Negative Values - How does the ISY handle them??

[Teken]

During the course of several years I have been seeing negative values being generated by the ISY Series Controller. This comes to me via a e-mail notification program I have set for various devices in my home.

 

It just dawned on me that I have never considered how the ISY handles such values, or is, capable of handling said (negative) values.

 

1. Can the ISY Series Controller handle negative values? If yes, how does it handle and treat them?

 

2. If not, could this be the core reason I have been bombarded with endless false flag messages?

 

To put some context of what is happening and to describe my environment. I have the ability to monitor several aspects of my homes environment. They are energy, temperature / humidity, lighting, security, fire / Co, force protection.

 

Specifically, I have two methods to ingest and use energy readings that come from my Dash Box (DB) & Green Eye Monitor (GEM). Using the Energy Module with in the ISY I am able to see and interact with the homes electrical systems.

 

With the DB I am able to send the same and more information to the ISY via state variables. With my Autelis Bridge I am able to monitor and react to the temperature / humidity via state variables in the ISY via the Insteon network.

 

With the above back ground listed and indicated this is what I am seeing.

 

I have been seeing e-mail alerts indicating my fridge is showing a negative wattage value. Today I received another which indicated a value of -15.54 watts. To help isolate and identify if these values are true or even present I have been monitoring these readings with the DB, GEM, and other various diagnostic tools I have on hand.

 

These negative values are never present or captured by any of the tools I have on hand. Since I have the ability to send the exact same energy readings from the DB to the ISY. I have created a custom email alert that shows both the ISY (it believes to be the current watts) vs the energy readings coming from the DB / GEM.

 

The DB correctly shows the right standby wattage.

 

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Besides the negative values I have also been seeing on going issues where the ISY sends me alerts about devices that are turned on. When its physically not possible because the breaker to the device is off. This has consistently impacted my electric dryer and having the ability to know when its On / Off.

 

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Another frequent event is receiving e-mail alerts that indicate insane values which are not possible from my solar array. I will receive notifications where it will say 999843234 watts??

 

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The last part of the puzzle is also receiving e-mail alerts that the line voltage in the home is showing a zero voltage condition. Which is impossible barring an electrical outage which has happen in the past.

 

But never when these alert notifications are sent out.

 

Again, to emphasize I have the ability to monitor the line voltage, power, surge / sags, spikes, etc with external 3rd party analyzing tools which never reflect what is being generated by the ISY.

 

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In the interim, I have been monitoring and deployed several devices to ensure noise, power, are not the culprit whether it be induced or on the actual power line. As a reference I also use power line Ethernet and have removed these nodes to see if this could be a aggravating factor.

 

It has not, because even with the nodes removed the above problems still persist. So lets summarize the ask again.

 

Can the ISY Series Controller handle negative values whether it be in the energy module or weather module?

 

Because I see that the values are reflected from the Autelis Bridge, and the weather module does indeed allow the end user to enter a - (negative) value. But, this doesn't explain how the software handles and sees these values.

 

Insight

 

Edited November 17, 2014 by Teken

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi Teken,

 

Yes, of course ISY can handle negative values for energy monitoring. As far as getting triggers for devices that are not even plugged in, the best thing to do is to check your log and see whether or not the values change for that period.

 

With kind regards,

Michel