Does a smart meter cut power whilst it does an update ?

Good to hear that you got it going.

We had lightning storm here earlier, first flash and the power went off for 2 or 3 seconds.

My IHD was showing a ‘Reconnected’ message within 3 minutes of the power coming back on.

I wonder if they pair again more easily if they both lose power at the same time ?
 

Unlikely - this is deep config stuff saved in non-volatile memory.

Making both lose power at once requires killing the entire supply. You’d need an engineer for that.

Or a network outage, as in my case yesterday with a bolt of lightning zaping the transmission wires.

Where I am, we get 60+ powercuts a year, so not long to wait for the next one. :-)

Though I prefer most of my electronics to be on the other side of a large surge protector, currently using one of these plugged in before the UPS:

https://www.comms-express.com/products/surgex-sa-132-surge-eliminator-with-advanced-series-mode-2-x-bs1363-receptacles/


https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2018/07/13/thousands-lose-power/
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OVER 4,500 properties across Shetland lost power on Friday morning after a lorry struck an overhead power line at the Lerwick Power Station.
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That took out my UPS with its own small built in surge protector, so decided to get something bigger for next time:

Can anyone recommend something bigger still in case it isn’t big enough ?

Well… At this rate you may need to go for bigger UPS units. Depends how much juice you need really, but you may have to start looking at Eaton type stuff if your issues don’t get solved soon.

If your plan is max runtime, they do that Eaton 9PX thing for example, which can run for ages depending on how you configure it and what you hook it up to.

I mean bigger surge protector, but a bigger UPS could be good too !

Ideally one that plugs in via a standard 13amp plug socket to avoid the need to get an eletrician in to wire up anything more expensive.

Eco-Flow devices seem pretty good, have a Delta 2 here running UPS duty, not as many bells and whistles as the APC unit here. ( 1500i I think. ).

Thunderstorm last night, power went off for a few seconds, and now the IHD is again not conecting.

So this time I’m going to experiment and leave it be for a week+ and see if it reconnects without me doing anything, before I try the turning it off for 24 hours thing.

After that, if I remember, I’m going to try it on a non-UPS socket to see if it connects when both it and the meter lose power and come on at the same time. ( Since when the meter was fitted, it was working straight away, so perhaps the engineer knew how to kick into action straight away. )

Meanwhile, I have a cheap as chips Chinese smart bulb that when the power goes, likes to default to flashing mode..

Which also requires a working internet connetion to stop it doing that !

Thank goodness I got just the one to test and not fited the entire house out with them !
 

If memory serves, Eaton (and others) do offer models that don’t require hardwiring. However, regardless of manufacturer, larger UPS units do tend to require hardwiring to overcome the 13A limits of non-hardwired units.

Either way, for any future UPS you get, I’d suggest getting one that’s Line Interactive given your dodgy power. These ones react MUCH faster to power loss events and basically make it so the protected equipment doesn’t even lose power for more than a few milliseconds. They also do protection from more than just power cuts so are worth paying the extra for compared to an Offline UPS.

The other option is an Online UPS… But given your use case they’re not worth the extra costs.

This thread is generating some excellent discussion, and I'm finding it very helpful so I learn more about UPS systems and power outages.

Well done ​@shetland, ​@Nukecad and ​@Blastoise186 😃.