Remote: Wifi off, breaker flipped??... guest refuses to communicate

[Kenneth12]

Howdy all,

Landed in Milwaukee about 90 minutes ago to another guest request (in Chicago) to adjust the thermostat for whole building for him because he wants it warmer in his room.   Attempting to do so,  Wifi looks offline.  Either Comcast out or a breaker is flipped,   possibily affecting furnace.

Ask guest to check what Wifi networks are showing and check breaker box.  Reply (from an aspiring doctor who has been a bit entitled despite a low season discount rate than is 1/3rd our summer pricing) is "I don't know,  and I'm not comfortable checking fuses."

No replies to direct follow-up and questions about the furnace running;   it's currently down to 67F in the house and 30 outside,   so will probably reach about 55F inside by mid-day tomorrow if the heat is off.    I can send someone by to check,   but I pay for than and not having the info I need is frustrating -- so would be paying $40 to have someone go by and flip a breaker because this guy won't try.

As it is past my jetlagged bedtime,  "any thoughts" or "how would you handle this?"

P.S.  This also means that security / surveillance is out,  since I have failed to maintain redundant / failover / backup networking ...

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Helen3 @Pete28

Having been an electrical contractor does give me certain knowledge in this field but, that still doesn't help!

From time to time during the winter months I have had the power service in the listing cottage trip out!

It is annoying but I felt there was nothing I could do about it. The authorities will not allow me to run a supply service larger than 45Amps to the cottage. 

Guests don't care how much electricity they use, if the appliance is there, use it.

The shower hot water heater is electric....1 x 3.6 Kw heating element.

The wall panel heater, up to...........................1 Kw

The main air conditioner & air filter.............2.6 Kw input.

The benchtop hotplate...................................2.4 Kws

The hair dryer.....................................................2 Kws

The electric kettle.............................................1.2 Kws

Without itemising lighting, electric blankets, microwave, TV, charging facilities that means my total load in that cottage could conceiveably be 13.5 Kws at any time. Almost as much as the average house consumption!

Multiply 13.5 by 4.25 (being the ratio of Kws to Amps) that equals a possible 57.3 amps.....bingo, the 45 Amp supply breaker trips!!

The one advantage we have here over you in the US is our grid power supply is 240 volt so it is a bit more forgiving than 110v!

During winter months I have to instruct guests that the service is generous but not capable of meeting the requirements of everything in the cottage at the one time.

If they are using the central air conditioning, don't use the wall panel as well.

Time any cooking so that it doesn't coincide with shower time.

Nobody has complained about it but it is annoying and something I do have to constantly keep in mind......

Any you should see the meter just about fly off the wall when guests are in there on a cold winter evening!

Cheers.....Rob

[Pete28]

@Robin4 do you have gas ? Cheaper for heat etc, and you could always kill the guests who are troublesome if not vented correctly 🙂

recently acquired gas clothes dryer and it's a god send with constant Airbnb laundry. Also half price of electric here for equival power.

[Robin4]

@Pete28

I am not in an 'urban' area and not on a reticulated gas supplied so depend on LPG which is considerably more expensive than city gas.

The other thing is....as I said, if it's available guests will use it. I do have a gas hot water unit as a back-up in case either of my  power supplies should fail for any time but, when you have an unlimited supply...guests will try to find out perhaps where that  limit might be! Guests were having 40 minute showers and were chewing through a massive amount of gas! So with my 80 Litre electric jobbie, that gives the guest around 12-13 minutes of mains pressure hot water before it goes cold. It discourages senseless waste of a resource.

And yet another thing Pete.....we produce our own electricity compliments of the sun and the wind....it's sort of a 'no brainer' when you think about it!

Cheers.....Rob