Ting
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A while back, @ShiroKuro posted a Wirecutter article about Ting, a sensor that monitors the electricity in your home and alerts you if it thinks there's a problem. State Farm is giving them away to policyholders and paying the annual monitoring fee for three years. If anyone missed the initial discussion, here's an overview from State Farm:
https://newsroom.statefarm.com/state-farm-offers-customers-more-than-one-million-free-ting-sensors/
I saw that the Ting network came into play in Houston during Hurricane Beryl:
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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@Big_Al - I think you were in on the original discussion, which actually started with smoke detectors and then drifted to other home protection devices...in any event, I think at the time you wondered what the methodology was behind the Ting product.
I found this older (2018) technical paper about Ting and thought you, and maybe @Steve-Miller ,might be interested.
In the category of "little known and even less cared about information"....I noticed what appears to be a Lithuanian among the authors, Vyto Babrauskas. Vyto is probably an simplified version of Vytautas, which is a common Lithuanian name.
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We got the freebie from State Farm.
We get a weekly report. It tells you if you've have any brownouts or power outages, and it has graphs of power quality coming into your home. If it detects a hazard, I think they contact you immediately by phone or text or something, but so far the device hasn't found anything it deems a problem in our house.
We've had the sensor for a couple of months.
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Thanks for sharing that paper. It gave a great overview of how the Ting device was developed and its likelihood of detecting hazardous electrical arcs in homes.
As I imagined, it is much better than nothing and, at the same time, not foolproof. I think their present practice of sending an electrician to investigate alarms and determine whether they are real events or false alarms raises the potential for further improvements. As described, the Ting may not detect all arcing events so it is not perfect, but perfection in this area is probably impossible.
The arc fault circuit breakers now required by the National Electric Code for new installations will be effective in reducing arcing fires where they are installed, but their absence in older homes leaves a broad area where the Ting may provide valuable protection.
Big Al
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A while back, @ShiroKuro posted a Wirecutter article about Ting, a sensor that monitors the electricity in your home and alerts you if it thinks there's a problem. State Farm is giving them away to policyholders and paying the annual monitoring fee for three years. If anyone missed the initial discussion, here's an overview from State Farm:
https://newsroom.statefarm.com/state-farm-offers-customers-more-than-one-million-free-ting-sensors/
I saw that the Ting network came into play in Houston during Hurricane Beryl:
@wtg Mik, an installation in 2018 would probably include arc fault circuit breakers for a number of circuits, but it's dependent to some degree on what edition of the National Electric Code was enforced in your jurisdiction at the time.
If you look at the circuit breakers, they should be identified on the label as to type. If you have questions about a particular breaker and can see the manufacturer and part number on the label, I could lookup information for you.
Big Al
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Some other things Ting does.
https://www.tingfire.com/electricity-101/beyond-fire-prevention-5-unexpected-things-ting-can-do/
I didn't know about this one:
#5: Ting Can Help Prevent Pipes from Freezing
Cracked or burst pipes during freezing winter temperatures can cause serious water damage to your home. Your Ting sensor contains a temperature sensor and can send low-temperature warnings if the ambient temperature inside your home where the sensor is installed is at risk. These notifications can be controlled in your Ting Sensor app settings.
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From the Ting folks regarding Ting performance
This paper summarizes data from a smart home electrical monitoring service designed to prevent electrical fires. It analyzes the system’s electrical fire prevention efficiency and associated mitigation data, which encompasses electrical hazards in home wiring, devices, and appliances, as well as those introduced into the home from local electrical utility infrastructure issues. Root causes of these hazards and correlation with home age are analyzed.
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Ting at work a few weeks ago in Cleveland.
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Whisker Labs has enhanced its industry-leading grid monitoring technology by introducing Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) measurements, providing unprecedented insights into the health of the U.S. electric grid. THD monitoring enables identification of homes and regions experiencing elevated levels of ‘distorted’ power. These disturbances reduce energy efficiency, damage home appliances, and harm critical grid infrastructure, ultimately leading to higher costs for homeowners. This advancement not only provides benefits at the household level, but also offers valuable insights to utilities, government agencies, and researchers addressing challenges faced by modern power grids.
This exclusive, impactful data set is powered by Ting, a DIY plug-in sensor that detects and mitigates electrical hazards that lead to fires. While a single Ting sensor monitors a home, the network of Ting sensors monitors power quality and the resiliency of the electrical grid across the nation. By integrating THD monitoring into Ting, Whisker Labs is bringing this advanced power quality assessment directly into homes and communities for the first time, helping to better understand and address grid issues on both a local and national scale.
https://www.tingfire.com/news/enhanced-grid-monitoring-with-total-harmonic-distortion-measurements/
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Ting and the recent power outage in Spain and Portugal.
About three hours before the outage, power quality sensors in homes in the Madrid area showed warning signs of an unstable grid — there were small fluctuations in voltage around 9:30 a.m. local time, Whisker Labs CEO Bob Marshall said Tuesday. The Maryland-based software developer has a couple dozen sensors in homes in and around Madrid, testing the technology for use in Europe for home fire prevention and grid monitoring.
Instead of normal, steady voltage, Marshall said the data shows there were oscillations whose frequency and magnitude increased over the next three hours until the grid failed. He does not know what caused the instability.
Around noon, there was a big jump in the magnitude of the fluctuations, with the voltage measured going up and down by about 15 volts every 1.5 seconds, Marshall said.
“The way I would interpret our data,” Marshall said about Monday’s events, “is that the grid is struggling. Something’s wrong. And it’s showing increasing signs of instability.””
When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier
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Ting and the recent power outage in Spain and Portugal.
About three hours before the outage, power quality sensors in homes in the Madrid area showed warning signs of an unstable grid — there were small fluctuations in voltage around 9:30 a.m. local time, Whisker Labs CEO Bob Marshall said Tuesday. The Maryland-based software developer has a couple dozen sensors in homes in and around Madrid, testing the technology for use in Europe for home fire prevention and grid monitoring.
Instead of normal, steady voltage, Marshall said the data shows there were oscillations whose frequency and magnitude increased over the next three hours until the grid failed. He does not know what caused the instability.
Around noon, there was a big jump in the magnitude of the fluctuations, with the voltage measured going up and down by about 15 volts every 1.5 seconds, Marshall said.
“The way I would interpret our data,” Marshall said about Monday’s events, “is that the grid is struggling. Something’s wrong. And it’s showing increasing signs of instability.””
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@Mik You probably get the weekly email from them about the power quality at your house. It includes a "save of the week" story. Don't know about you, but when we got it I thought it was really about finding problems in side a home's electrical system, but it seems like a lot of the problems that are detected are coming from the utility.
