Thanks Colin,
Those timings are interesting to see, and make sense, if there is no activity going on (why check so often). It’ll be interesting to know how much you have running on that device, and also how often it is getting push notifications too, which could spring it back to life.
When it comes to identifying people, there was a post a while back that was good - Tracking a Mobile Device - which (putting the tracking part to one side) shows you how owntracks can help to provide another information point to let you know who is around. (Battery life due to regular check ins - is never good.)