Question

I'm not so worried about being notified when the power goes out. I usually notice that the house is suddenly filled with the sound of a dozen UPSs beeping away. what I would like is a simple power restored alert. I am usually running a generator, and sometimes don't notice that the line power is back on. ideally, something I could plug into a street/line outlet in the basement that will send an alert when it is powered on, something "plug and play" would be nice.  

Answer 1

Clamp on meter is about ur only option that I can think of that is safe. Not sure if it’s even legal, wouldn’t think so.? Unless you have an automatic switch with separate breaker panels for generator vs non generator fed

Comments

@legendary5 maybe a zigbee wall plug on ur line side outlet. Or a raspberry pi Ping it every xx minutes to see if it’s inline va offline. Notify you if the status changes. I’ve never done it but I’ve seen posts about doing it so the grunt work should already be done?  

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@legendary5 I’m not sure how to do it if u don’t want to purchase any devices to do it?  

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@legendary5 it is. Put a raspberry pi on that outlet and run a script. If u just want a way to know (not smart), put a light that’s powered from the line side outlet. Add a switch that you turn on after u fire up ur generator

Answer 2

I use a smart bulb that is on a constantly powered socket and not used for anything. If it's on, it means power went out and was restored - it turns on when power is applied (so it can operate like a standard bulb on a wall switch). It's not used in any automations, or connected with any switches or buttons. I have a simple script in Webcore that checks for the bulb being on, and if so sends me a text alerting me that there was a power outage and that power is back on. Basic, but easy and works fairly well.  

Comments

There may be a way to do something similar with a plug - but not the way I've got it right now. I'm using the characteristic of most smart bulbs, where the turn on when the switch is turned on. In this case, that's power being restored. For a plug, you'd need a plug that goes to a different state when power comes on. I use the Zooz heavy duty plugs, and have a couple set to always turn ON when they get switched on (power restored) so they'd work as long as you set the behavior to turn on when switched on, but you'd want to turn them off for normal operation. This would work, but they're more costly ($24) than a basic smart bulb ($7). My other plugs can't set a default for when the switch is thrown (power restored) just the Zooz I mentioned. Some plugs might have the same capability, but I don't know - the Zooz does.  

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Let me pull the script for you. I'll do that this evening.  

Answer 3

Some one posted a device a few post down

Answer 4

@legendary5. My script had extra crap in it, so I made a basic one that does only what you wanted. Here are 2 versions of it, one commented so you can understand what it does if you want to tweak it and the other has no comments so it's more readable in Webcore. Let's see if it lets me post the pics this time.  

Answer 5

. and no comments. It's an extremely basic script but it works. Cheers.  

Answer 6

How about a simple smart bulb plugged into a lamp and a light sensor. When power returns, the bulb should come on (use their down side to your advantage) then a standard smart app should be able to notify you of the light in increase AND turn off the bulb for you.  

Answer 7

I have a router that can send anotification if a device connects or disconnects. So just have i up to have a device not on back up power send a notification when power is back up.