Power outage alert

[chiefsilverback]

Having just suffered an inch of water in our basement I’m trying to design some safeguards.

This time around the cause of the flood was my sump pumps tripping in the middle or the night and the battery backup running out of power, all whilst we were asleep. The pumps (2 x 9A) are now on a dedicated 20A circuit, rather than sharing a 15A breaker with the rest of the basement!

I have a FibaroHome Flood detector, and sure enough I had a ‘leak detected’ alert on my phone at 1.15am, but it didn’t wake us. My immediate fix is to install a smart switch in our bedroom and create a trigger to turn the light on if a leak is detected.”

Next step is to get a plug in power outage alert, again in our bedroom, so we lose all power it will wake us and I can get my generator running.

The final step is something to alert us of an issue when we’re away from the house. With a couple of APC BGE90M power supplies I can keep my network running for a couple of hours after a power outage, but I would need something to send me an alert that the power is out.

Anybody got any ideas?

I was thinking about one of the plug in switches that offers power monitoring, but they would fail as soon as the power goes out, and anything plugged into a UPS would not know the power had gone out, so it needs to be a device with a battery backup that can trigger an automation when mains power is lost!?!?

 

[chiefsilverback]

I just discovered a dedicated product, pumpalarm.com, that is a leak/high water/power outage detector with Verizon coverage. Unfortunately it requires a $50/year service fee to provide the cell connectivity, but seems like the best solution for my situation...

 

[cynics]

The main thing is to make sure your basement doesn't flood right?

Do you have well or city water? A water powered back up pump could put a lot of your worries to rest since the city has generators or uses gravity from a water tower.

I would also get a "dumb" water alarm from home depot for 10 bucks. Mount the sensor just above the maximum and it will sound a smoke detector like siren long before the sump is over flowing. This is usually enough to wake people up. If its not you can by a siren and a iHome Outlet, the fibaro triggers the outlet via homekit thus sounding the siren.

I've found it tricky to detect a power outage. Usually devices associated with my UPS's do it since they can detect whether they are on UPS or mains power. For example when my NAS connects to battery power because of a power failure I get a notifications from it.

 

[chiefsilverback]

The main thing is to make sure your basement doesn't flood right?

Do you have well or city water? A water powered back up pump could put a lot of your worries to rest since the city has generators or uses gravity from a water tower.

I would also get a "dumb" water alarm from home depot for 10 bucks. Mount the sensor just above the maximum and it will sound a smoke detector like siren long before the sump is over flowing. This is usually enough to wake people up. If its not you can by a siren and a iHome Outlet, the fibaro triggers the outlet via homekit thus sounding the siren.

I've found it tricky to detect a power outage. Usually devices associated with my UPS's do it since they can detect whether they are on UPS or mains power. For example when my NAS connects to battery power because of a power failure I get a notifications from it.

I hadn't even thought about a water powered back up. We're on city water, and it looks like I can pick one up for <$200 so I might get one, especially if I'm going to need to shell out on a replacement battery at some point.

Our battery backup system includes an alarm which sounds whenever the backup pump float switch is triggered, but even combined with the alarm from the Fibaro it didn't wake us up, that's why I like the idea of having the Fibaro turn the bedroom light on.

The thought of 'wasting' thousands of gallons of clean drinking water doesn't sit well (no pun intended) with me, but combined with the pumpalarm.com product, it would give me time to get back to the house to get my generator running and let the primary pumps do their business...

 

[cynics]

I hadn't even thought about a water powered back up. We're on city water, and it looks like I can pick one up for <$200 so I might get one, especially if I'm going to need to shell out on a replacement battery at some point.

Our battery backup system includes an alarm which sounds whenever the backup pump float switch is triggered, but even combined with the alarm from the Fibaro it didn't wake us up, that's why I like the idea of having the Fibaro turn the bedroom light on.

The thought of 'wasting' thousands of gallons of clean drinking water doesn't sit well (no pun intended) with me, but combined with the pumpalarm.com product, it would give me time to get back to the house to get my generator running and let the primary pumps do their business...

Well “thousands” of gallon is probably an exaggeration (I guess given enough time it could be accurate). However consider this.....

1. You are paying for the water and it’s going back into the ground. It’s not like you are contaminating it.

2. If your basement is flooding water is likely abundant in your area.

3. The chemicals used to clean up a flooded basement are likely worse for the environment.

4. When it comes to the health and safety of your family (mold) how much clean drinking water would you be willing to waste? Probably all of it, no? Lol