Claude built the brownout complaint. The utility called 2 days later.
Their rural home kept dipping below 110 volts. From two years of Home Assistant data, Claude documented brownouts down to 95v and helped fill the complaint form. Now they're pushing for a bigger transformer.
Done withClaudeSpotted· by HN user Jgrubb· Oct 15, 2026
Result A bigger transformer now on the table
“After a day or so of this I mention to Claude about the voltage issues and sure enough, it puts together a whole packet for me documenting brownouts down to 95v and routine brownouts below 110v.”
Spotted: found in the wild. Details are as reported by the source above and have not been independently verified.
What they did
Had Home Assistant and a per-circuit power monitor collecting data for about two years. While analysing months of power bills against the circuit readings, they mentioned the voltage problems to Claude. It put together a packet documenting brownouts down to 95v and routine dips below 110v, and helped fill out the Board of Public Utilities complaint form.
How it went
2 days later the utility, JCP&L, called. They’re now pushing for a new, larger transformer for themselves and their neighbours.
Try it yourself with Claude
Here's my home power data from [monitor or Home Assistant export] for [period]. Find every time the voltage dropped below [threshold], with the date, time, duration and lowest voltage, and summarise the pattern. Then draft a formal complaint to [utility] and [regulator] with the evidence as a table, what I'm asking for, and the service standard they should be meeting.
A starting prompt written by Agents in the Wild. Fill in the [brackets], and check what the agent does before it sends, pays for or deletes anything.
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