PowerBack Utility Power Return Alert

Yes it senses the power is back on and makes the piercing alarm until you shut it off.

It has to be installed prior to the breaker. It should be installed by a qualified experienced installer. If you are not experienced with this type of work I would strongly recommend hiring someone. When installed properly the generator will not cause a false response

The wire that senses the power back on wraps around the feed cable before the main breaker. Works great.

This sense the current when it comes to the main feed cable which is connected to the main breaker. You need to connect it to the incoming main cable. For false alarm, in my case it did not sense it.

Because you place it on the incoming service line and not on the panel side of the main breaker it sense the current coming back from the street.

The sense wire wraps around the main feed upstream of the main breaker, therefore that wire is hot even if the main breaker is off. There is no problem with false triggering because of the way the sense wire is wrapped on the incoming line.

It should work fine since the sense wire doesn’t make a direct connection to the mains. You only need to connect the earth wire to a water pipe or the earth terminal inside the panel. The sense wire wraps around the mains wire.

Yes it will work just fine.

I believe it should work.

No. My previous home and my present home both have flush mount panels. In my previous home the electrician just drilled an appropriate size hole in the face of the panel near the top and ran the wires through a grommet. The unit has a pretty strong magnet on the back that held it in place next to the hole. In my current home the electrician surface mounted a junction box on the wall just above the panel and mounted the alarm on that.

Mount at bottom of panel on wall, make access hole for sensor and ground wire thru wall near panel knock out plug and panel. Wires do not require conduit sense they are non electric.

It has a magnet back so it will stick anywhere on front of box.

A good Electrician can make a small notch or hole in the sheetrock or plaster wall, and bring the unit wiring past the flush mounted cover, allowing the PowerBack Utility Power Return Alert unit to be mounted to the wall.

There is no flush mount version of this device but it does have a magnet on the back so that it will stick to any steel surface. It can be attached to the front of your panel but you will probably have to drill a hole for the sensor to get into the panel.

I don’t know if there is a flush mount version of this device. Mine is mounted outside the panel. It works very well. No more guessing when power comes back on....

There is not a flush mount that I know of. My breaker panel is in the garage and sheet rocked as flush also. What I did is knoch the lower left side of the breaker panel box and the sheet rock behind the panel cover enough to run the cable out without drilling through the wall stud.The Power Back Alarm has a magnet on the backside which I attached to a metal plate next to the breaker panel. It worked perfect and looked good. After the magnet came off of the back of the Power Back Alarm, I super glued it back on, It will not come loose again. There are some video's on UTUBE that I viewed also, but my idea worked a lot better. I had a Electrician install a inter-lock system to legally back feed through a generator. I used the Power Back Alarm to know when I had power back from the utility company. Hope this helps.

To test: Install the Power back alarm per the instructions (Be sure to use an electrician if you have ANY doubt about what you are doing. There are still LIVE connections inside your panel even with the MAIN turned OFF!) With the main breaker turned on, switch the power back alarm to the ON position, the alarm should immediately sound. Turn off the power back alarm. Turn OFF your main breaker. Turn ON the power back alarm, the alarm should again sound immediately. If these tests work you have installed it correctly.

Very simple. If the sensor wires are wrapped around the supply line and there is power to your panel from the street, when you switch the unit from Off to On, the alarm will sound because it will sense the power. You must also have a 9v battery installed in the unit for it to operate. If you have the unit powered by the battery and there is no alarm when you turn it from Off to On, then it's not installed properly. Because this is designed to be used with a manual transfer from generator power to street power, the unit is always kept turned off until you begin powering the home with the generator. At that time, turn it on. The alarm should not sound with the generator powering the home because the main breaker should be in the off position and the sensor wire will be on the other side of the breaker. When street power returns, the sensor wire will trigger the alarm. You can then turn the unit off, disconnect your generator power and switch back to street power. So in answer to your second question, yes, it will sense normal street power and sound if it's turned on, and has the battery installed to power it.

When you wrap around the white part of the cable around one of the main input line at your power distribution box and you turn the device on it will immediately start buzzing. Be aware the sound is pretty loud. Be careful when working around live feed electrical lines. Make sure you take all precautions to avoid short circuit or electrical chock. I had my installed and it worked perfect for a couple of times I lost power in the home. Walter

Yes, If you have it installed correct turn the device on-off switch on off ON and it should go off. So when you put your generator on you will also need to make sure you turn your device switch to the ON position so when the power comes back on line the device will alert you

When I initially hook this device up under normal power conditions, will it immediately alert? -- Yes, if you flip the switch to turn it on if there is power it will sound its buzzer..... its LOUD too.... so very easy to see if you have it installed correctly.... the install is VERY simple... wrap the inductive coil around one of the utility feed to the main 100/200amp breaker and connect to the common rail.... and then mount the device in a punch out hole on the side of the panel.... unscrewing the panel cover took longer than the install!

