I have a whole house generator that exercises itself (turns on automatically) every week at the same time. The problem is the exhaust from the natural gas generator is very near the exhaust fan outlet from the daylight basement bathroom. If I don't want the basement filling up with toxic fumes I have to run down to the basement when I hear the generator kick on to manually turn on the bathroom exhaust fan. This seems like a great opportunity for some home automation.
The exhaust fan is currently controlled by one of those digital timers that lets you select 5, 10, 15, or 30 minutes. I need to keep that functionality intact.
It seems like either the Zooz ZEN51 or Shelly 1 Mini Gen3 relays will do this job. Does anyone have any recommendations for one over the other?
The automation sees like it should be pretty straight-forward (turn fan on at 9am every Friday for 30 minutes), but is there something I should be aware of? I'm very new to home automation.
In the future it might be nice to add a vibration sensor to the generator so that the fan kicks on whenever the generator turns on (e.g., when there's an actual power outage), but I'm not sure that how well that would work since the Hubitat C8 will be without power until the generator comes online and the C8 takes a couple minutes to boot. Are there any vibration sensors that will work outside? I live in western Washington state, so we get some snow in the winter, but temps rarely fall below 10 deg F.
That sounds incredibly dangerous. I'm surprised that the company that installed your generator did that.
That said, a simple zigbee relay like the MHcozy could probably be used to detect power on the panel (up to 24v) which could then trip a fan switch (inovelli or lutron) that is on the exhaust fan,,,,
For myself though and the protection of my family I would have the exhaust for the generator rerouted though as home automation can fail. Just a thought (and please, this is by no means a criticism, simply a concern for you and your loved ones)
Bear in mind, this is for a weekly test of what, 7 minutes, or something?
How about when the thing is running in earnest, like for hours at a time?
Whatever you rig up, it has to be ruggedized to take that.
How about a better damper on the vent exhaust?
Something that seals when the stack effect gets going in the winter?
Probably be hard to find, and again, risky.
If there are no windows or other openings in the area, as specified in the installation manual, and moving the generator or redirecting the exhaust isn't an option, I'd close up that vent and find an alternative...all kidding aside.
You can't even depend on CO monitors. Maybe they make some kind of CO monitor that could be applicable, but I doubt it'd be integrating with HE.
I second this. I’ve been using Genmon for 6 years on my generac evolution series - the model before they started offering WiFi. I have it connected to HE through HA. IIRC, Genmon supports Generac’s previous version (or two) controller. Genmon is great! Very reliable. And supports MQTT, twilio, pushover, and a bunch of other addons. The list has grown over the years.
I also think you should consider a solution for when the gen runs during an outage as well. If you have a whole house ATS, it may have a set of dry contacts you can connect to. I have an old mimolite connected to one of our generac ATS’s.
I think if your generator is supported by Genmon, you can handle both exercise and outage scenarios… and it is a fun little project to build.
Granted my Generac is brand new, but my transfer switch supports a relay if I wanted one. Has contact points to connect to a relay to indicate either open or closed, honestly never tried to connect anything but installer mentioned it’s possible. This said it would only indicate power is out vs generator running its weekly exercise.
I hooked up an Ecolink contact sensor to one of those transfer switches so it tells me, theoretically, lol, by notifications and lighting various lights in the house, whether it's on utility or generator. The generator is pretty far away and I can't hear it well-I'd rather shut it down and/or run a battery (at night for the fridge) or small inverter generator when possible. Rather than just laying in bed and going back to sleep, lol.
I use a PowerBack if I've shutdown the standby during an outage, have thrown the panel interlock to power it with a little generator, etc.
All of which has nothing to do with carbon monoxide coming in through openings in the building shell.
I would also add the your exhaust fan will also be sucking air into the basement from anywhere is can. It could be bringing in more Co2. This is a very dangerous situation. I would make sure you have Co2 detectors throughout your home. Turning on the exhaust fan is NOT the answer. You need to get your home sealed in the area of your generator.
