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I never realized that Healthchecks.io was a one man show. I'm almost ashamed to say that i've been using the free tier for years. I moved from self hosted to th

I never realized that Healthchecks.io was a one man show. I'm almost ashamed to say that i've been using the free tier for years. I moved from self hosted to the free tier when i killed off all of self hosted services, and i don't have much legitimate use for it, having it attached to a backup of a Raspberry Pi running HomeBridge in my summerhouse :) I do use it for a purpose it probably was not designed for :) In my summerhouse, one of the circuit breakers trips every now and then (1-2 times per year) for no apparent reason, and since the fridge is connected to that breaker, i very much fear arriving at a summer house where the fridge has been unpowered for a couple of weeks. The solution to that of course, was to setup a systemd timer on a Raspberry Pi (that also runs HomeBridge), which pings Healthchecks.io every 15 minutes. If it misses 2 pings it raises an alert. So far i've had 2 notifications in the 2+ years it's been running, and both have been internet connection related, so monitoring the situation has apparently changed something :)

stavros 4y ago
I use it for the same purpose as well, a friend left on a trip and his fridge lost power, spoiling thousands of dollars worth of his small baking business materials. I set up a phone with Tasker, if the phone stops charging or fails to check in, it sends an alert. Luckily, and as you say, monitoring changed the situation, as it never failed since.
- finnlab 4y ago
  No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it!
  - stavros 4y ago
    Pipe down, Farnsworth!
- dicknuckle 4y ago
  "The doctor is in" or "It doesn't do that when a mechanic looks at it"
trvz 4y ago
> i very much fear arriving at a summer house where the fridge has been unpowered for a couple of weeks. Usually there's little any single person can do, but this waste of electricity is very selfish considering climate change.
- dpcx 4y ago
  Compared to the office buildings leaving their entire office illuminated all night even though the parking lot is empty, this is less than miniscule. In the grand scheme of things, yes, it matters. But start with the big fish and you'll be less hungry.
  - wildmanx 4y ago
    While I agree with the overall sentiment (fix the big problems first to maximize payoff), the issue is one of attitude. Keeping a "save where possible" mindset, no matter how large the immediate payoff (within reasonable limits) has a much greater chance of success. You have that effect in many areas of life. A quite obvious example is working out. Of course it won't make much of a difference if you skip today's workout or abort your 40 min run today halfway cause you don't feel like it. But it's the mindset/attitude. It makes you a quitter. It enables you to do the same thing again. And again. And in the end, the cumulative damage of the change in mindset is magnitudes worse than the single event.
    - 8fingerlouie 4y ago
      > Keeping a "save where possible" mindset, no matter how large the immediate payoff (within reasonable limits) has a much greater chance of success. Ironically that is what kept me from setting up solar power. Being in Scandinavia, solar has a somewhat limited potential given that days are 7 hours long during winter, and December often has less than 20 hours of sunshine in total. My calculations for the "payback" time of the solar panels said that _MAYBE_ they would have saved something before their "expiry date" some 20 years into the future. Considering the "energy and material waste" involved in creating solar panels, this task can be handled by energy companies much more efficiently than i ever can. I am still considering a share in a windmill though :)
wildmanx 4y ago
> i very much fear arriving at a summer house where the fridge has been unpowered for a couple of weeks. Another solution to this problem is to just empty the fridge and turn it off while not in the summer house for a few weeks.
- 8fingerlouie 4y ago
  We don't keep easily perishable goods in there like meat or vegetables, but some of them does require cooling to stay fresh. > just empty the fridge and turn it off while not in the summer house for a few weeks We tried that, but the fridge uses 6-8 hours to reach target temperature despite being brand new, and keeping food fresh without cooling for 10 hours is not easy. It actually uses less power being powered on continiously for 2 weeks (12 days from departure to arrival), than it does being powered off and working overtime for 6 hours trying to cool down. It's not much less power, but still less.
  - wildmanx 4y ago
    > It actually uses less power being powered on continiously for 2 weeks (12 days from departure to arrival), than it does being powered off and working overtime for 6 hours trying to cool down. It's not much less power, but still less. I suppose you mean energy rather than power? (Cause the argument makes less sense with power.) That's an interesting phenomenon then since it goes counter to my (rather naive) understanding of physics. There could be some anomaly with the fridges efficiency curve that causes this. Maybe it's really inefficient cooling down the contents from room temperature while being really efficient maintaining the cool temp? After all, the latter is its main purpose..
    - 8fingerlouie 4y ago
      > Maybe it's really inefficient cooling down the contents from room temperature while being really efficient maintaining the cool temp? After all, the latter is its main purpose.. Normal power consumption of it (assuming 18C room temperature) is less than 0.4 kWh/day. That amounts to 4.8 kWh in a 12 day period. Cooling it down from 18C takes 5.6 kWh (measured). Temperature varies of course, and the lower the temperature the lower the power consumption, and the heat pump keeps a minimum temperature of 12C. During long summer days, the indoor temperature can easily reach 26C, which will require more power, and i have not measured every possible scenario. I'm not ruling out that actually cooling down the thing during winter will require less energy than keeping it running, but i'm fairly certain that doing the same from 26C will require more power than keeping it running.
elcomet 4y ago
I think it was exactly designed for this purpose - monitoring
Aeolun 4y ago
Sounds like a win-win to me. Either you installing the thing alerts you to the problem, or instslling it makes the whole problem disappear. Either way it’ll be fixed.

