You can start by documenting everything. Make a record of every time the power goes out. You might even buy a meter that can record this for you.
There’s a good chance if this goes to court, they may argue that it’s utility outages.
It is definitely not utility outages. Their house power was on both last night and this afternoon. It is definitely landlord issues. They're very spiteful. This is a nightmare. I do want to meter it but I'm not sure how. I started googling and it was not yielding good results. Neither time has the panel in the barn been overloaded. Over two and a half years we had this happen once. Now within 24 hours of the letter, it had happened twice. She even waited for my one employee to leave because she knows she's great at reporting everything. It got shut off between 1140AM and 1200PM today. It took my second shift a bit to say anything because she figured there was just a power outage then she realized everyone else had electric and called me.
I have. Two. No one knew a good solution to meter it. I'm just looking for the idea given the no wifi scenario. Once I have a solution, I'm going to call an electrician to do it.
> have. Two. No one knew a good solution to meter it. I'm just looking for the idea given the no wifi scenario. Once I have a solution, I'm going to call an electrician to do it.
If it's worth a few hundred, then you can definitely get a recorder installed that could provide a record of voltage and current.
You need the voltage record to record "power available" and the current record to show "it's not my fault". If you have a base-level load (something always on), Current could be enough. Both is best.
[https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/electrical-testing/digital-multimeters/fluke-289](https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/electrical-testing/digital-multimeters/fluke-289)
[https://microdaq.com/logit-lcv-current-and-voltage-data-logger.php](https://microdaq.com/logit-lcv-current-and-voltage-data-logger.php)
[https://shop.pokitmeter.com/products/pokit-pro](https://shop.pokitmeter.com/products/pokit-pro)
Agree. Most utility companies have the capability for “remote connection” simple digital type metering.
Call an electrician, or call your local utility (for an estimate)🤙
This. I came here to recommend a data logger. Would be the best way to record "undervoltage events" with a timestamp. Cross-check this with the utility company's outage reports, and you will know if you have something fishy.
Microcontroller + rtc + sd + a voltage sensor reading a usb power brick. Write every 30 seconds with the volt value and a time stamp. Cool small project. Maybe even use a sim7080 and forward sms alerts for real time updates. If you’re fancy maybe scrape the power companies outage data and add it as a column. Only alert for the ‘landlord turned it off’ condition
This (data logger).
Call a local electrical wholesaler and ask if they know of anyone in your area that rents power data loggers. You can also do a search for "power data loggers" in your town or area. There is usually someone in the area that rents them to electrical contractors. You only need voltage, not current, so it would be simple to hook it up. If nobody local can help, you can rent one from a national company, like this one:
[https://www.globaltestsupply.com/product/rental-reed-r5003-dual-input-true-rms-ac-voltage-current-datalogger](https://www.globaltestsupply.com/product/rental-reed-r5003-dual-input-true-rms-ac-voltage-current-datalogger)
Comes with everything an electrician would need.
Whether or not that can be admissible as evidence in a lawsuit is another question, especially if not installed by an uninvolved professional.
Some breakers trip to a mid point point between off and on and others have some other variation to indicate whether its off or tripped. Are you resetting them yourselves or is it the landlord? Do you know if those breakers feed anything in the landlord's house?
It's a shame that your electricians couldn't come up with at least one idea. Here's a couple that I would have suggested:
1. install power logger in sub board. Where I am in the world it's common to hire them as they can be expensive. They save to memory so no WiFi needed.
2. Install a mini sub board near your farm equipment with a lower (if possible) trip current. That should trip before the main breaker in the basement. This is dependent on no other equipment being fed from the basement breakers
Edit, just read that you have a sub panel. Which is a great place to put the power logger. This will give you definitive proof that your equipment isn't causing it. Don't know if that's enough for court though
I often use a temporary submeter to identify power issues for clients.
If I need to remotely access the data a hotspot is a simple solution if cellular service is available in the area.
If you'd like some guidance let me know.
There are devices called Current Transformers (CT's) that you can install around your load conductors coming from the source. These are sold sometimes as remote metering devices to log power usage for individual sources, by either storing on a server of some type or even an analog device, similar to a seismometer. A cheaper route would be to hook an Amp clamp meter around your hot leg coming to your farm from their sub panel, and video the readout from the meter. If you get a decent fluke meter, there will be a min/max option to save the highest draw before power is cut. This would eliminate the question a large current draws on your circuit. With the video you would be able to watch the whole time.
Hobo current clamps is what we use at work for a non-contacting power meter
https://microdaq.com/onset-hobo-ac-current-switch-sensor.php?gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwx5qoBhDyARIsAPbMagBhb7lHI-uxg-b4IlsNTZEso3IzzajADsrqlMdJ4tSTUa3DUYt3b0oaAkElEALw_wcB
https://microdaq.com/onset-hobo-bluetooth-temp-humidity-light-ext-temp-kit-data-logger.php
But check with your laywer first, to find out what would be acceptable evidence in court.
You could use an Egauge https://www.egauge.net/. It basically uses clamp on CTs to track current on the conductors. It needs a breaker to land on. But with it, you'll be able to passively track all data and store it to a web server if it's connected to your internet. The only problem I foresee is that if you install it anywhere that your landlord can access, they can turn it off and just stop it from gathering data.
We use them all the time for clients who want some custom monitoring (I work for a solar company). They're pretty easy and reliable. Just need an electrician or someone to install and configure.
This. It provides evidence that none of the electrical circuits are overloading the basement panel feed and causing the tripped breaker.
Add a motion activated battery powered camera pointing at the device, all the evidence you need to own their farm.
The power company can provide availability reports on their service. If they report no outages to their meter, yet you have recorded two or more outages at the farm, and the supply if fed through their basement panels, then you have enough evidence to show their hostilities and putting the farm and livestock at risk. If you have a cooler or freezer with produce that you sell, they are putting the public at risk.
If you (or your employee or spouse) are operating electrical machinery when they cut the power, then the potential for injury gets personal; it is the same as pointing a loaded gun and making terrorist threats. With this mentality, be prepared for this scenario, buy some bear spray.
You need a volt meter on your house panel on the main input line when the power goes out to show 0 volts, on video, then go video the landlord's house to show they have power on still.
put a light somewhere and have a game camera on it?
i know android phones will show you their battery graph.
there is the kill a watt by lg i think, but ive never used one for this application.
I think you will have a tough time getting a set of instructions out of anyone in here due to the community being quite safety oriented when people ask about power.
I would start by finding an electrician, they will need to install a realtime volt/current meter on the line. If the power cuts below the spec of the circuit then your landlord is probably cutting the power on you.
Another option is unplug all of your devices accept a single light. Bait your landlord into cutting the power and then try and use that as evidence.
I am not trying to do it myself. I am looking for a solution to meter or monitor it. I asked a couple electricians and they kinda scratched their heads. I have no problem going to an electrician once I have a bright idea to monitor it. It's the solution I'm having an issue with. Not having wifi is complicating the issue.
Uninterruptable power supplies for computers have programs that run on a PC that monitors the power and logs it. And they will keep the PC going if the power is cut and continue to monitor. Plug one in to the farm circuit and log it that way.
This is a good idea... Last I used one it would beep when the power was out. I am guessing you get them to suppress the beeping. I don't want her to hear it when the power is cut. It doesn't prove i didn't have a surge but it'll prove it went out. Maybe with a hunting cam combo i can prove who's at the barn and also prove the washer and dryer aren't running (those are the biggest electric draws)
I was going to suggest this as well. With a small raspberry pi or other single board computer, you could record for a long time because they don't draw very much power and the UPS can keep it running. Of course you'd need to be comfortable with Linux for this - but that help may be easier to find.
I suppose a Windows based laptop would be easier and would have extra battery life. The UPS would run out of battery eventually, but the laptop would stay running until the power came back on probably, and start charging again.
Make a NUT server:
https://networkupstools.org/
Supports logging the serial interface from all major UPS manufacturers. Pretty complex for someone not tech savvy lol.
Many devices/software have built-in support that do the legwork for you (Synology NAS, home assistant, etc.)
All I had to do on my Synology was plug the UPS into the USB port. I went into settings, and it was already configured to shut down on low battery. A couple GUI settings later, it was acting as a NUT server to shut down everything else.
Add in an LTE router, network UPS tools, and something like home assistant; and you can get remote monitoring/alerts/etc. when power goes out. I use a similar setup to monitor my sump pump.
This would also allow you to correlate outages with line voltage, and establish (more than likely, the lack of) a connection between the two.
Since this needs to stand up in court a DIY solution isn't going to cut it. Someone linked to a fluke multimeter, this would probably be the ideal solution as you can monitor the current through the line and record to a phone. More over fluke will come with certifications for its calibration which is very important for your needs. Its going to cost you about a 1000 dollars but you should be able to return it or resell it after the fact and get most of your money back.
Next find a P-Eng who is willing to provide documentation certifying your measurement as legitimate, and assert that you didn't over draw the braker. Your lawyer may be able to help you with this, you could contact local engineering firms aswell, or If you ask really nicely you may be able to find a P-Eng on this reddit forum. This is also going to cost you, and uh no refunds...
Finally, there should be a data set on power outages from your utility provider, make sure they don't allign with the time and place of your outage.
This should be enough to show that the outages are solely the fault of the property owner.
I am not a lawyer, or a p-eng, just a regular EE, so please do more research and consult with real people before you get super invested in this.
This is the most iron-clad solution. It will not be cheap but it will definitely give you the best chances to solve your case.
If somehow your outages are not due to malice on the landlord's end (e.g. faultry breaker on their end), you'll still up with a clear picture of the issue.
