Question

Not really smartthings related, but the electric bill in my home is very inconsistent, up and down, every month. I have a suspicion that it may be my refrigerator that causes this, so I’m thinking about possibly buying a new one, if that’s the case. Does anyone know a way to measure and monitor this, to determine whether this is the case? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!  

Answer 1

Smart plug or power strip

Comments

@hague any cheap options you can recommend?  

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Hmm not sure - the only product I have that I know does power monitoring is my aeon smart strip. I think the new wifi samsung smart switches do but not 100% sure. You'd also need to make sure the plug can handle the draw of the fridge.  

Answer 2

Smart plug with power consumption monitor

Comments

@cordate any cheap options you can recommend?  

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@schuler I use meross. £10 each, got a pack of 4 off Amazon.  

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I use Zooz heavy duty to handle the refrigeration cycle loads. I used a regular appliance plug, rated for enough power, but it got hot and I wasn't liking leaving it. So I tried the Zooz heavy duty and it never gets past barely warm - nice. It has current power usage as well as elapsed energy usage. You can tell when your condenser us cycling, plot energy values, refrigeration cycle durations and maintaining cycle durations plotting the data to see any shifts in behavior (like a door open, condenser degradation, etc. )

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I use mine on the tumble drier.  

Answer 3

Some zigbee plugs are power monitors. To avoid unintended power off create automation that IF the plug turns off then turn it back on.  

Answer 4

There’s a device called a Kill-a-watt - likely the easiest thing to use to check each suspect device. If your readings are REALLY out of wack month to month - that would happen to us when our meter was an acre deep inside the property fence and the meter reader would use a spy monoglass thing to read it from the fence. Getting a number or two wrong each month would make a huge difference. New house, but our meter was recently upgraded to digital, and no need to be read by a human. You could call your power company and ask if they’re doing that, and could put you on the list for an upgrade.  

Answer 5

I'll second the kill-a-watt. I've used them in the past to gauge consumption on suspicious items. I've never been satisfied with how some of the consumption monitoring plugs work. Most seemed to either terribly unreliable (unexplicably stop/start their monitoring) or not able to be integrated without serious hassles. Thus the stand alone kill-a-watt did the job better.  

Answer 6

I use that for my fridge and freezer, works great and tracks energy usage

Answer 7

My suspicion is that it’s something heavier. The fridge draws about as much power a heavy ceiling fan. The big ticket items are like Electric water heaters, electric cooktops, Electric Heaters, HVAC or ACs, ovens, dryers. These draw many KW of power and are more likely to cause significant fluctuations in electric bills. Try a whole home metering device. They can do a decent job of pin pointing devices.  

Answer 8

Buy a Sense module. It's a smart Wifi amp Meter. Two clamps on the lines going into the Fuse panel. It reads and analyze the wave form as things power up and power down. It figures out what the devices are after awhile. It can tell you if your fridge has an issue or any major electrical loads like water heaters, washers, dryers, AC units, or pool pumps. Even stoves