes instant notifications to your smartphone.
HD Video Quality – 1920 x 1080p resolution with high-resolution live streaming and night vision with a range of up to 30 ft.
Two-way Communication – With the built-in speaker, you can remotely talk with anyone in your home in real-time by simply looking at your phone or tablet.
Remote View – This works with both Android & IOS devices, but only works with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network. It does not support 5 GHz WI-Fi. The camera supports remote access via free-downloaded mobile App anywhere and anytime.
Cloud & Local Storage – The camera supports cloud service. Every video and picture can be stored on the cloud indefinitely. Free lifetime subscription to save 24-hour alert videos to cloud storage without space limitation. There is a fee if you want more than 24 hours stored.


There is also a built-in micro SD card slot for local recording. It supports up to a 128GB micro SD card.

On the front of this black and white camera, there is the lens in the middle, the status LED light above the lens (Flashing blue: Ready for Wifi setup, Steady blue: Camera is connected), and the LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) and microphone below the lens.

On the back of the camera, there is a speaker, the micro USB power port, and a reset button.

When facing the front of the camera, there is a micro SD card slot on the right side of the camera that allows for onboard recording that is triggered by motion.

Performance

This camera works very well and produces very clear video/images. The audible voice commands make the installation process very simple and the warning if/when it loses the wifi signal helps with troubleshooting, albeit that the loss of connectivity is an area for improvement for the camera. The day and night vision are superb.


App
The following are some of the screens within the app that you encounter during setup:





For the facial recognition feature, you can add the faces to the app of family members and/or people you want the camera to recognize. It allows you to add pictures from an existing album or to take the pictures live with your phone camera and save them to the app. The feature requires pictures from multiple angles to work properly, and for this test, I took the required 5 pictures from the phone camera and saved them to the app.





By default, the app allows the addition of one person for free, then you have to pay $4.99 to add 9 more people offered as a lifelong package purchase.


Once the “family member” picture is saved, whenever that person walks in front of the camera, it sends a notification to your mobile device and you can always click on it to see the video of the person walking in front of the camera.


What I like

  • The clear audio from the cameras including the voice prompts and instructions during setup
  • Video/image quality
  • The magnetic
  • The base that allows mounting of the lightweight camera at any angle
  • The face recognition feature

What can be improved

  • Wireless connectivity. At times the camera loses its wireless connection despite a strong wireless signal, The addition of the 5 GHz capability would help.
  • Privacy, Safety, and Security

Final thoughts

This wireless camera with face recognition does a great job, especially for the relatively affordable cost. It seems to easily recognize my face which is the one I saved in the family member area of the app. The additional $4.99 one time purchase required to add 9 more people is also quite cheap and the fact that the video is clear and the camera is very sensitive to motion and does a great job recognizing faces is fantastic. In addition, I love the mounting options that are available because of the magnetic base and plate. The downside is that if it happens to lose wireless connectivity during the night even for a moment, it announces the loss quite loudly which can be startling. Otherwise, this is a great bang for the buck and with the very responsive app and ability to view remotely, it gets a two thumbs up!! –  BUT WAIT!!! One evening, days after I finished this review, I was sitting in my kitchen working on my laptop at the kitchen table when I received a notification from the camera on my smartphone. I immediately wondered what it could be since no one was near the area of the camera. when I clicked on the notification, it took me to my screen with the videos that the camera records when it detects faces and motion. I noticed that the thumbnails of the recent videos did not look like my room. When I played the videos under the “Stranger reminds” heading, I realized that I was looking at the videos of other people in their house. Somehow I had access to their videos and my next thought was do they have videos of mine. In one of the videos, I can hear and see a person looking at their phone and reading what it said, and I quote ” This device has been bound by another user”, “please untie the device…….(clip ends)”, and the rest is hard to hear. The next video shows her looking into the camera and trying to figure out what is going on. I immediately unplugged the camera, and I will not be using it anymore. This camera started out as a “hero” but is now a complete ZERO!!!

