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Knowing is Half the Battle |
I want a power monitor that will tell me when the power went out and for how long. Not one that will call me, or text me. This is for a fridge that has power, but in a location with no internet or phone. I know it is "after the fact" news, but I'd like to know this information. The only tools I have now are: is a plugged in digital clock blinking or with the incorrect time and ice cubes melted in the freezer of the fridge. I know there is the trick of putting a coin on an ice cube in a tray in the freezer, if it's no longer on top of the ice cube, the power went out, but I want something more accurate and with more detail. Everything I've found online is "smart" devices, which I don't want. Any ideas? | ||
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Member |
Thank you for asking about this -- I'm looking forward to the suggestions, too. God bless America. | |||
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I Deal In Lead |
Plug in one of these. It'll show the exact time the power stopped. If the power resumes, it'll start again from the time the power stopped, so you can just subtract the time on it from current time and that'll give you the time the power went out. https://www.amazon.com/Interma...r%2Caps%2C144&sr=8-3  | |||
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| Knowing is Half the Battle |
In the world filled of Chinese electronic doodads, why hasn't there something made to do this? All you need is something with a battery backup to keep the calendar and time part straight and then the electric plug in to power it most of the time and monitor power interruption. I seriously thought I finally discovered my invention that was going to make me a millionaire when I thought of this, but I don't think the take rate would be very high with most people having internet/cell service and want real time alerts instead of after the fact. I don't think the pictured analog electric timer would work for what I am trying to do. We have a recreational place I don't want to pay for internet and phone for. I usually go to this place once or twice a week. I've only noticed one time before this weekend the stove clock reset. This weekend I go there and the power is out, I check the breaker box and nothing is tripped so I reset the main anyway, nothing. Then I hear the neighbor's generator humming so I figure its not just me. The fridge was still cool and there was still ice cubes in the freezer. I texted the neighbors and they said its been out for 2hrs. I kicked in shortly afterwards. (To their credit, the power company emailed me about all of this, but I hadn't seen the emails). If it was a power outage on our property only, I would have no way of knowing afterwards how long it had happened. One of those, if the tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it... | |||
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| Knowing is Half the Battle |
I found several products by Efergy that report history of USAGE but don't require Wi-Fi like most similar things, a little pricey and I don't see it would show lack of power supply, just lack of usage. Not 100% sure it would have the battery backup part either. Efergy Elite Zhurui makes something like an advanced Kill-a-Watt monitor that will show daily and monthly HISTORY, but won't show the time of the day it looks like and it is still usage and not supply. Plus plugging this behind the fridge wouldn't be helpful, and it and the stove clock are the only two constant power draws other than maybe the electric water heater kicking on. Zhurui | |||
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A Grateful American |
 No, this is a simple mechanical timer that controls on/off cycling of power. The "blue" arrows point to the power cord in and out connections (the in is not visible) A/C power to the timer, then AC output to your device to be controlled/switched on/off, off/on, and over what time intervals in a 24 cycle. The black circled green and red (use the red for "off" event, and green for "on event" so it is easy to tell at a glance what times are set for on and off events. The "red arrow" is pointing to the "on off" switch in the time that the pins contact as the rotate past, and then the pins rotate the switch and either break AC or connect the AC (each time a pin passed that switch it turns it 1/2 revolution). Have used these in isolated areas with network routers/bridges/switches and other equipment that cannot be otherwise remote restarted, and were set to to power cycles based on issues where they were known to "brick". Some electronics, can brick from simple power events and this was the most simple and certain method to address the issue. For trapping errors and times, type of events in process controls and such, particularly SCADA systems (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), various PLCs (Programmable Logic Controller) and programs for error trapping and reporting. Never used any low end solutions, so I cannot really offer any input. Only wanted to point out how the device Flash-LB actually works, so the OP does not spend time on that device, and also for anyone that is looking for the specific function is does facilitate. "the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב! | |||
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| Knowing is Half the Battle |
Yeah, we use one to run a lamp in our house. | |||
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member |
An old fashioned analog electric clock will stop when the power goes out, and restart at the same place when it comes back on. Unlike digital clocks which go to flashing at 12:00. I do not know if you can even buy them (new) any more. When in doubt, mumble | |||
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Don't Panic |
This ^^ If this were the only device available, I guess you could tell the aggregate amount of time the power had been out since it had last been set to accurate time, by seeing how far behind it had gotten. That is, if it had been accurate on a Monday and was an hour behind when you next checked on the following Friday, that would say something. Also, to the OP, if it is the disturbance of receiving calls and texts that is to be avoided....you could get one that has those 'features' and just give it a non-working number.  | |||
