Help identifying devices? (3 pumps)

My sense is identifying a number of devices, but I can’t confirm if they are indeed what the app suggests. I have 3 identified pumps, but run times don’t make sense. We have a well pump, extractor pump, and sump pump. I don’t know how long the well pump runs for, but I can hear the other two run; they only run for a few seconds, but Sense has reports average run time of 1 min and 2 mins. It thinks the ‘sump pump’ runs for 21 seconds, but I know the pump doesn’t run for that long.

Any suggestions on nailing these down?

1 Like

My preferred approach is to rule-out things, so if it were me, and I didn’t need the sump pump to be on for a period of time, but in a window of time where it might run (and where the other might run), I’d turn it off at the breaker, etc., and then when you see one running you can make a better guess of what it is.

My well pump was easy to test by just turning on every faucet in the house and flushing a toilet, and with about 5 minutes of water wastage, the well pump was trivially distinguished. I wouldn’t recommend doing a lot of that (and certainly don’t try flooding the sump pump recreationally!), but as a one-off, it’s a good thing to have in the mix for rule-in/rule-out if you don’t actually already know ground truth yourself for when your devices run or how much power they draw.

4 Likes

@juli’s suggestions are solid.

Also keep in mind that you may have more pumps in your home than you think, like condensate pumps and pumps in your dishwasher and fridge.

2 Likes

Thanks for the advice. I also need to check if the three pumps I know of are actually in this panel. I have a second panel without a Sense.
The run times are what are throwing me.

I didn’t think about these at all. Dishwasher pump and the reported run times make sense (though I would think the power level would be much lower (vice ~1500 w)).
One large fridge and one regular sized (don’t know if both on same panel). Definitely wouldn’t have expected a pump to register for that.
Thanks

2 Likes

Could be a dishwasher based on the amount of power. When cycling mine draws just under 1,600 watts (measured on my Kill-A-Watt), and the cycling has lots of on/off pauses while running. That said, it doesn’t use much power for a load of dishes. At my power rates, it costs about 21 cents for a load of dishes.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.