UPDATE: Just when I thought that the worse had occurred with this camera, the next day as I was on my way into work, I got another notification from the app. This was even more startling since I had already disconnected the camera from the night before. When I clicked on the notification, I saw a video of the same house again from during the night which showed a man in his kitchen going into his refrigerator and drinking milk from the container, and then another video of a woman in the same house in the kitchen preparing to leave the house. It seems that somehow I have access to their cloud account. This has always been my fear with cloud storage that has access to cameras in my home. I really wanted to include screenshots and the videos of this most unacceptable violation in this review. However, doing so would add insult to injury considering that the family in the videos has already been unknowingly violated. We live in a world that is now overwhelmingly integrated with technology, and privacy continues to be a very credible concern. While companies continue to offer products that add automation to the processes of our daily lives, the inherent obligation should never allow for a security breach like this. There is no place for this product in today’s world.

Price: $31.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Hugoai.

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HUGOAI WiFi 1080P HD Wireless Home Security Surveillance Camera with Face Detection review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 14, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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Ethohome Gravis Weighted Blanket review

NEWS – The Ethohome Gravis Weighted Blanket is a reasonably priced, high quality, weighted blanket that could be the solution for some people who suffer from restless sleep or nighttime anxiety. At $269.99 for the 25 pound version, the Gravis was super effective in my testing and priced right around the same as other weighted blankets of similar quality.

What is it?

Weighted blankets hit the mainstream in 2017, but they have been around for a long time, mainly used to treat autistic children or adults with severe anxiety issues. There are a number of studies done on the effectiveness of weighted blankets, but the majority of supporting evidence I’ve found has been anecdotal. After using the Gravis Weighted Blanket for a few weeks, you can definitely add my experience to all of the positive feedback surrounding weighted blankets. Results may vary among individuals though, so I’m not going to debate the effectiveness of weight blankets in general; I’ll just be reviewing this particular weighted blanket by Ethohome.

The Gravis Weighted Blanket comes in a box that at first seems way too small to hold such a heavy item. The plastic handle on mine was broken when it arrived and the company has since rebranded itself from Montage to Ethohome, so the packaging may be different and of better quality at this point.

The Gravis blanket comes with an attached cover and is compacted into what appeared to be a vacuum sealed plastic bag.

Once removed from the plastic bag the blanket expands a bit. Upon first picking up the deceptively light looking blanket you’ll quickly realize how difficult it is to manage a 15-25 pound blanket.

Design and features

The design of the Gravis is similar to most other weighted blankets. The blankets achieve their weight via thousands of glass pellets sewn into little sections of the blanket. The Gravis stands out in my opinion mainly because of how quiet the pellets are. A few other weighted blankets I’ve tried have been really noisy, producing a loud rain-on-a-tin-roof sound every time I rolled over or shifted my weight. The cover of the Gravis may be to thank for this; it’s a thick felt-like material that’s very soft to the touch.

You’ll find that most weighted blankets don’t come in traditional bed-covering sizes like full, queen, or king. Weighted blankets those sizes would be impossible to manage and the weight would be dispersed too much to be effective. The 25 pound Gravis I tested measures 72 x 48 inches.

For maximum benefit, Ethohome recommends using a blanket that’s about 10% of your body weight. Although some people may prefer a heavier or lighter blanket. It’s also very important to remember that the Gravis, or any weighted blanket for that matter, should not be used by children under the age of four or by any individual weighing 50 pounds. It would be very easy for a child or person that small to not be able to move themselves out from under a heavier blanket and that could prove dangerous.

The quality of the seams on the Gravis is impressive. After a few weeks of use and making my bed each morning, there are no signs of pulls or tears.

The Gravis itself is secured to its cover via strong fabric ties in each corner. The cover has a sturdy zipper that folds away discreetly once it’s closed.

I did notice that after some time, the blanket started to bunch up in the corners a bit. With a regular blanket this is easily remedied by tossing it up into the air and laying it back out flat on the bed. That won’t be possible with the Gravis, but it wasn’t too difficult to spread the blanket out flat again and work out the bunching.

The Ethohome website says that the Gravis’ cover is machine washable, but that the blanket should only be hand-washed. That makes sense, because I’d never expect something this heavy to be washed effectively in a consumer strength washing machine.