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| I Deal In Lead |
I guess you're not aware that if you pull out the on/off tabs, it'll work just fine for the application. I have one I've used for just this application for around 20 years. Let's say it's 5PM and the power goes off. Then the power comes back on at 8PM. The timer here will start up from 5PM, so you go in at 10 pm, notice the clock says 7PM because power was off for 3 hours, and you know when power went off and when it came back on and how long it was off. Pretty trivial. | |||
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thin skin can't win |
Or better than just time for your application, consider a thermometer. I have one with two sensors, one in fridge one freezer, at a lake cabin. They register high temps as well, so in the event of a power outage I can see on next visit how warm they actually got and act accordingly. You only have integrity once. - imprezaguy02 | |||
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Nullus Anxietas |
Very limited interest? Yes, but if twenty-four or more hours have passed you won't really know when--just the time window on some day. Also won't tell him how many times it happened. Just the aggregate time. One could probably cobble something together with a small, low-power single-board computer, such as a Raspberry Pi or the like. "America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system,,,, but too early to shoot the bastards." -- Claire Wolfe "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living." -- Seneca the Younger, Roman Stoic philosopher | |||
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Member |
A thermometer like this one may also be helpful. Put it in the freezer, and it will tell you the maximum temperature reached- it may help give you an indication whether food is still good in the event that the power does go out. "The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people." "Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy." "I did," said Ford, "it is." "So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?" "It honestly doesn't occur to them. They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates the government they want." "You mean they actually vote for the lizards." "Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course." "But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?" "Because if they didn't vote for a lizard, then the wrong lizard might get in." | |||
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| Member |
I ran out of time to tinker, and gave my Arduino stuff to a friend, but I've wondered the same thing. Does either Arduino or Pi have an on-board real-time clock? I'm thinking it like this: - Have device check write the current time to a text file every (minute, five minutes, whatever increment desired). - At the next increment, check the file. If the current time minus the recorded time is in line with the increment, then erase and rewrite. - - If there's a difference, then write the (last time) and (current time) to a new file, appending them with similar text. Not having spent a lot of time thinking on it, I think that would do the job. Of course, it would require a PC (or perhaps just an LCD screen) for reading the files, which may be more complex than what the OP is after. God bless America. | |||
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Member |
Rephrase the question to how much power have I used ---> Upgraded Watt Meter Power Meter Plug Home Electricity Usage Monitor, Electrical Usage Monitor Consumption, Energy Voltage Amps Kill Meter Tester with Backlight, Overload Protection, 7 Modes Display. Amazon Meecher store. $12.78 The wattage meter will record your power consumption data when you remove it from socket, or remove appliances from the electricity monitor. You can directly see the last data when you use it next time. This function can also automatically save the data when there is a sudden power failure. Having trouble pasting link. | |||
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| Member |
Tinyurl version of the link for you: https://tinyurl.com/PM0nit0r God bless America. | |||
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| Member |
Thx | |||
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| Member |
He said he didn't want "smart" device because there is no internet or phone available. Personally, I would still get a smart device and just not use the connectivity features it has. | |||
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| Knowing is Half the Battle |
Thanks everyone for the knowledge base. I just don't think there is something out there because of yes, the lack of interest. I need "dumb" because this place has no internet or phone service, just electricity and water. I could go cellular, but don't really want to put that investment into it. All of the timers, blinking clocks, plugged in clocks, etc. only tell me how many hours of no power up to a maximum of 12 hours, but that could be many small power interruptions or one long one, etc. it doesn't account for days of no power, etc. I think the "hi/low" max thermometer is probably my best bet for a safety measure, it still doesn't tell me how long something was at that temp. I told this to my wife, who is into IT some and started talking about machines that print out electricity status to record data events or something and I was trying to explain it doesn't have to be that complicated. I mean....we have Snuggies in this world, why not this? SIGForum group buy? I'll get on the phone to a factory in China to find out the minimum buy-in. | |||
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| Member |
Still not sure why you don't consider a smart device and just don't connect it to the internet since you dont have internet. Find a device that captures all the data you want and allows you to either read it from a built-in display or allow you to connect to a laptop or smart phone and read the information. Something like this for example. Called a power switch data logger. https://www.digital-loggers.com/lpc.html Lot of features you dont need or use like remote power cycle but it logs power interruptions and logs can be read with a laptop. | |||
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