Folks,
I'm in the "great white north" near Duluth MN USA, where winters can be especially rugged (very cold can be prolonged at 30F below 0, and occasionally -45 F with once at -65 F, sometimes during Dec., Jan., Feb., and March), lots of snow, high winds, etc.).
We've a totally "off-grid" retirement home which we operate with energy from 2.5KW of solar P. E., with a single set of 8 Rolls S-605 batteries in series for a 48V system. Backup is from a propane-fired, liquid-cooled, Kohler generator who's waste heat is dissipated within our utility shed (inside) to keep the shed warm during cold weather.
In this part of the country, it's not uncommon for old farmsteads to have a separate "utility" shed about 1/2 way 'tween house & barn for easier distribution of water, electricity, & fuel.
Because of those considerations, and of property/homeowners insurance, we took the lead from the old farms and decided that a separate utility shed was a good idea (spouse has horses & barn for same 175' away from house for sanitary vs domestic water well & other reasons); the insurance co. liked it as well.
This has worked-out great! Shed is superinsulated (structural insulated panels) for heat loss; but, has no external heat source other than our propane-fired backup generator. Issue for us now is that we upgraded from running a modified APC 3000 UPS to a new XW+ 5548.
"How is that a problem?", you say: Old system was much less efficient at charging batteries from generator, when needed. New system charges batteries much more efficiently - thus, less total heat from generator into shed causing some recent problems with water system freeze-ups!
I wanted to use the XW+ "Bat Temp" triggers to start/stop generator in case of low shed temperatures to simply put heat into same. But, XW+ AGS triggers are only adjustable from 0 C to +10 C (32 F to 50 F); and, I would like to adjust closer to a nominal of 65 F. As of now, I'm hooking-up a separate thermostat to use the AGS' Temp 1 input for gen start & stop, instead.
Under other conditions of gen run due to charging needs, the shed can overheat - even in -30 F weather; so, I've also implemented an outside air cooling shuttered vent fan with cooling thermostat to handle that situation separately. Obviously, these two thermostats need some "space" between their settings so as to not cross-operate. That, I can handle.
I'm specifically interested in learning of others' "unique, unpublished, out-of-the-box", etc. uses beyond those which are listed in the XW+ installation and operators' manuals for the various input/output/programming options.
Anyone here; or, links to elsewhere???
Thanks in advance, JLB