Notification when circuit breaker trips?

Configuration
1

I have a radial electrical circuit with with several sockets, one of which is connected to a fridge. A couple of times recently the breaker has tripped and the food in the fridge has spoiled.

I’d like to get an alert when the breaker trips out, has anyone done this? I wondered if there’s a zigbee device or esphome device I build to accomplish this?

2

Hi Dan,

  • I would suggest a thermometer in the fridge and do an automation to alert you when it is too warm.
  • You could also just put a smartplug on the circuit and monitor it to make sure it is responding. If it doesn’t respond, it may be dead. (That can also be monitored with one of my blueprints that you can find in the signature footer of my message below.).
  • You could put a power monitoring plug in series with the fridge, and look for regular power uses. If the pattern breaks, IE it hasn’t run in a while, you get an alert.
  • There are probably a dozen more ways if you search the forum here:
    In a search engine, paste this…

site:community.home-assistant.io monitor refrigerator freezer

3

Personally I use a smart plug from Third Reality and have a LOT of alerts when my freezers or my refrigerators become unavailable, go off or have strange power spikes. The spikes only requires monitoring your appliances over time and getting a feel for what power use is normal. In my case, if my deep freeze goes over 150W I know something might be going on.

4

I really like the thermometer approach as I can monitor for temperature spikes when the kids leave the fridge door open.

I have a Zigbee thermometer right here so I’ll test it out, my concern is that the fridge will act as a Faraday cage and/or drain the battery rapidly. Will test and report back.

5

I also have bunch of spare Esphome smart plugs with energy monitoring, so this good option too. I’ve never thought about alerting for a lack availability.

6

It does, so you might eat a lot of batteries in it because it is going to use it’s high power mode and the cold will mess with the battery as well, but lots of people make it work. Maybe a smartplug zigbee close by to relay lower signal levels from inside?

7

Whatever you do to alert, when it happens, perfectly fine.

But don’t forget to start at the base of your problem. A breaker does not trip without a reason. Solve your hardware issue first :wink:

8

I’ve set it up and the signal is fine, so Faraday cage was not a concern. I’ll keep an eye on the battery usage.

If that’s a showstopper then maybe I can decouple the thermistor from the Zigbee board and run a pair of discrete wires into the fridge leaving the battery and transceiver on the outside.

1 Like
9

Very true. I know why it tripped, builders and extension leads! Then there’s the 8 year that forgets to shut the door…

10

The problem.with some smart plugs is that when the power goes, so does the monitoring on the smart plug.
Smart plugs using WiFi can be pinged though, so that can be used as a sensor.

11

I use the Inkbird Bluetooth sensor in mine connected through an esp proxy.

12

I put one in my refrigerator about 6-months ago and the battery is still at 75%.

Long ago I made a freezer monitor for our freezer in the basement using a DS18b20 and a Wemos D1 Mini. The Home Assistant automation triggers if the temperature is >0°C, indicating that the door is open (the DS18b20 is next to the door). If the door is open for more than 5 minutes, another automation sends notifications.