tenHsPower HomeSeer Plugin

Most serious home automation enthusiasts include a UPS backup capability for the home automation server.  tenHsPower is a plugin for the Homeseer server that provides information concerning the status of the UPS system as well as the ability to trigger Homeseer events based upon UPS events, such as when the UPS switches from line to battery power, or when the battery charge falls below a specified level.

Many UPS products provide the ability to connect the UPS unit to a PC via either a serial port or a USB port.  Windows XP and later provide built-in capabilities to interface to many UPS products.  This allows Windows to display the status of the UPS in much the same way that it displays the battery level on a laptop computer. 

The tenHsPower plugin interfaces with the Windows UPS capability in order to provide the information and event handling to Homeseer.  tenHsPower does not interface directly with the UPS device.  Therefore, tenHsPower will only function properly on PCs that have the ability to monitor the battery and/or UPS via the operating system.  One of the more common UPS manufacturers is APC.  Read this short PDF document to better understand how Windows works with external UPS systems in general, and more specifically with APC UPS units.

You can check to see if your HomeSeer computer's operating system can interoperate with your UPS using the tenHsPower UPS Evaluation Tool.