Last night it seems the fridge door was not necessarily closed properly … although the “open door” sensor was not beeping. Either that or the compressor is struggling.
I have a notification set if the fridge is off for more than an hour. I just set one for when it’s on for more than 5 hours.
Something is going on here. The fridge didn’t get loaded with anything new (warm) yesterday and the ambient temperature in the kitchen was otherwise “normal”. Our usage pattern was also routine.
Questions
Best (Notification) practices for a fridge?
Is smart plug data analyzed for device failure? This seems like a “simple” pattern on a fairly macro level.
Can all the refrigeration mechanics reading this ( ) weigh in with expert opinion to inform the Sense team (and me) what to look for?
The spikes are probably the defrost heating elements coming on once per day…totally normal.
The long runtime (greater than 5 hours) is probably not a problem. Looks like your fridge has a VCC compressor, which is likely very efficient and controlled by a microcontroller that is attempting to optimize energy consumption by running it “low and slow”. (Looks like your fridge pulls on average 40W, which is very low.)
I can’t explain why it would control the VCC compressor is such a way to steadily increase power ~10% every hour, and the cycle off…I have no experience with such advanced refrigerators.
The duration of the compressor on cycles is going to be a function of the temperature (and perhaps other) sensors within the fridge. The micro controller might also periodically instruct the compressor to stay on for longer periods of time for reasons like to ensure proper lubrication within the compressor.
I’m guilty of virtually treating my fridge as a Tardis …
It does indeed have a DC variable-speed compressor and it runs long vs high. i.e it’s relatively efficient. This is the first time, though, that it’s ramped to 67w over 8.5 hours. The obvious (likely) culprit was an ever-so-slightly unsealed door. I did a temp check after discovering the door might not have been closed this morning and it was definitely still working toward the set temps. Luckily the freezer was still well sub-zero.
Interesting! So given I’ve had the fridge on a smart plug for over a year, I suppose I could expect to look back and potentially find evidence of that.
The post here is a request to Sense to get on those alerts/notifications based on these rare patters … even “Your fridge just ran a lubrication cycle. Looking good” … @JustinAtSense, Team Sense can poke my data!
A couple of days later and you can see how exceptional the change was.
Looks like it was indeed an “Unsealed Door”.
Not something I want to test!
Given the current state of things, that’s a relief.
For scale: The short spikes of defroster element kicking in are at 150w.
Other components peaked around 84w while the door was unsealed.
Normally that would be around 58w max.
) weigh in with expert opinion to inform the Sense team (and me) what to look for?