Strange power use in intervals

[ixu]

Having used the Solar CTs for non-standard probing of devices (i.e. not to monitor a solar inverter) I have wondered about the calibration cycle details:

Solar startup for CTs on other than solar circuits

I have been successfully using the Main CTs on my second Sense to directly monitor a hot water tank. This is yielding very interesting comparative data, namely: Sense-native detection vs Sense-native ground-truth monitoring. Meanwhile I’ve had that same Sense’s Solar CTs (one of them only) on a 120V window air conditioner to give me some ground-truth data on that. It “works” but the calibration is off. It seems though that the Solar CTs are bad … the other CT has zero output when clamped to th…

According to the install guide you need a minimum of 150 watts being generated during the calibration cycle. i.e. Startup or a reset (?) at night won’t work.

Would be interested to know what the outcome is here @oasis so please report back what support advises.

I agree with @james_reilley’s suggestion here for the periodic loads … some users think that a device meter will emphatically go on/off when flipping breakers, which is sometimes not the case. In your situation though, looking at the Mains meter, you can easily identify when the periodic load drops. I would suggest also using Settings > Signals for that because then you can ID the phase (leg) the load is on and determine if it’s 120 or 240V.

[james_reilley]

To expand on @ixu’s suggestion of looking at Settings > Signals to help identify the phase/leg the periodic loads are one, it would be a good for product wishlist item to have have the capability of having the power meter graphs show each phase/leg to aid in such debugging efforts. There already is such a wishlist item that I encourage folks to “like”:

Track Use by Phase

I would like to be able to track watts used by each phase. It would narrow down searches of new devices. It would be nice to see the “Now” view by each phase.

[kevin1]

I don’t know what the power profile over time for the actual Sense device itself looks like, but the device @oasis is looking at fits into the the Sense monitor power envelope of less than 5W if you look at it over time (average is 15W * 0.25 = 3.75W).

His/her usage patterns are incredibly simple and well-defined. I can see how it would be very frustrating to see those device patterns and not be able to name them…

[ken2]

@andy

Solar arrays, and their inverters, DO NOT consume power from the grid. They only generate it, for the home and the leftover for the grid. So this is very confusing.

Do you have a storage system that might be fed from the solar array and from the grid?

The inverters do consume power from the grid when the solar array is not generating. My Enphase system draws 3-4 watts of power at night for the Envoy unit. It’s also connected via a line side tap and not a breaker to my main panel.

[oasis]

There is also a pulsing wattage nominally every 3/seconds of about 3-5 watts that is a mystery as well. I can on,y gets close look at it during the night because the graph will not let me move around to see the top. That should be a wish list items as well; the ability to enlarge the meter display and then move it around together a close look at things. Since I keep seeing the confusion on this point it is “he”. In fact retired he.

[james_reilley]

@oasis

the ability to enlarge the meter display and then move it around together a close look at things

I would have swore that you could zoom in like this, but checking myself right now (on iOS app and web) and you are right…the bottom of the graph is always anchored at 0W…it is not possible to zoom in on the power profile itself. Not sure if this is a recent change in functionality, or if I remember erroneously.

[OCD]

Solar inverters DO use power.
During the day they consume from what is being generated from the array.
At night they consume from the grid.
My inverter is consuming 7watts of power from the grid at night.