Performance

I’m a restless sleeper. I’ll wake up anywhere from two to three times each night, lie awake for a bit and then fall back asleep. While using the Gravis, I’ve had the most complete night’s sleep since I can remember. I no longer wake up during the night and I’ve found that I fall asleep much faster than ever before. The few times I’ve slept away from home during the testing period, I found myself missing the comforting weight and restful sleep the Gravis provided.

What I like

  • Included Duvet cover
  • Great quality

What needs to be improved

  • Can bunch up

Final thoughts

Weighted blankets may not work for everyone, but if they do work for you, the Ethohome Gravis is a great choice. The Gravis is of very high quality, has an included cover, and is reasonably priced. The Gravis comes in one color, Space Gray and three versions; 15, 20, and 25 pound.

Price: $269.99 for the 25lb version
Where to buy: Ethohome
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Ethohome.

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Ethohome Gravis Weighted Blanket review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 13, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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RevoNext QT3 quad driver hybrid in-ear headphones review

REVIEW – In the world of earphones, there is one constant that ties them all together, and it’s this: there is no constant. It may sound contradictory, but hear me out. I have reviewed earphones that are made with dynamic speakers, armature speakers—and hybrids that utilize both speaker designs. These earphones have ranged from a single speaker to six speakers per ear. And the one (non)constant has been that price has never been dependent on the number of speakers an earphone has. Case in point: the new RevoNext QT3 quad driver hybrid in-ear headphones have four speakers—two dynamic and two armature speakers per ear. For $70. That’s 70, not 700! Despite this ridiculously low price, are they worth it?

What is it?

The RevoNext QT3 quad driver hybrid in-ear headphones are an aluminum over-the-ear, quad driver earphone with removable cord. Over-the-ear means that the cord goes up and behind the ear—much like the earphones that stage musicians wear. The earphones are universally-sized as opposed to a custom molded earphone. The hybrid speakers are both dynamic (best for bass) and armature (more accurate) designs. Theoretically, this hybrid approach results in a more rounded, best-of-both-worlds earphone, but the reality is more blurred than that.

Specs

  • Type: In-Ear
  • Connectivity: Wired
  • Cable Length: 49 in.
  • Sensitivity: 105dB
  • Impedance: 15Ω
  • Frequency Range: 7Hz-40KHz
  • Plug Type: 3.5mm
  • Pin Type: 0.78mm
  • Weight: 25g

Design and features

The QT3 earphones are encased in an aluminum shell, which is almost unheard of in this price range. Not only that, but they are built quite strong. When holding them, you would never guess the price was so low. The parts fit together almost seamlessly. The 49 in. cable is more than long enough for almost any use. The removable cable uses a standard 2 pin connector that easily separates, but is a bit fragile. RevoNext is said to be working on a Bluetooth adapter that will use the same 2 pin connector allowing the QT3 earphones to easily switch to wireless mode. That will be interesting to see. The cable has a standard 3.5 mm mini plug connector, so using the QT3 with a newer iPhone will require the infamous Apple dongle. A cable with its own lightning connector would have been a nice option.

Each earphone is clearly marked L and R for quick insertion. Since they are over ear, getting them properly inserted is a bit more tricky than regular earphones, but only until you get used to it. Three sizes of silicone ear tips are included.

Comfort with the QT3 earphones is good, not great. While they never became painful when wearing for an extended period of time, I always knew they were there. Note that it’s almost impossible to get a perfect fit with over ear earphones that are universally sized. Ears are just too different. The QT3s are available in matte black, space gray and red. I was sent the space gray to review, but given a choice, I would have chosen red, because … red.

As I said before, the quad speakers are hybrid—in this case, two balanced armatures, one dynamic bass driver and one dynamic sub-bass driver. Bass is more accurate than you would expect, given that two bass drivers should make the QT3s a bass monster. My first impression of these earphones was that they were weak on bass, but the more I listened, the more they opened up. The treble comes off as a bit too bright on certain songs. The QT3 earphones are not as forgiving as some other earphones I’ve heard, but those were way more expensive.

