Alarm coming from Home Electrical Panel after Generac Install

[Parks 788]

I hope this video actually works as I don't know how to do youtube or the like.

Here's the deal. We have a 400amp electrical panel that is on our home. In October we had a 24Kw Generac home generator installed. Due to the amount of power we wanted for the house it required two "subpanels" installed, one on each side of the main electrical panel. Ever since we had the generator panels installed we get an occasional siren/alarm that sounds at random times and can last for a couple days to a week or more. THen all of sudden it stops and will be silent for a length of time. very random with the alarm noise. It is also a very faint alarm noise as it can only be heard if you walk right by the panel or it is a very still night. On a normal day even living out in the country you can't hear it standing just 30' away. It's a weird deal.

These panels are on the outside of one of our garage walls. If you go inside the garage where the panels breakers are located you can hear the alarm, nothing. I sent this video to the Generac sales guy and he basically said that it's not coming from the transfer switch and that transfer switches don't have the ability to make noise and has no idea what it is. Never heard the alarm before. I even asked him to send it to his engineers, etc, but don't know if he will.

Do any of you electricians on here have a clue what this noise could be or what might be making this noise? We have no other electronic devices in the area and the alarm noise is isolated to the panel area. By the video it sounds like it's coming from the top of the panel area where teh gray conduit is coming out of the generac panel. What say you?

Turn you volume way up to listen.

 

[Shadowrider]

Are there any messages in the generator controller? Sure sounds like one of those panels has a speaker in it.

 

[dennishoddy]

Is it low or high frequency? If it's low, it could be a 60 cycle hum caused by a bad connection.
Volume sucks on my laptop and I don't hear so well.

 

[Bahick71]

Sounds like an alarm to me. The transfer switch monitors voltage, utillity, and generator. I would say
The Switch is not reading a voltage some where. Some units, the exercise timer is in the transfer
Switch. If it commanded an exercise and the gen set did not start, it will sound an alarm.

 

[Snattlerake]

I hope this video actually works as I don't know how to do youtube or the like.

Here's the deal. We have a 400amp electrical panel that is on our home. In October we had a 24Kw Generac home generator installed. Due to the amount of power we wanted for the house it required two "subpanels" installed, one on each side of the main electrical panel. Ever since we had the generator panels installed we get an occasional siren/alarm that sounds at random times and can last for a couple days to a week or more. THen all of sudden it stops and will be silent for a length of time. very random with the alarm noise. It is also a very faint alarm noise as it can only be heard if you walk right by the panel or it is a very still night. On a normal day even living out in the country you can't hear it standing just 30' away. It's a weird deal.

These panels are on the outside of one of our garage walls. If you go inside the garage where the panels breakers are located you can hear the alarm, nothing. I sent this video to the Generac sales guy and he basically said that it's not coming from the transfer switch and that transfer switches don't have the ability to make noise and has no idea what it is. Never heard the alarm before. I even asked him to send it to his engineers, etc, but don't know if he will.

Do any of you electricians on here have a clue what this noise could be or what might be making this noise? We have no other electronic devices in the area and the alarm noise is isolated to the panel area. By the video it sounds like it's coming from the top of the panel area where teh gray conduit is coming out of the generac panel. What say you?

Turn you volume way up to listen.

Interesting!

That sounds like a burglar alarm from your next door neighbor. You say it is coming from the panels?

Have you opened the main panel and the sub panels to see if there is anything amiss? Anything inside explaining the alarm?

Just for grins, do you have a burglar alarm system? Does it sound like this or is it a different sound?

If so, is the alarm panel, siren, or keypad close to these electrical cans?

 

[Judi]

Evils demons in the walls....burn the house down.

Interesting!

That sounds like a burglar alarm from your next door neighbor. You say it is coming from the panels?

Have you opened the main panel and the sub panels to see if there is anything amiss? Anything inside explaining the alarm?

Just for grins, do you have a burglar alarm system? Does it sound like this or is it a different sound?

If so, is the alarm panel, siren, or keypad close to these electrical cans?

 

[Dumpstick]

Evils demons in the walls....burn the house down.

That was my first thought too!

Are you my long lost cousin ?

 

[trekrok]

This may be stupid, but does a neighbor have an burglar alarm? With the wind right, brick wall, metal boxes, I could see getting some weird harmonics there. Sure sounds like a burglar alarm to me, not a warning chime for something.

 

[wawazat]

This may be stupid, but does a neighbor have an burglar alarm? With the wind right, brick wall, metal boxes, I could see getting some weird harmonics there. Sure sounds like a burglar alarm to me, not a warning chime for something.

I thought the same but he said it can go on for weeks at a time. Id be pulling the faces off the panels and seeing if there are any extra boxes tucked in the wires. It made me think of those prank boxes you can get that make cricket noises randomly and for varied amounts of time, haha.

 

[trekrok]

I thought the same but he said it can go on for weeks at a time. Id be pulling the faces off the panels and seeing if there are any extra boxes tucked in the wires. It made me think of those prank boxes you can get that make cricket noises randomly and for varied amounts of time, haha.

Ahh, missed the week long part.