[Water] Power blip symptoms, was: Water panel flashing red

[Tara Halwes]

Re: Transfer switch possible problem…

Daver keeps reminding me there’s a small lag in power availability when the
grid power cuts out unexpectedly and the generator isn’t already running,
which is (part of) why our darling fire pump control panel keeps getting
stuck on “Initializing…”

I can make sure it’s a cold start next time I do a transfer switch test.
The one we did last Thursday was not a cold start, and, hey look, the chem
tank alarm also did not trigger. Hmmm.🤔

So… maybe more like a tolerance issue at the panel than something wrong
with the transfer switch, or MAAAAYBE the transfer switch just not
signaling the generator fast enough? … Or maybe “fast enough” would require
the transfer switch have psychic powers. (We can’t afford that model.)

Related data points: The smaller generator (to the fire pump side) does
NOT, I believe, connect to/through the main Transfer Switch at all, but the
fire pump control panel (which has its own built in transfer switch) is
also not tolerating these blips and seems to get stuck on its initializing
screen every time we have a power interruption while it’s already online.
It took us until last week to fully understand that was happening.
(Sometimes it’s sneaky and restarts itself when we have back to back power
grid hiccups.)

The fire pump control panel symptoms aren’t the same as the freshwater pump
control panel symptoms, as it’s not reporting a wrong error, but it’s still
doing a wrong thing.

Note I’m assuming here that there’s not actually a problem with the chem
tank and so the panel is alerting about the wrong problem, but I don’t know
the water system comms or tolerances very well so maybe it’s a threshold
setting that should change and not actually a False or Misidentified Alarm.

Maybe the control panels need a tiny battery backup for the cut-over period?

When you ask SWSS to look at the (main/fresh water) transfer switch, I’d
like to know, for diagnostic procedures, if there’s a way to look up when
and for how long power was supplied from the generator in a given event.

~Tara(@57)
508-361-9605

On Wed, Oct 1, 2025 at 15:09 Phéna Proxima <adam at phenaproxima.net> wrote:

> If the chem tank thing is power-related, that would suggest a possible
> power transfer switch issue. Will have to ask SWSS about it.
>
> A
>
> On Wednesday, October 1st, 2025 at 3:08 PM, Tara Halwes <
> tarahalwes at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> RESOLVED for now.
>
> Chem tank alarm acknowledged.
>
> Adam tells me this happens all the time and doesn’t think it’s power
> related.
>
> Daver does think it’s power related, but that could be why it happens all
> the time (component spin up timing differences).
>
> Fire side controller also unhappy due to power fart and back in
> Initializing forever screen.
>
> Pump testing planned for tomorrow. Not resetting fire pump controller yet.
>
> ~Tara
>
> On Wed, Oct 1, 2025 at 14:59 Tara Halwes <tarahalwes at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Never seen it do this before, is this normal after a power grid fart?
>>
>> Also please add me to Water List
>>
>> I will now call Adam and ask what to do…
>>
>> Tara
>> 508-361-9605
>>
>
>
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