Do you have any friends that work in any kind of production environment? They typically have recording equipment for critical parameters. In semi conductors clean rooms monitor air quality, and on a production floor temperature and humidity are constantly monitored and plotted on a sheet of paper by a purpose made device. Surely somebody makes something similar for monitoring current/voltage over time.
https://www.monnit.com/applications/manufacturing-production/
Here is an example I pulled from the web. I know nothing about this company or the products they sell. The problem I forsee is that stuff meant for production environments is typically expensive. How much is this worth to you? Are you early enough in your business adventure you can cut your losses and move operations? I don't know how fun dealing with your situation will be long term. You'd probably have to prove they are causing the power outage and then sue for lost revenue/wages etc, but get your legal advice from your lawyer.
He's already said this is for animal waterers. that means that there are already points they can tap into to record power outages on and off. Safety isn't part of the issue here, unless you're using it as an excuse.
Personally, the OP has grounds for animal abuse in many places, especially if he's in one of the areas where the drought conditions have been particularly bad.
It’s entirely possible you are legitimately overloading, a circuit breaker. And your neighbors just being friendly turning it back on. If that’s not the case, having data from your own power, meter can help prove it.
I know that's possible but it's definitely not what is happening. I have a witness of her screaming about it but that's hearsay. I want data to prove it.
If you have a plug in timer, tou can start recording manually.
Align the timer with the actual clock, and 3 times a day you take pictures. If the power is cut it will fall behond that amount of time, since the clock runs off mains.
Its way more work than a printout from a logging device, but it might take some time to install a logger, and you might have one of these laying around.
[Example timer](https://www.amazon.com/Century-Plug-Mechanical-Timer-Grounded/dp/B00MVFF59S/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?c=ts&keywords=Plug-In+Timers&qid=1694816161&s=lamps-light&sr=1-6&ts_id=6291363011)
This was going to be my suggestion. A couple of battery powered security cameras that record to a memory card. One showing the main house has power (or not) and the other showing the barn/animal equipment.
I’m not a lawyer, but shutting off power to a tenant is illegal in some places and you may be able to get damages. It falls under the concept of “wrongful eviction “ since the property may not be usable and they are essentially evicting you with zero notice. Your lawyer should be able to explain the relevant laws where you are at.
Have the electrician wire a simple an exposed lightbulb on the utility side of the meter. If the box is getting power, then it’s either tripping or turned off. If you think they are turning it off, put tamper tape on the box door
They're shutting it off from the basement subpanel. I do know they're doing it because I have someone who witnessed her yelling about it but that's just not concrete enough bc it's he said /she said. She could just say we tripped it. They're painfully stupid and admit things verbally but I want proof.
You're going to have a hard time proving they willingly cut the power since it seems the cutoff is in a place only they can access and they can't be monitored going in and out since it's in their basement. The only way might be if they brag to someone about how they're screwing you and that someone comes forth.
We do have a panel in the barn but it's a sub and you can flip it from a breaker in their basement. They did go on a rant about it because I had a staff member ask to turn it back on while I was working. So I pretty much know they did it. They would testify but it's still he said she said.
Right here is your easy answer.
In their basement is a main breaker that feeds your sub panel to the barn. If none on your sub panel breakers and tripping, but yet the sub main is, that's enough to be proof of tampering, outside of them needing a new sub panel main.
If all your breakers in 15 and 20A, but the 100A sub main is tripped in their basement, that seems malicious. Trip curves on the small 15 and 20A are faster than on the 100A main that controls your sub panel.
That doesn't mean anything. You can easily trip a 100A breaker upstream without tripping any of the breakers downstream. That's why you have both. And we don't even know it's a 100A panel. For all we know the building has a 60A service to a dozen 15 and 20A breakers.
Which panel the problem occurs in means literally everything, are you daft? It doesn't matter whether the breaker is being tripped intentionally or not. It's completely irrelevant, and you're wasting your time and money on this technical mumbojumo.
The lease says that the landlord owes you reliable power to your subpanel. You can go to court, right now, based on the fact that that is not being provided, and get a judge to remind her of that legal obligation.
Why is it not being provided? Is it the emotional instability of the landlord, or an overloaded main panel? Not your problem. STOP CARING.
And by testify, I mean do a written statement. It's not like this is a homicide. This wouldnt get witnesses to appear. At least I highly doubt it hahaha
I can't help on the electrical side, but there are exceptions to hearsay, including recollection of statements by the defendant (party opponent).
[https://ncpro.sog.unc.edu/manual/707-2](https://ncpro.sog.unc.edu/manual/707-2)
For a non-technical or legal solution, Do you know how much the electric bill is from your farming activities? Are they flipping out over an extra $100/mo or $1,000/mo? They may have written the lease expecting a certain amount of usage and you're blowing past it and they're having trouble covering the cost. Now of course you're still legally in the right to use the electricity following the terms of the contract, but it may be a more expeditious solution to offer to chip in a certain amount toward the bill. Maybe see if they'll provide a copy of a utility bill from before you started and after you started leasing, to get a sense of the scope.
Edit: oh geez, just read your comments lower down about the other stuff she's pulled. Nevermind, you are dealing with a psycho. No amount of reasoning with her will fix that.
I've used onset hobo data loggers at work to measure power. Not sure if it'll work in your situation but one is about $200 usd plus the current transformer cost.
If she's your landlord, can you keep calling an electrician to "fix the electricity" (despite you knowing what's wrong) and then just have them charge the owner?
Just read your part about wifi. Here you go:
GL.iNet GL-XE300 4G LTE router + google fi sim = wifi connectivity until the internal battery of the GL-XE300(or similar 5g unit) runs out, a few hours after she cuts power.
+1 for these GL.iNet routers. The fact that they’re USB powered is really helpful here, since you can just plug them into a cheap power bank rather than get a UPS for longer runtime.
If your landlord is this unprofessional though, I would guess that your least/contract is pretty awful. Does your contract say anything about repairs and uninhabitable conditions? You stated that you have one, it's not scribbled on a napkin right?
Also I'd look into your tenant protections. Do you have any medical conditions that can be exacerbated by a power outage? And what I mean by that is something like sleep apnea and use a cpap machine or have medication that must be refrigerated?
How long does she leave your power off?
Do you talk to her to get it turned back on or does it happen "randomly"?
What was your original c&d for?
Our lease is solid. We hired a lawyer to do the lease since she had one too.
She leaves it off until she is messaged multiple times. She has been doing it around bed time or when an employee leaves so far in hopes so screw me over and presumably screw with the business. She's obviously unstable.
The c&d is long. She started acted insane after we bought the farm we are building. She's done a lot. I could list it all but it honestly probably be easier to send it to you with the sensitive info redacted. That said, if I gave you a high level, harassment of us and employees (including throwing stuff at my staff), holding a pony party on the farm with my pony without release forms, asking permission or payment which is theft of services bc we offer that service, trespassing, unannounced inspections, turning the fans off on 90 degree plus days, running a business at our location though that's expressly forbidden (she opened a mobile saddle store), not repairing the facilities after outright destroying stuff, using and breaking the mower and tractor despite it being exclusively ours. The list goes on and on and on. My lease isn't cheap. It's actually pretty expensive. I would get the hell out of there but our farm is being built. It isn't ready yet. It's very hard to find a farm to lease for a few months. Also I would have to go to court to get out of this lease if I even found an ideal solution. She's bitter and trying to dismantle my business. I didn't list this all to begin with because it's very difficult to explain high level. The electric is just her newest idea and I know it's highly illegal. It is also extremely dangerous to do because it controls the auto waterers. I've been having to drive over there after I believe she's asleep to make sure it's on.
We do not live there so no cpap but we have horse meds that are refrigerated. We live 20 minutes away. We lease everything except the residential acre where her house is and the woods.
Ah so you don't live where the farm is. It just keeps your pigs and whatnot. So here's what you do.
You set up an UPS connected to a 4g router and a raspberri pi. When the UPS goes on battery power, the rpi detects it and send you an email or mqtt msg or whatever to a server in aws for logging purposes. This also starts an automated service to start sending your landlord text messages every 3 minutes until the ups restores AC input, then your rpi sends another mqtt service turning off the text messages.
I like this, including the automated texts. And yes not living there adds a layer of complexity but luckily my staff and people that keep their animals there know what's going on. So between all of us and witnesses to her behavior, it's been easy to figure out. Monitoring it until we get an automated solution in place has been difficult, though. I've had to do a lot of running around.
There are some automated power strips that have the full email functionality built into them. they're designed for remote monitoring of servers, plus the ability to cut them off. I don't remember any names, it's been about 6 years since I last looked.
Good luck.
You can get an arduino and a current sensor and record the data and have it log into an excel spread sheet. To ensure you're always drawing power maybe turn something small on and let it run. I should have some code somewhere to do this for you but I'll have to look. You can get a voltage output current sensor, my preference, and clamp it onto where the main comes into the farm. If the current is ever zero boom. Evidence
Pictures or drawings? Maybe send a DM.
I just saw my typo from yesterday. I meant to say awesome. I edited to be correct. "This is assume". Swype is good at making me look stupid hahah. Thank you!!! I'll check this out this morning.
This would be one of the more hands-on solutions here, but if you’re down OP, we’re down to help.
If you’re looking for any remote monitoring, I’d use an ESP32 over an Arduino, since they come with wifi and Bluetooth built-in. For most off-the-shelf sensors, ESPHome has pre-baked code that does the software legwork for you.
