How often equipment starts per hour and how long each cycle runs. Short-cycling is the most destructive and most fixable failure mode in small-retail refrigeration and HVAC — a compressor cycling too fast wears out quickly, and the current edges make it cheap to detect.
How often a circuit's equipment starts per hour, and how long each on-cycle runs. Short-cycling — a compressor or motor starting and stopping far more often than its design allows — is the most destructive and most fixable reliability failure in small-retail refrigeration and HVAC.
The signal is derived from the start/stop edges in a circuit's running current — the sharp rise when a compressor or motor energizes, and the drop when it stops. Counting those edges over a rolling hour gives starts/hour; the gap between them gives on-cycle and off-cycle duration. This is read from the meter: Energy Intelligence sees the cycling, it does not control the equipment.
Because it relies on per-circuit current edges, this metric is part of the Optimized differentiator — it needs the submetering the main utility meter alone cannot provide. The whole-building meter shows total draw; the submeter is what isolates a single compressor's start pattern.
The exact calculation depends on metering resolution and the load. High-frequency current sampling resolves individual starts cleanly; coarser intervals infer cycling from the run-fraction pattern. The specific method is set per client based on the metering installed on each circuit.
Two-source discipline applies: cycling is read from meter telemetry, and any spend claim tied to it is reconciled against the utility bill. V1 does not weather- or occupancy-normalize — a confirmed short-cycle is flagged for a site walkthrough and equipment check, not auto-attributed to ambient conditions.
| Range | Classification | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| ≤ 3 starts/hour | Expected (equipment-class dependent) | Normal cycling for a compressor holding a stable load |
| 4 – 6 starts/hour | Elevated — monitor | Above the comfortable range for most compressors; watch the trend and the on-cycle length |
| > 6 starts/hour (sustained 2+ hours) | Short-cycling — urgent | Confirmed short-cycle on a compressor class; high-inrush starts accumulate wear fast — treat as urgent |
| On-cycle far below design minimum | Control or charge fault | Cycles too short to do useful work — points to a thermostat differential, pressure-switch, charge, or sizing problem |
Reference ranges only. The threshold is equipment-class specific — a small reach-in compressor, a refrigeration rack, and an RTU each carry a different start limit. Calibrate per client against the equipment on each circuit before activating reporting.
There is no fleet compliance percentage for this metric — a single confirmed short-cycle is an equipment event, not a portfolio rate. Where a client wants a reference, the watch threshold (reference: > 6 starts/hour on a compressor circuit) is agreed per equipment class. This default is a starting point only.
The table below shows how moving Cycling frequency impacts each customer value driver the product is designed to improve — the metric page explains the mechanism; the product pages express the magnitude.
| Value driver | Impact strength | How Cycling frequency moves this lever |
|---|---|---|
| Asset lifespan | Direct, primary | Every start draws locked-rotor inrush current — typically 3 to 8 times the running current — and that surge is what wears a compressor out. A unit cycling too fast accumulates years of start-stress in months. Catching the cycling pattern and correcting the root cause is the most direct lever on compressor and motor life. |
| Avoided truck rolls | Direct, strong | A rising cycling rate is visible at the meter weeks before the equipment fails outright. Acting on the trend converts an emergency after-hours call into a scheduled visit with the right scope — the difference between a planned maintenance window and a premium emergency rate. |
| Energy savings | Indirect | A short-cycling unit never reaches steady-state efficiency and pays the inrush penalty on every restart, so it draws more energy for the same work. Correcting it trims that waste — anchored to 7-Eleven's $5M energy outcome at fleet scale; the per-site figure is expected (pending validation). |
| Product loss prevention | Indirect, refrigeration | A refrigeration compressor that short-cycles cannot hold case temperature, and a failure that follows puts perishable stock at risk. Catching the cycling early protects the cold chain before product is lost — the same mechanism Chedraui's product-loss outcomes are built on. |
The table below summarizes the alarms that fire directly from Cycling frequency. Each row links to the full operational detail (trigger, preconditions, action plan, human role, escalation, prevention) in the SOPs catalog.
| Alarm | Description | Severity | Tier | AI executes? | Value drivers | SOP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Short-cycling | A compressor or motor short-cycles — starts per hour exceed the equipment-class threshold — the most destructive and most fixable reliability failure. | Urgent | Optimized | Hybrid | Asset lifespan · Avoided truck rolls · Energy savings | Open SOP → |
More alarms in development for this metric (single-circuit): on-cycle-too-short / chattering-control detection and cycling-rate degradation trends. Composite equipment-health detection that combines cycling with the per-circuit load baseline will appear in a future release.
The action plan for each alarm lives on its own SOP page in the SOPs catalog — with the diagnostic steps, human role, value drivers, escalation, and prevention specific to that alarm. The list below maps each alarm to its SOP.
Before any cycling finding is acted on, confirm the start/stop edges are genuine and not a metering artifact — a loose CT clamp or a noisy current signal can read as false starts. Validate the edge count against the running-current trend on the same circuit. Do not open a dispatch or report the circuit as failing until the signal is confirmed. Document the period affected so it can be excluded from the equipment-health record if it proves spurious.
Energy Intelligence diagnoses the short-cycle remotely and scopes it (charge, control differential, pressure switch, sizing, fouling), then guides the site and coordinates the visit. Where the customer also runs Keedian on HVAC or Refrigeration, the corrective control change is executed through that product, not the meter. Where the root cause is an oversized unit or a wiring fault, the work routes to the service technician or an electrician — Keedian never commands the equipment through the meter.
If a circuit returns to short-cycling after a maintenance visit, repair is not holding — an oversized or worn-out unit is the likely root cause, and that is a capital-expenditure decision, not a per-visit fix. Document the cycling history and the visits attempted, and present the replacement case to the client in the MBR with the start-frequency trend and the avoided-failure rationale.
Per-alarm escalation criteria live in the Escalation block of each SOP in the SOPs catalog. The patterns below are metric-level — read from the portfolio view, not from any single alarm firing.