Whenever i get a new device detection i get excited to try and figure out just what it is but this time i am stumped. I am 100% sure its not the coffee grinder and my fridge is on a HS110 plug and I dont have any pumps in my house and the furnace was already running for a few minutes the last time this came on. anyways here are some screen shots from my app
Definitely looks like a pump, does your furnace had a condensate pump?
It’s quite small keep that in mind when running around the house 
Actually I am not sure if it does or not and its in the attic so I’ll have to find time to get up there and see if something is turning on and off besides the air handler and furnace thats part of the HVAC system. I was actually trying to figure out if i can replace the cable going from the unit to the switch above it and just adding a plug and changing the switch to a receptacle and putting it on a HS110. obviously I need to find out if this allowed by code or not before I do anything.
The HS110 has a US standard 110v plug on it, which is NOT code compatible with running 220v thru it. Various folks have successfully done it, but if you ever had a problem of any kind, neither the local building inspectors nor your insurance would look kindly on it.
Many forced air furnaces run off of 120V. I’m not sure how widely the code allows, but in our area of Northern California, the furnace and associated hardware are even allowed to plug into a dedicated outlet. Or at least that was the code when our home was built 17 years ago.
The discussion has been about a 220v load, hence comments about hacking the HS110 into that.
Clearly, anything running on 110v (particularly with an existing plug-in) is fine for the HS110.
I just wish that someone (TP-Link, or Sense, or whomever) would make a junction box installable 220v version. Since TP-Link already has units that run on 220v in Europe, it would seem that it’s primarily a process of slight re-packaging and certifications (never easy). Such a module would solve the monitoring problem for a large number of us, covering most of our big loads.
In a dozen homes up and down the east coast (mainly New England), I’ve not seen that. Thanks for the education.
@andythe use 220 overseas and we use 240 here. Not only that but the wiring is different and repackaging doesn’t solve that problem.
We have 2 wires each carrying 120 volts and a third for ground (sometimes a fourth for neutral).
The also have three wires but the hot wire is the full 220, the second is neutral and third is ground.
On most of our 240 appliances, we don’t use a neutral, it’s not needed with a ground. In Europe the neutral is required. I would t suggest trying to use a European plug for our system. Not only will it not work, it would be dangerous
Maybe we see it here because we don’t need very powerful heating systems. My larger (downstairs) system uses less than 500W when full on.
@samwooly1 - your statement is a pretty broad one and not necessarily correct.
There are a lot of voltages in use in the US and Europe and the world beyond. . 120 vs 240 is just not the case anymore. Much of Europe is actually 230v now.
As far as “hot” leads vs “neutral” leads - that may be correct for the generating source of the power, but as to what an appliance is expecting, most don’t care. The electrical properties are the same whether the 240v is “made” by the difference between a hot leg of 240v and a neutral at 0v, or two 120v legs 180° out of phase.
To say that the neutral is required in Europe makes it sound like a law. Its a law of physics, and the standards in Europe dictate that they use a cable that we call a Neutral, but in reality, its just you need two cables that when a load is applied create a potential difference between them of the desired target voltage.
Sure, in the US there are complex appliances that might expect certain elements to tap both legs for 240v and only tap 1 leg for a 120v component, but electrically speaking, you put a meter on your leads and get 220v, its 220v whether its 2 hots or 1 hot and 1 neutral. So I am not saying that you should willy nilly plug a US based 220v appliance into a single hot 220v source without knowing what you are doing, but to say that
The unit in my attic has the air handler and gas furnace which is all 110V up there and the A/C condenser is outside on a 220V hookup. I am not worried about the condenser as I am sure once it starts warming up outside and it starts turning on and off it wont take sense long to discover it but i would like to get a more accurate power measurement from my unit in the attic.
@ben
No, I didn’t mean it as law or regulation, just the way they wire there as opposed to here. I understand the 200 volt range is broad worldwide but is technically 240 here with allowance both above and below for various reasons.
I didn’t want to see him ruin a HS110 or get hurt thinking the plug was the same and was just packaged differently for other countries. The appliance does not care about the voltage but I’m willing to bet that putting two hot wires into a HS110 will fry it.
I was using layman’s terms to not get overly technical about our split phase system and exactly how neutral and ground enter in the equation. Just a basic explanation that the idea wouldn’t work.
I’m completely aware that the 220V is simply just two 120V feeds out of phase of one another giving you the 220V. My furnace is running from a 120V 30A breaker in my box and then goes to a switch with a red Emergency on/off labeled cover on the wall next to where the attic pull down steps are and then there is another switch that is mounted above the furnace that is another location to remove power to the furnace. I would like to remove the 110V “light switch” above the furnace and replace it with a receptacle and add remove the wiring that goes from the switch to the furnace and replace it with a plug. I need to find out if this would meet code or not and if it does then i think this is the route that i am going to go so i can put a smart plug on it.
I think the biggest hurdle you’ll have with what your trying to do is a smart plug that will carry the amperage. I have t seen anything that will ha doe over 15 amps.
I’m not exactly sure I’d code allows to remove the Romex wire from the furnace and replace with suitable wire with 120 plug or not.
Sounds great if you can find a plug with a 30 amp rating
You hit the nail on the head. It seems that there isn’t an appliance cord available to handle the amperage needed to replace the romex cable that is going from the furnace to the switch. I was so worried about code that i didn’t even think to look and see if there was a cable that could handle it. My initial thought was a dishwasher replacement cable thinking that the heating element in the dishwasher or a microwave replacement cable would call for the need of a heavy duty cable but even those are only 15 amp. Thanks for the heads up Dan. Now I can stop wasting my time looking for something that doesn’t exist.
The HS110 is rated at 13 amps, so using it on a 30 amp circuit won’t work
Although the HS110 is rated at 13 amps, it struggles at 12.
I have a 1500 watt heater that will cause the HS110 to rapidly cycle on and off after it’s been plugged in for 20 minutes or so.
Okay so i went up in the attic today to locate the furnace condensate pump and after opening the unit up it appears my unit doesn’t have a condensate pump and just has a drain line at the base of the unit where the heating/cooling coils are located and a second drain line attached to the drip pan that is just below it but no condensate pump. It appears the drains are just gravity fed since its up in my attic as apposed to being at ground level.
Good news is no pump to wear out. Bad news is no pump to detect.
lol yeah but now i have to figure out where this mystery pump is at. I’m just lost as to what or where this pump can be at. My fridge and washing machine are on smart plugs and there isn’t a pump in my furnace that i could find so I am at a loss on this one. I do have a crawl space under my house and i don’t think i have any pumps under there but i could be wrong so I guess my next step is to crawl under there and take a better look around.
