I’ve had this device for well over a year, he shows up as a light, seems to kick on randomly. Doesn’t seem to matter if I’m away, sleeping or home. Seems to bounce 114w, 90w, 81w and 1w. Sometimes it will stay on for 10 mins, sometime over an hour.
1504 times on over a year ~= 4 times a day.
Question: Does it run every day?
7d15h/yr ==> just over 7min average on time at about 48 watts
Looks weather independent.
Question: Can you correlate any higher usage months with your activity?
Feels like a fridge component to me.
50 watts is also a heat pump component realm. Do you have a heat pump or other complex devices (fridge/freezer) that you can imagine has a 50 watt sub-device in it?
I didn’t have a heatpump until august of 2021. The one photo has the usage for 2021 year on it… looks like Feb, Aug and September used a little more than a few other months. But all months have usage and it goes back to when I installed sense. It doesn’t have a crankcase heater or aux heater on it though.
I have 2 deep freezer that are both on smart plugs, I went to put one on my fridge but I couldn’t slide my fridge all the way in. Sense found everything in my fridge- light, ice dispeser, water dispenser, compressor, cooling fan and defrost.
After I posted it, I’ve thought about it… I have a chamberlain garage door opener with a battery backup. I’m thinking that it might be the battery charging, I’m thinking the motor might run off the battery every time then when the battery reach a certain level. It recharges the battery. I know the display has a battery icon on it and it’s not uncommon for it to show it’s not 100%.
Sense has defiantly found most my device however it can’t seem to find any of my actual lights. I’m fairly sure it’s because they are all soft on/ off dimmers.
A new-ish garage door opening will have a DC motor and I assume most of the backup ones do. I’m not confident that signature is a charge cycle although it’s a native Sense signature so it may be artifacts thereof.
Here’s a Dyson charger for comparison:
As you probably know, just because you have smart plugs on the freezers and other devices doesn’t stop Sense from detecting the devices and components separate from the signature being sampled by the smart plug.
OK, for a frivolous exercise let’s say Sense has nailed the opener.
4 times a day (average) sounds possible (up & down & up & down).
8.8 kWh/yr and 1504X ==> 5.85 Wh per activation.
8ft ceiling = 2.4m
Lets say the door weighs 100kg (heavy one)
Assume 100% efficient “opener”
E = mgh = 100 * 9.8 * 2.4 = 2,352 Joules = 0.65 Wh
It’s amazing how little energy it takes to lift stuff!
Yeah, doesn’t look like a charger… assuming that all chargers would look the same-ish. My garage door is a 16x7 wood door that’s 40+ years old. The opener has WiFi / my-q build in as well. I think the model is a B-690 maybe a B670. Funny the shows the SN and that it’s been opened/ close 2,578 times but not the model. I might put the a Kasa on it and see.
I’ve got a navien gas tankless water heater, I ran a Kasa plug in for about a week. It didn’t seem to run ever at night or while I was home. Think the biggest draw was the fresh air motor on it.
I was able to put a smart plug on my fridge, by getting a short “flat plug” extension cord to plug into the wall, then the smart lug into the extension cord and run up to the top of the fridge. Fortunately, there was sufficient room between the fridge and the cabinet above when I carefully duct taped the assembly to the top of the fridge.
My relatively recent fridge is one of those variable speed proportional power units, un-detectable by Sense otherwise, and one of our larger power consumers.
Most of the “lift” in a garage door opener is from the balance springs. Without those most (all???) garage door openers would have no chance. Sense hasn’t found our DC motor Liftmasters, despite LOTS of use, and it would be nice to know when they have been operated, but not worth two smart plugs to find out, and definitely not worth it to measure the trivial power used.
I was waiting for that response 
Indeed a “well balanced” garage door uses a very small amount of power.
I suspect significantly more that the power used by a permanent smart plug!
I’m in the process of homebrewing (via the wonders of McMaster-Carr) adaptation of a Chamberlain RJ070 wall mount opener. Neither that nor any of the overheads will fit my doors as-is. I assume a direct-drive to the axel (or with the addition of some gears like I need) is probably even lower power.
That said: An open garage door at this time of year in our semi-conditioned garage = big heat loss = power-out-the-door.
So to speak …
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@ixu , @andy , comparisons for an AC garage door opener here.
Sense detects most openings and closings, but I slapped a smart plug on a couple of mine anyhow, just to study differences. Mine use about 420W for the entire length of door travel, with very little difference between ups and
down “lifts” - more about friction and motor loss vs net door weight.
Plus the Sense native detection misses standby Always On power plus the short term LED light cycle coincident with the door open / close (20W)
Andy, I can see how detecting a DC motor with battery backup could be very hard - I’m betting the power waveform going into the opener is far different than the energy waveform used by the DC motor.
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I’ve got a KP125 on my main garage door. The actual model on the opener is a Chamberlains B980, it’s got 2 7.5w Led (e12) in them. And my door for the first foot up/down is pretty heavy. I have low clearance double rails which makes the top panel go straight back. It’s a 16x7ft door and has 2 of the torsion springs. The opener has a max load adj for open and close, both I have around 90% for it to work.
My 2nd door is an old wood 12x7ft door but I used quick turn brackets instead of the double rails and it can be lifted with 2 fingers. It has 1 torsion spring and the opener is a screw drive genie, it might be 10-12 years old. I have the load screws less than 20% on the opener. Sense found this opener very fast and shows ~550w every time it opens.
The chamberlain B980 has WiFi/ MyQ and a battery backup build in. It looks like it peaks at 114w when I open the door but followed by 14w for 8 mins (lights). Standby is 2w but the plug shows 10w every 10 mins or so that last 15 seconds. I will let you all know when “light” clicks on.
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The device showed up as “Light”… is Not the chamberlain B980 garage door opener that I have my Kasa plug on. Light kicked on today and it doesn’t show the wattage
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