Discuss Detecting loss of mains power remotely in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

Welcome to ElectriciansForums.net - The American Electrical Advice Forum
Head straight to the main forums to chat by click here:   American Electrical Advice Forum

pc1966

Esteemed
Arms
Reaction score
11,835
A friend of mine has solar panels & inverter and rents out the property. However, the RCD feeding it trips occasionally for no obvious reason (could be local supply disturbances, etc). Those renting it won't bother checking the RCD so is there any simple/cheap device that will periodically say its alive so they know the RCD has tripped?

It is quite remote so would have to be based on mobile network or similar as I'm not sure the tenants would leave the (rather slow, copper phone line) wifi on all the time, etc.

TL;DR Simple way to check power is on using public networks
 
Do they have an alarm system at the property? If so you should be able to rig up a simple power failure auto-dial 2g SIM to alert them to the issue!
Can't remember what make I used last time but managed to make it work with a Honeywell alarm panel. I'll see if I can find out which one it was as they were really good units!
Sy

Edit: it was advent controls!

Not sure but think it was this one!
Sy
 
Do they have an alarm system at the property? If so you should be able to rig up a simple power failure auto-dial 2g SIM to alert them to the issue!
Can't remember what make I used last time but managed to make it work with a Honeywell alarm panel. I'll see if I can find out which one it was as they were really good units!
Sy
I've used a couple in the past, be sat down when you look at the prices for buying and monthly SIM contract... ?
 
Ah I'm sure we found a company that did them specifically for this type of application and were very reasonable as it was only 2g SIM, again I will have a look and see if I can find out who we used!
Give me a minute!?
 
I can't believe I'm even suggesting this, but there is a dreaded Chinese product that does exactly what is required (amongst its sensing options).
It might require a little ingenuity to determine where to connect it !
And then in the 'home electronics' category there seem to be some even cheaper options, which would require a little more effort.

 
I can't believe I'm even suggesting this, but there is a dreaded Chinese product that does exactly what is required (amongst its sensing options).
That is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind!

Another, possibly better, solution is to look at an auto-recloser for the RCD. For example:

But this opens a whole 20% extra-free can of worms. For example:
  • Do the domestic wiring regs have anything to say about auto-reclosing? I know it is common in the DNO's HV world but never seen one for real in end user circuits.
  • Her place has an old Wylex board with plug-in MCBs and I'm not sure I want to get in to doing any work on it as (a) I'm not a professional electrician by trade, and (b) really I would only be happy to sort it ALL out in one go, and that is probably too much disruption to her & tenants. (Nothing to do with Tennent's lager, our national favourite exercise in industrial chemistry).
  • It probably costs (including matching RCD and DIN enclosure) more than she is likely to lose on missing PV feed-in
 
one solution would be to use a simple contactor switching a gsm dieler would be a fairly cheap set up contactor 12v psu battery and a gsm
I was also thinking along such lines, but also maybe just a relay on the output with the N/C contacts switching when power failed to enable a red warning lamp that might get someone's attention at some point.
 
I was also thinking along such lines, but also maybe just a relay on the output with the N/C contacts switching when power failed to enable a red warning lamp that might get someone's attention at some point.
This would get someone's attention with 118dB ?
 

Attachments

  • Detecting loss of mains power remotely 04C4F80B-1602-432E-A85B-078588C2F22B - EletriciansForums.net
    04C4F80B-1602-432E-A85B-078588C2F22B.jpeg
    30.8 KB · Views: 1
I've used RF solutions a number of times and found them to be very good for a number of remote control gear options good shout! ?
 
If you’ve got Wi-fi on site, lock the router away so it still works, and it can’t be switched off….

then have some device…. Whatever… some cheap smart device that can accessed via phone.
if there’s a power cut, router goes down, loss of connection to smart device.
 
we have a ring alarm system - if power goes off we get umpteen messages and notifications telling us the power is off and using cellular backup. could do the job and act as an alarm.
May aswell add soem ring cameras to see what is going on there aswell
 
we have a ring alarm system - if power goes off we get umpteen messages and notifications telling us the power is off and using cellular backup. could do the job and act as an alarm.
May aswell add soem ring cameras to see what is going on there aswell
Same here - though you do have to subscribe to the £8pm plan to unlock the sim card and battery backup options within the alarm system, which is a bit sneaky imo...

If the wifi can be made reliable you could wire in a Shelly EM and clamp the relevant circuit to have a nice history of the consumption too. It works via the cloud so requires registration for remote access, but with no monthly fees.

Not tried this particular model but recently been dabbling with smart home stuff and their Shelly 1 switch/relay has been working flawlessly, as has their lamp.
 

Reply to Detecting loss of mains power remotely in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

OFFICIAL SPONSORS

Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Electrician Courses Green Electrical Goods PCB Way Electrical Goods - Electrical Tools - Brand Names Pushfit Wire Connectors Electric Underfloor Heating Electrician Courses
These Official Forum Sponsors May Provide Discounts to Regular Forum Members - If you would like to sponsor us then CLICK HERE and post a thread with who you are, and we'll send you some stats etc

Electrical Forum

Welcome to the Electrical Forum at ElectriciansForums.net. The friendliest electrical forum online. General electrical questions and answers can be found in the electrical forum.
This website was designed, optimised and is hosted by Untold Media. Operating under the name Untold Media since 2001.
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock