Don't have those but some devices will default to on when power is restored. Some of the drivers support setting to a power off or same state when the power comes back on if the device supports it.
The GE/Jasco's are very restrictive...like not adjustable at all. It's just last state, I believe.
The outage we had started out unusually. There was like a flickering, where the switches were going on and off. Not like the usual 3 reclosures and out, or just one and done when a tree branch hits a wire. The large number of customers affected seemed to indicate a problem with the substation breaker, or something like that. Even after the power went totally out, when I turned the standby generator off for the night, there was a fearful buzzing noise coming out of the transfer switch box that was only quieted by closing the switch's main utility breaker. Later on, it behaved normally. Anyway, thankful nothing seems to have gotten smoked.
We had cable broadband for a tiny while. They may have a 30 minute backup, at best. They're very good, however, at texting that there's a problem and give restoration times that, not curiously, exactly match the electric utility's predictions.
I run all my network devices (router, controllers) from a 12V battery connected to a battery charger. Connected devices are 12 or 5 VDC. I use a low voltage disconnect and a 12-24V to 12V buck boost converter wired in series to maintain 12.2VDC. (Most cameras also operate on 12VDC.)
Advantages:
I can swap in any 12V battery.
DC voltage is always ~12V – there are no surges or sags.
I can charge the battery via my solar panel system, generator, tractor, truck, lawn mower.
My network is running 100% of the time.
In the event of a power outage, a 100 amp-hour battery will run my devices for 5 days.
Greater efficiency than a UPS as the UPS converts AC to DC to charge the battery, and then converts DC to AC during a power outage. AC is passed through when no outage is occurring.
Cost three years ago without the battery was ~$100.
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Just wanted to comment on power outages. My cabin runs on solar with batterys and in the winter with lots of clouds or snow the power can go out a couple nights a week. This year has been very stormy and the power has gone out almost every night for a month. Not brown outs but AC inverter shut downs when the battery get to low. Never once have I seen an issue with both C7's running automations and devices when the inverter restores AC power usually late mornings. Just my experience.
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It can happen though. Best set a routine with a small ups for it to shutdown gracefully. Heck I've had to pull mine once and ended up with a corrupt database. It's not the end of the world as when backups are made the backup is made clean and you can restore from that but it's annoying.
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Another reason for a ups: There is always a (slight) chance that you forgot to do a backup after some changes to your system, or that your most recent backup is corrupted. Having a ups adds another level of protection, plus you don’t have to spend any time doing a database restore.
The key word here is "Potential", I have had a C5 running for well over 3 years and have experienced several power failures. None of these power failures resulted in damage to the hub or the database. Had a very close lightning strike that resulted in a power failure (2 hours), resulted in a damaged modem/router and all my inovelli fan switches no longer worked properly. The HE came back online just fine. I am not saying power failures do not result in HE problems, I am just saying it is far from a certainty.
I subscribe to Hub Protect, and the Hub Protection service has no requirement to have your HE on an UPS. If my hub becomes damaged based on a power problem, I imagine my Hub Protect subscription would replace it.
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I use a UPS but consider it a convenience. I have better things to do than fix the hub if the data base gets corrupt. With the amount of money I have invested, the UPS is a miniscule amount of my total spent.
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Sure but why go through the hassle especially when a small ups can save the day...
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Heh whatever works for you.
We don't get many power outages but those we do get are usually short and cause the lights to flicker a few time.
I've had my C7 db corrupt 2 or 3 times in the last few years. Do for me a UPS is the way to go.
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My point, was simply to let the OP be aware that a power outage does not necessarily result in a corrupt DB or a damaged Hub. Can it result in this? Yes. Will it result in this? No.
How people want to assess this risk and mitigate for this risk, is up to them. I am not in either camp. If you want to mitigate the risk with an ups great, if you don't great. My post was most definitely not an attempt to promote a risk mitigation strategy, but just to clarify the above. In the OP's original post it is clear he didn't use an ups for years while using ST, I simply wanted to let him know that this is also a common practice for people who use HE.
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also a large ups like i have with my switch and the hubitat on (an apc smartups smt1500) allows the hub to stay up about 5 hours and keep working with all the battery powered devices with a power outage.. that is also why i have some ring extenders which will still also work hopefully keeping the mesh up with an outgage. and it has.
so its not just about stopping db corruption although thats a side effect.
Also, if you have a smart card in you smt ups i also wrote a driver so i can sense when there is only 10 minutes of power left and shutdown the hub gracefully before total outage.
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I had my first database corruption yesterday following power issues.
My oven had an issue cause i g the RCD to trip, I reset, and it was ok for 5 mins, but then tripped again. I reset & it tripped within 1 min.
After all this the DB was corrupt. I’ve had many power failures before, but suspect the corruption maybe caused by the power failing as the hub starts. Just wondering if anyone has similar experiences & thinks this might be the case.
If so, it may be an idea to have an option on the hub to set it to need manually starting after a power outage to maybe set that option if there is another cut within a set number of mins? This could be useful if power was on/off during a storm (or testing a dodgy oven)
Also, on the UPS option, can the hub monitor the UPS, and power down gracefully if the battery is approaching empty? My NAS’s do this, but have software/hardware (usb connection) to do this
There are a couple out there that will do this...
Happens when writes are interrupted.
I assume all data is held in the DB. So for example I have power monitoring plugs which often flag as sending excessive events when the dishwasher/washer etc are running. I assume these values are written to the database (I noticed after the restore a few temp monitors were way out until they sent their next reading - so assumed the value was from the DB)
Given this, sounds as though its time to get another UPS!
This can be problematic in other ways due to the excessive zigbee or Z-wave mesh traffic generated.
It’s usually possible to adjust power monitoring plugs such that they don’t send events too frequently, so most people recommend doing that.
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On the other hand, dishwashers and washing machines don't run all day, so maybe a little excessiveness is okay from time to time if the more granular data is useful,
