GDavis01 Posted September 25, 2018 Posted September 25, 2018 A little background... I currently have a 200 amp entrance at my vacation home which has a back up generator (Generac 20kw). The generator and the transformer are about 500 feet from the house. The transfer switch is next to the generator and is a whole house switch meaning that there is only one line going to the house that is fully backed up. I am now in the process of building, next to our house, an area to house a hot tub and a sauna . It has been determined that we don’t have enough room on our current panel to run the hot tub, the sauna furnace, the lighting requirements and the heated flooring! So we are now looking at putting in a second 200 amp entrance, beside the original one. I currently have an ISY 994i Pro with numerous outlets and keypads in the house (roughly 25 devices). I am looking to add several devices to the second entrance including light switches, some form of insteon device to control the 3 heated floor zones; and some device to control the sauna furnace. My questions relate to my ISY... - since both 200 amp entrances are between the transformer and the house will I be able to control any device on either entrance? - since the entrances are 500 feet from the structures will the distance be an issue? That is, the ISY command might have to travel roughly a 1,000 feet to get to a device... - Is there any additional phase coupling to consider? - Are there any other issues I should consider?
apostolakisl Posted September 25, 2018 Posted September 25, 2018 If the two panels are both behind the same electric meter, then there will not be any lack of a "covered phase". The Insteon comm will back and forth through all the panels so if both phases have comm behind one panel, then they will behind the other panel as well. The 500 foot distance (times two) very well could be an issue. You might need to add an Insteon device in the middle to help repeat the signal. Also, using dual band devices that are within rf range would help. For example, if your sauana and stuff is located directly next to your house, then an rf device in the house only needs to make it to the rf device in the sauna, it doesn't have to go 500 feet to the main panel and back out 500 more feet to the sauna. In my experience, I have run power line comm devices on wire runs of a few hundred feet without issue, but never 1000 feet.
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