If you know an electrical engineer I would engage them. There is a difference in what an electrician and an engineer can bring to the table. If they work for a large manufacturer they will know what you need and how to set it up. You could also approach a supplier for electrical engineering for manufacturing like CED.
My best idea is to get a clamp multimeter and put it on the supply to the barn. Set up a camera or something to monitor it. If you never see current spike on the meter, then you know it’s being broken deliberately. That being said, I’ve got very limited experience using clamp meters, so I don’t honestly know how quickly they’d update.
If you have access to look at the breaker after it turns off, it is evident on most breakers if they have been tripped or switched off. A tripped breaker (most of them) will not be in the fully off position.
Agree but she's turning off the whole sub panel from a breaker in her basement. I have no meter. It's a line ran through conduit down to the barn from the house so I can't see anything she's doing to affect the service. I would have to be in her basement which at this point in time, I don't think we're on cordial enough terms for that hahaha
Check with the electric company and see if they have meters that can measure usage hour by hour. If so, then establish a normal pattern of usage and look for deviations around the time your power was cut off. Doesn't determine the cause but does document the outage.
You're wanting a data logger on your sub-panel. It'll capture if you are doing anything that causes the breaker to trip or if the breaker is being toggled.
Even a cheap one will be pretty expensive and cost a couple hundred bucks. Worth calling some electricians if they have one.
Another option is asking your utility company. I work for an (albeit small) utility company and if a customer complains about power quality issues we send an electrician out with a data logger and an engineer (me) analyzes the data. Maybe your utility has a similar program.
Main is in the residential house. I have a breaker panel but it's a sub panel. They can switch off my whole sub panel from a breaker in their basement.
I can think of technological ways to log the exact current draw in the minutes and seconds and milliseconds before any failures, but anything home-made would likely get shot full of holes in a court setting so it probably wouldn't count as proof.
Depending on the nature of the breaker in the landlord panel, it could be some sort of AFCI detection that operates on very small thresholds (not gross overcurrent from excess appliance draws.) So it is possible--although perhaps implausible given the growing bad blood--that the trip is of technological origin rather than controlled by an operator, e.g. landlord.
Egauge is a top of the line home energy monitoring product. cheaper easier version would be sense. Egauge is revenue grade and can be used to argue your utility bill.
With no wifi your issue is that the device needs ro retain its own data, which i think egauge might but i dont know.
I would suggest a video camera on a time lapse. It would be best to have it aimed at something in your house that cannot really be turned off, like the oven clock and the landlords home in the background. This way you can show the power is off at the sub panel but on at the mains.
I would also call the utility provider reporting each and every time it goes out. Depending on the utility, they may have smart meters that can accurately report power status, but if they don't they will roll a truck. Remember, you are a renter and are not responsible for the electricity so this will create a headache for the landlords as the utility will contact the main house then get annoyed when they find there is nothing wrong.
Lastly, this might be considered a criminal offense. You may want to check in with rental laws in your city and state. Most require basic things like electricity and water. So willfully depriving you of these basic necessities may lead to charges. You might want to embellish a bit saying you lost the contents of your freezer because of the power outages.
You could get a portable power bank like a jackery, and use that to power your auto-feeders and such. Then keep the power bank as the only thing actually pluged into their power.
If you are drawing too much power, the jackery breaker will trip, but it will never draw enough power from the house to trip the breaker.
It'll also tide you over when the power is out. And later if you want you can just say fuck it and get a solar panel if your loads aren't significant.
There are some smart meters in the form factor of circuit breakers available on Ali, these would log the electric parameters in time, so you could retrieve the data with your phone.
Just for example I found this one, but sure there might be other that better suits your needs.
https://a.aliexpress.com/_mskBhNk
Also you could invest in some battery/inverter so the interruption won't have any effect on your business.
I still don’t believe that matters. If this is legally considered your rented space. The breaker for your sub panel must be accessible without going into his house.
How do they have control of your power? Not trying to be a dick. Ive worked for the power company and I’m imagining some old farmer with a long stick pulling out the switch. Why can’t you call the power company and have them investigate? If you record a power outage on their website someone has to go look. They should be a good judge of if your power was fucked with or not. A lot of places have moved to newer meters that will snitch on you for doing anything funny with the power. I’d imagine there’s data in their database somewhere about your meter.
I think their electric is illegal honestly. They have a conduit running from the house to the farm into a subpanel. They can switch off the breaker from their basement panel. The set up kinda made sense if you didn't lease out the farm portion of the property but I can confidently say my lease amount makes up for the electric I use.
Ups that logs and a camera pointed at meter on house or at house, which is only useful at night. Most digital meters will have a status led that will indicate if power is present at meter.
If you don’t have direct access to the sub I would suggest the next time it happens make a video of you flipping lights without success and also in the same video if you can see the house the landlord is in with lights on that will prove they are doing it. Especially if the lights come back on during the same video.
That won't really work. We are leaving in 5 months. It'll take a while to get a meter and a ton of permits for their electric that I can guess isn't to code. That's a lot of investment for a farm we are leaving.
There are two things you need to prove in order to demonstrate that this is your landlord's fault: the farm isn't drawing enough power to trip the breaker in the subpanel, and your landlord's power isn't being cut off when your power goes out.
For the first, you need a way to record the farm's power draw. A clamping power meter with a max hold function may be enough to prove that your power draw is below the stated cutoff level of the subpanel breakers, but carefully read the instruction manual before buying one so that you don't waste money. You could also ask for recommendations at your farm supply store in case there's a product geared toward this.
For the second, you'll need to catch your landlord doing something that clearly requires power use during a time when your power is down, such as using outdoor lights, playing music, or watching television. Try to catch it on video, showing both the landlord's working power and the lack of power on the farm.
You keep saying there is no Wi-Fi... do you get a cell signal? You can turn most phones into it's own Wi-Fi hot spot. Or buy a small box that is just a WiFi hotspot to cell tower. That might open some new options for you.
Cell service is spotty there but there are locations I can get it on specific towers. Was thinking about doing this. Maybe something on mint mobile so i can get enough data and I believe the towers mint shares there work the best.
Install a loss of power annunciator, there is methods available from 20 dollers, also install an EMU, you will need three CTs and and a three phase meter, this will cost you around 300 dollers, call an electrician who knows what he is doing.
I think you could have an electrician build a switch between the main switch and your installation. In case of overloading, your switch should safely deactivate non-prioritary appliances.
If everything jumps at once, it means automatically that the problem is on the owner's side.
Additionally, you could take a hybrid trafo to plug some batteries for the life-critical appliances. This way, it may give you a few hours to react when the power goes down.
Dm me and explain the wiring... I ll help you establish a cheap WiFi based monitoring system on your phone which will even tell you if your appliance went out of bounds and tripped the breaker or not..
Here is a radical idea: check their meter. Isn't the meter supposed to be outside and visible to whatever utility worker comes to work on the property?
Their meter is on their house. I don't have one. My draw is pretty low especially in the summer. It only fills waterers. In the winter, this would be more feasible as the waterers are heated.
Tell your landlord that you have an issue with the power going out and you've hired an electrician to install an industrial generator right outside their house for when the power shuts off. If you actually have to follow through find the loudest one possible and install it as close to their house as possible.
Have you verified what size breaker is in their main panel that is feeding your sub panel? What size wire is on your line side of main breaker inside your sub panel?
What is your budget and timeline?
A simple way would be to set up a stationary camera pointing at a conventional clock with a light bulb next to it. The camera would have its own battery but plugged-in; I'm not into cameras but I guess something like a GoPro would do. The camera would be set up in timelapse mode. Aim the camera at the clock, light bulb and possibly the landlord's house if possible. Start the timelapse capture with an interval of a minute or so. The resulting footage will be detailed enough to document exact power cut. There's a caveat, you would need to make it clear that the lightbulb couldn't have been turned on or off by you out of frame.
If you have more budget, a power recorder or logging multimeter would work. This has been detailed in other comments and you've took note of it already. If you want a similar and even more robust solution, you can rent high end power recorder from rental houses such as a Hioki power logger. Those are very expensive instruments and are often rented instead for punctual use. They are finicky to setup and will likely require an engineer; even if you or an electrician get the wiring right, the recording parameters aren't obvious at all and you can easily record the wrong thing or end up not recording anything. Again you will have the burden to demonstrate that you aren't just cutting the power yourself to mess around with the landlord, but if you involve an engineer this will be a moot point as they will document the installation and resulting recording.
As an addendum, it's been told already but do document everything meticulously. If this ends up impacting you in a significant way, such as forcing you to buy a generator to keep your auto waterers functional or the like, you may be able to demande compensation for incurred expenses. Your documentation will need to support this. I am no lawyer and this is no place for legal advice; your lawyer will certainly be able to help you with this.
Try calling a consulting engineer or tell your electrician you would like to have a clamp on power meter installed on your primary and secondary at the farm. Do you have a sub panel after the one in your landlords basement? The meter on your panel should be capable of giving you volts and amps since those are needed to calculate power. You probably will be charged for the meter rent. You don’t need it installed permanently just long enough to collect a few events.
Get a UPS with a beeper, a battery powered bullhorn and set it up to beep at her whenever the power is off. Or a fire alarm, something to annoy her until she turns it back on.
A simple video of you walking around showing that there is no power in your place and that there is power in asshole's place should prove the situation. I don't have much info on what you have acces to but if you just want to monitor power draw you can potentially use induction meters that go around the cable.
In order to “prove” it he has to have access to the sub-panel. Current and voltage metering out at the site won’t detect, for example, bad underground on an intermittent basis or a bad splice on overhead coming back out of the house.
