Sense Home Energy Monitor

A couple years ago I watched the below "This Old House" episode about a local company that developed a whole home energy monitor that uses machine learning to figure out how much electricity your home is using.  Basically every device in your home has a unique electric signature that sense can pull out and identify.  It is pretty cool technology that is still fairly new and while not perfect should get better as more and more people start using the device.  As a owner of solar panels I have a device that tells me how much solar I am generating but I have no idea how much power I am using at a given time.  To be able to drill into individual appliances may even allow me to change some habits and save some money.

The monitor is a pretty expensive piece of technology and add another $50 if you want to track solar output as well.   Not to mention it installs inside your electrical panel so you will probably need to hire an electrician to get it installed.

I had the monitor installed in mid-July.  It takes a couple days to start tracking your energy and then a another week or so before it starts finding devices.  My home is a bit unique in that my mother lives with me in an in-law apartment which means I have two stoves, refrigerators. ovens, toasters, microwaves and washers and dryers.  Not to mention two AC compressors which are my major energy users.  My main goal in purchasing the device was to get a handle on where I am using electricity but also as I tech geek I just think the technology is cool and fun to plat with.

So after about a week of having the device installed it started finding devices.    The "device discovery" process is not an exact science.  Usually when it finds a device it will tell you it found a motor or a heating device and a confidence level.  You need to go around your house and turn those devices on and off and confirm what it found then you can rename the device and provide more information to help sense.  Sense did a pretty good job identifying my devices properly.  It did find what it thought was three different vacuums none of which were vacuums that I own.   I think some of the oddities that I saw were due to a remodeling project I had going on in my house, so Sense found a bunch of power tools that aren't really part of my home.

So after about months of discovery Sense has found about 26 devices.  It has found most of my major appliances.  It will not yet find any LED light bulbs that you have but it did find the incandescent bulbs in my refrigerator.  It found my gas dryer, but not my washer yet.  It also has not found any of the TVs in my house all of which are LED.  Device discovery has slowed down over the past few weeks but I assume it will find a few more devices once the weather get cooler and I start needing to heat my home.

One interesting data point that sense provides is your "always on" or phantom power.  This is the electricity used by devices like your tv, cable box, routers, phone chargers or any other devices that use a small amount of power but are always on.  My always on number is under 250 watts which I think is pretty good considering the number of smart home products I have.   This is probably and area that I can take a closer look at and save a little money by unplugging some of those always on devices while I am not using them.

The device does integrate with some smart televisions but not any of the ones I own.  The also did recently announce integration with TP-Link smart switches and power strips.  So if there low power  devices in your home that Sense cannot detect you can plug them into the TP-Link device and name the device and it will show up in sense with its power usage.   I theory this should help sense detect some of these devices in the future.  I really wish Sense would provide a discount on these TP-Link smart switches as I would love to plug my entertainment center devices into smart power switch but for $70 I may wait for a sale.

The device is definitly a work in progess.  I have had much better luck with device discovery than most.  A friend installed the device a month or two before I did has less than 10 devices detected.  In theory though as more people use the device the machine learning models should get better.  I do have a concern about what happens if Sense goes under.  Since all of the processing is done on teh cloud, if the company goes away so does all of my data and monitoring.  But I guess that is a risk we take as early adopters of technology

Sonos / Sonance Outdoor Music Streaming System

   

When I purchased my home a few years ago one of the things I really wanted to do was install some speakers outside on my deck.  I started purchasing Sonos speakers and components and really loved their platform so my hope was that Sonos had plans to add a wireless outdoor speaker to their lineup.  Unfortunately as I did more research I came to the realization that Sonos has no plans to add an outdoor wireless speaker.  I think the components inside a Sonos speaker are just to sensitive for outdoor use.  As a workaround we have been bringing one of our Sonos Play:1 speakers outside or putting it in the window to get our music outside.  This has been an Ok temporary workaround but not a great long-term solution.

Sonos' solution to outdoor speakers is their Connect Amp product and aftermarket outdoor speakers.  The Connect Amp has been around for a while.  It allows you to connect a turntable or CD player and you connect to any speakers you have.   The Amp, obviously is not meant for outdoor use but if you connect it to a good pair of outdoor speakers you are good to go.  The reason most people buy Sonos speakers is because it is so easy to setup and is wireless.  So putting wired speakers on a Sonos product seems a bit silly but if it gets my music outside it works for me.

