I was trying to identify Motor 3. It is showing up with multiple triggers the power it uses varies too. At one point we had all but two breaker off in the house. In the end couldn’t find what the motor 3 was
Also you can see in one image my “other”bubble is over 5kw
I have issues with previously detected items no longer being detected anymore.
Any help would be appreciated.
Is it always on when your main house A/C is on? My first guess would be the blower motor, but 1992w would probably be the top of the range for a blower unless it has a bad bearing or something.
Also, you have an aquarium in your kitchen?
Motor 3 has been on for 9 days 4 hours this month so far. And uses a variation of power up to 2,315w We chased that motor 3 device all thru the house. We shut the house down one breaker at a time, Flipping a breaker off resulted in a reduction of usage of motor 3 but we couldn’t track it down to a specific circuit, as we waited when it went off by flipping a breaker but inevitably 10-15m later it came back.
the usage per the sense for the month and my bill was only 50w off. However can’t get an accurate bill estimate because we have a lower rate for up to 800kWh and higher rate for 800 kWh and above
Yea, There is a temporary aquarium set up just off the kitchen. Lol
I had items that were detecting, that aren’t any more. I’m at a loss.
When you were shutting off breakers, were you looking at the device bubbles or the meter? When you throw a breaker, Sense won’t always catch that as an “off” for the device, so the bubble won’t close.
Also, did Sense detect your house A/C or do you have it on a dedicated circuit?
House ac units are on a dedicated circuit
I had the actual “motor 3” device pulled up. Watching the metered watts change for only that device.
I think the preferred method would be looking at the Power Meter. You might have different results. I would try that and then circle back.
What Sense really needs is a Kasa-like module for 240 volt circuits like A/C, etc. Can’t understand why they haven’t made that happen.
Right, but you will see the wattage drop. If your motor3 is showing 804 watts and you kill the breaker, the meter will drop at least 804 watts. If you manually shut off everything in the house (or as much as possible), it’s pretty easy to narrow that device down to a breaker. Sense doesn’t always detect an off when you manually kill the power, so it can be deceiving to look at the bubbles. For instance, I have a GeoSpring hot water heater and if I flip the breaker or manually pull the plug, the bubble will still show.
Just my 2 cents…
@andy Did you know that Flex add-on sensors can be used to track 240 volt circuits?
Carol
I assume you are talking about the Sense Solar monitoring (and yes…I like so many others do have solar and use the 240V solar monitoring as designed), so this is a useless solution to the problem that Sense simply can’t monitor many/most of my large consumers.
Thanks anyway
Trying to clarify… you are just looking at the total number at the top. In your photo, the 5,514. That is coming from the clamps on the main leads coming into your box. If your motor 3 is drawing 1200 watts and you kill that specific breaker, you will see that total number drop by at least 1200 watts. If it’s the only thing running on that circuit, you will see it drop by exactly 1200 watts.
MattL, I’m not sure you completely understand the issue, which is my fault.
Motor 3 wattage pull is not constant. So simply watching the main power meter for a 1200w drop isn’t going to help. (See motor 3 specific power meter chart attached)
Also I’m not clear as to which power meter you’re referring to, the main power meter on the home page that shows everything, or the power meter that is at the bottom every device page. Ie… from the main menu devices > motor 3 > scroll to bottom > last 24 hrs power meter.
Thanks for the help!
@2kvfr800, generally, when you are trying to figure out the identity of new device, you’ll want to use the device Power Meter to place the on/offs in time, but use the main Power Meter to look for the characteristics, because the device Power Meter is only showing a “predicted waveform” that could be only loosely tied to the real waveform of the device.
That has to be reading the AC… just the frequency and it cycling and it sometimes reaching 19.3amps. I think that you might be seeing the energy reported as motor 3 with main house AC… and actually almost anything on. If you have a dedicated CTs for it and sense also reading it. (Unless you have a dedicated AC panel that’s feed by side taps).
What I think it’s doing….In the 1st photo…(motor 3) it’s recognizing the signature which may be L1 (804w) then L2 would have (804w) and your fan which could be on either L1/L2 or (713w).
In the 2nd photo… it’s (motor 3) recognizing the signature in both L1/L2 (1992w) then your fan would be 518w. However because you have the dedicated CTs, and it thinks it’s the signature.
Sometimes … sense will also miss the “off “ and the device will be stuck on. When mine has done this in the past, sometime the bubbles won’t add up to the total wattage.
I would wait until it’s reading about 1800w which shows it’s not 120v, flip the AC main house breaker off and it should fall. My guess would be that it will still show it’s on though. If so… flip the break off for the sense meter, then back on.
CCook, I feel like you left out a last paragraph. What are we accomplishing with the power cycle of the sense? Am I supposed to wait a period of time before turning the ac breakers on?
Happy 4th everyone!
When you power cycle the sense… it’s restarting it, therefore all the devices are turned back to the off state. Meaning device that it’s sensed to be on.
Not sure of your AC compressor setup. Most that have a control board will have a 2 or 5 min time before the compressor kicks back in. If you not sure, I would give it 5 mins. The purpose of kicking the AC breaker off, is to see how much “motor 3” is effected by it. The “above 1800w”. Shows that it has to be a 240v device because 1800w is 15amp on a 120v circuit.
Okay thanks. I appreciate the explanation.
Btw I only have one set of CT’s on the mains.
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