In 2016, I stumbled upon a grand opportunity. The San Diego Gas & Electric Energy Innovation Center. They had a ton of resources from free classes to a Tool and Book Lending Library.
I attended many classes over the years. The subject matter offered was always cutting edge and presented by industry professionals. Of course, this was pre-covid and classes were held in person. Since then, the Energy Innovation Center has permanently closed. It was a very cool facility, you can check it out here.
I also utilized their Tool Lending Library to chase down a problem. I checked out a HOBO Data Logger to track usage on my chiller. I had this crazy kW draw every night between midnight and 6am. The only Furniture, Fixtures and Equipment (FFE) that could have that demand was the chiller, but all my controls were scheduled to be off overnight. The HOBO showed it was indeed the chiller, cycling on 7 days a week around midnight for a few minutes then off and then on again. After several more days of troubleshooting, it turned out one small piece of code buried deep in the controls software was corrupt.
The data output was available in graph or table form. I chose a table and to view the time, amp draw, kW’s, and minutes. This was a fun project, I really enjoy troubleshooting.
This is the link to the logger, looks like it is being discontinued but they offer an alternative.
This link shows how much data these babies can provide.
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