Power Outages Affecting Control4 Lighting

[C4 User]

I have had a whole house generator on a C4 system beginning back in 2008. I have always kept all of my network gear, Audio/Video gear, and all C4 controllers on battery backups/power conditions. And to be honest, I have never had a significant issue with my C4 system due to power. Yes, there were times where I had to do the reset on C4 switches - but it has been so long that this was necessary that I would have to look up the button push sequence. All this to say, we are not all having the same issues and I am not really sure what C4 should do to beef up their devices to handle home power issues.

Today, most generator resellers also have whole home battery systems, and to be honest, its not that much more expensive to install both, since a whole house battery system allows you to significantly downsize the generator. 

[ejn1]

6 hours ago, Cyknight said:

Wouldn't it be great if the generator companies came up with a fix? Such as a whole home battery back-up to fix the transition issue? You know, as they tend to target these expensive homes with expensive systems.

This is not a C4 specific issue, it also affects other lighting systems (though not all) and other overall systems to begin with. Including fancy sprinkler setups, pool controllers and, worst of all, some extensive HVAC systems (I personally have seen two different setups destroyed by poor power from a back-up generator, each far exceeding the cost of the generator setup).

 

Now, I'm not saying I would like C4 to have better handling of these in new generations of devices moving forward, but in the end I'd think the true 'fix' should be at the actual failure point.

I get it and I was really stating what you said in your last sentence, they should get a handle on this I think.   Plus, I'm not completely sure I know the actual "failure" point yet.   I dont have a big enough sample size on my end but I do have some Kasa dimmers that dont go into the led fireworks (with not a super easy fix) every time the gen goes on.  I had posted this thread to see if my case was isolated or not.   I don't have a Briggs and Stratton lawn mower engine generator, its a higher end Kohler who at least claim that their generators are completely safe for electronics with low distortion.   I'm a big fan of the C4 lighting products but I know if my wife was forced to chose between whole home backup power or losing my C4 keypads and dimmers,  it think it would be a quick decision Hopefully it gets resolved in time without having to add a wall of lithium ion batteries to my garage.