Remote Power-Failure Alarm

[RichardB]

I have a holiday cottage that is unoccupied most of the winter. It's in the hills and it gets cold there. We quite often have storms that trip out the main circuit-breaker. Whereupon the whole place gets colder & colder till it freezes up solid.

Has anyone come across a simple device that waits (say) 15 mins and then dials a phone number (that I've preset) to alert me that the power has gone off? I've looked at some of the URLs given in this forum and the products seem a bit more sophisticated than I was really looking for.

Sorry if this topic has been done to death in earlier posts -- I DID look before posting!

Regards-- RichardB

[b_weijenberg]

Re: Remote Power-Failure Alarm

Hello RichardB,
Install a Visonic PowerMax Plus. This alarm panel has build in the option to call out a few minutes after the power outage. And you have a burgler alarm too.
Bert

[toscal]

Re: Remote Power-Failure Alarm

Actually most alarms that have a built in dialer would be suitable. but the Powermax Plus would be my choice. Be aware that not all security systems that have an auto dialer will call when the power is lost.
If you get the Powermax and an XM10 interface and a few X10 modules you could phone the house before you arrive and switch on the heating. If you get the GSM module for it you could even text the house.

[toscal]

Re: Remote Power-Failure Alarm

Just had an idea.
Probably won't cost more than about 40 pounds. Use an MS8000 Homeguard from Marmitek. You can connect a wired input to it. Normally from a door contact. But why not wire it up to a relay that is energised by the mains so when the mains fails the relay switches off. And triggers an alarm event. And therefore a phone call.
Personally I would still go for the Powermax.

[RichardB]

Re: Remote Power-Failure Alarm

Thank you both for the advice. Apologies that it's taken this long to get back, but I've been away a few days. As I understand it, the Visonic wd do exactly what I want, straight out of the box, but costs about three times the price of the MS8000. Against this, the Visonic has more expansion potential and future flexibility. And the MS8000 wd need me to get and fit a relay wired to the mains. But this is where I'm out of my depth. Is such a relay a stock plug-in item? or are we talking soldering irons etc, here? And where would it come from? (The idea of trying to buy one in France fills me with alarm and despondency!)

[toscal]

Re: Remote Power-Failure Alarm

The relay is not a stock item. And may require soldering iron and a terminal strip.
The powermax is still the best choice, especially as its upgrade potential is excellent.

[Guest]

Re: Remote Power-Failure Alarm

Well if you have no automation equipment there whatsoever, here is a very cheap and quick way round your problem. Using a simple circuit to keep in the open position the NC contact of a relay, solder the NC contacts on any button of a cheap mobile phone. Then assign that number to be a quick dial to your mobile phone. When power goes off, the relay shorts the button (just like what happens when you press it) and the phone calls you.

My initial reaction to when i heard of this idea was burst into laughs. But it seems that it can effectively address such cases where no automation/alarm systems are installed in the premises.

[bellisleirrigation]

Re: Remote Power-Failure Alarm

never thought about this before but would be perfect for my cabin, always worrying about frozen pipes due to power outages.

[TimH]

Re: Remote Power-Failure Alarm

This unit may be of interest too:

http://www.simplyautomate.co.uk/productdisplay.asp?prodid=5685

Mains powered, but batteries are listed as an accessory so it does have some backup.

You'll still have to wire up a relay to one of the inputs so that you can sense the power has gone off, but apart from that it's self contained :-)

There's also this, which does the same sort of thing:
http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSea...sp?SKU=SR01513 (check the "Catalogue Page" link for more info)
ditto with the relay though, as per the 1st option and you may have to sort out your own battery backup for it if you are not linking it to an alarm panel at all.

HTH,

Tim.