Power Monitor with alarm notification

Status
Not open for further replies.
J

Jljohnson

Senior Member
Location
Colorado
I have a customer that has slurry tank motors that are required to turn 24/7. He has had several instances where a power outage occurs after normal business hours and he returns to work next morning to solidified materials in his tanks. This causes him several wasted man hours to get the tank cleaned out in addition to the work crew not being able to work until the tank is bank to normal. Does anybody know of a power monitor/alarm that could be installed at the incoming service MDP that would call him or text him on his cell phone in the event of an outage? The operating voltage is 277/480.
Thanks,
 
Jljohnson said:
I have a customer that has slurry tank motors that are required to turn 24/7. He has had several instances where a power outage occurs after normal business hours and he returns to work next morning to solidified materials in his tanks. This causes him several wasted man hours to get the tank cleaned out in addition to the work crew not being able to work until the tank is bank to normal. Does anybody know of a power monitor/alarm that could be installed at the incoming service MDP that would call him or text him on his cell phone in the event of an outage? The operating voltage is 277/480.
Thanks,
Click to expand...

http://www.protectedhome.com/homesitter-p-118-l-en.html
http://www.absoluteautomation.com/wireless-alarm-systems/index.html
http://www.absoluteautomation.com/sensaphone-400-alarm-dialer/
 
Thanks Hv, I was sort of hoping to find one that would monitor the 480 volt supply directly instead of using a phase loss monitor to provide contact closure to an alarm panel but have had no luck finding such an animal. These links had some less expensive versions of what I was already leaning toward so they were helpful.
Jim
 
120606-2216 EDT

The Sensaphone will output an alarm on loss of its input AC power. You could use a 480 to 120 transformer to monitor one phase of the supply. This may not be sufficient. You could also use two voltage monitors connected to one or more digital inputs. Also if you can sense motor rotation and get a contact closure this could go to a digital input.

I believe the Sensaphone 400 would work and should have touchtone dialing meaning it could be used with the Verizon cellephone made for connection of a standard telephone instrument.

.
 
Gossen Metrawatt do a multifunction power meter. A2000.
This an all singing, all dancing instrument capable of communications with Profibus-DP, LONWORKS interface or RS 485 interface with Modbus RTUand other protocols.
 
Energy Monitor with Alarm notification

Energy Monitor with Alarm notification

You can look at getting a real time energy monitor with alarms and notifications. The service/product offered by currentcost.net is a simple device that measures 3 phase energy which can upload its data in real time to the cloud. From the cloud you can set any number of alarms you want. Currently only email is offered, but texts are coming soon. Cost for whole package below $200
 
I believe Sensaphone is the easiest and best soluton. As was said I would hang 480 to 24 volt transformers on each phase then three 24 volt relays to give a dry contact for each phase. Put the NO contacts in series and connect them to an input on the Sensaphone. Sensaphone makes several different units. You can connect to a phone line, cell phone via bluetooth, internet or directly to a satellite and I believe that this one doesn't even need power, it has a 5 year battery.


-Hal
 
Why not just a Sensaphone unit and if you want some simple method to prove the agitator is running.

There is a good chance you have 120 volt power already someplace - as others mentioned it will call when the unit loses supply power. If you lose incoming 277/480 you will also lose your 120 volt source. A simple method of dectecting loss of agitator may save a batch that was not lost because of power outage but rather because agitator failed for some reason. Can be as simple as aux contact on agitator starter to something to sense shaft rotation or motion in the media. Same Sensaphone unit can be used to monitor other items if desired. Anything you can monitor with a set of contacts (open or closed) can be monitored by Sensaphone, making many possibilities of what you could monitor. Depending on which model you get they will call more than one number when there is a problem. The Senasphone 400 which is the most basic will monitor 4 zones and will call up to 4 numbers when there is an alarm. You can monitor more than 4 items if they are all dry contact monitored items, you just can't put one item per zone. Things like temperature probes have to be dedicated to one zone if they are not a dry contact type thermostat.
 
We just used a Sensaphone Web 600. Web based. The 6 inputs could be dry contact, 4-20 ma, 0-5 v, or temperature. You can buy a battery backup for it or just plug it into one most offices have already. It had more than enough options for texting and who got what message at what time of day. At $300, more than adequate and would pay for itself on the first alarm.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top