Z-Net on Battery Backup

[The Profit]

Has anyone ever tested to find out how much power a Z-Net controller uses? I'm thinking about putting them on battery backup along with the z-wave water valve shutoff just in case there happens to be a leak while power is out. All of my leak sensors are battery powered so I don't have to be concerned with those, just the motor that shuts the water valve. I'm hoping that I can just buy a small battery backup unit that will last about an hour with just the Z-Net connected.

[NetworkGuy]

There's nothing mechanical, so I would expect a small battery would power it for some time (good idea).

Are you thinking of a battery to power the valve as well? If so, do you have something specific in mind?

[The Profit]

There's nothing mechanical, so I would expect a small battery would power it for some time (good idea).

Are you thinking of a battery to power the valve as well? If so, do you have something specific in mind?

I have a Dome water valve and it’s a pretty small motor. If the event never triggers I assume it won’t need much power but if it triggers I’m thinking a small battery backup will handle it. Maybe a 250W would last about an hour? We don’t usually have long outages.


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[zwolfpack]

The Raspberry Pi in the Z-Net is very lightly loaded and has no peripherals connected other than the Z-Wave controller. I've powered mine for years from a computer USB port without issue.
See https://raspi.tv/2016/how-much-power...mpared-to-pi2b. I'd be surprised if it pulled 400mA.

[Krumpy]

Really? I thought that the specs for the RPI are 2.4 amps at 5v. Maybe around there as anything lower than that and it complains about power. I could be wrong, and this is an excellent question as I have thought about battery power as well. It would be fun to use a deep cycle battery and a 12v to 5v Adapter and see how long it will run. This would make me consider using a RPI with HomeSeer to run all of the important low level tasks.

[zwolfpack]

That is the power supply spec, but that includes supplying four USB ports and the HDMI port. Just the bare board runs well under half an amp, as shown in that link.

[drhtmal]

The Z-Net is just a Raspberry PI so it does not draw much power. I have an old APC Back-UP 750 that I just tested on. It is powering the Z-Net, an 8 port Netgear POE switch and my cell provider signal booster. After an hour and a half it is still running.

You can pickup a small 500 to 750 VA UPS for about $50 to $100.

[The Profit]

The Z-Net is just a Raspberry PI so it does not draw much power. I have an old APC Back-UP 750 that I just tested on. It is powering the Z-Net, an 8 port Netgear POE switch and my cell provider signal booster. After an hour and a half it is still running.

You can pickup a small 500 to 750 VA UPS for about $50 to $100.

Yeah, that’s exactly what I was planning on doing, just get a inexpensive UPS and power the Z-Net. I’ve read a couple of posts in the past where files have gotten corrupted on a Z-Net after a power outage so I figured if I’ve got a battery backup for the Z-Net, I might as well have a battery backup for a useful device like a water shutoff valve as well and retain that leak protection.


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[randy]

Here you go. All 4 are POE powered, so give it 85% efficiency. Ity is a Pi 3 B+board with POE hat and the EZZee GPIO card. The one in the exercise closet is the warmest, so the POE hat fan is running the fastest. Taking the next highest at 3.84 watts POE X 85% 3.3W at 5V is about .7A. The POE might be less efficient, making it even less. I also do not know how accurate Ubiquiti is at reporting power consumption. Nevertheless, I think it is safe to guess that a Z-Net runs .5-.7A in most circumstances. A pair of 18650 3000MAH batteries with a DC-DC converter should run it for several hours. Because my POE switches are on UPS, the Z-Nets and HomeSeer stay up in a power outage.






With regard to the OP question, because my POE switches are on UPS, the Z-Nets and HomeSeer stay up in a power outage.

[The Profit]

Here you go. All 4 are POE powered, so give it 85% efficiency. Ity is a Pi 3 B+board with POE hat and the EZZee GPIO card. The one in the exercise closet is the warmest, so the POE hat fan is running the fastest. Taking the next highest at 3.84 watts POE X 85% 3.3W at 5V is about .7A. The POE might be less efficient, making it even less. I also do not know how accurate Ubiquiti is at reporting power consumption. Nevertheless, I think it is safe to guess that a Z-Net runs .5-.7A in most circumstances. A pair of 18650 3000MAH batteries with a DC-DC converter should run it for several hours. Because my POE switches are on UPS, the Z-Nets and HomeSeer stay up in a power outage.






With regard to the OP question, because my POE switches are on UPS, the Z-Nets and HomeSeer stay up in a power outage.

Of course! POE....why didn’t I think of that??? That would be much easier as I can just use the same UPS next to the Homeseer box! Guess I better get the POE switch that you and I were talking about!

Does POE go through a regular Netgear data switch? May have to move where one of my Z-Nets is if not. Unless I can somehow split it at the wall and separate it out from the date switch.

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[randy]

You also do not need to go the route that I did - converting to built in POE. These are great at $20.

[The Profit]

You also do not need to go the route that I did - converting to built in POE. These are great at $20.

But I would need multiple of these if I needed a total of four network lines with power, correct? I was thinking of just getting a five port POE switch? Need two for the APs and two for my Z-Nets.

Also, if the POE line goes to a regular Netgear Data Switch, will it pass through it or stop at the switch?

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[randy]

But I would need multiple of these if I needed a total of four network lines with power, correct? I was thinking of just getting a five port POE switch? Need two for the APs and two for my Z-Nets.

Also, if the POE line goes to a regular Netgear Data Switch, will it pass through it or stop at the switch?

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These are POE converters to be used at the Z-Net, with power provided by a POE switch. They take the POE from the switch and convert it to 5V @2A and include a right and left angle USB to connect to the Z-Net power.

A switch will not pass POE. Ubiquiti makes one 8-port with a single pass-through POE port, but that is the only one I know of.

[The Profit]

These are POE converters to be used at the Z-Net, with power provided by a POE switch. They take the POE from the switch and convert it to 5V @2A and include a right and left angle USB to connect to the Z-Net power.

A switch will not pass POE. Ubiquiti makes one 8-port with a single pass-through POE port, but that is the only one I know of.

My bad....I assumed it was a POE injector.....Thank you!


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[Timon]

You also do not need to go the route that I did - converting to built in POE. These are great at $20.

Thanks for posting this. I like that they have versions for in-wall as well.

Nice Find, thanks