I just want to track the on/off state and energy use of two, not identical, AC compressors.
I have been using a Sense energy monitor since 2017. It has never been very adept at device identification. Currently, it is commingling data from the compressors intermittently.
Any suggestions for the best way to aaccomplish this?
Thanks!
Right now since I have a single stage furnace and single stage A/C I use a Fibaro Wall Plug at the Furnace
Generally the Furnace fan blower runs at around 400 watts. I take this output of watts and energy reporting from the furnace blower fan and put them through Node Red where I multiply those numbers by 6 (only if the outside temp is above 60) to represent the wattage used by the A/C Compressor.
And output that into a virtual device representing the total kWh of both AC and furnace blower fan.
It's not 100% accurate but it is extremely close.
Bad part is that in the next week or so I'm replacing the single stage stuff with mulitstage compressor and variable speed fan so I will have to re-think the whole thing.
If you have single stage stuff you can usually get a good rule of what the multiplier is by looking at the tag on your outside units and multiplying the tags listed volts x amps should equal running watts of that compressor. Then take the watts from your funace fibaro (my case 400) and divide into the watts of your outside compressor. That number should be your multiplier number.
The good part is that you will be saving a considerable amount of money!
I'll put this out there... It doesn't track energy...
Not only will you be saving energy as @Hal3 points out, but you will be getting better temperature and humidity control. I replaced my 4 ton single-stage system a few years ago with a 2 stage system and I could immediately notice the difference in control. You probably know this but you will need to change out your single-stage thermostat with a new thermostat that is compatible with the new multistage system.....Enjoy!
Nope.....I'm going with a Goodman. Goodman and Amana's (which are the same company) do all their communicating at the furnace air handler allowing the user to have the smarts of communicating equipment while still using a single stage (in my case Hubitat connected) NON PROPRIETARY thermostat.
These 2 brands are to the best my research are the ONLY ones on the market that do this, they "used to" be like the rest and require a communicating thermostat but shifted their product line back in 2018 to be more adaptable into the Internet of Things market.
Instead via their app the homeowner can manually adjust the time based algorithm to when the multiple stages actually activate. At which like you said I will be saving energy and ultimate control over the temp/humidity/comfort control. Which I'm like a kid and a candy store waiting for this to be installed so I can play with these algorithms.
(I know that waynespringer79 already replied to this.)
Staging is conventionally controlled in one of three places: the thermostat, the air handler, or (in a zoned system) the zone controller. The thermostat has access to better temperature information than the other two, so it can use algorithms that use temperature / setpoint difference and temperature rate of change. In a zoned system, the zone controller knows how many zones are calling, so it can utilize that. The only information the air handler has is how long the heating / cooling call has been going on for, so that is what it uses to make staging decisions. Conventionally, the manufacturer builds in a set period of time to run in low stage before switching to high stage. It is usually 10 or 12 minutes. It is good that at least some manufacturers are providing some control over that.
My HVAC App provides a fourth choice: Hubitat. If you adopt my App, the decision can be based on whatever information is available in your Hubitat installation. A few common choices can be selected directly during setup (time in low stage, how many zones are calling, outdoor temperature, temperature / setpoint difference). If you want more complicated logic, you can make it depend on a virtual switch and use rule machine to set that virtual switch based on whatever logic you want.
The next version of my HVAC App has features for tracking the output of the system. I was close to releasing that version a couple months ago. Then, I added some other features and made the code less stable, so I had to delay the next release until I have thoroughly tested and debugged the new code.
My understanding (at least for the equipment I have ordered) is the air handler, I preset to my desired time to achieve shutoff. Value of between 10min and 4 hours. The air handler also communicates with the A/C Condensor's outside ambient temperature sensor and a coil temp sensor.
It takes this temp information and the desired cycle time and creates a "hit the target" or missed and adjusts the stages based upon the data log. I can further manipulated this information as currently my "setpoints" (or time to achieve shutoff as they are looking for) currently change depending on the humidity level in the house AND outdoor temperature/humidity.
I would respectfully disagree with that. "Proprietary" communicating thermostats are the actual worst variance to use IMHO (not only because you are LOCKED into only using their equipment) they only measure temp from one single location within the home. They usually have a trigger on/off by at least 1 degree from the setpoint. Leaving you unless you have zoning, big temp differences throughout the house.
Right now before this new equipment arrives my (very old) single stage equipment cycles at 0.5 degrees on/off in spring/fall and 1.5 degrees winter/summer using 38 temps sensors monitoring the heat gain/loss at any given location throughout which affects the average. Cycle times average between 30-45 minutes for the 0.5 degree season and 1hr-1.5hr in the 1.5 degree seasons.
Before incorporating my HVAC into HE using the 38 sensors my "big box store" 7 day programmable thermostat measuring at a single location also cycled at 0.5 degrees the problem there was it ran for 8 minutes and off for 2 minutes cycling 137 times per day. Never removing humidity from having short cycles and also very extreme temp differences throughout the house
By having this controlled by the air handler/furnace I'm looking to almost never run in the higher stages by the ability to (manually for now, but hopefully will open up their api) to adjust out the cycle time to achieve shut off based upon outside temp increase/decreasing. This would not be possible with a "proprietary" communicating thermostat as like you stated they usually engage high speed after "X" many minutes of running and not achieving the set point or it the current temp is "X" degrees away from the set point.
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