Sense, whose clamp-on sensor at the electrical panel tracks power usage and enables app control of various home appliances, announced that its device is now compatible with Google Assistant as well as Belkin Wemo and TP-Link Kasa smart plugs.
Sense, whose clamp-on sensor at the electrical panel tracks power usage and enables app control of home appliances, announced that its device is now compatible with Google Assistant as well as Belkin Wemo and TP-Link Kasa smart plugs.
Google Assistant users can now issue commands like "Ask Sense if my oven is on" and "Ask Sense if the dryer has turned off." They may also control devices connected to the Belkin Wemo Insight Plug and TP-Link Kasa HS110 smart plugs from the app.
Sense users can make their homes safer by tracking and controlling specific devices that are connected to the Belkin Wemo or TP-Link smart plug. For instance, homeowners can plug a coffee-maker, hair iron or space heater into a smart plug, identify it, create an alert if it stays on more than an hour, and turn off the device remotely from the Sense app.
Sense collects energy data and device status from these energy-aware smart plugs, then shows usage and costs both in real time and historically, over the course of a week, month or year.
Homeowners may also save energy expenses with Sense. For example, with a smart plug connected to their smart TV, homeowners can track in the Sense app whether the TV is idling at its lowest level after it's been turned off with the remote. In a recent analysis of more than 4,000 homes, Sense discovered that 23% of home electricity is consumed by always-on devices such as home electronics and aquarium pumps that cost the average home US$308 annually.
Sense already supports IFTTT, Amazon Alexa and Hue lighting. Sense aims to “enhance our customers' understanding of what's happening in their homes,” Sense CEO and co-founder Michael Phillips said, adding that “Sense brings to the smart home ecosystem a higher level of intelligence, revealing what's hidden.”