Cold rooms, freezers and medicine fridges
A power cut on a cold store is invisible until the temperature climbs and stock is lost. The alert arrives while there is still time to move stock or restore supply.
Power failure monitoring tag
The ZARC power failure tag tells you the moment a supply goes off, and again when it comes back. It works on any supply arrangement, fits wherever the supply is, and runs on its own battery, so it keeps reporting when the power it watches has gone.
01
What it reports
It answers one question reliably: is the supply live? After an outage, what matters is not how far the voltage fell but whether the power is there, when it went and when it came back. The tag reports that change of state the instant it happens.
If you need continuous voltage, current or power readings rather than on and off, we build that as a bespoke project. Tell us the requirement.
02
Applications
If losing power somewhere costs you stock, data, time or safety, the tag belongs there. Common uses include the following, and the list is not exhaustive.
Server and comms rooms
When mains drops, the UPS takes over quietly and nobody knows the clock is running. The tag tells the team the moment the UPS takes the load, while there is still time to act.
Pumps and sumps
Sewage, drainage, flood and borehole pumps only fail loudly when the water arrives. Knowing the pump has lost power turns a flood into a service call.
Heating plant and frost protection
Boilers, trace heating and frost protection in empty or seasonal buildings. A supply loss in winter becomes burst pipes when nobody finds out for a week.
Remote and unmanned sites
Cabinets, compounds, pumping stations and outbuildings where nobody is on hand to notice an outage until something else fails.
Security and building systems
Access control, CCTV and alarm panels fall back to batteries when mains fails. The tag gives warning before that backup runs out. It is complementary monitoring and does not replace certified signalling.
03
Where it can go
Anywhere there is a supply to watch. The tag is small, battery-powered and connects by two cables, so it goes where the supply is rather than where wiring is convenient. Typical fittings include:
On a DIN rail
Beside the circuits it watches, in a distribution board or consumer unit.
On a wall
In a plant room, riser, cupboard or corridor, close to the supply that matters.
Inside existing panels
Within a control panel, cabinet or enclosure you already have, with no extra box on show.
Indoors or outdoors
In an enclosure specified for the location, from a clean comms room to an exposed kiosk.
Whole building or single item
On a building's incoming supply, or on the supply to one freezer, pump controller or charger.
One site or hundreds
Every tag on every site reports to the same dashboard, so an estate is watched as one.
04
In the dashboard
Every tag on every site appears on one live dashboard. For each supply you see its current state, when it went off, when it came back and how long the outage lasted, with a full, documented history of every event. History can be exported for reports, insurers and compliance records, and is backed up to the cloud or, where required, to servers on your own site.
Alerts are pushed the instant the state changes and typically reach the dashboard within a second. They go to whoever needs them, by email or SMS and through an app where required: site owners, estates teams, contractors or key-holders, with escalation to further contacts.
- Live state for every supply, grouped by site
- Outage start, restoration and duration for every event
- Full event history, exportable, stored in the cloud or on site
- Alert routing by email or SMS, with escalation
- Check-in interval set to your requirement, so a silent tag is flagged
- A separate alert if a gateway itself loses power
05
Industries
It is used in every sector that relies on a supply staying on, including:
Public sector, school and college estates
Multi-site estates with plant rooms, kitchens and IT rooms spread across campuses.
Data centres and critical infrastructure
Early warning of supply loss before backup systems run down.
Healthcare
Medicine fridges, plant and building services where an unseen outage costs far more than equipment.
Facilities management and property operators
One view of supply status across a whole portfolio.
Telecoms infrastructure
Cabinets, towers and compounds with nobody on site.
Energy and utilities
Pumping stations, kiosks and remote plant.
06
Technical specification
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Function | Mains power presence: power on or power off |
| Supply compatibility | Any phase arrangement, single-phase or three-phase |
| Alerts | On loss and on restoration, pushed instantly |
| Alert delivery | Dashboard, email or SMS; app where required |
| Check-in interval | Configurable, down to every minute |
| Power | Internal battery, up to five years depending on check-in interval |
| Radio | 433 MHz, one-way (transmit only) |
| Inputs | One or more per tag, depending on configuration |
| Mounting | DIN rail, wall or inside an existing enclosure |
| Environment | Indoor or outdoor, enclosure specified to the location |
| Enclosure | Standard or built to the site; bespoke moulding for volume orders |
| Data | Full event history, stored in the cloud or on site |
| Gateway power loss | Raises its own platform alert |
| Certification | CE marked |
07
From requirement to live alerts
Requirement
You tell us what needs watching and who needs to know.
Configuration
We set the inputs, check-in interval, alert routes and enclosure to suit the site.
Fitting
The tag connects by two small cables and mounts wherever suits the installation. Most fittings need no specialist; where your site rules require a qualified electrician, we work alongside theirs.
Commissioning
We simulate an outage and confirm every alert reaches every recipient before handover.
Ready to get started? Every deployment begins with a site survey.
Book a site survey08
How it reports
The tag sends its state over 433 MHz radio to a ZARC gateway, which forwards it to the dashboard and raises the alert. The tag only transmits; it does not receive, so it cannot be reconfigured or attacked over the air.
Related tags
AC current
Confirms equipment is running, not just powered.
Temperature
Pairs with power failure monitoring on cold rooms and freezers.
Dry contact
Reads the alarm output from a UPS, generator or panel.
Alarm relay
Relays an existing local alarm off site.
Questions we answer most.
Where can it be fitted?
Anywhere there is a supply to watch: on a DIN rail, on a wall, inside an existing panel, indoors or outdoors, on a whole building or a single piece of equipment.
Does it still alert if the whole site loses power?
Yes. The tag runs on its own battery, and if the gateway loses power too, the platform raises an alert for that.
How quickly does an alert arrive?
The alert is pushed the moment the state changes and typically reaches the dashboard within a second.
Will I know when the power comes back, and how long it was off?
Yes. Restoration sends a second alert, and the dashboard records the length of every outage.
Who receives the alerts?
Whoever you choose: site owners, estates teams, contractors or key-holders, by email or SMS, with escalation to further contacts.
Does it need an electrician to fit it?
Usually not. Where your site rules require one, we work with them.
Can it measure voltage or energy use?
The standard tag reports on or off. Continuous readings are a bespoke project.
Does it work on three-phase supplies?
Yes, on any phase arrangement.
Where is the data kept?
The full history is backed up to the cloud, or to servers on your own site if required.
Looking for something else?
We work with any sensor for any application.
Most sensing needs are met by a tag we already build, configured for your equipment. If yours needs a sensor or interface we don't list, we have the engineering to build it. Tell us what you need to measure, and we will tell you how we would do it.
Discuss your requirementDiscuss a monitoring
or alerting solution
Tell us what is happening on site, what you need to see, and the event you need to hear about. We will come back with the system that answers it.
Direct contact
Location
Venator House, Unit 9, 15-17 St Stephen's Road, Bournemouth
Dorset, BH2 6LA · VAT GB 409644484
Products contact
Contact the engineering team
Direct to the team that designs and builds the range. Tell us the equipment and the event that matters.