When I was researching options for my outdoor music solution I was really unaware of who made good outdoor speakers and was really not interested in some of the rock speakers that were popular a few years back.  Eventually I cam across the Sonos / Sonance outdoor music streaming system.  The system is comprised of:

• Sonos Connect Amp
• 2 Sonos MAG06 Outdoor speakers
  
• Xpress Audio Keypad

The system is sold on Amazon and BestBuy and retails for $1,200.  It does frequently go on sale and I have seen it sell for as low as $600 which is what I paid.  The Amp and speakers will run you well over $1,000 separately so if you can get in on sale it is a great deal.  Speaker wire is not included by the way.  When reading reviews some people were complaining that speaker wire was not installed but I think it makes sense not to include speaker wire as some installations will need longer runs and different wire gauges.

Sonos recently released a new Amp product that has twice the power as the Connect Amp as well as HDMI ARC inputs.  I was considering this new product but it is quite a bit more expensive and the HDMI ARC would be useless as I am using the speakers outside.  The new Sonos Amp is rated at 250 watts versus the old Connect Amp at 110 watts.  Based on reviews I have read the power is sufficient for driving a pair of speakers.  If you are planning to drive more than a pair the new Amp is probably a better choice.

My electrician was out last week and snaked the speaker wire through the wall and I am now up and running with the new system.  I am pretty happy for the price I paid.  The speakers are pretty large and seem to be high quality.  I am a little concerned about how they are going to hold up through a new England winter but we will see how it goes.  The sound is good and they work like just another pair of Sonos speakers.  They are not going to blow my neighbors away but get sufficiently loud.  The only odd thing I notices is that I need to have the volume in the Sonos app up to at least 50% to hear anything from the speakers.  Once over 50% the volume gets exponentially louder and there is no need to turn it up to 100%.  I was thinking the issue may be some setting in the app but I couldn't find anything.  I searched through the Sonos community forums and found quite a few people reporting the same issue.  It appears to be just how the amp performs with these speakers.  As I mentioned before they get pretty load so it is not really an issue for me.

The only other thing worth mentioning is the Xpress Audio Keypad Remote that came with the system.  It is kind of a redundant piece of hardware as I usually have my phone with me when I am outside listening to music, this keypad does less than the app does.  I initially thought I would just sell it on Craigslist but it is kind of an obscure product and figured it would not get a whole lot of interest.  So installed it and will use it going forward to see if it adds any value.  It does provide the following functionality.

• play/pause
• track skip
• favorites
• volume up/down

The back is magnetic and you can mount it to your wall with provided double sided tape or in a Decora faceplate.  It sets up as a wireless device, the process was a little convoluted but I was able to get through it in 10 or so minutes.  The only issue I have had is if I put the keypad in my pocket I have accidentally turned the music on without knowing it only to find out hours later when I went outside.  Unfortunately it only pairs to one Sonos/speaker device and there is no screen on it so you can't see which song or favorite station is playing.  Might be more useful if I could toggle through all my Sonos speakers.

Overall I am really liking the system as a whole.  Time will tell how well it hold up but I am going to really enjoy music on my deck for the rest of the season this year. 

MyQ Smart Garage Door Opener

I was looking forward picking up a couple smart home products for this past Amazon Prime day.  I area in my home that I have not automated yet is my garage doors.  There have been a few times where I have forgot to close my garage door and it has stayed open all night.  I have read a lot of mixed reviews of the MyQ smart garage door opener but at the end of the day it seems to be the best, most cost effective choice in the category.

I have two garage doors so I needed to purchase the add-on sensor to control my second door.  Interestingly the add-on sensor cost more than the hub and primary sensor due to the Prime day deal that I got.  I ended up paying just over $60 for both items.

The product consists of a hub that installs in your garage, is connected to wifi and needs to be paired with your garage door opener as well as a sensor that installs on your garage door to determine if your garage door is open or closed.  The MyQ hub is manufactured by Chamberlain, one of the biggest garage door manufacturers and they claim they the MyQ hub works with most garage door openers manufactured after 1993.  I have 2 identical Chamberlain garage door openers manufactured in 2016 so no problem, or so I thought.

