Device to alert owner when residential power is back on

[radioman]

If you are on a transfer switch it would be automatic. If you are extention cords other stuff will come on. IF you are backfeeding thru an outlet and your main breaker is off, I hope , then you need something.

not all transfer switches are like that. Mine is manual. Also it depends on how you setup your transfer switches circuits. I did not move all of my circuits over to the transfer switch. So whatever circuit is not on the generator circuit the light switch goes on and stays on. Once the light comes on, I can go ahead and shut down my genny and switch back to power company line. No need to be fancy and setup anything else.

 

[forgeblast]

You can leave the number you want them to call, cell phone might work if charged. Most of the time if we loose power we can still call out (we just keep an older corded phone).

 

[ray66v]

I have the same problem.

And considering that it cost me $32 to run my generator for 12 hours, I would definitely like to know right away if the power is back on.

I did have a transfer switch at my old house, so it was to tell because some of the circuits were not in the generator panel. I just turned on some of the lights that were not in the generator panel. When they came on, I knew the power was on.

This house has one main, and two sub panels, with a total of over 80 breakers, so its got to be all or nothing.

I have thought about splitting the line coming in to the main panel to a 2nd main?, that could stay on the grid, and transferring a couple of lighting circuits to it. But, I am not sure if that can be done in any kind of an economical way. Or, what the code implications would be for that.

Some sort of a portable wireless alert device that you could wear on your belt for example, or set on the night stand, would be great.

 

[RickB]

You can leave the number you want them to call, cell phone might work if charged. Most of the time if we loose power we can still call out (we just keep an older corded phone).

There is simply nothing as easy or convenient as glancing out at the fixture above the entrance panel and seing that light bulb lit. Best money of its kind I've spent in years. This convenience came several years after the generator and manual transfer switch install. No dependence on a notification that may or may not be timely, or come at all.

 

[Rustyiron]

There is simply nothing as easy or convenient as glancing out at the fixture above the entrance panel and seing that light bulb lit. Best money of its kind I've spent in years. This convenience came several years after the generator and manual transfer switch install. No dependence on a notification that may or may not be timely, or come at all.

+1
If you have a "smart meter" like I have, there is no display or LED when the "street" is off. This might just be my particular brand of meter that they use here, but it's the way mine works.

 

[Pete Judd]

If you have an outlet that is on the grid, plug in a old radio turned on and volume up, you will hear it, and very cheap. That's what we do.

 

[ljohnson778]

There is simply nothing as easy or convenient as glancing out at the fixture above the entrance panel and seing that light bulb lit. Best money of its kind I've spent in years. This convenience came several years after the generator and manual transfer switch install. No dependence on a notification that may or may not be timely, or come at all.

X2... I don't want to burn any more fuel than I have to, and this is foolproof.

 

[medic1050]

My cue is the Barn Lights, they are not on the house circuit and I don't bother running a generator to it. When those lights come back on the power is back on.

 

[DKCDKC]

Most folks in this area have the digital electric meters. Mine is just outside my office window. I can just look out the window and, if the reading is visible, I have power. I have a very simple small generator to run appliances and water pump (well). A full transfer switch would cost almost as much as the generator. I disconnect from the grid and backfeed through a 45 amp 240 circuit - turning off all but the few needed circuits. We have fans for the summer and a woodstove for the winter... And have never been out more than a day or two anyway.

 

[MossRoad]

A lightbulb, LED, buzzer, etc... can easily and CHEAPLY be wired into the main side that would alert you if power returned.

As someone else mentioned, put it on a switch so you can disable the thing when the power comes back on.

For me, I just watch the neighborhood lights from time to time. When their lights come back on, I then usually run the generator for a while longer, before shutting it down and switching back to grid power. We have had many instances of power coming in, then going out again just seconds later.