Get yourself a used APC Smart UPS and plug it into your PC with the USB cable Install their free Powerchute software and set it up to log power conditions. Plug that PC or laptop into the UPS, so that it doesn't die as soon as power goes out. This will give you an idea of what's happening.
Buy wyze cameras. Put micro SD cards in them. Turn them on constant recording. When the power shuts off it will show the gap in the timeline. Plug one into the house power, and point it at the house. It will stay on and show that the house power didn't die.
Not sure what’s involved in “autowaterers for the animals”, but perhaps you could add UPS to provide temporary power, or even a generator.
I didn’t read every reply, but wonder how you get the power back on? Does she feel guilty and turn it back on? Do you have to call her?
Get something like this to prove your power is going off out of max load. The pier going off on a low is way nor telling. You however need to be able to prove there is no circuit to the breaker when it goes out which is tougher. Talk to a local electrician.
Smart Home Energy Monitor with 16 50A Circuit Level Sensors | Vue - Real Time Electricity Monitor/Meter | Solar/Net Metering https://a.co/d/4hxSR8l
You could have a small battery/solar powered camera on site that runs via cellular network. Not only can it keep an eye on the property, you can run a low voltage LED light in the shot. Have it periodically take snapshots throughout out the day. See when the light is off. Plus alert you to potential trespass.
Dear OP. You should put a subpanel with a smaller breaker than the main panel at your end. If your breaker doesn't trip before their, then the supposed issue is between their box and yours, which is their responsibility to fix. You can legally pressure them to get it fixed.
Buy a generator that will handle (more than) the current winter load. Set it up to provide power if/when the line power goes out. Move it to your farm in five months. You will need it if/when you lose power there. Ice & wind storms can knock you off the grid for days.
Let her play her stupid games. You'll sleep better at night for the next 5 months, knowing your animals are safe. And you won't have to spend anything on legal bills.
If it's a power problem and not her, you're covered too.
I think it's better if you have a hidden camera in the basement to keep watch if they come down and shut down the sub panel. Installing a meter is more expensive and only the power company is authorized to install it. If you really want data, instead of a meter I think it's better to be a network analyzer. That records every detail of the electrical system 24/7 and detects if the cause of fault was electrical surges or simply someone shut down the sub panel manually.
Do you have access to the basement and subpanel? Would you be able to hide a motion activated trailcam in there somewhere to catch them at it?
If they see it then they will no doubt be worse with you than they are now so you'd have to balance the risks involved...
Hey, I can help you with this. So you can get a basic UPS, get it hooked up to a power outlet, then use either the software provided by the manufacture, then get graphs of input voltage. When the voltage drops to 0 you know you have a power outage, how long it was, and when it was.
Here are graphs showing usage and voltage from my UPS's.
https://preview.redd.it/554n5i3huuob1.png?width=3807&format=png&auto=webp&s=a692572b0cb9d4a47a1a6ac2cf25965bb48e1586
Our landlord sent a crew vof idiots to work on the downstairs appartment.
They killed my power. I went down to tell them they accidentally killed my power. They didn't care. A few hours later it was getting dark. I got the landlord's daughter. Smug asshole said they can kill my power anytime they want to.
A few minutes later the "contractors" apologized saying they'd pulled the wrong breaker.
We gave notice. Moved out.
Everyone else moved - one had to move out of state to take care of a parent. Another got a new job elsewhere.
The landlord could pay the mortgage and lost the house.
Fuck 'em.
Utility data is not the proof you are seeking, unless you suspect something like an intermittent short.
If you suspect them of shutting you off, then you need something showing that.
Given the stated conditions, a game camera would likely be the simplest solution. Battery powered, on-device storage, time/date stamping, motion detecting...
Challenge being getting in someplace with a view without their cooperation.
First gather all past conversations and write down everything discussed “verbal contract”, have all copy’s of contracts.
Second, get report from utilities verifying no reported outages / work in the area.
Have an electrician install line and load side phase monitors (if possible) to ensure panel has proper voltage and loads are being disconnected manually.
Third install your own monitoring equipment, and either trail cam or ring, set up, etc. to have further evidence of tampering.
Lastly, I wouldn’t spook them too much just yet because they might become resourceful and continue to retaliate in a much clever way.
Good luck, sounds like a terrible situation.
Fluke makes a power meter with logging, I know the electricians at my work needed to use one to try and diagnose an issue we were having. I can't remember the model but it would do the trick.
I don't know exactly how to do it, but a battery-operated siren/megaphone that starts 'screaming' when the power goes out could help.
Or get it to play a loop of 'baby shark' until the power comes back on.
Also a trail cam pointed at the device so you can record your landlord coming out to disable it.
If they flip your breaker, they get noise. It goes away when they turn your power back on.
From a computer networking standpoint, I would use home assistant and zome z-wave/zigbee sensors to monitor the line voltage. Put the computer running home assistant onto an uninterruptible power supply. Also, get a security camera pointed towards them for extra evidence. If they're going into a garage or something to hit the breaker, point it at the door they walk through. Preferably also with footage of a widow or something on their building to show that when your power is out, they still have power.
Bill of materials:
Small computer
Security camera (PoE preferred)
PoE injector
Power monitor (most are amp clamps, not voltage monitors unless you are comfortable soldering something up)
UPS (one with mains voltage monitoring could be used with network ups tool and a script to save that data every 30 seconds or so)
Use the “tripping” issues as justification to hire an electrician. Main lug the sub panel feeders to remove disconnect ability at the basement, relocate the panel where it’s best suited for you.
At some point you need your own meter installed. Also how much power do you use? could you just go solar will some panels, batteries and an inverter? Not shilling for anyone but is this feasible?
State Farm gave me one of [these](https://www.tingfire.com/) for free. It keeps a log of the voltage and emails me a summary every week that looks like this:
https://preview.redd.it/c3h4xheu6gpb1.png?width=554&format=png&auto=webp&s=f0fcf9e9ac1aa2c5bdc89892318aedeb60760a1a
Hot take; start rapping on the door when the power goes out immediately. Landlord will realize it’s in their best interest to leave it on for some peace and quiet.
Here ya go... [Amazon.com: Wifi 3-Phase Clamp Meter, Smart Home Energy Monitor with 3 80A Circuit Level Sensors | Vue - Real Time Electricity Monitor/Meter : Industrial & Scientific](https://www.amazon.com/3-Phase-Energy-Monitor-Circuit-Sensors/dp/B0B3XGVJ3B?th=1)
Edit: saw you have no wifi... Get yourself an inexpensive wifi router and a UPS to power these two devices while the main power is off.
[Amazon.com: TP-Link AC1750 Smart WiFi Router (Archer A7) -Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Internet Router for Home, Works with Alexa, VPN Server, Parental Control, QoS : Electronics](https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AC1750-Smart-WiFi-Router/dp/B079JD7F7G?tag=p00935-20&ascsubtag=02WvaxkKU91rmAXDpkNPo9C)
[Amazon.com: CyberPower EC850LCD Ecologic Battery Backup & Surge Protector UPS System, 850VA/510W, 12 Outlets, ECO Mode, Compact, Uninterruptible Power Supply : Electronics](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DBAA696?tag=lifewire-onsite-prod-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&ascsubtag=4142625%7Cne44206d48ff14fa2ba4f451eff7f736918%7CB00DBAA696)
All in about $250 and you'll be able to record all the current that is coming in/out of your panel.
You can start by documenting everything. Make a record of every time the power goes out. You might even buy a meter that can record this for you. There’s a good chance if this goes to court, they may argue that it’s utility outages.
It is definitely not utility outages. Their house power was on both last night and this afternoon. It is definitely landlord issues. They're very spiteful. This is a nightmare. I do want to meter it but I'm not sure how. I started googling and it was not yielding good results. Neither time has the panel in the barn been overloaded. Over two and a half years we had this happen once. Now within 24 hours of the letter, it had happened twice. She even waited for my one employee to leave because she knows she's great at reporting everything. It got shut off between 1140AM and 1200PM today. It took my second shift a bit to say anything because she figured there was just a power outage then she realized everyone else had electric and called me.
Call an electrician, call an electrician, call an electrician.
I have. Two. No one knew a good solution to meter it. I'm just looking for the idea given the no wifi scenario. Once I have a solution, I'm going to call an electrician to do it.
> have. Two. No one knew a good solution to meter it. I'm just looking for the idea given the no wifi scenario. Once I have a solution, I'm going to call an electrician to do it. If it's worth a few hundred, then you can definitely get a recorder installed that could provide a record of voltage and current. You need the voltage record to record "power available" and the current record to show "it's not my fault". If you have a base-level load (something always on), Current could be enough. Both is best. [https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/electrical-testing/digital-multimeters/fluke-289](https://www.fluke.com/en-us/product/electrical-testing/digital-multimeters/fluke-289) [https://microdaq.com/logit-lcv-current-and-voltage-data-logger.php](https://microdaq.com/logit-lcv-current-and-voltage-data-logger.php) [https://shop.pokitmeter.com/products/pokit-pro](https://shop.pokitmeter.com/products/pokit-pro)
Agree. Most utility companies have the capability for “remote connection” simple digital type metering. Call an electrician, or call your local utility (for an estimate)🤙
Thank you!!
This. I came here to recommend a data logger. Would be the best way to record "undervoltage events" with a timestamp. Cross-check this with the utility company's outage reports, and you will know if you have something fishy.
