ShopGenerac Fuel Portal Updates: SMS Alerts Setup and Opt-In Background: The digital service platform on which the Generac Fuel Portal relies for SMS (text message) alerts and notifications to our customers has discontinued the former method used for SMS alerting, called “Email-to-SMS gateways”, requiring a new and, consequently, better SMS alerting method to be built. […]
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Tools to Keep in Your Maintenance Kit
After a busy heating season, the slower summer months are usually a good time to focus on equipment maintenance. As your techs head out to service furnaces, gas logs, generators, water heaters, and other propane appliances, don’t forget to make sure your tank monitors are in great shape as well. Whether you are planning a big […]
1 Way Propane Marketers are Combatting the Tank Shortage and Rising Price of Steel in 2021
This post is an updated version of an older blog post from 2019. A perfect storm has been brewing in the global steel market. Strong demand has collided with supply shortages, causing the price of steel to reach an all-time high and inventory levels to plummet. Like other sectors of the economy, the propane industry […]
State of the (Mobile) Market in Propane
Is there a (propane) app for that? Smartphones, tablets and other connected devices are nearly ubiquitous in our lives by now. In fact, there’s a 66% chance that you’re reading this article on your smartphone right now. However, there is a significant lag in response in many industries (propane and delivered fuels included) to either […]
Propane Meter Improvements
The scoop on the new propane meter design We have a great new propane meter design coming off the assembly line! We have been testing this improved version for weather resilience, ease of connecting to WiFi networks, and excellent battery life. The new propane smartphone app for configuring the device is in the app store and will […]
How we navigated the gauntlet to success
First, for context, here’s a quick explanation about us: Generac is a tank monitor start-up. We make sure people don’t run out of heat by connecting delivered fuel consumers to their fuel oil and propane tank with an app and smart meter. Here’s a quick inside into the steps of our journey so far! Step […]
Continuous Improvement
One thing that’s great about our internet-connected LPG tank monitoring solution is that we’ll never stop making improvements. And while small-batch domestically manufactured devices allow for rapid hardware improvements, I share a bit more about what we’re doing with software. There’s a lot happening and a lot of new features coming! Software on the device […]
Manufacturing
The saying “hardware is hard” is repeated often because many start-ups lack experience with hardware manufacturing. Most setbacks occur in this step of bringing new products to life. Our team still has a lot to learn about the delivered commodities industries and consumer pain-points, but we have plenty of experience collecting energy data with connected […]
Smart Meters and Benchmarking
Smart meters for delivered fuel customers offer all the same advantages as those for electricity, and then some! Logistics of deliveries are difficult. It’s hard to know the optimal time to deliver, especially when weather is the only estimate of tank level. A lot of people confuse smart meters with energy monitors. We’re building functionality […]
Hardware, Firmware, Tank Level Somewhere
We’re working through the final details. Our hardware works great. So does the App for remotely viewing tank levels. But configuring the device for WiFi relies on some pretty tricky firmware. One really hard part of what we’re accomplishing is giving you intuitive feedback from the device. While we’re really happy with the physical install […]