Hey – I’m curious if anyone knows of a sensor for AC power that would act like “door open” when power was on and “door closed” when power was off (or vice versa)… The reason I want this is to relocate a switched outlet thru our Qolsys IQ2+ control panel and alarm.com automation. Then the switch for the switched outlet controls the sensor, and I can do whatever I want when the sensor changes state, using a simple z-wave outlet plug-in anywhere in the house. (We have a pantry door sensor that turns on the pantry light when the door opens, and that is super handy – I’m looking to do something similar here!) Or is there a much better way to relocate a switched outlet to the other side of a room? (I saw Switcheroo, but that’s fairly expensive – I’m thinking the sensor for AC power should cost like a door or window sensor?) Thanks!!! – Rich
I don’t know of a cheap ac sensor like what you are asking, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, but not sure you need it based on the description.
When you say relocate the switch, do you mean add a switch somewhere there isn’t one already? I’m not 100% on the usage here, but it kind of sounds like this kind of solution might work:
Wow – that’s really close to what I wanted, and I might be able to make that work – I’d use a relay from the outlet to complete the circuit, rather than the switch… (I had been thinking of plugging an electro-magnet into the outlet and using a normal door sensor, but the relay seems cleaner.)
What I really wanted is to not have to touch the existing switch or outlet at all – that already works (and every room in the house has them).
I was hoping to just plug “something” into the existing switched outlet (controlled by the existing switch) that would report back to the control panel as “door opened” when the outlet is on and “door closed” when the outlet is off – no cutting, no wiring, etc. From there I can control any z-wave outlet in the house.
Basically, if there was something like the DW10 that reported the presence of 110VAC (rather than a closed circuit), and even better plugged directly into an existing outlet, that would be perfect!
Thanks again, as usual!
There’s nothing I can think of to easily accomplish what you want as far as an all-in one product. But there are ways of building something out.
I would look into using a 12VDC plug in transformer, plugged into your outlet, and a cheap 12VDC activated relay. Trigger the relay with the 12VDC transformer and use the contact closure of the relay to trip a dw10 or other sensor with wired input. Alternatively you could wired it back to the panel itself and use one of the two hardwired inputs.
thanks – that sounds like the right approach – the dw10 is nice.
I thought I’d share – this worked great! I made an “outlet monitor” that behaves as a window/door sensor, and can be automated thru alarm.com to turn on/off my normal switched outlets when the hardwired/monitored outlet turns on/off!
The outlet monitor for the hardwired outlet is made of:
- 12VDC AC adapter
- 12VDC electromagnet
- 25 ohm resistor (4x 100 ohm resistors in parallel)
- QOLSYS IQ DW MINI S-LINE Encrypted Door/Window Sensor
And the remote switched outlets are:
I chose the resistor count to allow the sensor to trigger while not getting the electromagnet too hot (since it will be on continuously, and the electromagnet is rated for 50% duty cycle).
So now… When we flip the existing hardwired wall switch, not only does the hardwired outlet turn on/off, but two other Honeywell outlets on the other side of the room do as well! 
PS this would be even nicer if I could plug thru the AC adapter!
That’s a clever option, I like the electromagnet. Thank you for following up with the solution you went with!