Wifi Monitoring of Standby Generator

[mkgrady]

I have a customer that wants a whole house generator installed that also wants to be able to monitor it through his home's Wifi. I suggested that the Generac he is considering can be monitored with a cellular device. He does not like the idea of using cellular. I'm not sure why, maybe poor cell service at this vacation home.

Is there a way to use a wifi network to monitor the status of a generator? It seems like a generator malfunction might take place during a power outage. If the generator malfunctions during a power outage the wifi won't work anyway without power. I guess it could be useful to get other notifications about the generator status, but it seems it would have to be built into the generators control software. Does any generator manufacturer offer something like this?

 

[mgookin]

It should be easy enough to put a UPS on the wifi. At least he'd get the notification of the failure before the UPS runs out.

 

[kwired]

Whatever connects to internet needs to be on UPS also, or you have no connectivity when power goes down.

There is also some risk of no internet if it is via overhead phone or coax lines and you have a disaster that takes down a lot of overhead utilities.