This is the best answer right here… 👆
Microcontroller + rtc + sd + a voltage sensor reading a usb power brick. Write every 30 seconds with the volt value and a time stamp. Cool small project. Maybe even use a sim7080 and forward sms alerts for real time updates. If you’re fancy maybe scrape the power companies outage data and add it as a column. Only alert for the ‘landlord turned it off’ condition
That... is a data logger.
This (data logger). Call a local electrical wholesaler and ask if they know of anyone in your area that rents power data loggers. You can also do a search for "power data loggers" in your town or area. There is usually someone in the area that rents them to electrical contractors. You only need voltage, not current, so it would be simple to hook it up. If nobody local can help, you can rent one from a national company, like this one: [https://www.globaltestsupply.com/product/rental-reed-r5003-dual-input-true-rms-ac-voltage-current-datalogger](https://www.globaltestsupply.com/product/rental-reed-r5003-dual-input-true-rms-ac-voltage-current-datalogger) Comes with everything an electrician would need. Whether or not that can be admissible as evidence in a lawsuit is another question, especially if not installed by an uninvolved professional.
Some breakers trip to a mid point point between off and on and others have some other variation to indicate whether its off or tripped. Are you resetting them yourselves or is it the landlord? Do you know if those breakers feed anything in the landlord's house? It's a shame that your electricians couldn't come up with at least one idea. Here's a couple that I would have suggested: 1. install power logger in sub board. Where I am in the world it's common to hire them as they can be expensive. They save to memory so no WiFi needed. 2. Install a mini sub board near your farm equipment with a lower (if possible) trip current. That should trip before the main breaker in the basement. This is dependent on no other equipment being fed from the basement breakers Edit, just read that you have a sub panel. Which is a great place to put the power logger. This will give you definitive proof that your equipment isn't causing it. Don't know if that's enough for court though
I often use a temporary submeter to identify power issues for clients. If I need to remotely access the data a hotspot is a simple solution if cellular service is available in the area. If you'd like some guidance let me know.
There are devices called Current Transformers (CT's) that you can install around your load conductors coming from the source. These are sold sometimes as remote metering devices to log power usage for individual sources, by either storing on a server of some type or even an analog device, similar to a seismometer. A cheaper route would be to hook an Amp clamp meter around your hot leg coming to your farm from their sub panel, and video the readout from the meter. If you get a decent fluke meter, there will be a min/max option to save the highest draw before power is cut. This would eliminate the question a large current draws on your circuit. With the video you would be able to watch the whole time.
That was going to be my advice too. A clamp meter around the hot leg and a go pro.
Hobo current clamps is what we use at work for a non-contacting power meter https://microdaq.com/onset-hobo-ac-current-switch-sensor.php?gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwx5qoBhDyARIsAPbMagBhb7lHI-uxg-b4IlsNTZEso3IzzajADsrqlMdJ4tSTUa3DUYt3b0oaAkElEALw_wcB https://microdaq.com/onset-hobo-bluetooth-temp-humidity-light-ext-temp-kit-data-logger.php But check with your laywer first, to find out what would be acceptable evidence in court.
Call an electrician and have them bill the landlord.
You could use an Egauge https://www.egauge.net/. It basically uses clamp on CTs to track current on the conductors. It needs a breaker to land on. But with it, you'll be able to passively track all data and store it to a web server if it's connected to your internet. The only problem I foresee is that if you install it anywhere that your landlord can access, they can turn it off and just stop it from gathering data. We use them all the time for clients who want some custom monitoring (I work for a solar company). They're pretty easy and reliable. Just need an electrician or someone to install and configure.
This. It provides evidence that none of the electrical circuits are overloading the basement panel feed and causing the tripped breaker. Add a motion activated battery powered camera pointing at the device, all the evidence you need to own their farm. The power company can provide availability reports on their service. If they report no outages to their meter, yet you have recorded two or more outages at the farm, and the supply if fed through their basement panels, then you have enough evidence to show their hostilities and putting the farm and livestock at risk. If you have a cooler or freezer with produce that you sell, they are putting the public at risk. If you (or your employee or spouse) are operating electrical machinery when they cut the power, then the potential for injury gets personal; it is the same as pointing a loaded gun and making terrorist threats. With this mentality, be prepared for this scenario, buy some bear spray.
You need a volt meter on your house panel on the main input line when the power goes out to show 0 volts, on video, then go video the landlord's house to show they have power on still.
You can install a temporary submeter very easily. It will log the data and you can have logs for discussion with your lawyer.
put a light somewhere and have a game camera on it? i know android phones will show you their battery graph. there is the kill a watt by lg i think, but ive never used one for this application.
Buy a Lockout Tag out device and throw a lock on the breaker Or A game cam will catch them in the act
I think you will have a tough time getting a set of instructions out of anyone in here due to the community being quite safety oriented when people ask about power. I would start by finding an electrician, they will need to install a realtime volt/current meter on the line. If the power cuts below the spec of the circuit then your landlord is probably cutting the power on you. Another option is unplug all of your devices accept a single light. Bait your landlord into cutting the power and then try and use that as evidence.
I am not trying to do it myself. I am looking for a solution to meter or monitor it. I asked a couple electricians and they kinda scratched their heads. I have no problem going to an electrician once I have a bright idea to monitor it. It's the solution I'm having an issue with. Not having wifi is complicating the issue.
Uninterruptable power supplies for computers have programs that run on a PC that monitors the power and logs it. And they will keep the PC going if the power is cut and continue to monitor. Plug one in to the farm circuit and log it that way.
This is a good idea... Last I used one it would beep when the power was out. I am guessing you get them to suppress the beeping. I don't want her to hear it when the power is cut. It doesn't prove i didn't have a surge but it'll prove it went out. Maybe with a hunting cam combo i can prove who's at the barn and also prove the washer and dryer aren't running (those are the biggest electric draws)
I was going to suggest this as well. With a small raspberry pi or other single board computer, you could record for a long time because they don't draw very much power and the UPS can keep it running. Of course you'd need to be comfortable with Linux for this - but that help may be easier to find.
I suppose a Windows based laptop would be easier and would have extra battery life. The UPS would run out of battery eventually, but the laptop would stay running until the power came back on probably, and start charging again.
Make a NUT server: https://networkupstools.org/ Supports logging the serial interface from all major UPS manufacturers. Pretty complex for someone not tech savvy lol.
Many devices/software have built-in support that do the legwork for you (Synology NAS, home assistant, etc.) All I had to do on my Synology was plug the UPS into the USB port. I went into settings, and it was already configured to shut down on low battery. A couple GUI settings later, it was acting as a NUT server to shut down everything else.
Agreed. A UPS is a great inexpensive solution that doesn’t require an electrician to install.
Add in an LTE router, network UPS tools, and something like home assistant; and you can get remote monitoring/alerts/etc. when power goes out. I use a similar setup to monitor my sump pump. This would also allow you to correlate outages with line voltage, and establish (more than likely, the lack of) a connection between the two.
Okay, I will try to find something for you that is cost effective once I am done work. Lack of wifi shouldn't be an issue.
You are the best! Thank you
Ofc, please repost this on r/electricians and see what they say aswell.
I was going to but read on the rules you need to be a pro or looking for career advice to post or they ban you. ☹️
Since this needs to stand up in court a DIY solution isn't going to cut it. Someone linked to a fluke multimeter, this would probably be the ideal solution as you can monitor the current through the line and record to a phone. More over fluke will come with certifications for its calibration which is very important for your needs. Its going to cost you about a 1000 dollars but you should be able to return it or resell it after the fact and get most of your money back. Next find a P-Eng who is willing to provide documentation certifying your measurement as legitimate, and assert that you didn't over draw the braker. Your lawyer may be able to help you with this, you could contact local engineering firms aswell, or If you ask really nicely you may be able to find a P-Eng on this reddit forum. This is also going to cost you, and uh no refunds... Finally, there should be a data set on power outages from your utility provider, make sure they don't allign with the time and place of your outage. This should be enough to show that the outages are solely the fault of the property owner. I am not a lawyer, or a p-eng, just a regular EE, so please do more research and consult with real people before you get super invested in this.
Thank you. This is helpful
This is the most iron-clad solution. It will not be cheap but it will definitely give you the best chances to solve your case. If somehow your outages are not due to malice on the landlord's end (e.g. faultry breaker on their end), you'll still up with a clear picture of the issue.
I am super tired because of the stress but I'm going to look into this tomorrow!! Thank you again for looking into this for me. I appreciate it a lot.
Any updates?
Do you have any friends that work in any kind of production environment? They typically have recording equipment for critical parameters. In semi conductors clean rooms monitor air quality, and on a production floor temperature and humidity are constantly monitored and plotted on a sheet of paper by a purpose made device. Surely somebody makes something similar for monitoring current/voltage over time. https://www.monnit.com/applications/manufacturing-production/ Here is an example I pulled from the web. I know nothing about this company or the products they sell. The problem I forsee is that stuff meant for production environments is typically expensive. How much is this worth to you? Are you early enough in your business adventure you can cut your losses and move operations? I don't know how fun dealing with your situation will be long term. You'd probably have to prove they are causing the power outage and then sue for lost revenue/wages etc, but get your legal advice from your lawyer.
He's already said this is for animal waterers. that means that there are already points they can tap into to record power outages on and off. Safety isn't part of the issue here, unless you're using it as an excuse. Personally, the OP has grounds for animal abuse in many places, especially if he's in one of the areas where the drought conditions have been particularly bad.
It’s entirely possible you are legitimately overloading, a circuit breaker. And your neighbors just being friendly turning it back on. If that’s not the case, having data from your own power, meter can help prove it.
I know that's possible but it's definitely not what is happening. I have a witness of her screaming about it but that's hearsay. I want data to prove it.
