Power monitoring alert question

[BAMatter]

So I have an InkBird on an XP8 outlet, which is awesome because I can monitor the power. I have a safe range from 0-750w since it’s 2 x 300w heaters. Is there a way to trigger an alert if the power is at a range within the safe range? For example, if it’s at 600ish watts I know both heaters are on and working, but if a heater fails the watts will be around half of that, and I’d like an alert if it was say between 300-350w… don’t think this is possible but wanted to source the pros

 

[Danny]

Since your Inkbird is controlling the heaters there is no way of using the power monitoring on that output since you can have both heaters off or on. The minimum would be below whatever the Inkbird draws without the heaters off to above whatever they draw with both heaters on. There is no way to set anything in between. I got lucky I control the heaters with the Hydros and have the on board thermostats as a backup. If the heater thermostat turns off the heater then I will get an alert. My heaters are only 50 watts each In the six years of running the tank I have only had to replace one of them. It quit heating so the power monitor will catch that if it happens again.

 

[BAMatter]

Since your Inkbird is controlling the heaters there is no way of using the power monitoring on that output since you can have both heaters off or on. The minimum would be below whatever the Inkbird draws without the heaters off to above whatever they draw with both heaters on. There is no way to set anything in between. I got lucky I control the heaters with the Hydros and have the on board thermostats as a backup. If the heater thermostat turns off the heater then I will get an alert. My heaters are only 50 watts each In the six years of running the tank I have only had to replace one of them. It quit heating so the power monitor will catch that if it happens again.

Yea I didn’t think there was. Wondering if that would be something to request as a feature or if I’m the only one running into this… or even if there was a way to chart the power watt history.

 

[Danny]

Yea I didn’t think there was. Wondering if that would be something to request as a feature or if I’m the only one running into this… or even if there was a way to chart the power watt history.

Since the power monitoring is new who knows what they will be able to do with it. It would be nice to have some kind of log for power use on the outputs with power monitoring. At this point outputs have no graphing.

 

[Paul-P]

I

Yea I didn’t think there was. Wondering if that would be something to request as a feature or if I’m the only one running into this… or even if there was a way to chart the power watt history.

I have the same issue. Would like to have it set to safe when the heaters are turned off by the inkbird, and a safe range of 550-650w when the heaters are running.

 

[BAMatter]

I

I have the same issue. Would like to have it set to safe when the heaters are turned off by the inkbird, and a safe range of 550-650w when the heaters are running.

Glad I wasnt the only one! Maybe it will be an added feature. Seems like 2 “safe zones” would/could be helpful in this situation.

 

[Jeffbear]

I just came across a perfect example of why the Power monitoring of the XP8 is so great, and how it could be even greater.

My wife called me to tell me there was a high pitch beeeeeeeep coming from the tank area. It happened as the light was coming to full intensity (actually 50%). I was running the skimmer at the time. I was able to look at the power being used by the outlets and realized the system with the skimmer and the lights was drawing too much power from the UPS outlet. The UPS was letting me know. So I was able to turn off the Skimmer from my desk at work, and save my wife's ears. It would be nice if we could set a power (or amperage) draw max on the XP8 and set a notification if it exceeds that. Even better, set what happens if it over draws.

Oh! And if you are wondering, I'm moving my light to the WI-FI Strip that came with my X2 in the collective

Something to think about!