harley
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Hi everyone. As many of you know, I'm a snowbird (FL/MD). We use wifi cameras and thermostats and water sensors to keep track of our empty house, and for the most part that works great.
Leaving the small house in FL is a no brainer, as it's a block bunker with a new roof and new AC system. Barring a hurricane it will be fine.
Leaving the big house in MD for 6+ months has also been pretty easy, largely because we have a full(ish) house generator (45KW, state of the art 12 years ago) that helps assure we won't have to deal with frozen pipes and such, although I still drain them before I leave. However, one year I came back and discovered there had been a circuit board glitch and the generator hadn't been exercising and I assume wouldn't have worked had it been needed. Luckily it hadn't.
So now I'm trying to figure out a way to monitor the generator while I'm away. I've tried turning on a nearby inside wifi camera microphone and listening to the engine start. That sort of works, if I can be somewhere totally silent and have my ear buds on. I'd like to find something a bit more reliable. I haven't been able to find a automated process. Some of the newer generators have an app you can use, but mine's too old.
I was hoping there was an AC outlet I could plug a light or something into that would only be active when it was on, so I could just check the camera and see that it's on. But I couldn't find anything. I've also considered tapping into the exhaust pipe of the propane engine to push air up into one of those little dancing Christmas decorations. If I look out the camera and it dancing, everything is good. The only other thing I can think of is hiring the generator company to check it every month, but that's too damn expensive.
However, I know there are a lot of people here with a lot of knowledge, so I thought I'd throw it out to the crowd. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Leaving the small house in FL is a no brainer, as it's a block bunker with a new roof and new AC system. Barring a hurricane it will be fine.
Leaving the big house in MD for 6+ months has also been pretty easy, largely because we have a full(ish) house generator (45KW, state of the art 12 years ago) that helps assure we won't have to deal with frozen pipes and such, although I still drain them before I leave. However, one year I came back and discovered there had been a circuit board glitch and the generator hadn't been exercising and I assume wouldn't have worked had it been needed. Luckily it hadn't.
So now I'm trying to figure out a way to monitor the generator while I'm away. I've tried turning on a nearby inside wifi camera microphone and listening to the engine start. That sort of works, if I can be somewhere totally silent and have my ear buds on. I'd like to find something a bit more reliable. I haven't been able to find a automated process. Some of the newer generators have an app you can use, but mine's too old.
I was hoping there was an AC outlet I could plug a light or something into that would only be active when it was on, so I could just check the camera and see that it's on. But I couldn't find anything. I've also considered tapping into the exhaust pipe of the propane engine to push air up into one of those little dancing Christmas decorations. If I look out the camera and it dancing, everything is good. The only other thing I can think of is hiring the generator company to check it every month, but that's too damn expensive.
However, I know there are a lot of people here with a lot of knowledge, so I thought I'd throw it out to the crowd. Any suggestions will be appreciated.