So how do the RevoNext QT3 earphones sound? 

I was sampling Elton John’s classic “Madman Across the Water” album and enjoyed how the QT3 earphones were able to exhibit detail. Yes, there were parts that were too bright, but older recordings can be guilty of that. The title song had none of this and was totally pleasant to listen to.

Emmy Lou Harris’ poignant “Red Dirt Girl” is another example of some too-bright spots. While the album leans towards bass, her voice comes across as hot and gritty. I was able to fix this by adjusting the EQ, which I’m usually not a fan of doing. However, it worked magic with this song.

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) have some serious bass on many of their songs. “Metroland” has a potent bottom end that you can hear (but not feel) with the QT3 earphones. Once again, changing the EQ did the trick and brought down the treble to a smoother level.

What I like

The RevoNext QT3 earphones are kinda amazing. Their build quality is as good or better than many earphones I’ve reviewed regardless of price.

What needs to be improved

Treble is the QT3s weak spot. I skipped over some songs simply because they were to brittle sounding.

Final Thoughts

Okay, I’ve heard better single, dual, triple and quad driver earphones before. But never at—or even close—to this price. Seventy bucks is a steal for earphones of this quality. If RevoNext can smooth out the QT3’s too-bright tendencies, then they could easily compete head-to-head with any quad-speaker earphone costing much more.

Price: $70 US
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this product was provided by RevoNext.

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RevoNext QT3 quad driver hybrid in-ear headphones review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 12, 2018 at 11:00 am.

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Sense home energy monitoring device review (part 1)

REVIEW – Monitoring electrical usage is useful to reduce energy cost, to understand what electrical devices are being used in real time and historically, and to discover abnormal operation that may indicate current or anticipated problems with electrical devices.  Sense Home Energy Monitoring has the potential to achieve all of this. Read on to see what I think!

What is it?

The Sense Home Energy Monitor is a device that is installed in an electrical panel and monitors the current and voltage supplied to that panel at a high sampling rate – about 1 million times a second (1 MHz). It provides the instantaneous Watts consumed on a timeline displayed on a mobile app. The device also analyzes the data it collects and sends the data to Sense.com. There, the data is matched to other data collected by other devices using machine learning algorithms. When Sense.com matches a device to data collected by the Sense Home Energy Monitor the Sense app will be able to alert the user when that device is on and other statistics about that device’s use.  Sense integrates with IFTTT so that it may act as a trigger to other actions when devices turn on or off. The app also provides its own set of alerts, as discussed below.

What’s in the box?

Sense Home Energy Monitor
Intro Manual
Install Manual
Sense sticker
2 current transmitters
240V supply line
WI-FI antenna
antenna extension cord (for inside cabinet installation)
mounting bracket and screws (for external cabinet installation)

Design and features

Specifications

Technical Specs
Monitor Size and Weight: 137mm x 66mm x 32mm, 220g
Power consumption: < 5W, 0.1A

Current Transformer Specs
CAT III 300V 250A max
Cable length: 46″ (116.84cm)
Inside Diameter: 1″ (2.54cm)

Environmental Ratings
Relative Humidity: < 90%:
Temperature: 32-122ºF (0-50ºC)
Elevation: < 9842′ (3,000m)

Compatibility
120VAC (90V-130V), 60Hz
200A, 120V split-phase service.

Wireless
802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
Bluetooth Smart
Bandwidth use: ~300MB per day

Signal Processing
1MHz Sampling Rate
(4M data points per second)
1GHz ARM Processor

Unboxing

The Sense Home Energy Monitor comes in a glossy cardboard telescopic box. The front of the box shows the sense inside at actual size. The sides of the box show icons of different electronic devices.

When the box cover is lifted off, a fact about each electronic device is printed on the inside box

The icons (except for the one depicting the Sense unit) are used in the app to display what type of device is consuming power.

Inside the box, the Sense monitor is mounted in a cardboard frame. Below the sense monitor, the current transmitters are mounted to the outside of a folded cardboard panel which also contains the holder for external mounting, power leads, antenna, and the antenna extension cable.

