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tom_g's avatar

What is the best way to be notified when my power goes out?

Asked by tom_g (16638points) June 17th, 2013

We lose power quite often. Unfortunately, we have an extremely-necessary sump pump. I’ll leave all discussions about battery backup and auto-start generators out of this thread. This is because I have a specific need for the following:

When the power goes out, I want to immediately be notified. Ideally, notification would come in the format of an email or text, but a phone call of some kind would be fine.

I was originally thinking that the following would be my best option:
Plug in and configure an old Android phone I have kicking around to send me a text message or email when AC power has been lost. This can be done fairly easy with Tasker (app). The catch would be that this phone would not have phone service. It would be dependent on wifi to send this text message or email. So, this means that I would need to buy a UPS battery backup and plug my wifi router into it. I believe this would work. But I’m somewhat concerned about the fragility of such an old Android phone and the potential for possibly putting wifi into sleep or some crap. The other concern would just be having that thing plugged in all the time. But it might be worth a try.

Another option would be this. I have no experience with this device, but it seems like it would do the trick. Has anyone ever tried one of these? It seems that I could simply plug it in next to a phone jack and it would place a call to me when the power went out. Now, I have Verizon FIOS phone service (VOIP), but the install includes a battery backup that allows for about 6 hours of phone use when power is out.
The advantage of the Reliance device would be that I could avoid the purchase of a UPS. But the Reliance is more expensive than an inexpensive UPS. Plus, the Reliance seems to only call (not ideal) after 5 minutes of no power. I want immediate notification.

Anyway, if anyone has any other ideas or experience with one of the above, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks.

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5 Answers

jaytkay's avatar

How about giving the old Android phone a prepaid account?

Get one where the minutes don’t expire.

hearkat's avatar

We just installed a programmable thermostat that has WiFi so we can control it via the internet or from a smartphone app. Ours is a Honeywell that cost $100 at BJ’s. When storms were going through last week, we got email and popup notifications that the device had lost communication with the servers, and again when the connection was re-established. Of course, not all WiFi connection losses are due to a power outage in the home, but I just thought I’d mention it as an idea, in case you could use a thermostat upgrade to save energy as well – 2 birds, one stone, potentially.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Would this be what you are looking for, PitBoss?

tom_g's avatar

Forgot to followup on this one.

I ended up getting this, and works perfectly. When the power goes out, it calls me on my mobile and tells me. I can then make a decision about whether or not to go home and start generator. Since I continue to lose power all the time, it has come in handy.

jaytkay's avatar

Thanks for the update, @tom_g. Interesting to hear the solution.

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