On Aug 5, 6:24*am, "Robert Green" wrote:
wrote in message

...
On Aug 4, 12:35 pm, ransley wrote:





On Aug 4, 6:52 am, "Robert Green" wrote:

Just got a new fridge, and I thought I would try monitoring operating
parameters with my home automation system. I 've got sensors for kWhs
used,
ambient room temperature, freezer and refrigerator temps and the
temperature
of a sensor on the back of the unit. I was hoping this should give me
enough of a baseline to be able to detect "out of whack" conditions
before
they show up in a puddle on the floor or a failure to cool.

I discovered in my old fridge that as freon leaked, the kilowatt hours
used
shot way up before I noticed the problem in the fridge temp (that became
obvious on a very hot day when we had the A/C off and the kitchen temp
was
about 20 degrees over normal. Unfortunately, on the old box, I didn't
have
good baseline figures from the early on when it worked well. That's why
I
am trying to determine what information I need to be able to have my
home
automation system (HomeVision, CPU-XA, ActiveHome and more) record and
process to alert me that there's an issue with the unit.

I suspect that the electricity consumed daily will rise as the dust on
the
coils builds up. That should be detectable by looking at the average
daily
power used figure. I am recording ambient, backplate and internal temps
as
well in case the power usage increase is due to other factors, like this
stinking endless heat wave. I also want a baseline on energy consumed
and
back plate temperature in case I decide to put a filter on the air
intake to
minimize coil cleaning. I found out the hard way that an added filter
can
decrease air flow on some devices to the point of overheating the motor.
If
the filter blocks too much airflow I would expect power consumption and
the
back plate temperature to rise conspicuously.

Reading this over, I realized I need two more monitors. A battery-backed
dialer that can call my cellphone to tell me to buy dry ice because the
power or compressor failed and a door alert to let me know if the dog
manages to open the door again! She's been unable to do it with the new
box
because the magnetic seal is incredibly strong - much stronger than the
old
one. Took nearly ten pounds of pull as measured by a fish scale. But she
might figure out how to do it in time. She's been watching very closely.
In fact, I nearly spit out my coffee because she was eating when the new
unit started up when it first arrived and she went off on it as if the
fridge had made a move on her food. She's still not quite comfortable
with
it.

Any suggestions on something I might have overlooked are cheerfully
welcome.
Bad attempts at comedy or remarks on my sanity, with much less cheer.
(-:

--
Bobby G.

Did you ever use a kill-a- watt meter, they are accurate, easy to use
and record Kwh usage over several days. They are great for doing you
own energy audit of most all apliances and devices.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Yes. * And I've always been able to spot a fridge failure without a
dozen sensors monitoring my fridge. * After all, it's a fridge not a
Boeing 777.

Even when you're traveling and away from the house? *How do you do that?

--
Bobby G.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

When I'm traveling, I have much better things to think about than what
the temp and operating efficiency of my fridge is. Do you have $20K
worth of food in that fridge? So, if I lose $200 worth of food, big
deal. Guess what. In 40+ years, living in many houses and
apartments, it has happened exactly one time. That was when I was in
college and since it was a dorm fridge, the college even paid us for
the lost food. And it's not exactly a bad thing either, as when u
clean out the freezer, probably 20% of the food has long been
forgotten and should have been chucked long ago.

On the other hand, what's the cost, time, and maintenance involved in
placing multiple monitors on a refrigerator over 40 years? How often
do the sensors and other parts of the system fail compared to the
fridge? In my experience, home electronics is far less reliable than
the fridge.