Generac Power Systems continues to expand its home electrification / clean energy product lineup, last week debuting an electric vehicle (EV) charging system and integrating ecobee smart thermostats with Generac home standby generators.
The 48A / 11.5kW Generac EV charger is a Level 2 home charger capable of charging a car battery in as little as four to six hours, depending on the car battery’s capacity and charge need. The unit’s J1772 connector is out-of-the-box compatible with nearly all EVs on the market today, and a NEMA-4 enclosure makes the unit rated for both indoor and outdoor residential installation.
“We’ve seen an unprecedented rise in demand for electric vehicles in the United States,” said Joshua Brister, director of product management at Generac. “We’re excited to help satisfy this high demand by adding the Generac EV charger to our network of energy technology products.”
The Generac EV charger will be available through Generac’s omni channel sales outlets including leading home improvement retailers, wholesalers, and hardware stores.
“Electric vehicle owners need confidence that they can quickly charge to get where they need to go,” said Nick Schmidling, senior product manager at Generac. “As a leader in home energy technology, we’re introducing a product that homeowners can rely on, with a name brand they have come to trust for nearly 65 years.”
Generac acquired ecobee at the end of 2021, so the integration of ecobee smart thermostats with Generac standby generators, as part of an energy management hub for the home, was a long time coming.
“At Generac, we’re constantly looking for new and innovative ways to make life a little easier,” said Kyle Raabe, executive vice president of Consumer Power at Generac. “By integrating our Generac home standby generators with ecobee smart thermostats, we’re giving customers visual peace of mind that their generators are ready to power on in an outage and helping them keep watch on all their energy management needs in one location.”
The integration will be available on ecobee’s Smart Thermostat Premium and Smart Thermostat Enhanced units, and on all Wi-Fi and cellular-enabled Generac home standby generators. When launched, customers will see the new integration option appear in their Mobile Link app and can choose to participate with the click of a button. The process will take only a few minutes in the app, with no additional installations required from a dealer. Customers can also choose their notification settings on their thermostat or opt out at any time via the Mobile Link app.
Through the new integration, customers and dealers will experience a more efficient process to schedule maintenance or quickly remedy issues that may arise. Homeowners can view the status of their Generac home standby generator in real time by simply pressing the generator icon on their ecobee thermostat. If there is an alert on the generator, the thermostat will have a full screen display notifying the homeowner and displaying their preferred dealer’s contact information.
— Solar Builder magazine
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.