Suggestions to Indicate that Grid Power Is Off

Energy
1

Hey everyone,

I am looking for clever suggestions on what I can implement in my home to indicate that the grid power is off. I would like people to be aware of the fact that grid power is off, and then they can decide for themselves if they will use the toaster/kettle, dryer, etc. Of course, I can put all of these on smart switches to prevent the usage, but that’s not the point - I want to let people make their own calls. I will then use automations to switch off devices if the overall usage of the house is too much.

For example, I have thought of having a small red light mounted on a wall, or a red downlight in the ceiling so that when the grid goes down, these red lights turn on, giving a visual queue that we are running on backup power. I could put these lights in strategic positions around the home.

I have already set up an automation when the grid power goes down that announces it through all Nest speakers in the house - this works well, but if someone arrives home a few minutes after the announcement, then they would not know. Or if the power is down for long they might forget about the announcement.

The best I can come up with is a red light type of solution, but before going ahead, I was curious if anyone has better suggestions?

Thanks,
David

2

I just got my HA to send out a notification to all the phones as well. You could make it persistent I guess?

3

I already have the phone notification, but the problem is that my kids don’t have phones, my wife never looks at her phone, and our staff dont look at the phones regularly either. So the phone thing only works for me - even then the notification is often delayed by 20 minutes or more for some reason.