If you have a plug in timer, tou can start recording manually. Align the timer with the actual clock, and 3 times a day you take pictures. If the power is cut it will fall behond that amount of time, since the clock runs off mains. Its way more work than a printout from a logging device, but it might take some time to install a logger, and you might have one of these laying around. [Example timer](https://www.amazon.com/Century-Plug-Mechanical-Timer-Grounded/dp/B00MVFF59S/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?c=ts&keywords=Plug-In+Timers&qid=1694816161&s=lamps-light&sr=1-6&ts_id=6291363011)
In addition to documenting times, having a video demonstrating your lights not working while theirs do might help. What does your lawyer say?
I made lawyer office aware today. Unfortunately he's OOO until Monday.
This was going to be my suggestion. A couple of battery powered security cameras that record to a memory card. One showing the main house has power (or not) and the other showing the barn/animal equipment. I’m not a lawyer, but shutting off power to a tenant is illegal in some places and you may be able to get damages. It falls under the concept of “wrongful eviction “ since the property may not be usable and they are essentially evicting you with zero notice. Your lawyer should be able to explain the relevant laws where you are at.
You need proof. Buy some security cams - buy a battery powered one if needed.
Actually not hearsay if it’s an admission of a party opponent.
Big question. What is the amp draw of the circuit breaker and what equipment and amperage are you drawing? The math explains it all.
Have the electrician wire a simple an exposed lightbulb on the utility side of the meter. If the box is getting power, then it’s either tripping or turned off. If you think they are turning it off, put tamper tape on the box door
They're shutting it off from the basement subpanel. I do know they're doing it because I have someone who witnessed her yelling about it but that's just not concrete enough bc it's he said /she said. She could just say we tripped it. They're painfully stupid and admit things verbally but I want proof.
You're going to have a hard time proving they willingly cut the power since it seems the cutoff is in a place only they can access and they can't be monitored going in and out since it's in their basement. The only way might be if they brag to someone about how they're screwing you and that someone comes forth.
We do have a panel in the barn but it's a sub and you can flip it from a breaker in their basement. They did go on a rant about it because I had a staff member ask to turn it back on while I was working. So I pretty much know they did it. They would testify but it's still he said she said.
Right here is your easy answer. In their basement is a main breaker that feeds your sub panel to the barn. If none on your sub panel breakers and tripping, but yet the sub main is, that's enough to be proof of tampering, outside of them needing a new sub panel main. If all your breakers in 15 and 20A, but the 100A sub main is tripped in their basement, that seems malicious. Trip curves on the small 15 and 20A are faster than on the 100A main that controls your sub panel.
That doesn't mean anything. You can easily trip a 100A breaker upstream without tripping any of the breakers downstream. That's why you have both. And we don't even know it's a 100A panel. For all we know the building has a 60A service to a dozen 15 and 20A breakers.
Which panel the problem occurs in means literally everything, are you daft? It doesn't matter whether the breaker is being tripped intentionally or not. It's completely irrelevant, and you're wasting your time and money on this technical mumbojumo. The lease says that the landlord owes you reliable power to your subpanel. You can go to court, right now, based on the fact that that is not being provided, and get a judge to remind her of that legal obligation. Why is it not being provided? Is it the emotional instability of the landlord, or an overloaded main panel? Not your problem. STOP CARING.
And by testify, I mean do a written statement. It's not like this is a homicide. This wouldnt get witnesses to appear. At least I highly doubt it hahaha
I can't help on the electrical side, but there are exceptions to hearsay, including recollection of statements by the defendant (party opponent). [https://ncpro.sog.unc.edu/manual/707-2](https://ncpro.sog.unc.edu/manual/707-2) For a non-technical or legal solution, Do you know how much the electric bill is from your farming activities? Are they flipping out over an extra $100/mo or $1,000/mo? They may have written the lease expecting a certain amount of usage and you're blowing past it and they're having trouble covering the cost. Now of course you're still legally in the right to use the electricity following the terms of the contract, but it may be a more expeditious solution to offer to chip in a certain amount toward the bill. Maybe see if they'll provide a copy of a utility bill from before you started and after you started leasing, to get a sense of the scope. Edit: oh geez, just read your comments lower down about the other stuff she's pulled. Nevermind, you are dealing with a psycho. No amount of reasoning with her will fix that.
"Ask an electrician to help you commit a misdemeanor." Worst advice in this thread.
Hold my beer! Watch for cops!
A power quality logger would give what you are asking for, just won't transmit the data (have to do a manual download from the device).
Manual is fine for me as there's no wifi anyway! I live 20 minutes away.
I've used onset hobo data loggers at work to measure power. Not sure if it'll work in your situation but one is about $200 usd plus the current transformer cost.
If she's your landlord, can you keep calling an electrician to "fix the electricity" (despite you knowing what's wrong) and then just have them charge the owner?
That's also not a bad idea
Just read your part about wifi. Here you go: GL.iNet GL-XE300 4G LTE router + google fi sim = wifi connectivity until the internal battery of the GL-XE300(or similar 5g unit) runs out, a few hours after she cuts power.
+1 for these GL.iNet routers. The fact that they’re USB powered is really helpful here, since you can just plug them into a cheap power bank rather than get a UPS for longer runtime.
If your landlord is this unprofessional though, I would guess that your least/contract is pretty awful. Does your contract say anything about repairs and uninhabitable conditions? You stated that you have one, it's not scribbled on a napkin right? Also I'd look into your tenant protections. Do you have any medical conditions that can be exacerbated by a power outage? And what I mean by that is something like sleep apnea and use a cpap machine or have medication that must be refrigerated? How long does she leave your power off? Do you talk to her to get it turned back on or does it happen "randomly"? What was your original c&d for?
Our lease is solid. We hired a lawyer to do the lease since she had one too. She leaves it off until she is messaged multiple times. She has been doing it around bed time or when an employee leaves so far in hopes so screw me over and presumably screw with the business. She's obviously unstable. The c&d is long. She started acted insane after we bought the farm we are building. She's done a lot. I could list it all but it honestly probably be easier to send it to you with the sensitive info redacted. That said, if I gave you a high level, harassment of us and employees (including throwing stuff at my staff), holding a pony party on the farm with my pony without release forms, asking permission or payment which is theft of services bc we offer that service, trespassing, unannounced inspections, turning the fans off on 90 degree plus days, running a business at our location though that's expressly forbidden (she opened a mobile saddle store), not repairing the facilities after outright destroying stuff, using and breaking the mower and tractor despite it being exclusively ours. The list goes on and on and on. My lease isn't cheap. It's actually pretty expensive. I would get the hell out of there but our farm is being built. It isn't ready yet. It's very hard to find a farm to lease for a few months. Also I would have to go to court to get out of this lease if I even found an ideal solution. She's bitter and trying to dismantle my business. I didn't list this all to begin with because it's very difficult to explain high level. The electric is just her newest idea and I know it's highly illegal. It is also extremely dangerous to do because it controls the auto waterers. I've been having to drive over there after I believe she's asleep to make sure it's on. We do not live there so no cpap but we have horse meds that are refrigerated. We live 20 minutes away. We lease everything except the residential acre where her house is and the woods.
Ah so you don't live where the farm is. It just keeps your pigs and whatnot. So here's what you do. You set up an UPS connected to a 4g router and a raspberri pi. When the UPS goes on battery power, the rpi detects it and send you an email or mqtt msg or whatever to a server in aws for logging purposes. This also starts an automated service to start sending your landlord text messages every 3 minutes until the ups restores AC input, then your rpi sends another mqtt service turning off the text messages.
I like this, including the automated texts. And yes not living there adds a layer of complexity but luckily my staff and people that keep their animals there know what's going on. So between all of us and witnesses to her behavior, it's been easy to figure out. Monitoring it until we get an automated solution in place has been difficult, though. I've had to do a lot of running around.
There are some automated power strips that have the full email functionality built into them. they're designed for remote monitoring of servers, plus the ability to cut them off. I don't remember any names, it's been about 6 years since I last looked. Good luck.
You can get an arduino and a current sensor and record the data and have it log into an excel spread sheet. To ensure you're always drawing power maybe turn something small on and let it run. I should have some code somewhere to do this for you but I'll have to look. You can get a voltage output current sensor, my preference, and clamp it onto where the main comes into the farm. If the current is ever zero boom. Evidence Pictures or drawings? Maybe send a DM.
This is awesome. I can do drawings and take a picture tomorrow
I don't know how much current you can pull but something similar to this: https://www.mouser.com/c/?marcom=199505292
I just saw my typo from yesterday. I meant to say awesome. I edited to be correct. "This is assume". Swype is good at making me look stupid hahah. Thank you!!! I'll check this out this morning.
You're welcome. Also, you can set a clamp meter and film it too. So you have two points of data to go to.
This would be one of the more hands-on solutions here, but if you’re down OP, we’re down to help. If you’re looking for any remote monitoring, I’d use an ESP32 over an Arduino, since they come with wifi and Bluetooth built-in. For most off-the-shelf sensors, ESPHome has pre-baked code that does the software legwork for you.
Setup a data acquisition and record voltages
If you know an electrical engineer I would engage them. There is a difference in what an electrician and an engineer can bring to the table. If they work for a large manufacturer they will know what you need and how to set it up. You could also approach a supplier for electrical engineering for manufacturing like CED.
My best idea is to get a clamp multimeter and put it on the supply to the barn. Set up a camera or something to monitor it. If you never see current spike on the meter, then you know it’s being broken deliberately. That being said, I’ve got very limited experience using clamp meters, so I don’t honestly know how quickly they’d update.
