I'm looking for a simple way to get a notification of whether a couple of heaters are on or off. I have a portable 1500 watt space heater in my pump house to protect from freezing, controlled by a plug in thermostat controller, ie, the controller plugs into an outlet and the heater plugs into the controller. I also have a propane space heater in my shop for main heat while I'm working in there, and I also have automations set up to turn it on at low temps through a Zooz relay, and a temperature sensor, to protect from freezing. I'm looking for something to get a notification on my iPhone when the heaters turn on or off. As Ronald Regan once said, "trust, but verify!". I've been looking at smart plugs that will send wattage readings, but I'm not really concerned with wattage, I just want to know if they are on or off, and not sure if that will work For the propane heater, I'm thinking of just monitoring the plug in 110 volts to the 1/8 HP fan...on or off. Wondering if I can use the wattage reporting to send me an on/off notification or if they only report wattage when queried. I hope this makes sense LOL.
Yes, that should be possible in Rule Machine.
Have the trigger be that the wattage is greater than a set number for a certain time. Check the device events to see what values are received and at what intervals.
The action will be to send you a message via the Hubitat app or another of your choice.
If the heater cycles on/off to produce a certain degree of heat, you will have to figure out what wattage and duration you want to use to avoid getting constant on/off notifications.
The easiest way to tell if they are on or off IS to care about the wattage. With something like the Zooz ZEN15, you'll set up a rule - if wattage changes, then if power is > 100, then heat is on, else heat is off. You'll want to configure the ZEN15 to not report power/energy/voltage any more than necessary to meet your requirements.
To be honest, I've been disappointed in the ZEN15 after being a fan for some time, but since yours is a resistive load you won't have any issue with overload tripping when it shouldn't.
Thank you!
Thanks!
