Two days ago, Sense found a “new device,” and named it Heat 6. Nothing new was going on in the house. I was outside having a rum punch sitting by the pool, reading a book. My wife and visiting daughter were out. No cooking going on.
And then I got a notification that Sense found “Heat 6.”
Pulling 340 watts, continuously.
So I tried to figure out what it was. I was also concerned that something wrong was happening to something in the house and something was pulling 340 watts. Continuously.
This morning, about 36 hours after Sense finding said device, I started shutting off circuit breakers. Finally, when I shut everything down, including our solar system, and then turned everything back on, “Heat 6” was gone.
I will try to upload the signature for the entire event.
The image above was a screen shot taken right after I turned everything back on after shutting all the circuit breakers. You can see “Heat 6” is now off.
Hey @bob4 - the above screenshot is from the Device Power Meter view, not the Power Meter, correct?
If you could upload a screenshot from the normal Power Meter view for this same time period, that would be a huge help.
Also, I’ll talk to @EmoryAtSense2 about holding off issuing new unnamed devices if a user is poolside with a rum-based cocktail.
NO!!! Don’t have them stop issuing new named devices while the user is having a rum based cocktail! I will NEVER get any new devices ever! Wait, perhaps they can issue them before noon? After that, you never know what the cocktail will be.
Is this screenshot what you think will be helpful(?):
Really great point. I’ll retract my earlier statement
Yes, this is a bit better. To clarify, is ‘Heat 6’ gone entirely from your device list now or is it just finally ‘Off’?
Can we look at your monitor data if needed?
“Heat” refers to a constant voltage that looks like a resistance heating element to Sense. A “motor” has a signature with a big jump in power consumption when they switch on (from the inrush current to get the motor spinning from a dead stop). So a random “Heat” device could be part of another appliance, something intermittent with a heating element maybe, probably not something with a motor running at the same time (like a pump or fan)
@bob4@kenotron advice is spot on. If you can think of any devices in your home that have a pump or a fan and run for extended periods of time, I would recommend starting there. It would be a good idea to turn the Device notifications on to alert you when it turns on again.
Heat 6 came on again as my wife was cooking dinner. Same pattern as above, except it went on and off a bunch of times, like a burner on the stove (electric, which ours is) and then leveled out at 340 watts. And here is what I think is strange: it stayed at 340 watts without wavering, just as in the power meter image above.
Now our oven was also on and it does have a fan that runs forever after the oven is off, but the Power Meter for Heat 6 was consistent with one of the burners. It could be hat oven fan once the oven turns off, but I doubt it runs at 340 watts. For hours and hours.
When dinner was over, it was indicating it was still on and using 340 watts. And the oven fan was off. I checked.
I then went and turned off the Range’s circuit breaker. Nothing - Sense indicated it, Heat 6, was still on using 340 watts.
I then decided to delete Heat 6 and see if the Power Meter would pick up the 340 watts as an “Other.” Or the energy usage would reflect something.
It did not. I repeat - Sense did not pick it up as anything else. The power meter, upon deleting Heat 6 did not change. No “Other” popped up using 340 watts. The Power Meter did not change either way.
This morning, all seems normal.
Question: Is it possible that Sense finds the energy usage but somehow does not recognize when it shuts off?
And this is truly so perplexing, I think I need to have more rum so my mind can adequately concentrate on this, one of life’s big mysteries.
Sense can miss an off-signature leaving the bubble and device usage on for long periods. Eventually Sense cleans things up by turning device that appear to be running too long off, but that “too long” period can be quite long.
That means that the bubble and on state won’t go away when you turn off your breaker. The place you need to look when turning off your breaker is the main Power Meter. If you see the feature/bump you noticed in the Power Meter drop by a commensurate amount, that can help validate to source of the detection. But don’t flip a breaker off and expect a bubble to disappear. If Sense missed an off signature, there’s no device signal left to see, and even if the device is still truly on, flicking a breaker might not give the same off signature as Sense sees in normal operation.
@kevin1 is spot on here. It looks like Sense was missing the “Off” signature for the device, causing the bubble to stay on too long. I think your decision to delete the device and wait for a more accurate detection is the right one.
Okay. Great information. I no longer have Heat 6 up and running but I will continue to monitor it if it pops back up again.
Thank you all!
Now go out, Download the app called “Total Tiki,” by Beachbum Berry, and learn how to make real tiki drinks. And learn about “tiki” in general. There is a great history to it.
Thanks, again.
Bob
PS: No, I am not Beachbum Berry, but it is a great app for you rum drinkers out there.
