I read about someone who had a energy monitor switch to know if their freezer is dying. They basically have a rule that alerts them if the compressor doesn't kick on after X amount of time (using the energy monitor). I have a Zooz power switch but I am running into questions when setting up the rule. Looking at the logs, I need to pull either amps or watts- which trigger do I choose in rule machine? I see energy meter and power meter, but I am unsure which "energy type" (watts/amps/volts/etc.) reports as energy meter or power meter.
If anyone has built this, I would love to see the rule. Attaching a photo of what the Zooz reports.
I did some testing just now and it looks like power meter pulls power (watts) which makes sense, I just though it might pull voltage or something else.
What about monitoring temperature instead of power?
I have Tuya Zigbee temperature sensors in both refrigerators and both freezers. A rule alerts with a Tuya Zigbee siren when the temperature goes above 5F in the freezers and 37F in the refrigerators. The recommended Tuya sensor uses 2 AA batteries which is what I bought. My foggy memory seems to remember reading other Tuya temperature sensors have issues.
Why not just put a temp sensor inside and have it alarm when it gets to the danger zone. Works flawlessly, plus has the added benefit of knowing if the door is open.
yes you needs watts.. or a temp sensor.. either will work..
i had a freezer fail but with still power and the light working.. ie it was still on.. its common for the compressor to fail.. so that is why volts is not a good idea..
in the long run a temp sensor is better as if the compressor springs a leak .. i think it will run constantly trying to cool... and your rule will not work. although you may be able to check watts or amps above a value and stays that way for 3 hours etc. (no cycling)
Thanks for the ideas. I already have a temperature sensor in there...but was getting a little bored lol, decided I wanted to do something different with our smart home.
Reporting energy readings too frequently. You should be able to tune this by setting proper reporting intervals and/or reporting changes in device preferences. You don't need to know if a device consumes 432 watts and then a second later 399 and then 440, etc. Depending on the use case you probably just need to know > 50 watts or not.
Temperature may not drop even if freezer is completely off but door was not open for a long time. Power consumption monitoring is far more informative.
My experience is different. Temperature is the most important issue and in my experience it goes up rather quickly when the refrigerator/freezer is not working correctly. At the same time, you could monitor both temperature and power, to cover all your bases.
Than I am sorry to say this but your refrigerator/freezer has very bad isolation or door's gaskets.
But "yes" monitoring multiple parameters is always a good idea.
