Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Help? Energy-usage trigger?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Help? Energy-usage trigger?

    Case: garage refrigerator is left open, using more power than normal profile.

    Trigger: notify when power draw stays above 30 watts for more than 30 minutes.

    The refrigerator is plugged into a Z-Wave outlet and the power measures accurately. Using Jon00 graphing devices to track it simply. Just need to get the trigger working. Attached is a pic of what it looks like normal and door-left-open.

    I was using the Ubiquity mPower software to do this... but trying to move it all over to HS.
    Attached Files

    #2
    Originally posted by gregoryx View Post
    Case: garage refrigerator is left open, using more power than normal profile.

    Trigger: notify when power draw stays above 30 watts for more than 30 minutes.

    The refrigerator is plugged into a Z-Wave outlet and the power measures accurately. Using Jon00 graphing devices to track it simply. Just need to get the trigger working. Attached is a pic of what it looks like normal and door-left-open.

    I was using the Ubiquity mPower software to do this... but trying to move it all over to HS.
    You can do it with a few events, a virtual device and a timer. Spud's Easy Trigger is easier:

    Click image for larger version

Name:	Capture.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	31.4 KB
ID:	1190680

    It will trigger if the energy consumption has been over 30.9 watts for 31 minutes.
    HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

    Comment


      #3
      I use a Z-Wave motion/temperature sensor in the fridge. If the temperature rises above the normal setting, we start getting alerts, TTS, etc. It works very well since if the door is left open, the temperature climbs within a couple of minutes.
      HS4Pro on a Raspberry Pi4
      54 Z-Wave Nodes / 21 Zigbee Devices / 108 Events / 767 Devices
      Plugins: Z-Wave / Zigbee Plus / EasyTrigger / AK Weather / OMNI

      HSTouch Clients: 1 Android

      Comment


        #4
        OMG! Easy-Trigger. I forget all about the cool things it does. That worked great. Thanks, Randy.

        @rmasonjr, I actually have an Aeon sensor in the fridge. Last night, someone left the freezer open. Never happened before, so up to now, I was thinking the MS6 in the fridge was working better than the old power-draw thing on the mPower had worked. Now, I've got both working together.

        Thanks for the quick fix, gentlemen!

        Comment


          #5
          This may give you some ideas as well: https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=180070

          Cheers
          Al
          HS 4.2.8.0: 2134 Devices 1252 Events
          Z-Wave 3.0.10.0: 133 Nodes on one Z-Net

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by sparkman View Post
            This may give you some ideas as well: https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=180070

            Cheers
            Al
            Wow. That looks fantastic, Al. I'll dig into it. Thank you.

            (Funny that I didn't think to search for "Fridge Monitoring"... too obvious, I guess.)

            Comment


              #7
              Our refrigerator has LED lighting, so there is no way to look at energy to tell if the door is open. I'm not sure we need a warning from HomeSeer when the door is open since the built in alarm can probably be heard throughout the house. I added a DS18B20 to the refrigerator and the freezer compartment and one in each chest freezer and added them to my OneWire network. We get alerts for temperature out of range and energy out of range. I wrote about this in 2014, we had a malfunction in our refrigerator that turned it into a freezer. For that reason we look at the temperature in the refrigerator being too hot or too cold.

              I also look at the energy of the refrigerator to identify defrost cycles, so we don't get a temperature alert if it is in the defrost cycle. There is a virtual device for defrost as well one for each appliance to indicate if it is running or not. Running does not mean the compressor is running, only that it has run within the maximum cycle time for that particular appliance. Using events and timers, the "running" device is updated if the proper energy usage occurs or not within that cycle time.
              HS4 Pro, 4.2.19.0 Windows 10 pro, Supermicro LP Xeon

              Comment


                #8
                Help? Energy-usage trigger?

                Well, there is likely a door switch that is tied into the light in your refrigerator. You could check the wiring with a multimeter (first check volts, then check impedance/resistance) and see if it has voltage or if it only shows closed open state. If it only shows closed/open it is a dry contact circuit. If the circuit is dry, you could wire in an Aeon labs dry contact sensor. I do something similar with my HVAC water sensor. This would get you sensing the refrigerator door. Do note, opening your refrigerator up to get to the wiring may void any warranty you have.



                Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
                Last edited by Kerat; April 27, 2017, 09:12 PM.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Great idea.

                  This can even be used to determine if the fridge needs cleaning ( the heat exchanger, not inside, lol).

                  If the duty cycle goes up that's means the fridge has to work harder to cool it down.
                  Underneath the fridge (newer models) there is the coil that is for the head exchange.
                  I couldn't believe what was collecting under there. I just noticed it because I noticed that the fridge seems to run longer and longer.

                  Perhaps not because one time event but as a Trend.


                  This could also be used for heating.
                  We could see a trend If we monitor how long the heater (or air conditioner) is running to get a certain temperature up or down. (Windows closed)
                  If the duty cycle goes up it would mean that the filters are "clogged".

                  Comment

                  Working...
                  X