Design and features

Hardware

The Sense monitor is unlike most gadgets that we review on The Gadgeteer because it isn’t designed to be interacted with at all. In fact, the entire monitor can be installed inside the home’s electrical panel. What is obvious is that the manufacturer went through great lengths to make the monitor easy to install. While external mounting is always an option, the size and shape of the monitor will accommodate even the most cluttered electrical panels. The connection of the power supply and the current transmitters are made with high-quality quick connectors. The mains wires are pre-stripped and tinned. The entire installation took only 20 minutes.

For now, the Sense monitor only works on 240V single split-phase 60Hz service. This excludes most other continents besides North America and most commercial installations.

Hardware Installation

The electrical panel and the original wiring in the house are from 1971. A couple of surface mount boxes block the lower right-hand side knock-outs and the left-hand side doesn’t have lower penetrations. In addition, the panel is in the garage in the corner of the house and the Wi-Fi signal needs to travel between several floors and walls to get to the router. In light of these conditions, it was decided to mount the monitor externally and rout the cables through the bottom of the panel.

The bottom of the panel has plenty of options

There are also plenty of blanks in the panel to add the breakers.

The inside of the panel is not the neatest, but my electrician said he’s seen worse. Most notably, there is plenty of room around the mains.

The only potential snag during an install is the correct placement of the current transmitters. They are labeled with arrows cast into the plastic housing to indicate which direction corresponds to positive current flow. The arrows are a little difficult to see. Even if one is installed backward, it’s possible that Sense automatically corrects the flow of electricity so that the electrical panel consumes power rather than generating it. After the install, the new breaker, current transmitters, and Sense Monitor are mounted. The Wi-Fi signal is tested before the panel is closed.

After the install is completed I have a newly installed gadget!

Note that the install above is for a unit that does not include solar power generation monitoring. The Sense monitor can also monitor the power generated by a solar power system. The solar installation would be similar except that the unit would come with two sets of current transmitters.

Software Installation

I installed version 22.2 from the iOS App Store and the Play Store. The download size is 11.27 MB for Android and 16.5 MB for iOS.  The first screen has a button for you to accept the terms of service and the privacy policy. It’s important that you understand that the Sense Monitor will be transmitting all power consumption to Sense.com. It requires always-on broadband internet in the location it is installed and will use about 300 MB a day. Also, Sense indicates that they may share personal information to comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal processes. After accepting the terms of service and privacy policies you are presented with the screen below

You can only create an account once the monitor is installed and powered. Furthermore, you need to be within Bluetooth transmission distances to pair the Sense monitor to the Wi-Fi signal it will be using to communicate with the internet. After you acknowledge that the sense is set up, it uses Bluetooth interrogation to find the installed monitors and set up the account. The Sense will scan Wi-Fi networks and the app will prompt you to enter the Wi-Fi credentials to connect to the network. After the Sense monitor is connected to the internet it will chime and the app will provide the ability to create an account. Only one account can be created per sense monitor, but that one account can be accessed on multiple devices simultaneously. So, if the account will be shared, then pick a password that can be shared as well.

After the account is created the signal monitoring starts and the next four screens are displayed.

The potential of sense to identify when items are running, and to trigger events based on that detection, enables the detected appliances to trigger push notifications and events and also permits logging of that appliance’s use. The two examples, of knowing when the dryer is stopped or when the sump is running are two key items that I’m waiting to enable on my installation. (I’ll be able to do this once Sense identifies those items.)

Software Design

After reading the above screen the power timeline is displayed. The power timeline shows the real-time and historical power usage.

Large changes in usage are identified by the change in power drawn in Watts; positive changes are in orange and negative changes are in grey. The timescale can be pinch-zoomed to show 90 seconds across the screen or three years worth of data. The vertical axis (Watts) can also be pinched zoom to identify large contributors to the power draw or minuscule changes. (The vertical timescale cannot be panned – it always crosses at 0 Watts.) Clicking the circle icon at the top creates a free-floating bubble chart. The circle size is proportional to the percentage of energy used at the time. Like the power timeline, this display can be pinch-zoomed as well.