To get started on installation you need to first get the MyQ app and set up a user id and password.  Then you plug in and power up the hub, scan the serial number, connect to wifi and pair the hub and sensor to the device.  Should be pretty straight forward given that I have Chamberlain garage door openers manufactured in 2016.  The process went off the rails for me when attempting to pair the hub with my garage door opener.  No matter how many times I tried I just could not get the hub to pair.  I went through the process a couple times and was finally directed to contact technical support.  Unfortunately this was the 2nd day of Prime day so I knew I was in for a long wait.  After getting disconnected for chat support about a dozed times I decided to just call in.  I only had to wait about a half hour to speak to a person.  The friendly tech support rep had me go through the pairing process again using my phone, then again using the web portal and still no luck.  She put me on hold for  a few minutes and had me pair the hub as a light through the setup process and that seemed to do the trick.  So after an hour on the phone with tech support I had a working smart garage door opener.  I was able to repeat the process for my 2nd opener and the rest of the process was fairly pain free.  Except for the next day when my wife came home and the remote openers in my car not longer worked.  Although I think that may have been my own fault as I may have held the program button down too long one time and wiped out the codes for my remotes.  We were pretty easily able to reprogram the remotes but it just added to the my frustration with the process.

I usually don't expect much from apps created by non technology companies but the MyQ app isn't too bad.  The main status screen shows you and icon of your garage door or doors and how long they have been open.  You can click on the doors to open or close them.  This works fairly quickly the only aggravation is the LED flashing and beeping that comes from the hub when you close the door from the app.  This is a safety feature as if someone is in the garage you could unknowingly close the door on them.  I thought that is why all garage doors not have the safety laser but over not that big of a deal.

The next important screen is the settings screen where you can access History, Device Management, myQ Guests, Works with myQ, Alerts and schedules.

 The History screen is pretty useful as it shows a log of when each door was opened.  The myQ Guests allows you to invite people to have access to open and close the garage doors, I was able to invite my wife using this feature. I have an Alert set if my garage door is opened for more than two hours to notify me, probably the most useful feature for me at this point.  There is also a schedule screen where you can schedule your garage doors to close at a certain time every day.

The works with myQ screen allows you link the hub with other smart home services like Google Assistant, IFTTT, and Apple Homekit.  The Apple Homekit integration requires an additional bridge that you need to purchase.  Interestingly no integrations with Alexa.  I think there was at one point but they were removed for security reasons.  One of the big complaints I have heard about the Google Assistant and IFTTT integrations is there is a monthly fee to use them.   This is pretty much unheard of with other Smart Home manufacturers.  IFTTT has geofencing functionality where you can set your garage door to open when you get close to home.   This would be a nice feature but I am not going to pay for it.  Hopefully Chamberlain will see the error of their ways and eliminate the monthly fees.  But I think this is something you sometimes see when I non tech company gets into technology.  They just don't see the value of providing these services as part of the product.

Pros:

Inexpensive 

Easy to physically Install

Functionally does what is supposed to do

Cons:

Setup process can be a headache

Charge for IFTTT and Google Home integrations

No Amazon Alexa Integration

Overall Pretty happy with my myQ opener after he frustrations with getting it setup.  The one additional integration that I have not decided whether I want to use yet is Amazon Key.  This is Amazon's service that allows the delivery driver to unlock your door or open your garage to deliver your package inside so it doesn't get stolen.  They sell a kit that comes with an Amazon Cloud Cam so you can watch deliveries but it did not go on sale for Prime Day so I opted just for the hub.  Apparently you can turn Amazon key on without a camera but I am not sure I am comfortable with that, I also don't want to have yet another app to view videos from.  Since I already own Arlo cameras I am considering getting an Arlo Q camera for my garage and trying out the Key Service.  I will report back my experience here if I do.

Echo Show 5

I have been wanting to replace the 1990s era clock radio in my bedroom with an echo device since the Echo Spot was released.  The issue was my wife refused to allow a device with a camera in the bedroom. So we have been holding off hoping that Amazon would release something new that would work for us.

