Strange Energy Spikes Sensed by Energy Monitor!

[@nonsquid]

On your initial voltage check across the capacitor you had the DVM in AC volts which will be 0VAC with the supply open. The proper check should be DC volts to see if you had a static potential across the capacitor terminals.

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

Thanks for that information.

[@bert6512]

5:06 When you were testing the capacitor at the terminals for fan motor and compressor. You mentioned that you were testing for capacitance which in fact your multimeter was set to resistance testing. When testing a good capacitor in resistance mode, reading will spike up and then show infinite resistance. That is what occurred when you tested the fan portion of the capacitor. The compressor portion of the capacitor was showing a resistance value (shorted). It was difficult to see your multimeter screen because of the plastic screen protector. Other than that you have great content!

[@jdretiree2433]

13:40 In the old days, opening the windows wider was a back up plan.

[@mos8541]

rite, along with smallpox and dying from a little cut on the finger

[@kaboom362]

Great diagnosis Ben. Obviously your experience allowed you to confidently throw the capacitor at it, even though it was checking out ok. More importantly, it brings great joy to see such sweet togetherness. Looks like the slightly aged beef created the avenue for the get together. God Bless

[@Paul-hl5ls]

Remind her that she is lucky to have an HVAC guy.... other wifes have to wait two or more weeks for a technician

[@naomisahlstrom]

I am very lucky indeed! I may have to wait on some other honey do projects, but the HVAC will be top priority immediately! 😁

[@felaxchow207]

Had a similar problem with my heat pump before where the capacitor would test out fine, but it turned out to be bad under load. About a year ago, I installed a Micro-Air soft starter to bring the LRA down from 56 amps down to a manageable 20 amps so I can run my HVAC on a 7.6 kW portable generator. A couple months in, the run capacitor slowly began to fail. The "brains" on the soft start unit was able to learn what it needed to get the compressor going keeping the LRA down and figured out what the RLA nominal range should be. When the RLA was started to creep up as the capacitor was partially going bad, the controller placed the compressor in 5 minute timeout. The onboard diagnostics was able to point me in the right direction of troubleshooting the problem. Having the ability of run almost the whole house including A/C on a backup generator when the power is out and the outside temperature feels like 116°F is a priceless relief.

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

That's really fantastic. I want to make a video about those soft starter systems. Where did you purchase yours?

[@felaxchow207]

@@BenjaminSahlstrom I guess KZbin spam filters are being naughty again. I purchased mine through Micro-Air model ASY-368-X48-BLUE for my 2.5 ton heat pump.

[@johnbrizendine7716]

I made my own using NTC Thermistors(the hotter they get, the less resistance across them) and a relay; they are actually a really simple circuit, it just lowers the input voltage, and it will cause it to pull less current, then once it is no longer in the "locked rotor" state, it kicks into "Pass through" mode and it continues spinning up. Cuts the "start up" current WAY down.

[@patrickcreath217]

Benjamin thank you for sharing your knowledge with me... I, as a homeowner with two heatpump/ac units, have gleaned much from your well presented videos. Your wife is a Godly Woman, (Proverbs 31) I can tell, and she is cool....you are really blessed! 😊 Your little people are precious, thanks for sharing that too. I (being retired military in the aviation electronics field) recognize and appreciate your safe working practices btw!👍

[@deegee9560]

This is one of the best repair videos I have seen in a long time! Super job!

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

Wow, thanks! It's more of going through the process instead of the usual "how to" but it was fun to make!

[@areguly]

The exact same happened to me last summer. Same spikes and same capacitor and same warning from Sense! My capacitor was bulging however.

[@stans5270]

When you're testing a capacitor activate safety squints - AVE.

[@pimprig1979]

Man, I love this channel! Knowledge sharing makes us better humans. Thanks for posting and enjoy that family.

[@salvadorsepulveda6415]

Great diagnostics on the ac ! The beef ribs look bomb !

