Power Outages & the Internet of Things

[Raptor]

Some lessons I learned during a prolonged power outage after Hurricane Ida. These are actual issues I picked up from friends, experienced myself or confirmed through other means. Obviously YMMV.

I will add to this but do feel free to post your experiences with such things.

Smart HVAC Thermostats
There are several kinds of Thermostats. There are electo-mechanical thermostats that use no electronics. There are newer thermostats that use electronics to turn the HVAC system on and off and have toggle on/off switches; there are programmable versions of the electronic ones and finally there are internet enabled "smart" thermostats. Some will tie into Google, Alexa and other home management systems.
When the power goes out you should, assuming it is safe, turn off the HVAC system at the thermostat and then at the circuit breaker outside to prevent voltage spikes from damaging the HVAC system. Most people are lazy and simply turn off the thermostat. If the thermostat has an on/off switch, it is easy to simply switch off the unit there. If on the other hand the thermostat is "smart" there is no way to turn off the HVAC system at the thermostat without power AND internet connectivity.

Different smart thermostats have different OS systems but the ones I am referring to are the ones that use cloud based applications. These need the cloud connection to change the temperature, function and even turn on/off the HVAC system. Normally this is not a huge issue since without power the HVAC system cannot work. However, if the power is present (either with a generator or utility power) but the internet connectivity is compromised there is no way to access the thermostat to turn the HVAC unit on/off or change the temperature. In one instance I know about, the generator was providing power but since the internet and power had gone out at the same time (courtesy of a tree) the thermostat was not able to reset and the HVAC unit stayed off. They could not turn on the HVAC unit until several days later when a technician was able to get out to change the thermostat with a simple one with an on off switch.

Magic Black Boxes on Generators
This one surprises me, but here it is. Modern generators that are tier 4 compliant have what I refer to derisively as "magic black boxes". These black boxes need to be functional in order to the generator to operate. They handle all of the engine management functions and voltage regulation, etc. They are also frequently wi-fi enabled so you can manage them from your smart phone. That is a nice convenience and does add automatic load shedding capability so that when the generator starts if the initial starting load exceeds the capacity it simply sheds a pre-assigned load(s). You can then (at least in theory) restore the "shedded" load once the power demand stabilizes. That sound great, especially for people not used to managing such processes.
However, here is the wrinkle.
The magic wi-fi enable black box needs the wi fi connection for the app to work and more importantly the version I was told about apparently needs the internet connection because it used a cloud function to operate. There is I am told there is a way to override/operate the generator by going to the generator panel itself. However the person was not aware of this and had a very limited understanding of the function.

Finally I am also aware of an instance where the magic black box was damaged and while the generator was able to start and run, it was not able to produce any power because the failure mode for these items is geared to towards safety and the safest thing is to shut down the generator power output. So until the magic black box can be replaced (they are {surprise, surprise, surprise} on back order) the whole house generator is as functional as the utility power a couple of weeks ago.
Be aware if you spend big bucks to get whole house generator power; the less complex you can get it the better.

Electronics can and do fail and normally at the worst possible moment. Wifi enabled anything in a post disaster zone is not IMO desirable.

Internet Connectivity
I use my smart phone for hotspot activity frequently. After Ida when I connectivity the hotspot function was disabled by AT&T so no hot spot. I did by a sheer stroke of good luck have a dedicated hot spot that was used for a specific application and was then surplus. I was going to shut it off and return it but Ida hit.

I found that in an identical location the hotspot did work well for internet connectivity. AT&T obviously turned of hotspot functions for phones but left these dedicated hotspots unaffected.

Something to bear in mind if you are a first responder.

[Lodewijk]

The internet of things makes me very, very nervous. Anything that requires a data connection to work is a needless risk IMNSHO. I can't even get cell coverage at my house in suburban Colorado all the time. Why would I trust network connectivity with something important?

But I've got connectivity fatigue pretty bad. An old job with a defense contractor that had to operate on US Army servers really drove home that anything requiring a data connection to work is all but guaranteed to abandon you when you actually need it. Our stuff would go down for hours, for no reason. This wasn't a million years ago, either, it was 2020.

When my family relocated we shocked the hell out of our builder by flatly refusing all the "smart" garbage they wanted to set up. If I knew how to rip it all out of the wall, I would.