I installed Sense a few days ago and this one is a mystery. It runs over 300 times a day. At first I thought it was a component in my fridge. I’ve eliminated the fridge and our freezer. Also eliminated and lights or ceiling fans. Any ideas?
LoL- smile and enjoy the detective work. These are the small but interesting things. Is it consistent over 24 hrs? I have not seen a waveform like that in my 6 weeks of having my sense. motion sensor? camera system, battery charger? small heater (block, pipe, defroster, coffee maker) start by turning of breakers and see what circuit it is one. Will make the detective work easier. Have fun!
I had a similar issue. It turned out to be by Keurig was on all day. I was able to change the times it was on and that solved my issue. You may want to check if you have one or a similar coffee maker that is on all day. Good luck
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It kind of looks like my older coffee maker (a vintage Keurig, but showed higher power than this) which pulsed all day long. Not a huge waste of power but totally unnecessary because they heat in about a minute of totally turned off (the switch on the unit do9esn’t do that…it just puts it into sleep/keep hot mode).
My newer Keurig doesn’t do that…it actually turns off. It’s amazing how many devices where “off” doesn’t really mean off. Not huge power each, but really adds up over the year.
What specifically is the pattern you’re seeing run ~300 times per day? The spike to around 100 W with a dip in the middle, or does the waveform in the screenshot show two spikes? i.e. is the image showing one run instance or two? Do you consider the small ripple of power usage after these ~100 W spikes to be part of the cycle? How long is it typically “on” for? Can you show a larger time period to get an idea of how it cycles and how consistent it is across cycles? Is the time between cycles constant?
300 runs per 24hr day is about 12.5 runs per hour, or once every 5 minutes. No initial spike suggest there’s no electric motor component involved here (although motors can have no initial spike). For resistive heating elements, the power tends to decrease throughout the cycle as the resistance of the element increases (particularly for the initial heating cycle when the temperature is increasing). It’s hard to say for sure with a relatively short cycle. If it’s resistive it’s likely an intermittent cycle you’re seeing to maintain a certain temperature. My Keurig personally looks more similar to the ‘standby’ example below (both in cycle frequency and the ~250 W usage), but this may differ between Keurig models or brands of instant coffee makers. Could also be other small heating devices like an aquarium heater. I’d also consider laptops or computers. I believe I’ve noticed cyclic pulses to maintain a full battery charge.
Primary Keurig Heater vs Standby Keurig Heater
This hot water recirculation pump example seems interesting. Not the same wattage as your spikes but could be a contender if you’re seeing intermittent sets of cycles, rather than consistent cycles over 24hrs.
I’d recommend getting yourself one smart plug like the Kasa HS110 or KP115 to help troubleshoot with.
Turns out it is something with my ice maker. I turned off the ice maker for 12 hours and it stopped. Turned it back on and it immediately came back.
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That’s an awful lot of activity for an ice maker, you must use a ton of ice. Ice makers have a heater that breaks loose the new cubes so they drop into the bucket. Good find! It’s the only part of my Kenmore refrige that Sense has been able to detect.
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