Is there a way to monitor my sump pump activity with smartthings that doesn’t risk a smart switch that could turn off power to my sump pump? I’d love something that only measures power consumption.
I tried a multipurpose sensor, and my pump just doesn’t shake the pipes enough to trigger it. Even tried tying the sensor to a string from the pipe in hope a pendulum effect would trigger its activity.
I think this monitor Aeotec by Aeon Labs is meant for your breaker box, and needs + and - lines to be separate to measure anything.
It will work on just 1 leg - you could mount in your main box if the pump is the only thing on the circuit. Or you could fab a box at the outlet that encloses the wires and do the same. A lot depends on the wiring, location, your electrical knowledge, etc…
Mine , for example is in an unfinished basement and looks is no issue. It’s also on it’s own dedicated circuit. I actually have 3 pumps, 2 110 on separate circuits and a 12V backup. Charging on IT’S circuit . The 2 110 ones also are supplied by my standby by generator.
Some have done this one a leg of the washer/dryer for monitoring - might search some of those threads.
that’s a lot of money to just monitor one circuit power.
FYI I’ve had the fridge and washer-dryer on seperate plug-in switches, never scheduled to turn off, just to monitor power. They’ve never turned off since I made power the default display (otherwise I accidentally turned them off 1-2 times 1-2 years ago). The typical plug-in switch is $40-50, less than the typical energy meter which seems like overkill since you don’t care about high amperage.
I DO have the switches scheduled to turn ON with most mode changes, and they are configured to notify me when they turn off, but they’ve never turned off without my manual direction.
FWIW - I have one of the GE Outdoor units that has been on 1 pump for a year (one of last years’ Lowes close outs for 10$). I turn it on at 10 pm and off at 9:00 am/ Always worked.
In the event of a power loss, do any of the smart switches default to on? Would turning on be dependent on SmartThings re-communicating the last setting to them? Example: Sump Pump smart switch is On, power shuts off, smartthings battery backup runs out, power comes back on, smartthings fails to re-initiatlize. Is the Smart Switch On, or Off?