In the last 4 years, my house has partly lost power 3 or 4 times.

I would like to put a voltage display next to the panel so I know which leg lost power. Knowing the power would be helpfully so I can flip those breakers affected. Until the power company comes out to put another bandaid on the underground wire.

I was thinking about putting an outlet next to the panel. But I maybe moving out soon and I just want the tenants to have a visual display with out having to stick probes in a socket.

All I see on eBay are a voltage/amperage display.

KOT

Two Free multimeters from Habor freight. Each wired to adjacent breakers in box.

Okay. That was fun.

How about your equiment rack? If you have two different phase outlets in the location, you can use two APC power distribution pieces with the AC voltmeter.
Panamax, tripplite , wattbox.


Or try this:
[Link: ebay.com]

What probes? Get a circuit tester and wire one typical receptacle in the back room to both phases by snipping the connection between the two hot wires. They share the neutral and ground, anyway.

[Link: quill.com]

This request tries to avoid the whole idea of probes. Something permanent is sought.

I see nothing in the request that asks to indicate the actual voltage, just presence or absence of voltage, so meters are totally unnecessary for this. You don't want to use a couple of anybody's voltmeters because this should be permanently wired so it's safe to the person who might want to mess with it.

Look at these:


My local parts houses have these in various voltages and colors. Grainger's got them too ([Link: grainger.com]). Get the ones with pigtails to simplify your wiring.

They're about seven bucks. The hardest part about using these is drilling a 5/16" hole in the plate you're mounting them in.

With these in place, you just look at the place you've mounted them to see if power is present.

By the way, the term "dual voltage" implies that you want to be able to present either of two different voltages to something and have it work You want two voltage indicators, not a dual voltage indicator.

Actually, it would need an actual reading of the voltage. Not just presence of voltage. Because in the past when my power lost a leg, it wasn't a total loss. Most of the time it hovered around 50 to 80 volts. It could swing between the two voltages with in a few seconds.

As some of you know, some devices will work just fine on 80 volts. While some would go "WTF?!?!?!" and kill itself.

A simple LED indicator could still show voltage presence at that voltage range too. So if there was a number display, it would be extremely helpful. Now that I am thinking about it. It would probably be better to have two sets of displays. One set at the panel and another set at the top of the stairs to the basement.

Seeing how this has happened 3 or 4 times, I really hope that my power company will replace the cable over the summer anyways. Though after this experience it would also be helpful to flip the proper breakers off.

I did attempt to use one of those Kill-a-Watt devices, and apparently the voltage wasn't good enough for it as it couldn't display anything. Or either I must have plugged it in when it was at 0 volts. I didn't have access to my VOM at the time, so I couldn't tell.

KOT

KOT,

But, if the voltage is so low that the Kill-a-Watt device can't run ... . Also, why do you need to walk down a dark stairs to confirm that the power is out?

Neon bulbs need about 90V (peak) to fire. They were used as cheap voltage indicators and regulators for years. They are a lot more robust than LED's and lower power. Ernie's devices are the modern equivalent of neon devices that one could buy off the shelf decades before LED's were conceived. There were versions built into a translucent power plug. Neon bulbs are wired across the contacts of a wall switch to indicate when a load is connected and power is present (when the switch is open).

[Link: en.wikipedia.org]
[Link: en.wikipedia.org]

How about a relay that is always held open by the power and a battery operated buzzer? (Different buzzer for each leg)

Also, you should attach emergency lighting to one leg if you want to be able to go down and flip breakers without a flashlight.