Confused by Power Behavior

So I am really confused and possibly a bit concerned… Sense discovered “Device 1” yesterday and I have been struggling to figure out what it is. It “seems” attached to my GDO in some way, but Sense discovered the GDO over a day ago. The really odd part is that the GDO open appears to just be a power spike here is an image of that. **edit to remove pic of my pup - errant tap there.

However when the GDO is triggered, the Device 1 power wave starts and continues for 30 to much longer minutes… if it goes longer than the 30 minutes, the power completely flattens to 101w and can remain that way for over an hour. Here is what that looks like.

Here is the wave pattern itself.

So here is where things get really odd. I was watching the meter when my son just was going out and as soon as the GDO triggered, Device 1 immediately went to 0w. Then after the GDO travel was complete, the active wave pattern started again. In testing, this can be reproduced when triggering the GDO. When the power wave pattern is drawing power, I can unplug the GDO and anything in the garage and whatever the device is it continues to draw power, so it is not the GDO specifically… I do have two overhead lights that through an automation I activate once the GDO goes up, however controlling those by switch does not interrupt Device 1…

The strangest part is Device 1 goes from 101w to 0 once the GDO starts travel.

Any ideas/help would be greatly appreciated.

Any thoughts on what this could be?

Where are your waveform screenshots coming from ? If those are from the Device 1 Power Meter, they are only Sense “predictions” of the waveform. If the are from the whole house Power Meter, they look kind of impossible, flatlined at zero (there’s almost alway something else on in the house), and flatlined on top. The Sense prediction for Device 1 can be wrong for a number of reasons.

The wave form comes from the power meter. Even at a guess, you are right the wave form is odd. I am thinking that it “may” be from the iSmartGate GDO control I have physically tied to the GDO. It allows HomeKit control of the door.

Seeing the wave go to 0w when the GDO opens, “could” be possible if the GDO is drawing the 500+w on travel at they are plugged into the same outlet… however, the wave pattern and power draw continues even if I unplug the iSmartGate, so that may not be it either. I do have a Eufy 2k Cam in the garage too to be able to view GDO state when closing remotely. However, the power draw also appears to remain when that it unplugged… other than the garage ceiling lights (9w LED), the GDO lights (9w LED) and the deep freezer there is nothing sale in the garage. All items there have been unplugged when Device 1 is sawing it is drawing power and the power draw remains.

The reason I am focusing on the GDO is because the power draw only starts immediately following the GDO travel and is interrupted when the GDO is triggered again. It them runs in that specific pattern and settles into the 101w sustained draw and disappears seemingly on its own :0(

I have seen odd waveforms on newly discovered devices. I don’t remember what it was, but it cleared up eventually. It backfilled historical data on the power meter correctly, too. It might just need some more time.

(I think it was one of my oven burners or some resistive element. It was very obviously wrong at the start.)

There’s the main Power Meter that shows the power usage for the whole house. Every device (except Always On and Other that aren’t really devices) has its own Power Meter as well. Based on what you have said, you’re posting screenshots from your Device 1 Power Meter, not the main Power Meter. If that’s from your main Power Meter, you have bigger issues. Your main Power Meter shouldn’t go to zero or flatline, unless you have absolutely nothing else plugged in or running in the house.

So I’ll ask that question: Is “GDO” Garage Door Opener?

If so, keep in mind that such GDO may often have at least 2 or 3 different patterns of power usage:
– the motor when lifting the door
– the motor when closing the door (albeit the waveform for those two may be similar)
– the lights attached (if any). The period of time the lights are on can vary as they may be turned on/off independently of the motor activations, too.

… and, those motor-related patterns may change if the mechanics of the door(s) change (e.g. lubricating the tracks, pulleys, wheels, and/or chains).

You may find you’ll have merge ‘detected’ devices over time.

Yup GDO is garage Door opener.

The oddity about this one is it is only triggered when the garage door opens or closes. It starts immediately following travel. I was thinking that it was the travel, but it zeros out when you can hear the door traveling and then kicks in as soon as the cycle is completed (up or down). Pulling power on the GDO immediately after open or close does not prevent this power draw. It is definitely not coincidental (i.e. just because the GDO was triggered at that moment, something else somewhere else in the house went on making it 'appear" to be part of the GDO opening/closing.

I am still working to narrow this one down. I was even trying to see if it was the interruption sensor… as an example, the door went up at 6:15am when I left, and then this pattern starts. and a power draw continues until just after 7 when my wife opened and closed the door and then again when I trigger remotely (sometimes that quick up and down causes this power draw to stop quicker).

The images below are from the individual power meter off the “devices” themselves, not the main power meter.

This is from the one Sense picked out at the Garage Door Opener:

The is from the “questionable” device that appears separate from the GDO, but could be part of it. if I go ahead and merge the devices:

The timing is exact and based on other energy consumers at my house that have been identified like my well pump, I can see how they could be part of the Garage Door opener motor patten with. the big spike in draw as the initial triggering and the the “unknown device” wave pattern following with the pull of the motor and tension on the door, etc. This would also explain the “unknown device” power going to “0” while the GDO spike is occurring.

What I am struggling to understand though was how/why the device appears to continue to be consuming a low voltage of power 167w at the peak of the wave and 68w at the lowest point and varying amounts between in a regular pattern form for the better part of 30+ minutes until it decides to turn completely off or it finds a consistent low power draw between 80-101w and that can hold steady for hours…

It is kind of disturbing actually…

So I have a some of questions:

  1. Should I merge these two and "see what happens over time?
  2. What would happen if I delete the “unknown device” and/or the GDO?
  3. Would sense re-discover them(it) over time again?
  4. Would this allow Sense to potentially better identify the device to pull out erroneous consumption?
  5. Could putting the GDO onto a TPLink Plug (I have a couple TP115 I just bought) help identify / better diagnose the issue?

Final thoughts: the breaker and cable run for the outlets that the GDO and the iSmartGate are using is brand new from last summer. it goes in a 100A sub-panel I had installed in my garage to support charging my Tesla. Could the breaker / working be faulty causing this low power “bleed”?

Just as a “one more thing” about this, I just got an alert that my “unidentified device” just turned off… While I know this is pennies in the overall scheme of things, It it really confusing and frustrating - but I am glad I am aware of it opposed to having something simply quietly chewing on power… THANK YOU SENSE fo providing that visibility…

So you can see this “device” drew power from the initial open at 6:17am until about 9:28am… so freakin weird. I get motor and travel, I get lights remaining on for 15 minutes… if don’t get the erratic up/down power swings (even though it is only about 100w in the swing(, and I don’t get stabilizing at a certain level in this case 84W for over an hour… even if I could chalk it up to the two lights in the unit being on, they are LED bulbs that only draw 9W each… Grrrr…

Really appreciate the perspectives, insights, thoughts, and even challenges.

A few thoughts.

  • That device waveform might not be correct, so don’t puzzle too long on it. It’s not an exactly measured thing. You can delete that device and Sense could end up redetecting with a different look.
  • My old school AC garage door has been natively detected plus I have one on a smartplug. You can see what both device waveforms look like here.
    LiftMaster 8355W AC Motor Garage Door Opener - #3 by kevin1
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Thank you! It looks like what Sense “found” as the GDO (Craftsman Garage Door Opener) is the stable item, and the “Device 1” with the unknown wave form is something… I agree that one is well and truly confusing.

I think I am going to delete that “unknown Device” as well as put of the TPLink HS115 outlets on it, and another one on the iSmartGate to meter be able to determine that is what and the power draw and pattern. This “should” help differentiate the two and see what is really happening.

I appreciate the insight and look at your Liftmaster power wave form.

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