Re: New Fridge - setting up monitoring

["Josepi" <JRM.@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Fridges don't, typically carry that mush value in food contents to make this
worthwhile. Fun but not worthwhile.

Freezers, however....


"Robert Green" <robert_green1963@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:i3blc9$3pu$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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.