 

If the device is in landscape mode the display rotates accordingly. In either case, the total usage is shown in the lower right-hand side of the screen. Clicking on the power usage brings up the usage screen, but the usage screen can also be navigated to from the trends screen.

The trends screen shows goals, usage and power meter.

Goals

Goals allow a user to define the total measured usage, or the measured usage that is always on, to be under a specified dollar amount or energy at any point, or at the end of a day, week, month or cycle. Many goals can be set at the same time too. This is a truly flexible system that will allow you to keep an eye on meeting electrical energy consumption goals.

The text of the goal is changed by clicking on the orange boxes. When it comes time to assign a time period to the goal the app displays recent historical values in the space below the text. This helps in ensuring the goal is reasonable. All in all, I wish more apps offered this type of S.M.A.R.T (specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound) goal setting.

Usage

Usage shows a bar chart of the day, week, month, year or bill period. The devices contributing to the users are shown below the bar chart. The percent that each device contributes to the usage in the period is displayed next to the device. A click on the device will highlight only that device’s contribution to the usage on the chart, and show the energy that the device used and the dollar amount that the energy consumed cost.

Power Meter

The power meter shows the last 24 hours in the trends screen and clicking on it brings up a screen similar to the Now screen

The Devices screen shows each device and the current power the device is consuming.

 Over time this screen will be populated with more and more devices.  This early on in the Sense usage I only have the three other devices besides the “Always On” device. A click on the device will show stats for the device, usage for the particular device, and a power meter for the last 24 hours for that device. This screen is helpful to verify that the device that Sense thinks is on is actually the device being used in the house.

The settings screen permits changes to the account

virtually the only difference between the iOS and Android versions is a general submenu on the iOS version which permits sound to be enabled or disabled. The Android version does not have this feature.

Operation

This will be part 1 of the operation review. It will take a couple of months to get a full understanding of the potential of Sense. Why? Well, based on the typical usage of appliances and the way that machine learning takes place, it is nearly impossible to speed up the assignments of devices to the electrical signals they generate. Normally I don’t like nuisance notifications, but I think that I’d have more peace of mind if periodically the app reminded me that it’s still matching devices to the power draw.

The only function immediately available is the power timeline. That alone is a very valuable tool. It shows what the main power draws are and what the minimum power draw is per day. The minimum power draw can indicate if there are power ‘vampires’ drawing power without providing any benefit. Just having the Sense installed makes me more cognizant of the energy usage in my house. Similar to the phenomenon people experience wearing a step-counter, if there is a measure that one has control over, control is likely to be better managed.

I installed my Sense on a Monday afternoon. By that evening the signal check was complete and Sense started to listen to the home and identifying devices. By late Tuesday evening, it identified my Coffee Maker. Actually, it only identified the maintenance heating of my Keurig. Over time it may identify the main heating and the pump. Wednesday, It determined that my minimum power usage, or always on value, is 156 Watts, or 13.7 kWh. From Sense’s statistics, it has determined that the average always on value is 288 Watts. Thursday morning, Sense determined that my average daily power usage is 9.2 kWh. Friday at 1:30 AM it found a new device and named it Heat 1. I wasn’t sure if this was a toaster or another part of my coffee maker. Saturday afternoon if found a new device and named it Heat 2. It seems that from the power meter I was able to determine this is a toaster oven. This is a Breville toaster, so the heating element cycles frequently. My app was alerting me that the toaster was turning on and then turning off 17 seconds later about every minute. I turned the alerts off for this appliance.

What I like

  • Easy Installation
  • Beautiful UI

What needs to be improved

  • More indication that patterns are being matched
  • Would be great if you could “force” a detection

Final thoughts

The Sense Home Energy Monitor delivers on providing instantaneous and historical energy usage and promises enhanced device detection. After living with Sense for an extended time I will provide a thorough review of how it has impacted my life.

Price: $299, $349 for the solar version
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Sense.

Filed in categories: Reviews

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Sense home energy monitoring device review (part 1) originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 12, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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