Standby generator integration?

[denisl]

Curious if there are any plugins that integrate with home standby generators? Many of them now have ethernet or wifi connections to email/text diagnostic information or provide remote monitoring/control. Would be interesting if this could be tied into homeseer.

I'm in the market for a 20kw whole house generator and was thinking if one tied into homeseer it would steer me towards that brand/model.

Thanks

[SFX Group]

Curious if there are any plugins that integrate with home standby generators? Many of them now have ethernet or wifi connections to email/text diagnostic information or provide remote monitoring/control. Would be interesting if this could be tied into homeseer.

I'm in the market for a 20kw whole house generator and was thinking if one tied into homeseer it would steer me towards that brand/model.

Thanks

I would be interested to know about this, i have been looking at Generac which doesn’t have any Ethernet connection. The switch is for a whole house but its preparatory to the generator only.

Which Whole Home generators have an Ethernet connection? (at least the transfer switch would need to have it (normally 100-400amp switches, Generac are 200amp).

[Rupp]

Curious if there are any plugins that integrate with home standby generators? Many of them now have ethernet or wifi connections to email/text diagnostic information or provide remote monitoring/control. Would be interesting if this could be tied into homeseer.

I'm in the market for a 20kw whole house generator and was thinking if one tied into homeseer it would steer me towards that brand/model.

Thanks

I've not seen a plugin that does this but if the protocol is published it shouldn't be that hard of a task and it's quite possible it could be done with scripts.

[denisl]

From what I can tell Kohler has the most data provided over their network connection but I would suspect all proprietary formatted. They work kind of like Nest where the generator communicates to the Kohler server and your SW to manage the generator talks to Kohler over the internet, not the local generator.

http://www.kohlergenerators.com/home...GM81385-KP2-QS

[randy]

I have the GE AKA Briggs & Stratton. Their new service "infohub" is a proprietary fee based service and requires an optional interface module. It is possible that that someone could decode the interface's output, but if they are looking for it to generate subscription revenue, they will likely keep the API close to the vest. There is also an "LED output" on the generator that generates a number of trouble codes as a sequence of flashes. I would think the flashes could be read by an Arduino or other digital I/O with an opto-coupler and interpreted for HomeSeer. I plan on trying at some point.

The generator has been great and I currently have the wireless status monitor on top of the refrigerator.

[ORNVM]

Ditto with regard to everything just being a "call home" feature for their own branded value added remote service. I'm not aware of any open standards or any units that are serving up any statistics locally.

The generator industry is kind of behind the times, much like alarm panel monitoring services, with regard to the protocols and methods of generators reporting information. They're really still driven by industrial control type applications which are spendy.

Generac units generally have a summary alarm, which is a dry contact closure, (for sure, and documented, on the nexus panel, not documented but can be found on the 1000, and others.) This contact alarm could be added to any variety of dry contact sensor input to HS3 (arduino, raspi, serial aux io, etc). This dry contact goes into alarm status for any error that would prevent the generator from starting, or if it failed to start (overcrank, etc).

There is also a gas shutoff solenoid that is 12v -- energized when the generator is cranking or running. I usually tap that with a cheap automotive relay and feed that into another dry contact input. It then is effectively a "generator running" sense since the solenoid gets energized as the motor cranks and shuts off about 2-5 seconds after shut down.

You can also tap a small 240v relay through a fuse in the transfer switch to get signals for AC Main Loss, Generator producing AC and load powered.

I've setup several of these generac units and the summary alarm and gas solenoid are usually the best 2 inputs you would want anyway.... one alarm for problems, another alarm when its on. I've never taken these to homeseer, usually its a SNMP trap or standalone alarm panel, but they are just dry contact so it should work great with HS as well.

By the way, if you are looking for a bigger generac liquid cooled (22kw+), take a serious look at the quiet source line, they run at a much lower RPM (1800) than some of their other lines, and I've found they don't rattle themselves apart like their lower tier (guardian/ core line) models do.

I have installed quite a few quiet sources in a few different sizes and can't say enough about them, they're a bit more expensive, but really in a different class than anything else you can get for the price you pay, unless you go commercial tier.

If you do end up with a generac I'd be happy to share connection specifics and post some pictures if you want them for the methods described above.

[buvens]

I have an older Kohler that I control and monitor with Homeseer.

Use a relay to turn the generator on and off for the normal test once a month. As soon as it starts it generates voltage that picks a relay to notify me anytime that it is running as well as when the voltage drops out.

That way in case of a power failure, I get the message that it is running without a notice that it is doing the monthly test.

This one has a little accessory board with a few contacts that tell if it has an alert.

The only issue I have had in 7 years is the trickle charger had to be changed to a battery tender after it failed a couple of years ago.