[@Know-Way]

Great video! Thanks for sharing. One thing I'd recommend is a meter with min/max function. I use it all the time to see transients like you had here. It would be especially helpful for the videos so your viewers can see the spikes. And, besides it's a great excuse to buy a new tool. Thanks again.

[@rayroulstone3565]

You were testing the capactor using the ohm's range. So the reading you were getting on the HERM side of the capacitor was in fact a resistance reading showing the capacitor was bad. The FAN side was open, which I would expect for a capactor.

[@johnbrizendine7716]

I did not see if you checked to see if the capacitor was shorted between the FAN and HERM terminals, that happened to me with 2 different capacitors, two years in a row. I now keep a stock of capacitors and a couple of hard start caps for my HVAC system. I absolutely love the sound of a compressor starting up!!! And that soft low growl of the compressor running. I'm MVAC, and Type1 and Type 2 certified, but only do HVAC work on the side, as I'm a network admin for my normal job. I love the way a capacitor will change the phase angle of a/c voltage, giving the extra power for running/starting, it actually increases the "power factor" of the equipment running, always be certain not to exceed the rated capacitance of the equipment you are running, or it will burn it up.

[@D70340]

And the man has, AND uses, a BLACKSTONE GRIDDLE! That alone, is golden! GREAT video Benjamin!

[@Jon-hx7pe]

Capacitors used to last forever. There are plenty of cheap chinese caps i can get in canada, but if I need a cap it's an american made ordered from the states. It's worth the extra premium even if a 5mf costs $30 instead of $10 locally. Just to note - the amazon linked caps are actually packard brand, not titan pro as shown.

[@bobboscarato1313]

Old capacitors were huge and had more dielectric and oil in them; however for the last 50 years we were reducing sizes and that causes some of the problems!

[@jamesaladits4537]

I enjoy watching your videos. They're educational and easy to understand. Thanks for all you do!

[@tallbrian100]

I had my capacitor fail on a the hottest Sunday of the year. Capacitors are cheap but not something I could get off the self at a local hardware store or big box home improvement center. I luckily was able to get a hold of the guy that installed the system, he was at his shop and I just had to meet him there and he sold me a capacitor. Huge savings for me over a Sunday service call. I now keep a spare on the shelf for next time.

[@shaggygangst]

you should check DC voltage across the capacitor... if that cap was somehow disconnected from the mains at the maximum of sinwave it would have been a bad day shorting it like that ;)

[@BAFiusRUS]

Job well done Ben!

[@frijoli9579]

Oddly, I watched your other Sense video today and ordered mine about 3 hours ago using your code!

[@chimo1111]

As was pointed out below you missed the capacitance setting by one click on your meter. Your meter (~5'43" timestamp) is set to the diode/continuity/resistance setting rather than capacitance as can be seen by the switch and the MΩ on its display. In any case, you got lucky and still fixed the problem!

[@oldguy2800]

not to criticize you for shorting cap terminals prior to removal but in these circuits the windings of the motors short the caps for you unless a winding is open. These film deposited caps are notorious for strange test behavior. The al film is so thin that a failure may leave just a shred of al which will permit enough test current pulse to give a good indication. Good decision to replace cap before getting out the tube cutter and going to work on comp replacementr! FYI the modern A/C caps are notoriously unreliable when compared to the 50 year old pcb paper-foil caps.

[@Jon-hx7pe]

it's always good to make sure the cap is discharged, if a compressor fails to start it could be due to open windings, preventing cap discharge.

[@Eddy63]

Good vid and good info ... Thx for posting ...

[@michaelc2644]

Good info, lovely family!

[@joelboutier1736]

Dang bro, life is good. Easy fix with the heat pump & a feast!

[@Alan-fr9uk]

I was wondering if you could recheck your meter reading set in the uF mode or possibly another meter. That reading might possibly be in nano farads instead of uF. I was watching another video where the capacitor failed, and the meter reading was actually reading in nF. The name of the video was (Was I WRONG? Can a capacitor fail with high MFD). Thanks, I enjoy watching your videos.