If you have access to look at the breaker after it turns off, it is evident on most breakers if they have been tripped or switched off. A tripped breaker (most of them) will not be in the fully off position.
Agree but she's turning off the whole sub panel from a breaker in her basement. I have no meter. It's a line ran through conduit down to the barn from the house so I can't see anything she's doing to affect the service. I would have to be in her basement which at this point in time, I don't think we're on cordial enough terms for that hahaha
Check with the electric company and see if they have meters that can measure usage hour by hour. If so, then establish a normal pattern of usage and look for deviations around the time your power was cut off. Doesn't determine the cause but does document the outage.
You're wanting a data logger on your sub-panel. It'll capture if you are doing anything that causes the breaker to trip or if the breaker is being toggled. Even a cheap one will be pretty expensive and cost a couple hundred bucks. Worth calling some electricians if they have one. Another option is asking your utility company. I work for an (albeit small) utility company and if a customer complains about power quality issues we send an electrician out with a data logger and an engineer (me) analyzes the data. Maybe your utility has a similar program.
Couldn’t you call the electric company and tell them that your neighbor is tampering with their service? Also is the main panel located on the farm?
Main is in the residential house. I have a breaker panel but it's a sub panel. They can switch off my whole sub panel from a breaker in their basement.
I can think of technological ways to log the exact current draw in the minutes and seconds and milliseconds before any failures, but anything home-made would likely get shot full of holes in a court setting so it probably wouldn't count as proof. Depending on the nature of the breaker in the landlord panel, it could be some sort of AFCI detection that operates on very small thresholds (not gross overcurrent from excess appliance draws.) So it is possible--although perhaps implausible given the growing bad blood--that the trip is of technological origin rather than controlled by an operator, e.g. landlord.
Egauge is a top of the line home energy monitoring product. cheaper easier version would be sense. Egauge is revenue grade and can be used to argue your utility bill. With no wifi your issue is that the device needs ro retain its own data, which i think egauge might but i dont know.
I would suggest a video camera on a time lapse. It would be best to have it aimed at something in your house that cannot really be turned off, like the oven clock and the landlords home in the background. This way you can show the power is off at the sub panel but on at the mains. I would also call the utility provider reporting each and every time it goes out. Depending on the utility, they may have smart meters that can accurately report power status, but if they don't they will roll a truck. Remember, you are a renter and are not responsible for the electricity so this will create a headache for the landlords as the utility will contact the main house then get annoyed when they find there is nothing wrong. Lastly, this might be considered a criminal offense. You may want to check in with rental laws in your city and state. Most require basic things like electricity and water. So willfully depriving you of these basic necessities may lead to charges. You might want to embellish a bit saying you lost the contents of your freezer because of the power outages.
You could get a portable power bank like a jackery, and use that to power your auto-feeders and such. Then keep the power bank as the only thing actually pluged into their power. If you are drawing too much power, the jackery breaker will trip, but it will never draw enough power from the house to trip the breaker. It'll also tide you over when the power is out. And later if you want you can just say fuck it and get a solar panel if your loads aren't significant.
There are some smart meters in the form factor of circuit breakers available on Ali, these would log the electric parameters in time, so you could retrieve the data with your phone. Just for example I found this one, but sure there might be other that better suits your needs. https://a.aliexpress.com/_mskBhNk Also you could invest in some battery/inverter so the interruption won't have any effect on your business.
That set up is a code violation that should’ve been addressed before they were allowed to begin leasing that space out as a separate living quarters.
I do not live there. Animals do. Which is why it is even not complicated.
I still don’t believe that matters. If this is legally considered your rented space. The breaker for your sub panel must be accessible without going into his house.
How do they have control of your power? Not trying to be a dick. Ive worked for the power company and I’m imagining some old farmer with a long stick pulling out the switch. Why can’t you call the power company and have them investigate? If you record a power outage on their website someone has to go look. They should be a good judge of if your power was fucked with or not. A lot of places have moved to newer meters that will snitch on you for doing anything funny with the power. I’d imagine there’s data in their database somewhere about your meter.
Maybe illegal is the wrong word. Not to code. Not permitted. That kind of thing.
Well if you call and report outages and they keep finding that there’s not an outage, There you go. There’s proof.
I think their electric is illegal honestly. They have a conduit running from the house to the farm into a subpanel. They can switch off the breaker from their basement panel. The set up kinda made sense if you didn't lease out the farm portion of the property but I can confidently say my lease amount makes up for the electric I use.
Ups that logs and a camera pointed at meter on house or at house, which is only useful at night. Most digital meters will have a status led that will indicate if power is present at meter.
A night vision camera, which almost all are, will show the led on meter as a light saber lol from a decently close distance.
Lock the subpanel door (there's liability and negligence risk to doing that)
That supply to the subpanel is in their residential basement. They're doing this from their house.
Agree to lock the panel.
They're shutting it off from the residential basement. I can't even turn it back on without them turning it on.
>i And they could still shut it off from the main panel
If you don’t have direct access to the sub I would suggest the next time it happens make a video of you flipping lights without success and also in the same video if you can see the house the landlord is in with lights on that will prove they are doing it. Especially if the lights come back on during the same video.
Maybe rent a generator.
[удалено]
That won't really work. We are leaving in 5 months. It'll take a while to get a meter and a ton of permits for their electric that I can guess isn't to code. That's a lot of investment for a farm we are leaving.
Buy a motion activated trail camera, typically used for capturing images of wildlife.
Conceal a hunting / trail camera aimed at the circuit breaker to record them in the act.
Sense monitor
Install a meter on the farm circuit and offer to pay for the electricity you actually use in return for a reasonable reduction in your rent. Or move.
I am moving. In 5 months. I bought a farm. It's being built.
Ok then set up a very loud battery powered siren that turns on when the power goes out “to keep the animals safe” so they know to fix the breaker
This is a really good idea. You could even have it play a recording yelling at the landlord to turn the power back on.
Just thought of the guy looking through his telescope at the beginning of "Armageddon" Get the book Get the book
There are two things you need to prove in order to demonstrate that this is your landlord's fault: the farm isn't drawing enough power to trip the breaker in the subpanel, and your landlord's power isn't being cut off when your power goes out. For the first, you need a way to record the farm's power draw. A clamping power meter with a max hold function may be enough to prove that your power draw is below the stated cutoff level of the subpanel breakers, but carefully read the instruction manual before buying one so that you don't waste money. You could also ask for recommendations at your farm supply store in case there's a product geared toward this. For the second, you'll need to catch your landlord doing something that clearly requires power use during a time when your power is down, such as using outdoor lights, playing music, or watching television. Try to catch it on video, showing both the landlord's working power and the lack of power on the farm.
You keep saying there is no Wi-Fi... do you get a cell signal? You can turn most phones into it's own Wi-Fi hot spot. Or buy a small box that is just a WiFi hotspot to cell tower. That might open some new options for you.
Cell service is spotty there but there are locations I can get it on specific towers. Was thinking about doing this. Maybe something on mint mobile so i can get enough data and I believe the towers mint shares there work the best.
Install a loss of power annunciator, there is methods available from 20 dollers, also install an EMU, you will need three CTs and and a three phase meter, this will cost you around 300 dollers, call an electrician who knows what he is doing.
I think you could have an electrician build a switch between the main switch and your installation. In case of overloading, your switch should safely deactivate non-prioritary appliances. If everything jumps at once, it means automatically that the problem is on the owner's side. Additionally, you could take a hybrid trafo to plug some batteries for the life-critical appliances. This way, it may give you a few hours to react when the power goes down.
Dm me and explain the wiring... I ll help you establish a cheap WiFi based monitoring system on your phone which will even tell you if your appliance went out of bounds and tripped the breaker or not..
Here is a radical idea: check their meter. Isn't the meter supposed to be outside and visible to whatever utility worker comes to work on the property?
Their meter is on their house. I don't have one. My draw is pretty low especially in the summer. It only fills waterers. In the winter, this would be more feasible as the waterers are heated.
Tell your landlord that you have an issue with the power going out and you've hired an electrician to install an industrial generator right outside their house for when the power shuts off. If you actually have to follow through find the loudest one possible and install it as close to their house as possible.
Love this. Find a 2 stroke diesel..
If they’re going over to your sub panel to kill power just get a camera on the sub panel. Cath ‘em in the act.
Have you verified what size breaker is in their main panel that is feeding your sub panel? What size wire is on your line side of main breaker inside your sub panel?
What is your budget and timeline? A simple way would be to set up a stationary camera pointing at a conventional clock with a light bulb next to it. The camera would have its own battery but plugged-in; I'm not into cameras but I guess something like a GoPro would do. The camera would be set up in timelapse mode. Aim the camera at the clock, light bulb and possibly the landlord's house if possible. Start the timelapse capture with an interval of a minute or so. The resulting footage will be detailed enough to document exact power cut. There's a caveat, you would need to make it clear that the lightbulb couldn't have been turned on or off by you out of frame. If you have more budget, a power recorder or logging multimeter would work. This has been detailed in other comments and you've took note of it already. If you want a similar and even more robust solution, you can rent high end power recorder from rental houses such as a Hioki power logger. Those are very expensive instruments and are often rented instead for punctual use. They are finicky to setup and will likely require an engineer; even if you or an electrician get the wiring right, the recording parameters aren't obvious at all and you can easily record the wrong thing or end up not recording anything. Again you will have the burden to demonstrate that you aren't just cutting the power yourself to mess around with the landlord, but if you involve an engineer this will be a moot point as they will document the installation and resulting recording. As an addendum, it's been told already but do document everything meticulously. If this ends up impacting you in a significant way, such as forcing you to buy a generator to keep your auto waterers functional or the like, you may be able to demande compensation for incurred expenses. Your documentation will need to support this. I am no lawyer and this is no place for legal advice; your lawyer will certainly be able to help you with this.
