I picked up a ST outlet today after having issues with a WeMo outlet.
I connected it to my Chest Freezer, and set up an automation.
First part was IF the outlet turned off, THEN my Hue Go in my bedroom would permanently light up purple.
Second part was IF the power reached 0 or lower, THEN the Hue Go in my bedroom would permanently light up purple. I guess I was experimenting what I meant and intended and did this wrong, as every time the chest freezer powered off, my Hue Go would light up.
First I tried deleting the second command, hoping I would limit this to only if the plug turned off. Well 2 hours after that, the purple light was still coming on when the freezer powers down.
Since that failed, I completely turned off the animation. Shortly after the Hue Go still lit up purple. I checked the outlet, and sure enough it was back at 0 watts.
I then DELETED the entire automation. It is not in there anywhere. 2 hours after the last change, my light is still coming on under the same situations…
How can I clear this from the system?
In the end I am looking for a way to be notified if my GFI outlet the freezer is plugged into trips, as it likes to do every couple weeks for no reason. I was pointed towards GitHub earlier, and I tried to understand that but so far that’s a mess. It will probably take me a couple months to figure that out, but in the mean time I don’t want to be awakened in th middle of the night with this light. What can I do? (Besides throwing the light out in the hall).
Just a thought…is your GFI breaker 20 Amps and maybe needs to be a 30 Amp?
When an AC motor is energized, a high inrush current occurs. Typically, during the initial half cycle, the inrush current is often higher than 20 times the normal full load current .
It is new construction (less than 2 years). My father in law is an electrician and says everything is to code. I know there is a heavy surge every time it sets up.
But besides that issue which is secondary to my current main problem, I was awakened 5 times during the night from my Hue GO (Assuming it was alerting me my watts reached zero). I have checked every automation in my app so far, and nothing is there connecting to my Hue Go at the moment. It seems to be stuck from when I programmed it yesterday.
Also seems odd it is reading 0 watts when there is still an LED indicator light on the freezer, and would also assume there should be some power drawn for the temp sensor. Again - this is secondary to the ST issue. At least if my plug is connected, I can see if it has a signal or not and I can get used to looking at that. I was just hoping for some kind of notification when it went out.
I’m confused about your intent here… How can power usage go below zero?
Inrush current has absolutely NOTHING to do with the GFI tripping. GFI receptacles are not overcurrent protection devices and therefore are not subject to tripping due to surges. Surely your “electrician” father-in-law told you that already. If the GFI is tripping, you’ve got a problem, however subtle, with your freezer.
I am also confused as to what you are trying to do by monitoring power… If you have the ST outlet plugged into that receptacle, and the freezer plugged into the ST outlet, and the breaker trips, how is the outlet supposed to be able to communicate with the hub when it has no power?
Instead of trying to build a hack, I suggest you tackle the problem at hand and see why your freezer is leaking current to ground. Sorry to come across harsly, but thats a far more serious safety concern than worrying about detecting and resetting the GFI after tripping.
Completely off topic but maybe I am confused…[quote=“SteveWhite, post:4, topic:162610”]
Inrush current has absolutely NOTHING to do with the GFI tripping. GFI receptacles are not overcurrent protection devices and therefore are not subject to tripping due to surges.
[/quote]
“The way you would get current overload protection and GFCI protection at the same time in the same device would be to install a GFCI equipped circuit breaker in the power distribution panel.”
I was suggesting a breaker overload. Is that not correct?
That’s correct… A panel installed GFI breaker provides coverage for both overcorrect and current leakage/imbalance.
However, the OP specifically said GFI outlet… Two similar, yet different applications…
If you’re suggesting the OP remove the GFI receptacle and install a GFI breaker, that’s likely not going to help the situation if the freezer is causing current leakage/imbalance. It just moves the trip-point further upstream.
I was suggesting that, and clearly I don’t understand this as well as I thought. I don’t know why he is still getting the light after deleting everything. So I’m just going to bow out of this discussion while I can.
Please help with my light automation - that is my main concern with this post.
As far as the electric - I believe it has to do with the entire outlet circuit in the basement. 15A. I was simply vacuuming the week I moved in and it tripped the entire circuit. 2 days later I noticed the GFI was tripped. Food was still frozen solid, but I am guessing it tripped the GFI at the same time. I am working on getting this figured out. I have also turned off and on the breaker a few times installing new smart switches. I checked the GFI the first few times I turned it off, and it was fine. But I have turned off the power a number of times without checking immediately, and last week it appeared as though the GFI had been tripped for a bit longer as the food on the top layer was just starting to slightly be pliable. I had been playing with the breaker 3 days before then. So - could all this be tripping the GFI? I would like to think it has been - but I have not been able to 100% reproduce the issue with confidence. Therefore, I am looking to have some kind of notification that would be much easier to notice if and when the outlet pops.
As far as “less than 0 watts” that is just how the app had it labeled. I know it cannot be lower, but was looking at 0 watts to be notified.
I also know that ST can’t communicate when it has lost power - at least through the normal app settings. Apparently there is however, other apps out there that CAN report when a device has become unresponsive for a given amount of time, and this should be able to work in a situation like that - if I can figure out GitHub.
Let’s break this down… You have two different issues which are being conflated. Let me see if I can separate them.
Issue #1… You were vacuuming and you tripped the entire circuit, meaning the breaker at the panel. If so, the branch circuit is overloaded. Note that many GFI’s will trip when they lose power.. If the GFI is tripping anytime the breaker is tripping, you need to address the over current issue on that branch. If nothing else and you cannot, then make checking the GFI’s part of your breaker reset procedure.
Issue #2… The freezer is causing the GFI receptacle to trip. If so, you may have a bad GFI receptacle. They do fail… It’s an easy DIY job and they cost less than $20 and are certainly cheaper than a freezer.
That would be your best approach. But some apps use aggressive polling that can cause issues with your mesh. Just be aware of that. Also, be aware that the ST cloud is extremely fallible. I’m not sure I would rely on it for critical monitoring right now.
My father in law did replace the basement breaker with a non arc fault breaker. I have not had any issues since then on tripping. To be fair, I have a monster video editing PC running in the basement which itself can easily top 1000W when running full force. Every light was on, an LED TV, and the vacuum I am sure pulls quite a bit. Add the freezer to the mix, and an air exchanger, and I am sure it was overloaded. I have also made sure the PC is now shut down before vacuuming. Kind of a bummer I have to take those steps considering it is new construction. He is certain the new breaker is still safe, but should have much less problems tripping overall. Just noted we should keep the original breaker to replace back in if we intend to sell.
So if the GFI is tripping due to losing power multiple times, I am pretty certain we have that base covered. Still would be nice to monitor. If I can see watts running out of it constantly changing, I know there is power! As I said the first time it went down it was at least 2-3 days, and everything still frozen solid - THANKFULLY! Nice insulation.
