I was considering monitoring a device and when the power is lost reports PowerSource = Battery. The idea being that when power is lost, the Hubitat will be on battery backup, and be able to shut down gracefully. From what I've read the devices listed below have this feature. Are there any others?
I also saw the Hub Rebooter app which I plan on checking out.
Aeotec Multisensor 6 / 7***
Zooz ZSE40 4-in-1 Sensor**
Ring Contact Sensors (via Ring integration)**
SmartThings Motion and Contact Sensors**
This is a good idea. Ring and Zooz sell repeaters with a battery backup that report when power is lost.
It is also very easy to build such a device inexpensively. There's an entire thread started by @ritchierich dedicated to making a power monitor. Here's the thread:
It costs about $20 build a device. My power monitor is still running on its original battery from 6 years ago ..... if you decide to go this route, I've summarized the parts needed in the post that is linked to below:
I read this in Copilot (AI). The same AI that told me that a Hubitat cannot power itself off. Which I just did with Hubitat Hub Controller! AI is not 100%, but extremely useful nonetheless.
Your AI engine has indicated two sets of devices (listed below) that cannot detect a A/C power outage.
Please stop relying on it - at least in the context of posting to this community.
Finally, in the other thread you started, @hydro311 linked to commercially available devices that can be used within Hubitat to detect an A/C power outage. It seems bizarre that you prefer an unreliable data source over a reliable/knowledgeable member of this community.
The original phrasing is misleading: that's not normally what people mean when they say they read something somewhere. I'd suggest searching and reading good sources yourself, like this forum or others where people use Zigbee, Z-Wave, or other compatible devices (SmartThings, Home Assistant, etc.) or information from the manufacturer or sellers -- to say nothing of the information already provided in the other topic. But if you're not going to, being upfront about where the information came from would be less confusing for others reading what you write.
That being said, I'm not saying this is a completely bad technique, but it's not surprising to get incorrect results. What you probably want to do -- if you are going to keep doing this -- is use it as a starting point and verify it yourself by looking up more information on any of the devices. You'd pretty easily find this claim particularly preposterous for the contact sensors mentioned, which take only battery power and could hardly know anything about the state of mains power in your home (although there are some ways people combine a contact sensor with something else to do something similar; probably not either of these models, but possibly where it took this idea from and ran -- a bit too far -- with it).
I think the point was that experienced humans are a better source of information on this topic than an LLM chatbot.
If you choose to assume that what Microsoft Copilot tells you is correct, please do the rest of us a favor and consider more clearly identifying “AI” as the source of your research when repeating its findings here.
If you choose to use any AI resource for information, then I suggest you validate such claims before posting them here. Not doing so spreads misinformation in this community, and as such is a disservice to community members.
My Honeywell T6 Thermostats tell when it's on battery. It isn't immediate though. I have a small UPS on my hub that lasts 3 or 4 hours. But really in my setup there's not much to do if the power goes off. The only automation I've implemented is to shut down the hub after 3 hours of lost power. This is only to keep the hub from being shut down by power loss.
I've considered a reboot after power restoration but it's not worth much to me as I'm retired and can simply reboot manually.
Yep, very similar situation here. If neither one of us is home, and I'm in a position to get home reasonably quickly, this setup buys me enough time to make sure everything gets gracefully shutdown (and assess what the heck is going on). Otherwise my hub will shutdown after 3 hours too.
I've got enough power-reporting devices to cover all of my go-to circuits (small house, so not too hard), so it's nice to get an alert if a breaker pops unexpectedly (and yet unnoticed) too.
Fortunately, I haven't had any of these things happen for real (our power is very reliable), but I've induced all these alerts at some point or another when I've been doing electrical work and forgot to pause these rules, so at least I know they work
These devices also wont work for your intended purpose. While they do report power source reporting, you cant physically have the USB cable and the battery in the device at the same time. It’s 1 or the other.
Looks like we are not going to be replaced by AI quite yet
I'm not sure what you mean by USB cable. I just want to determine if the device is on battery backup, then shut down the Hubitat. Should be relatively simple. I just ordered a ooz Z-Wave Long Range Siren & Chime ZSE50 which suffice.
Ring z-wave extender will do exactly what you are looking for. Connects directly to Hubitat without any Ring apps or hubs. Reports "mains" or battery. Bonus, it is a z-wave repeater as well.
Thank you, I will certainly keep this in mind. But I already ordered a Zooz Z-Wave Long Range Siren & Chime ZSE50 which I read has this capability. It better!