Then a couple weeks ago Amazon released the new Echo Show 5 which seems to check most of the boxes that were preventing me from upgrading in the past.  I pulled the trigger and purchased the Echo 5 the day it was released.  Below are my thoughts after using the device for a couple days.

Price - For $89 this is a pretty good deal compared to the Echo Spot ($130) and Echo Show($230). 

Sound - Obviously this isn't going to compare with a Sonos speaker but for a clock radio to wake up to it is sufficent

Size - This is a small device, about the size of a standard smartphone.  But the form factor is much better than the Spot especially when viewing video which were cropped way down to be basically unusable.  Not that I am going to be watching movies on the device but the larger size will be useful when streaming video from my security camera's 

Privacy -  This is the big addition that I think will make people who were hesitant to bring an Echo Show device in their bedroom consider it.   The new Echo Show 5 does have a camera but also has a little shutter switch which will cover the camera when not in use.  This definitely alleviated some of the fears that my wife had about using a spot as a clock radio.

Functionality -  Think of this as a smaller version of the Echo Show.  It looks very similar and has most of the same functionality just in a smaller form factor.

Clock Radio - One of the issues that I has with my existing clock radio was that the blue background of the led screen was too bright and I would have to turn it away from me while I slept.  The Echo Show senses the brightness in the room and adjusts the display accordingly.   When all the lights in my room are out the numbers turn an orange like color and is almost too hard to read but I think I just need to get used to it.  I am on vacation this week so I have not used the alarm yet bit I have to assume it woks just fine as teh other echo devices do.

What's Missing - The Echo Show 5 checks almost all the boxes for me the only feature missing in my opinion is a battery backup.  This is a standard feature on most clock radios.  It is especially useful here in New England as we lose power a couple times a year, a battery backup would allow the alarm to still wake me up in the event of a power loss.

Overall I think this is a great device for the price.  Amazon definitely listens to their customers and releases products that fix the problems in the previous models.  Looking forward to getting to know this little device better over the next couple months.

Gosund Smart Plug

A representative from Gosund reached out to me a couple weeks ago and asked if I would be willing to try out and review their smart plug.  Of course I can't say no to free smart products so I agreed and had two of their smart plugs in the mail this weekend.

The plugs arrived in no frills packaging with a small user manual.  I don't usually bother with manuals unless I have issues so I jumped right in to getting them setup.  I do have one other smart plug from another manufacturer in my daughter's room to control her lights so I decided to install these in my son's room to control his two lamps.   

Setup was pretty straight forward, I just downloaded the Smart Life App, registered with my email address, connected to my wifi network and discovered the plugs.  It is a good idea to give each plug a descriptive name so you know what they are controlling.  Next I needed to add the  plugs to Alexa so we can control them with our voice.  This process was fairly simple as well.  I just needed to enable the Smart Life skill and link it with my Smart Life account and then discover the two plugs.  The first time I went through this process it did not work.  I found the issue was probably on my end, I missed the screen to link the accounts.  Once I went through the process again the devices were discovered we were off and running.

To really make my son smile a set up a routine so when I say "Alexa, Goodnight [Son's name]", the routine turns off both lights and plays sleep sounds for 30 minutes to help him go to sleep. Pretty cool stuff for an 8 year old.  Voice control is key for my kids rooms as they both have Alexa dot devices and I don't want them messing around in smart device apps changing my settings around.

The plugs also work with Google Home and IFTTT, I don't have a Google Home device so I was not able to test that out but from what I have read it works just fine.

The Smart Life app seems pretty advanced.  There are all kinds of automations that you can setup based on temperature, humidity, weather, sunrise/sunset or time schedule.   Pretty advanced for a free app.  Most smart products at this price point don't have this level of sophistication.  The only feature it lacks is energy monitoring, but most smart plugs that include this are three to four times the price and honestly would be overkill for a lamp with a 10 wat bulb.

So lets talk about the value you get for this smart plug.  Do a quick search on Amazon and you will find that competing smart plugs are two to three times the price of one of these plugs.  Get a four pack and you are paying way less that $10 a plug and once you buy one you are going to find a use case for more.  I am already thinking of a couple other places in my home where I could use these plugs.

Overall great value for your money with these Gosund plugs.  Check them out if you want to dip into smart automation without spending a ton of money.  With the right automations you may even be able to save a couple bucks on your electricity bills.