[@jimmyjackson9090HVAC]

he had it on the wrong setting go back and watch needed it on mfd

[@littlejohnny4759]

I have a friend who has been trying to run down his spikes for months... He and the utility company thank you.... 😂

[@FishFind3000]

You would think that a locked compressor would draw over the breakers trip capacity and trip. Should have done an amp draw test with old capacitor to show the difference.

[@thecarguy7932]

He did

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

You would think! Breakers are designed to temporarily allow more current than their rated capacity.

[@DSauve-ct7ig]

man thanks for your info 🙏 👍 my mouth was watering 😋 when I saw 👀 the ribs have a nice summer ☀️

[@restfulplace3273]

Wife is savage & grounded. Lucky man.

[@JeanPierreWhite]

You have your Sense outside. I have learned that the Sense doesn't like working below freezing. Have you had any experience with failures in winter months?

[@kdefoor]

My meter typically doesn't show micro farads when set to ohms. You were set to ohms when checking the capacitor.

[@jimmyjackson9090HVAC]

first thing a saw and everyone is like great work

[@stans5270]

Now I'm hungry for some beef ribs. Thanks, Ben. You have a nice family+.

[@mikropower01]

There is an other possibility. 16568W/120V = 138A or 16568W/240V = 69A ... so your fuse would immediately stop the current flow because of the magnetic release of the fuse. So the current reading could be wrong. The maximum value is a bit strange, it is very close to 1^14=16384 16568-(2^14)=184 Watt There is a possibility that the energy meter has a bug. We had the problem in Germany, some producer of the energy meter simply did something wrong- We had there a bad written software and what you see there is a "buffer underflow" while calculating with a 14 bit value from the ADC of the micro-controller. Simply a software / firmware problem. If this damaged capacitor would need so much current, then it would be possibly better to reduce max. allowed current. We have here fuses with 16A (Type B) what we use for a normal 2.5mm cooper wire. Possibly this would be okay for your breaker-panel too, then you would recognize the error immediately if this is happened again.

[@hardnoxgrad5763]

I love You man……thank you. 😊👍🏼

[@edwatts9890]

It looks like some poison ivy is growing by the disconnect pullout.

[@aerofart]

The capacitor may have high Equivalent Series Resistance (internal resistance) and still appear fine on the multimeter. A high ESR would cause a severe voltage drop across the resistor and thus not provide the surge current required for startup. The voltage spikes may be due to resonant oscillations between the capacitor and the compressor coil. Just best guesses on my part based on what I know about electronics, and what I don’t know about cooling systems.

[@yaesu101ee]

maybe your best video. thanks

[@outlet6989]

On summer days here in Florida, 95+ degrees. Our AC went South, pun intended and it was the capactor. I saved your video, just in case. Your wife, now cool as a cucumber, will give you one great dinner. Desert comes later and will be served in your bedroom. Wife, "You mean to say that YOU fixed the AC. Now, I'll show you how to fix your dinner."

[@mlucasohio]

Weren't the fan and herm wires mistakenly switched previously because of capacitor data?

[@tedlahm5740]

Ben, We no longer see any plumbing videos. Since you showed all the steps NECESSARY to obtain master status. Thank you.

[@Dmitrytln]

You have checked only capacitance, which is correct. You haven't checked leakage between capacitor's plates.

[@johnbrizendine7716]

That's the most common way I have seen them fail, had 1 fail that way right out of the box. I went through 3 caps in 2 years, now I keep spares and hard start caps on hand at all times.

[@stevesether]

Is it possible your broken capacitor works perfectly fine at the low-voltage of the multi-meter, but completely breaks at the higher voltage of operation?

[@ivankirola2707]

Yes, it is.

[@TechieJoe1]

Is it possible your herm and fan wires are backwards?

[@guylockhart4597]

Ben, please start up that Mini Split, killing me.

[@gjdewald]

Did you backup your hard drive? Maybe, plug electronics that save data into a UPS.

[@ivankirola2707]

I'm sure that capacitor shorted.

[@KarlAlfredRoemer]

How is the spike power with the new capacitor?