stavros 4y ago

I use it for the same purpose as well, a friend left on a trip and his fridge lost power, spoiling thousands of dollars worth of his small baking business materials. I set up a phone with Tasker, if the phone stops charging or fails to check in, it sends an alert. Luckily, and as you say, monitoring changed the situation, as it never failed since.

finnlab 4y ago
No fair! You changed the outcome by measuring it!
- stavros 4y ago
  Pipe down, Farnsworth!
dicknuckle 4y ago
"The doctor is in" or "It doesn't do that when a mechanic looks at it"

trvz 4y ago

> i very much fear arriving at a summer house where the fridge has been unpowered for a couple of weeks. Usually there's little any single person can do, but this waste of electricity is very selfish considering climate change.

dpcx 4y ago
Compared to the office buildings leaving their entire office illuminated all night even though the parking lot is empty, this is less than miniscule. In the grand scheme of things, yes, it matters. But start with the big fish and you'll be less hungry.
- wildmanx 4y ago
  While I agree with the overall sentiment (fix the big problems first to maximize payoff), the issue is one of attitude. Keeping a "save where possible" mindset, no matter how large the immediate payoff (within reasonable limits) has a much greater chance of success. You have that effect in many areas of life. A quite obvious example is working out. Of course it won't make much of a difference if you skip today's workout or abort your 40 min run today halfway cause you don't feel like it. But it's the mindset/attitude. It makes you a quitter. It enables you to do the same thing again. And again. And in the end, the cumulative damage of the change in mindset is magnitudes worse than the single event.
  - 8fingerlouie 4y ago
    > Keeping a "save where possible" mindset, no matter how large the immediate payoff (within reasonable limits) has a much greater chance of success. Ironically that is what kept me from setting up solar power. Being in Scandinavia, solar has a somewhat limited potential given that days are 7 hours long during winter, and December often has less than 20 hours of sunshine in total. My calculations for the "payback" time of the solar panels said that _MAYBE_ they would have saved something before their "expiry date" some 20 years into the future. Considering the "energy and material waste" involved in creating solar panels, this task can be handled by energy companies much more efficiently than i ever can. I am still considering a share in a windmill though :)

wildmanx 4y ago

> i very much fear arriving at a summer house where the fridge has been unpowered for a couple of weeks. Another solution to this problem is to just empty the fridge and turn it off while not in the summer house for a few weeks.

8fingerlouie 4y ago
We don't keep easily perishable goods in there like meat or vegetables, but some of them does require cooling to stay fresh. > just empty the fridge and turn it off while not in the summer house for a few weeks We tried that, but the fridge uses 6-8 hours to reach target temperature despite being brand new, and keeping food fresh without cooling for 10 hours is not easy. It actually uses less power being powered on continiously for 2 weeks (12 days from departure to arrival), than it does being powered off and working overtime for 6 hours trying to cool down. It's not much less power, but still less.
- wildmanx 4y ago
  > It actually uses less power being powered on continiously for 2 weeks (12 days from departure to arrival), than it does being powered off and working overtime for 6 hours trying to cool down. It's not much less power, but still less. I suppose you mean energy rather than power? (Cause the argument makes less sense with power.) That's an interesting phenomenon then since it goes counter to my (rather naive) understanding of physics. There could be some anomaly with the fridges efficiency curve that causes this. Maybe it's really inefficient cooling down the contents from room temperature while being really efficient maintaining the cool temp? After all, the latter is its main purpose..
  - 8fingerlouie 4y ago
    > Maybe it's really inefficient cooling down the contents from room temperature while being really efficient maintaining the cool temp? After all, the latter is its main purpose.. Normal power consumption of it (assuming 18C room temperature) is less than 0.4 kWh/day. That amounts to 4.8 kWh in a 12 day period. Cooling it down from 18C takes 5.6 kWh (measured). Temperature varies of course, and the lower the temperature the lower the power consumption, and the heat pump keeps a minimum temperature of 12C. During long summer days, the indoor temperature can easily reach 26C, which will require more power, and i have not measured every possible scenario. I'm not ruling out that actually cooling down the thing during winter will require less energy than keeping it running, but i'm fairly certain that doing the same from 26C will require more power than keeping it running.

elcomet 4y ago

I think it was exactly designed for this purpose - monitoring

Aeolun 4y ago

Sounds like a win-win to me. Either you installing the thing alerts you to the problem, or instslling it makes the whole problem disappear. Either way it’ll be fixed.