Scosche Rhythm+ Heat Rate Monitor

When I purchased my Peloton earlier this I got the accessory package that came with, among other things, a chest strap heart rate monitor.  I read some mixed reviews on these Peloton branded heart rate monitors but ordered it anyway and of course I had issues with it.  Sometimes it wouldn't connect, oftentimes it would drop out during a ride and after a month it just stopped connecting to the bike completely.  I called Peloton, who were great, and they sent me out another one but I started having issues with the new one as well after a couple weeks

A heart rate monitor is not an absolute necessity with the Peloton but it gives you better data regarding calories burned, how hard you are working and certain rides require it.  So after a bit of research I decided to give the Scosche Rhythm+ a try.  Many Peloton users seem to love the Scosche Rhythm+ so I pulled the trigger.  I have been using the Rhythm+ for a couple months now and I couldn't be happier.

Pros:

• Stays connected to the bike
• At least as accurate as the Peloton chest strap
• Much more comfortable than a chest strap, no need to moisten the leads
• Easier to put on and remove
• Good Battery life, I am getting about two weeks of almost daily rides
• Seems to be a high quality product

Cons

• Price- a little pricey for what it is  
• Have to connect to an app on your phone to check battery level

Overall there isn't much not to like with the Rhythm+.  It connects every time and is easier to use and much more comfortable than a chest strap.   Just slide it over your wrist and onto your forearm.  It stays in place pretty well, although I do find myself needing to adjust it on longer rides when I am really sweating.   It is pretty expensive but seems to be of high quality so it will probably last a while.  It does go on sale once in a while if you buy directly from the manufacturer but I couldn't wait and picked it up on Amazon.   My only complaint is that there no battery level indicator on the device.  This just means that I need to connect to my phone and open the app to check the battery level.  Not a huge deal but for the price a battery indicator would be nice.  What would be even nicer is if Peloton started shipping the Rhythm+ with the accessory package rather than the crappy chest strap.

Nest Protect - Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detector

 

I decided a while back that I was not going to invest in Nest Protect Smoke and Carbon Monoxide detectors for my home.  I have a rather large home with almost 20 smoke or carbon monoxide detectors throughout my home.  Only 5 of those detectors are wired the rest are battery powered so I have been considering replacing the wired detectors.  The price though is still just too high for me for a smoke detector.   

I was hoping that Nest would come out with a 3rd generation of the product with more features but there seems to be no rumors of anything coming soon.  I was on Facebook market place the other day and came across someone local selling a new, still in the box nest protect for $65.  At that price I could try one out and see if the is worth the investment to purchase more.  I was able to negotiate the price down to $60, not a bad deal.

Installation was pretty straight forward as expected.  I did have one issue after installing that the app was reporting that the Protect had no power.  I thought one of the wire nuts may have come off when I shoved the wires into the ceiling but after checking everything was fine.  The small green light was on so that confirmed that the unit was getting power.  I started to get nervous that I got burned buying the protect off Facebook but before I contacted the seller I decide to contact Nest.  So off I went to chat with Nest tech support online chat.  What should have been a simple chat took close to an hour.  I gave support my serial number, they checked in their system.  He wanted me to check that it was getting power with a multi-meter.  He wanted to see what kind of batteries were in the teh system.  I think the issue was that the batteries were not properly seated.  When I took them out and put them back in the "no power" message disappeared.  The may have just jogged loose in transit.  Really this should have been the first thing that support asked.  There was really nothing on the website about reseating batteries if this message occurs.

I decided to replace our upstairs smoke detector with the nest as it is between my kids rooms and the bathroom and I figured the pathlight feature would be good for them. So I have had the protect installed for a couple days now and I would describe the product as underwhelming.    It does look good, I was able to replace an ugly smoke detector and a separate carbon monoxide detector installed a few feet away.  So my ceiling looks a bit cleaner.  The pathlight feature is nice but other than that it doesn't do much.  I feel like for the price it should do more.     

I think there is so much room to pack more features into this product.  Speakers, Digital Assistants, Air quality monitor are just a few examples.  If I can get another one for $60 I will but I don't think I will be paying full price given the current feature set.