[@gsmacka96]

Do you have the Sense Flex kit?

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

I do but haven't installed the flex sensors yet. Hope to make a video on that topic.

[@johnbrizendine7716]

@@BenjaminSahlstrom Can't wait to see it!!!

[@tedlahm5740]

The Ohm meter changes to MFD automatically? Need clarification please.

[@bobboscarato1313]

No they don't; use the selector switch!

[@publicmail2]

How many tons, and what was outdoor temp, thx.

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

3 ton, probably 85 degrees or so.

[@publicmail2]

@@BenjaminSahlstrom I ask because I have a 13 seer 3ton HP and with blower motor and 85F it would pull about 2700watts. The difference between 13 and 16 seer. As seer goes up each seer unit gets less savings, not linear as you may know...Thx

[@ewicky]

Do inverter systems need capacitors and soft starts? Or is all of that built in to the inverter circuitry?

[@M1America]

Its really only induction motors that require a starting capacitor. It has to do with the difference of angular velocity between the rotor and the stator.

[@jessstuart7495]

The 5uF side of the dual cap is the start capacitor for the single-phase induction compressor motor. Is it switched into the fan motor circuit (run cap for the fan motor) once the compressor motor has started up?

[@heavydiesel]

No, it's basically just two separate capacitors in the same casing for ease of fitment and cheapness. You could fit two individual capacitors and the system would run the same.

[@johnbrizendine7716]

Those new caps are absolute trash, I have had 2 in a row short the HERM and FAN terminals, and one other one bad right out of the box, it popped as soon as it kicked on. I now keep 2 on hand, and a variety of other single caps, and a hard start cap, just in case.

[@bobboscarato1313]

@@johnbrizendine7716 Were those capacitors made in China?

[@johnbrizendine7716]

@@bobboscarato1313 Probably. Got them from Johnstone Supply.

[@JohnTaylor-kh1sv]

I need your help ,What size of ac do i need for a 500 square feet shop ?

[@johnbrizendine7716]

Depends on the heat load. What is the insulation? How many windows, and are they single pane or insulated? How much air leakage do you have? Are there any drafts? Do you normally feel any cold/hot spots like near windows or doors? How is the roof insulation? 500 sqft shouldn't require a very large air conditioner/heat pump, but if there is a lot of heat/cold leaking through windows, doors, walls, ceiling/roof, then that can cause the requirement to go way up. With decent insulation and decent windows and no noticeable drafts, a 12,000btu/hr mini split a/c should be more than enough, may be able to use as little as 10,000 btu/hr mini split heat pump instead if the shop insulation is good.

[@bobboscarato1313]

@@johnbrizendine7716 You are right; customer doesn't mention what kind of equipment he has and what additional load they would exert on cooling system. 500 sq. ft. is about the size of a two car garage. So additional load could be critical! As far as spare parts it's nice to have some on hand. I kept some for years and never used them at all.!

[@av1204]

i guessed capacitor because the video wasnt longer. lol

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

Haha good guess!

[@james10739]

It would be cool if that sense app could tell you looks like your AC may be going out or need service

[@alexstone4795]

I could be not seeing it right, but your meter was not set to mfd for you capacitor test.

[@bobh6728]

It was in Ohms from what I saw.

[@alexstone4795]

The testing procedure was correct but the meter setting will give an accurate measurement.

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

True! I used the automatic testing feature but probably should have just switched it to MFD. My old tester didn't have a dedicated MFD setting and was combined with the Ohms so I'm still getting used to having the dedicated mode.

[@ralphgiampietro85]

Usually when you test a run cap that has been in service for a while it will show slightly lower mfd yours was showing higher and the fan side nothing i would bet it was either shorted or leaking to ground the two tip offs fan working with no mfd compressor higher mfd,and that is why in this case one would do a load down cap test...great vid including getting Family in the vid👍

[@johnbrizendine7716]

Yep, I'm willing to bet that's what it was, I have seen this happen so many times. It actually happened to me last year and the year before last. I now have 2 backup capacitors on hand for my system.