It has an on/off switch. After hooking it up turn it on and the alarm will sound that way you know it will work. As far as in use you keep the switch in the off position and when you lose your main power and turn on the generator you turn it on.

It depends on whether you are comfortable opening your breaker panel or not. If you don't know what you are doing you can get a nasty shock or worse. There are parts inside the panel that are live even when the main breaker is off.

Yes, definitely! The wiring for this unit gets connected inside the Main Electrical Panel. Anytime there is a need to go inside your Main Electrical Panel, it is extremely dangerous for a non-electrician to do so! I can't stress this enough. If you don't know what you're doing, and you touch the wrong thing inside that panel box, even for the briefest moment, you could get electrocuted. This is no joking matter. Only Licensed Electricians should do any work inside the Main Electrical Panel. Period!

when ever you open a main distribution Panel you should have an experienced electrical Person cause you don,t Know the insulation integrity of the existing wiring electricity leaks just like water only difference you don,t see it but you will feel it and I hope you are Ok ! and get to tell about it.

Yes, this requires a qualified electrician to be installed.

From the instructions included in the product box. "THE RELIANCE PowerBACK IS NOT FOR “DO-IT-YOURSELF” INSTALLATION. It must be installed by a qualified electrician in accordance with all applicable electrical and building codes." The sensor wire for this unit must be coiled/wrapped around one of the main feeder lines into the circuit breaker panel box. That wire cannot be de-energized by flipping a breaker switch as it feeds the main breaker after passing through the electric meter and the main circuit breaker comes after this feeder wire. The main breaker will only de-energize all the circuits in the house at once. It does not de-energize the feeder lines at all. A person not familiar with the dangers presented by the two feeder lines could suffer death or very serious injury if they attempted to coil this sensor wire around one of two live wires entering the panel box while those lines are energized/live.

To safely install this, you need to have all power to your house mains disconnected. There are only two ways to do this. Turning off the main breaker only de-energizes the circuits in your home. It does not de-energize the feeder wires from the street. The first way is to have your utility disconnect your power while the unit is installed. The second way is to turn off the main breaker for the house and then remove the electric meter from its socket which de-energizes the wires to the main breaker. Extreme caution if you attempt this. Once you pull that meter out, live terminals are exposed and could cause death or serious injury. And that meter should only be pulled out once the main breaker is shut off. Otherwise, there would be an electrical arc at the meter when it's removed. That is also extremely dangerous. It's a job for a professional or someone who is willing to chance an error that could quickly end their life is all precautions are not taken.

No, not unless you feel uncomfortable in removing your breaker panel cover & carefully connecting 2 leads. One goes to the box neutral and the other just wraps around either hot leg of the main feed. Very easy.

Yes.

If you are uneasy working around live power an electrician would be recommended.

The user must manually turn the alert off. There is a switch on the side.

Not until you turn it off.

You simply turn the unit off. It is only in the on position when you are on emergency power.

You have to manually switch the unit off after the power returns. It's always in a standby mode until you switch it on after turning off the main breaker & powering up your generator.

You turn the unit off after it notifies you that power has been restored. This unit is only used when you manually transfer power from a street outage to your home generator. You've disconnected the main breaker from the street to the house when you run generator power. Without something like this, you have to rely on other homes in the area of by checking on and off to see if power has been restored. With this unit, its sensor wraps around the main cable going into your circuit breaker panel. Once you turn that breaker to off, you can run on generator power. At that time, you turn this unit on and it triggers the alarm only when it senses power back from the street. Then, you turn the alert unit off and disconnect your generator and switch back to street power.

use a nema 3 weather proof enclousure

Given the size of the unit you may be able to use one of the hooded outdoor receptacle boxes with the clear cover. 2 gang size should work. May not be as audible but would be fairly weatherproof.

This product is intended for indoor use, but perhaps a standard outdoor electrical enclosure would work in your application.

The unit doesn't appear to be water proof and I suppose you could enclose it in a plastic case but how would you here it from inside the house?

Yes, use a suitable weather enclosure as described for a duplex receptacle (Duplex mentioned only to reference size of box) , but enhance the audibility by drilling multiple holes in the side(s) of the box to allow sound transmission as in a speaker grill cover. To reduce rain entry drill holes on the normally down-wind side, keep the holes to a small diameter, and drill at a 45 degree upward angle into the box to further preclude water entry. Also, don't forget weep holes in bottom enclosure. Wish you well on your project.

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Suggest you purchase on-line via HomeDepot.com and pick-up at your local store. That's how I got mine, took about a week.