Something to tell me when the power goes off.....

[Mike Hibbert]

Hello all,

My stepmum lives on a canal barge, and has a bit of a problme with her 240V power. It sometimes trips out and the power goes off. Generall she notices this, and can sort it out, but sometimes, if nothing is on, she misses it. Normally this isnt a problem, but the pump for the heating is 240v and the boiler will over heat quite quickly unless she flicks it over to the 12V pump.

I need something that she can plug into the mains that will buzz if the power goes off. I know there are lights that come on if the power fails, but I need something with an audible alarm.

Any ideas?

Mike

[Grunff]

A mains powered 12V supply powering a relay. You can use the relay contacts to switch on a buzzer, or even better to automatically change over the pump power to 12V, so no human intervention is required.

[MrCheerful]

Why not just get a computer ups unit, this would take over running the pump for some time and would beep to warn her.

MrCheerful

[Grunff]

Because small cheap UPS units (in the £150-£200 range) usually have batteries with capacities between 5 and 10Ah. This will run the pump for maybe an hour or so. A 40Ah caravan battery, which can be had for no more than £50 will run the pump for 4-6 hours.

[Sneezy]

"Mike Hibbert" wrote in news:9ACQb.8769$ [e-mail]:

I seem to remember that Maplin did one of those electric SIY (solder it yourself) kits that monitors the mains electric for loss of power?? Could have look at their website and see.

[Peter Parry]

Freezer alarm - I think Lakeland plastics used to sell them.

[Colin Wilson]

I`m not sure what sort of load a pump will pull, but what about an=20 inverter on the battery then ?

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[James Salisbury]

Go and buy a rechargale torch that has a permanant battery inside it, some such as from argos. Measure the voltage across the lamp, and then buy a small buzzer from maplin / farnell. Buzz on NOT mains !!

[N. Thornton]

Rectifier, capacitor, relay, buzzer. Very short buzz, but enough to let you know.

Regards, NT

[BigWallop]

Or run the 12 volt pump from a mains voltage to 12 volt power supply through a simple change over relay and the pump won't shut down when the mains power fails. Then you could take the mains voltage pump out and not have to worry about it again. That is unless the rest of the system has mains voltage running to it as well.

[Dave Stanton]

You need a Freezer alarm, from somewhere like Maplins.

Dave

[PoP]

Oh boy, talk about topical!

My wife got up this morning and did the usual getting together of breakfast things in the kitchen. She came into the lounge looking a bit crestfallen - our daughter had left the freezer door ajar overnight after getting something out and there had been a significant thaw-out.

End result, junked freezer contents and a big shopping trip to Tescos. Daughter in the doghouse for the rest of the day ;)

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

[Huge]

Freezer alarm plug.

[mike ring]

"James Salisbury" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Most of thes will come on if they're on charge and the mains fails - makes a good little emergency light, and might do for this

mike r

[dmc]

Happened to me a couple of months ago (wife not daughter though :)). Door must only just have been ajar on mine though as nothing had defrosted. Quite the opposite in fact! On opening the door we were presented with a huge slab of ice containing the 4 freezer drawers. Took hours to defrost!

Darren

[Mike Hibbert]

thanks all, looks like i need a freezer alarm!

cheers Mike

[mike ring]

PoP wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Ages ago I was given a tip that has worked well.

It's to tilt the fridge or freezer backwards, either by levelling screws or packing under the front.

Saved my bum on quite a few occasions when careless/tight.

mike r

[Bob Eager]

Happened to us a few years ago. Son tried to close freezer but left a sock (migrated from washing pile nearby) stiuck in the gap.

I got a 6 quid inside/outside thermometer from CPC, with probe on a wire for the 'outside'. Stuck on side of freezer, probe run to inside. Alarm set to go off a predetermined 'minimum' temperature, and it tells us freezer temperature and room temperature too! And (eventually) would warn us of mains faiulure, but the PC USP would do that first...likewise other things on kitchen circuit.

[Christian McArdle]

As well as sorting out the problem of noticing the 240V power failure, you might want to add a external overheat or flow failure sensor to the boiler. Exploding boilers and boats do not mix.

Christian.