[@sparkyobrian6417]

gotta say, I loved this video, between the weird cap and those beef ribs..... its a a hard decision, Lol

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

Wait, how did you see it? This wasn't supposed to be published yet! Haha

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

I think I figured it out. Was unlisted but was in a couple of our playlists which is how some people found it maybe? It's public now though finally! The beef ribs were very good. I put the recipe link in the description. :)

[@O.TownMagic]

Can high energy spikes lead to more kWh’s used?

[@laserflexr6321]

Something dont quite jive there. Funny that yellow wire for the compressor is so much smaller than the brown wire for the fan isnt it? I mean starting current for a compressor is many mutiples of the starting current for the fan and for that reason the compressor should have relatively lower guage wire than the fan. Not neccessarily telling on it's own as long as both wires are heavy enough to do the job, but that caught my attention. Ummmm Are you sure you dont have 5mfd start capacitor for the compressor and 45mfd for the fan? That would explain why the compressor would not start when the 45mfd side of the capacitor read good but the fan would start on the 5mfd side that was bad, caveat being that I would give the fan a whole lot better chance to start with a dead cap than the compressor.. If the wires are swapped I'm suprised your compressor ever started on 5mfd at least until it killed the cap. I would check those wires on both ends to verify that the wires are not swapped.

[@isettech]

In alternating current, Volts X Amps = Watts only when the power factor is 1.000. Motors are inductive and use a start capacitor, so Watts would Equal Volts X Amps, X Power factor. Not sure if your power monitor does true RMS watts power readings or just measures current. Another loss is in the line between the panel and the compressor, so voltage at the compressor when running is lower than the voltage at the panel.

[@donjohnson2639]

I want some pre pandemic beef ribs😂

[@jimmyjackson9090HVAC]

meter was on the wrong setting

[@richarda.valdes1197]

Why not just add a twin capacitor to your unit. I did this 15 years ago!

[@scorpio6587]

I think we might have the same phone. Galaxy Fold?

[@BenjaminSahlstrom]

Z Fold 3! Really like it a lot more than I expected I would!

[@scorpio6587]

@@BenjaminSahlstrom yup, same. I love it, too.

[@mos8541]

if its frozen, refrigerated or umm kept cool or something, beef things are def. edible for 3-7 years, no doubt, and umm.. just sayin... she who must be obeyed sure dont give any breaks, smh

[@jamest.5001]

The beef is probably still good, maybe not as tasty, I ate frozen ground chicken, it had been frozen for about 10years, it absolutely had no flavor, it took a lot of spicing up to make it eatable!

[@mrorganic13]

First person I’ve ever heard keep frozen meat longer then a month and he hit me with 4 years

[@joeyjennings9548]

i use old school tools 👴 since i am.. 👍 some stuff test fine.. not in a use situation. when i moved in the last guy here that came to repair the a/c got pissed cause he coupdnt sell a whole new unit.. i guess. so he ripped out EVERY wire in & out both.. even took all terminals. what a jackass. i have pics. so i had to... OH and he destroyed the wiring diagram.. so i had to from memory rewire ALL. just to test & find the original problem? turns out the reversing valve solenoid was burned out.. he wanted $5.500 to fix it. the guy here was old & on a fixed income at the time.. so if you cant pay some will make you pay.. me personally i did LOTS for either free or part cost or the trip charge when i came upon people that i could see really couldnt afford the fix.. like a single mom with 3 kids struggling or a vet or.. someone broke in need. but thats me.

[@sfgrovessr]

Send the wife your bill. 😆

[@1McMurdoSilver]

There's your problem lady... "TongFeng"

[@401ksolar]

You know the 21st century method of home cooling is connect to your well with a well-connect unit those compressors certainly will not cause a 16,000 watt rotor lock condition, the 20th century model with the lossy outdoor passive air system used to be really cool but using a well connect your well water actually does most of the cooling for you, it looks like you're in a rural area where you could use the exhaust water for Watering your garden.

[@ZetaReticulian]

Why do people like living with things they don’t actually own?