My 240 volt septic pump has been detected as two 120 volt pumps. I know i can merge them, but what i want to know is will it eventually realize it is the same pump?
I have left them un-merged for a couple weeks now to see if they eventually come together, not so far.
It makes me wonder if the pump has damage on one of the 120 volt lines and caused a separate detection to happen. I was running it on a generator once and one of the split phase lines (fuse) popped on generator and the pump was trying to run on a single 120 line, causing alarms to go off. Maybe it caused damage to the pump, thus giving the two sides different power signatures?
I thought i saw a blog about this a while ago but could not find that thread.
Bill… This is happening to me also, but a little different. It is happening on my 220 volt hot water heater. Just noticed it last week. It does not stay on long so it is hard for me to catch it. Also, normally when I have the PC app running monitoring during breakfast… Makes it tough to validate the KW’s being used… I have just let it go for now… Gerry
I have the same problem with a pool pump, li has been that way for 6 months. I did try to merge them and one leg then went to “Other”. After a while I unmerged them. Some days the one leg doesn’t show or it only shows for a few minutes. I keep hopping it will straighten out, but that hope is fadding. I hope you have better luck.
Ghinwa from Data Science talks about 240V detection in this video:
In short, detections on each leg happen separately. It’s possible that Sense may eventually automatically combine them, but there’s no harm in going ahead with that on your own.
Thank You, I went ahead and merged them. I which I could see the actually power signature that sense sees, I would love to see how different the two legs. just looking at the wattage power signature is not enough, seeing the real graphed power signature would be super cool…
Thanks Again Ryan, i am still waiting on my variable speed Lennox XP25 heat pump to get detected, but I am impressed so far and enjoying the product. As well as 2 portable heaters have not detected, I noticed they don’t just come on they ramp up, kinda like the heat pump so I guess that is the issue…Either way it has been a very handy tool and I am impressed.
Interesting… you should totally look into switching over to a hybrid water heater… My current one is a GE, but I think the latest Rheem one is much quieter. But even my GE one is not that loud, being as it is in the basement. I can hardly believe how little power it uses to heat the water as compared to a standard hot water heater, guaranteed to pay for itself in less than 2 years, then it is money in the bank. I use mine in heat pump only mode, it can be run in hybrid mode (default) to heat the water faster during heavy use demand, like 3 showers back to back. Just me though so heat pump only mode, the thing went from using 35+% of my power to only 5%. It runs longer but only uses about 230 watts when heating the water, instead of thousands of watts.
Thanks Bill for the thoughts… 3-4 years ago I did look I believe into the Rheem or the one made in Milwaukee… Where I live their seemed to be very scarce installers or sales support. I did look and read on the HD web site. Seemed a little pricey and a lot of failures… But I like the low wattage as you pointed out. There is just 2 of us in the house so we don’t us a whole lot of hot water. Sense is telling me a little north of $200. Think it will be a 6 or more year pay back. Just reworked some electrical and put in a generator transfer switch. Need 2 circuits for 220 so that was a little bigger then what I thought it was going to be. But it is in. Would be nice to get the hot water on 110. Would lighten the load on the generator. Last hot water heater went about 12-14 years before it started to leak a little on the floor. Sure do like the thought of the hybrid. Reverse air conditioning??? Later…Thanks again…Gerry…
Hi @gcrawford.k8ger (Gerry) The GE did leak it’s freon and was covered under warranty, zero cost to me. It was a manufacturing defect. Other than that it has worked great. I have acidic water, regular water heaters start leaking after 4 to 5 years on me. Even though water is still acidic being as I only use the heat pump mode (no electrolysis) it has been about 7 years now and still good. I am surprised you only spend $200 for hot water for two, that seems really low for regular style cold water heaters. I do use a lot of hot water, long showers, etc. I used to use $420 to $480 a year, it was my second biggest consumer after heating the house, I pay about .12 per kwh. I certainly would not replace a working one just to change, but if it is placed in a basement it does have the added benefit of dehumidifying the basement, which means it does not an drain. That is another thing to consider.
Bill … Real fine on all… We are on well water. Have a good water softener. Watch it closely. keeps the water soft and clean. Can’t speak to the acid. Drain the water tank at the first of the month. 2 - 5 gallon buckets. The orange bucket… ( HD)… I keep the water at 120 degrees or so. Just below too hot when all hot water being drawn. Here are a couple of screenshots on the sense. Give it a 85-90 percent accuracy. Look at July. That is when I make sure the generator fuel gets flushed out. I set the generator transfer switch – water heater – to generator. Run at least a tank through it, change the oil and put it away. So that month we are a little light on the Kwh’s. So what I told you before… 200 for hot water was light… 250… then some… Still will find it hard to change. But I do like it and may do it someday… La
@gcrawford.k8ger, I wanted to give you a quick update. Holy Cow… my hybrid hot water heater had been showing 232 watts since early on after it was detected. For some reason sense must have figured something else out, because last night all the sudden it decided to start reporting as 597watts. It was only showing 232watts, then suddenly changed to about twice that, 460 watts or so, now it has been showing 597 watts the last 3 times it has come on and ran. So my numbers of cost I told you about were majorly off and give more credence to your logic of no reason to switch out your hot water heater. I am kinda embarassed, I have been telling people in my family how it only uses 232watts, LOL… now I gotta go back and tell everyone I possibly lied by accident because of Sense reporting an invalid number. My guess is it was only reporting one leg of the compressor and not the blower fan, now it is possibly showing both legs of compressor and the blower fans.
I did not mean to mislead you on hybrid hot water heater… It still greatly reduced my over all monthly energy consumption, just not to the extent I reported.
Bill… Sorry did not read yesterday… Getting ready for storm coming in northern lower Mi… No problem on the read. No apology required. On of my last posts you see I only gave Sense a 85-90 percent accuracy. The one screen has an average wattage usage. 4346 watts… How could it be less then the elements drawing more then that. The elements on my heater are 5000 watts each. That’s 86.9 percent. When I run my generator it has a digital read on watts. It reads either 5000 or 4750. Not sure what the resolution is on it is. It may be 250 watts. I have only run it for the heater. But my main point is Sense has an average of way below 5000. Does not make sense. Read the tag on your unit and let me know what it is … Later…Enjoy…Gerry
Note that the tags on most devices show a nominal (and usually somewhat higher…”rated power”, not the actual draw). To know actual power you need an accurate meter. For 240v devices the best way to measure it is usually a multimeter with amp clamp…you can get them for about $50 at your home store.
You then measure the voltage, the current, multiply, and you have actual power. You will see somewhat lower than rated power.
Thanks Andy… Too early in the morning for me. I saw that just as I was posting. Some reason I had 5000 in my head… From my generator… So what kind of hybrid water heater do you have… Understand P=VxI very well. Have lots of meters and scopes - probes ( AC & DC )… Multiple ranges… Thanks again…Later…Gerry
Keep in mind you have two elements. One upper and one lower. While both are rated at 4500w, they can be a little different. There could be a couple hundred watts difference in what they draw, especially if one was replaced with another brand or model.
There is never a time when both elements come on at the same time and you’d have to use a meter when it’s on to see which one is being energized.
Yes indeed, and even though mine are factory units, they do differ by about 200 watts. They are both lower than “rated”, though. So I guess this varies with manufacturer too.