Greater Goods Bluetooth Smart Scale

My resolution for this new year was to get healthy.  So I changed my diet and bought a Peloton bike to jumpstart my new healthy lifestyle.  I knew tracking my weight loss would be a huge motivation factor for me to keep going and my old bathroom scale was looking pretty grungy so we decided to look into a smart scale.  

I actually let my wife do the research on this one and I think she picked a winner.  Setup was easy.  Just make sure Bluetooth is enabled on your device, discover the scale and you are done.  A great feature is that both my wife and I can connect the scale to our devices and track our weight separately.  In order to use the smart features, the scale requires you to download a free app called Weight Gurus.  You will need to enter your preferred units, height and goal weight but that is pretty much it for setup.   Once you are ready to track your weight you just open the app and step on the scale and your weight is added.  The app has all kinds of cool charts and graphs.   I calculates your BMI, body fat percentage, muscle mass and water weight.   You can also see your weight loss by week, month or year.

The digital readout on the scale is bright and plenty large enough to see.   I think the scale look pretty cool as well.  Kind of like and Apple product with its rounded edges.  Much nicer than our old scale.   Overall we are very happy with our Greater Goods Bluetooth Digital smart scale.  It keeps me motivated every day to step on it and see where my weight is going.

Peloton Bike

Over the past year I started to notice that some of my clothes were fitting differently. Slowly my pants were getting tighter and I was just not feeling as comfortable.  Bending over was getting harder and I was just not feeling great physically.  Based on my BMI, I was about 25 pounds overweight.  Not a huge amount but I decided that I needed to do something about it for my health.  My plan was to start a diet in the new year and add some cardio as well.

Running is out for me as I have bad knees.  I had a gym membership a while back but I never really committed and went probably twice.  I started looking at ellipticals and other exercise equipment but nothing really got me excited.  Then I came across Peloton and my interest was piqued.  A Peloton is a spinning bike with a large internet connected tablet attached.  You login and can choose between live and on-demand classes.  The usually run 12 or so live classes a day and there are tens of thousands of on-demand classes to cater to your fitness level, musical preference or how long you want to ride.  The real draw though is the community of other riders that motivate you to get on the bike every day.   They have integrated gamification where you earn badges for riding x number of days in a row, your first ten rides, personal records and numerous other milestones.  Sounds great except for one drawback....The bike costs about $2250 and you need to pay $40 additional a month for access to the classes.  That is just a crazy amount of money for an exercise bike so I started researching other solutions.

The new year rolled around and to start my weight loss I made some diet changes.  I stopped drinking soda and eating potato chips, and other snacks.  I stopped snacking at night.  We started adding more vegetables into our meals and less red meat.  As can be expected I slowly started losing weight but I knew I needed to add some kind of a cardio to improve my health.  I kept coming back to the Peloton.  Yes it is expensive, but I think that is part of the motivation to use it,  you spend so much money on something you damn well better get you moneys worth.   I also loved that it is a tech product and I knew I need the convenience of having a bike in my home to use it regularly.  I also knew that the community and gamification of the Peloton was what I needed to stay motivated.  So my wife and I talked it over and I pulled the trigger,   It took a couple weeks for the bike to be delivered and I have had it for over a week now and haven't missed a day of working out yet.

Mt first couple rides were hell.  My butt hurt from the seat and I though I was going to die.   Each ride though has been progressively easier and I am scoring personal output records on every ride.  That is the great thing about the Peloton, everything is data driven so you see you progress and how much better you are doing for each ride.  At this point I am about 12 pounds from my weight loss goal and I have no doubt I will reach it before spring.

 

Along with the cycling classes Peloton also offers classes in stretching, running, walking, yoga meditation and strength training.  I have taken a bunch of the stretching classes and a couple strength training but all are part of the membership.  Last year Peloton also release a treadmill, this is twice as expensive as the bike at $4000.  Not something I am interested in but many runners seem to love it.

When you buy the bike the offer a bunch of different packages that include cycling shoes, bike mat, headphones, weights and a heart rate monitor.  If you are at all interested in purchasing a Peloton do your research but if you use the below referral code you will get $100 off accessories.

MGSWY3

Besides my solar panels this is the most expensive smart home product purchase to date.  I can justify it though as nothing is more important than health.  So if the tech is going to keep getting me on the bike every day then it is worth the price.