On Mon, 16 Oct 2017 15:27:32 -0400, Tekkie®
wrote:

posted for all of us...




Your screen pool cover held up well. A cousin was in the business.
Hurricanes bought him a lot of bread & butter


Ah ha ! - I was wondering what what that was.
... didn't want to ask and sound stoopider than normal.

We're presently enjoying gusts up to 80 km / hour -
warnings started yesterday at noon ..
Power is off, my little Honda generator is screaming.
For many years I have wondered about rigging/buying a
device to tell me when grid power returned -
at night it's obvious when the streetlights come on -
during the day - I ask my one neighbour to phone me.
Recently - I just check for my neighbours' Wi-Fi
signals to appear on my laptop - usually 7 or 8 of them -
during the outage - just one.
... mind you - that doesn't work after I've gone to bed.
ps: Clare - the "Power-Bak" device, mentioned here
is not a stock item anywhere that I've called -
custom order .. re-stocking fee ..
It would be nice to have a loud audible & simple
device - to alert of grid power ON.
John T.

Get a cheap radio tuned to the local AM station and plug it into an
unpowered outlet.
Still doesn't work with a manual transfer device. What the OP is
looking for is a way to know when to shut off the generator and switch
back to "mains" power.

The "power-Back" does this by sensing voltage on the incoming mains
ahead of rhe disconnect/transfer/interlock or whatever you are using
to isolate the panel from the mains to run the generator. It is "code
compliant" because it is a "non-contact" voltage sensor. If you want
to ignore code, and be 100% illegal there are LOTS of ways to do it.
Gotta be STOOOOPID to do it though - involves tapping into the mains
ahead of the main circuit protection device and connecting an
indicator of some sort (alarm, light, radio, or whatever) through a
small fuse and a switch - when you KNOW the power is on you turn off
the switch. When you want to know if the power is on, you turn ON the
switch. Does exactly what the Poiwer-Back does - but the PowerBak does
it safely and legally.

Don't be CHEAP and STOOPID - just buy the PowerBack

Available from Amazon here in Canada for $53.21 Canadian.

Reliance Electric THP108 if you want to google it.