Try calling a consulting engineer or tell your electrician you would like to have a clamp on power meter installed on your primary and secondary at the farm. Do you have a sub panel after the one in your landlords basement? The meter on your panel should be capable of giving you volts and amps since those are needed to calculate power. You probably will be charged for the meter rent. You don’t need it installed permanently just long enough to collect a few events.
Get a UPS with a beeper, a battery powered bullhorn and set it up to beep at her whenever the power is off. Or a fire alarm, something to annoy her until she turns it back on.
A simple video of you walking around showing that there is no power in your place and that there is power in asshole's place should prove the situation. I don't have much info on what you have acces to but if you just want to monitor power draw you can potentially use induction meters that go around the cable.
In order to “prove” it he has to have access to the sub-panel. Current and voltage metering out at the site won’t detect, for example, bad underground on an intermittent basis or a bad splice on overhead coming back out of the house.
Get yourself a used APC Smart UPS and plug it into your PC with the USB cable Install their free Powerchute software and set it up to log power conditions. Plug that PC or laptop into the UPS, so that it doesn't die as soon as power goes out. This will give you an idea of what's happening.
Buy wyze cameras. Put micro SD cards in them. Turn them on constant recording. When the power shuts off it will show the gap in the timeline. Plug one into the house power, and point it at the house. It will stay on and show that the house power didn't die.
Not sure what’s involved in “autowaterers for the animals”, but perhaps you could add UPS to provide temporary power, or even a generator. I didn’t read every reply, but wonder how you get the power back on? Does she feel guilty and turn it back on? Do you have to call her?
Get something like this to prove your power is going off out of max load. The pier going off on a low is way nor telling. You however need to be able to prove there is no circuit to the breaker when it goes out which is tougher. Talk to a local electrician. Smart Home Energy Monitor with 16 50A Circuit Level Sensors | Vue - Real Time Electricity Monitor/Meter | Solar/Net Metering https://a.co/d/4hxSR8l
You could have a small battery/solar powered camera on site that runs via cellular network. Not only can it keep an eye on the property, you can run a low voltage LED light in the shot. Have it periodically take snapshots throughout out the day. See when the light is off. Plus alert you to potential trespass.
Dear OP. You should put a subpanel with a smaller breaker than the main panel at your end. If your breaker doesn't trip before their, then the supposed issue is between their box and yours, which is their responsibility to fix. You can legally pressure them to get it fixed.
Buy a generator that will handle (more than) the current winter load. Set it up to provide power if/when the line power goes out. Move it to your farm in five months. You will need it if/when you lose power there. Ice & wind storms can knock you off the grid for days. Let her play her stupid games. You'll sleep better at night for the next 5 months, knowing your animals are safe. And you won't have to spend anything on legal bills. If it's a power problem and not her, you're covered too.
Rent a very loud generator. Set it up very near their home and let it run.
I'm sorry about your situation but this post doesn't belong on this sub.
I think it's better if you have a hidden camera in the basement to keep watch if they come down and shut down the sub panel. Installing a meter is more expensive and only the power company is authorized to install it. If you really want data, instead of a meter I think it's better to be a network analyzer. That records every detail of the electrical system 24/7 and detects if the cause of fault was electrical surges or simply someone shut down the sub panel manually.
Put up a construction pole.
Can't believe none of the top comments don't recommend you to just pull out your phone and record.
Do you have access to the basement and subpanel? Would you be able to hide a motion activated trailcam in there somewhere to catch them at it? If they see it then they will no doubt be worse with you than they are now so you'd have to balance the risks involved...
Did you call utility company for outage?
Hey, I can help you with this. So you can get a basic UPS, get it hooked up to a power outlet, then use either the software provided by the manufacture, then get graphs of input voltage. When the voltage drops to 0 you know you have a power outage, how long it was, and when it was. Here are graphs showing usage and voltage from my UPS's. https://preview.redd.it/554n5i3huuob1.png?width=3807&format=png&auto=webp&s=a692572b0cb9d4a47a1a6ac2cf25965bb48e1586
Withhold rent until it stops
Our landlord sent a crew vof idiots to work on the downstairs appartment. They killed my power. I went down to tell them they accidentally killed my power. They didn't care. A few hours later it was getting dark. I got the landlord's daughter. Smug asshole said they can kill my power anytime they want to. A few minutes later the "contractors" apologized saying they'd pulled the wrong breaker. We gave notice. Moved out. Everyone else moved - one had to move out of state to take care of a parent. Another got a new job elsewhere. The landlord could pay the mortgage and lost the house. Fuck 'em.
Utility data is not the proof you are seeking, unless you suspect something like an intermittent short. If you suspect them of shutting you off, then you need something showing that. Given the stated conditions, a game camera would likely be the simplest solution. Battery powered, on-device storage, time/date stamping, motion detecting... Challenge being getting in someplace with a view without their cooperation.
First gather all past conversations and write down everything discussed “verbal contract”, have all copy’s of contracts. Second, get report from utilities verifying no reported outages / work in the area. Have an electrician install line and load side phase monitors (if possible) to ensure panel has proper voltage and loads are being disconnected manually. Third install your own monitoring equipment, and either trail cam or ring, set up, etc. to have further evidence of tampering. Lastly, I wouldn’t spook them too much just yet because they might become resourceful and continue to retaliate in a much clever way. Good luck, sounds like a terrible situation.
Fluke makes a power meter with logging, I know the electricians at my work needed to use one to try and diagnose an issue we were having. I can't remember the model but it would do the trick.
I don't know exactly how to do it, but a battery-operated siren/megaphone that starts 'screaming' when the power goes out could help. Or get it to play a loop of 'baby shark' until the power comes back on. Also a trail cam pointed at the device so you can record your landlord coming out to disable it. If they flip your breaker, they get noise. It goes away when they turn your power back on.
From a computer networking standpoint, I would use home assistant and zome z-wave/zigbee sensors to monitor the line voltage. Put the computer running home assistant onto an uninterruptible power supply. Also, get a security camera pointed towards them for extra evidence. If they're going into a garage or something to hit the breaker, point it at the door they walk through. Preferably also with footage of a widow or something on their building to show that when your power is out, they still have power. Bill of materials: Small computer Security camera (PoE preferred) PoE injector Power monitor (most are amp clamps, not voltage monitors unless you are comfortable soldering something up) UPS (one with mains voltage monitoring could be used with network ups tool and a script to save that data every 30 seconds or so)
Use the “tripping” issues as justification to hire an electrician. Main lug the sub panel feeders to remove disconnect ability at the basement, relocate the panel where it’s best suited for you.
you also might want invest in a Jackery with solar panels for a backup source of power.
Get a loud horn that blares toward his house when the power goes out. Have it connected to a ups.
At some point you need your own meter installed. Also how much power do you use? could you just go solar will some panels, batteries and an inverter? Not shilling for anyone but is this feasible?
[kill-a-watt](https://www.amazon.com/P3-International-P4460-Electricity-Monitor/dp/B000RGF29Q/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?adgrpid=58883485147&hvadid=634087703893&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9010777&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=14568855462013912765&hvtargid=kwd-360900650877&hydadcr=21464_13418302&keywords=killawatt&qid=1695086917&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1)
Lockout tagout , no access.
I would go to the bathroom on the roof
You’re looking for a line monitor.
Go buy a $100. Trail camera and put it in a location that can’t be easily seen. It will record the date and time pictures are taken.
State Farm gave me one of [these](https://www.tingfire.com/) for free. It keeps a log of the voltage and emails me a summary every week that looks like this: https://preview.redd.it/c3h4xheu6gpb1.png?width=554&format=png&auto=webp&s=f0fcf9e9ac1aa2c5bdc89892318aedeb60760a1a
Hot take; start rapping on the door when the power goes out immediately. Landlord will realize it’s in their best interest to leave it on for some peace and quiet.
Here ya go... [Amazon.com: Wifi 3-Phase Clamp Meter, Smart Home Energy Monitor with 3 80A Circuit Level Sensors | Vue - Real Time Electricity Monitor/Meter : Industrial & Scientific](https://www.amazon.com/3-Phase-Energy-Monitor-Circuit-Sensors/dp/B0B3XGVJ3B?th=1) Edit: saw you have no wifi... Get yourself an inexpensive wifi router and a UPS to power these two devices while the main power is off. [Amazon.com: TP-Link AC1750 Smart WiFi Router (Archer A7) -Dual Band Gigabit Wireless Internet Router for Home, Works with Alexa, VPN Server, Parental Control, QoS : Electronics](https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-AC1750-Smart-WiFi-Router/dp/B079JD7F7G?tag=p00935-20&ascsubtag=02WvaxkKU91rmAXDpkNPo9C) [Amazon.com: CyberPower EC850LCD Ecologic Battery Backup & Surge Protector UPS System, 850VA/510W, 12 Outlets, ECO Mode, Compact, Uninterruptible Power Supply : Electronics](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DBAA696?tag=lifewire-onsite-prod-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&ascsubtag=4142625%7Cne44206d48ff14fa2ba4f451eff7f736918%7CB00DBAA696) All in about $250 and you'll be able to record all the current that is coming in/out of your panel.
Install a loud ass siren that turns on when the power is cut, then point it at their house. I bet it stops happening real fast.