Street / Main Power restoration indicator

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try2diy

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So storm Isaias knocked out power for me. I have a back up generator that I connect to my panel after disconnecting it from the main. The problem I am trying to solve is knowing when main power has been restored. Thankfully a neighbor called me last night and told me it had been restored, but I had no way of knowing otherwise.

I want to -safely- and -correctly- wire to the two trunks such that it would illuminate a small light or buzzer for each trunk. There would be a switch box between the trunks and the lights/buzzer so that in normal times it would be disconnected from power.

The connections would obviously have to be before the panel main disconnect switch. What I want to be sure of is to not mistakenly wire this in a way that might back feed / connect power from the street to the panel when power is restored, while the generator is running. The panel has neutral and ground wires as it is supposed to.

It seems simple, but I figure why not ask those more knowledgeable than myself. I would appreciate advice.
 
Hi, are you disconnecting? post a pic, this sounds dangerous.
Geo
 
Thx JoeD. This may b the best option, but out of stock and not remote. I want to have a light + buzzer up on the first floor so I wouldnt have to go into the basement. Reviews also say its not loud enough. Remarkably surprised this is the only option available commercially. Looking elsewhere there certainly is need. investigating options.
 
No street lights in your neighborhood? No neighbors close enough to see? If you are not disconnecting all your circuits you could just leave a light connected on a street circuit.
And I can certainly imagine that a transfer switch can be wired with an indicator more safely than the mains. I bet there are transfer switches out there that are already equipped with an indicator.
 
I have the same interest. I considered adding a wire with a neon indicator to one of the main lugs but suspect that would be a code violation. I could clip a detector to a main lug just for the duration of the outage but that would require removing the panel cover each time to expose the lugs. There are circuits for no contact voltage detectors but they really sense current which wouldn't be present if the main was open. However some testers seem to work w/o current such as testing Christmas tree light strings.
 

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