Post-Install Customer Orientation and Exercise Schedule Standard

Purpose

This SOP standardizes the final visit that turns a commissioned generator into a system the customer actually knows how to live with. A unit that passed every commissioning test still fails the customer if nobody taught them what AUTO looks like, what a fault light means, or when their own exercise schedule runs. Run this visit inconsistently and three things go wrong on a predictable timeline: the customer finds the unit in OFF after a breaker trip and never notices, the weekly exercise wakes someone at the wrong hour and gets disabled, and the shop loses the annual-service relationship it earned by doing the install correctly. This standard produces a documented handoff, a schedule the customer chose and can restate back, and a record the next technician reads first.

Scope

Covers the customer-facing orientation and exercise-schedule agreement for a residential or light-commercial standby generator, a home, a small retail space, a small restaurant, or a multifamily building's shared unit, after Automatic Transfer Switch Commissioning Technique has already passed and been logged. It does not cover commissioning the switch itself; that's the prerequisite Step 1 checks for. It does not cover configuring remote monitoring in detail; that's Remote Monitoring Setup and Customer Handoff Technique, and this SOP only confirms that visit's status. It does not apply to a Level 1 or Level 2 emergency power supply system under NFPA 110, a hospital, a life-safety branch, an AHJ-reviewed EPSS; that population runs under NFPA 110 Weekly Exercise and Monthly Load Logging for Commercial Standby instead, with a trained-operator requirement this SOP doesn't produce.

Roles and responsibilities

The handoff between rows is what makes this a standard, not a checklist one person keeps in their head.

Procedure

Step 1: Confirm commissioning is on file. Pull the Automatic Transfer Switch Commissioning Technique record and confirm all four modes passed, dated today or earlier, with the actual transfer delay, return delay, and cooldown values logged. Fewer than four modes passing, or no record at all, is a stop: do not orient a customer to a system that hasn't proven it transfers, since every later step assumes the demonstration itself is safe. Reschedule once commissioning is complete.

Step 2: Re-verify clearance and the exhaust path. Walk all four sides and confirm the 36-inch clearance from Whole-House Standby Generator Installation is still intact, especially the intake and exhaust louver sides; measure it, don't eyeball it. Acceptance: 36 inches or more on every side. What wrong looks like: anything closer, which chokes the airflow Step 4's loaded run needs and narrows where exhaust disperses instead of pooling near a door or window. Stop rule: do not proceed to Step 4 under 36 inches; clear the obstruction, re-measure, and log the new reading, not a verbal it's-fine-now.

Step 3: Confirm panels are fastened and check for fuel odor before any start. Verify every access panel is reinstalled with each fastener seated, not finger-tight; a run with a panel loose exposes the fan and hot exhaust components the customer is about to stand near. Check for gas odor at the regulator, unions, and visible supply line, and confirm the shutoff valve is open. Stop rule: any detectable odor is a full stop, everyone clear immediately, no switches operated anywhere on site, no phone used near the unit, call the gas utility or 911 from a safe distance. Do not hunt for the leak yourself with the customer present.

Step 4: Demonstrate a start and transfer at a safe standoff. Position the customer outside the 36-inch clearance and clear of the exhaust path, upwind if there's a breeze. Command a manual start from the controller, not the app, so the customer sees the control they'll use, and read voltage and frequency off the display, never by opening the load compartment to meter it directly. Acceptance: 228 to 252 volts, frequency within 58.8 to 61.2 Hz, transfer within the delay logged at commissioning. Stop rule: any hesitation, fault code, or out-of-band reading means retransfer to utility and stop until a fresh commissioning-grade check confirms the fix; a customer who watches a fault get explained away as normal learns the wrong lesson permanently.

Step 5: Teach the AUTO, MANUAL, and OFF switch with a teach-back. Name each position: AUTO watches and responds on its own, MANUAL runs it now regardless of utility status, OFF does neither. Hand control to the customer and have them move the switch through all three positions themselves while you watch, ending in AUTO. Acceptance: correct, unprompted identification of all three. Stop rule: if they can't, walk it again until they can; this is the one control that decides whether the generator does anything during the next outage. Confirm it's left in AUTO before moving on.

Step 6: Negotiate and record the exercise schedule. Ask when the customer is least bothered by a 10 to 20 minute run, and set day, time, duration, and load mode accordingly rather than leaving the factory default; the day/time tradeoffs and load-mode options are covered in Generator Exercise Cycle and Generator Exerciser Settings and Tuning, use those instead of re-deriving them here. Program the choice and confirm the display matches. Acceptance: the customer restates day, time, and roughly how long, unprompted. What wrong looks like: a nod that can't be repeated back means they heard it, not received it, and it needs writing down in front of them.

Step 7: Confirm monitoring status rather than re-running its setup. If Remote Monitoring Setup and Customer Handoff Technique is already complete for this install, pull its record and confirm all four closing checks passed: signal, contractor access, customer pairing, live test alert. If any is still open, note the specific item and a follow-up date no more than 5 business days out. If monitoring was never scheduled, note that explicitly as declined or deferred; a blank field reads as an oversight to whoever audits the file later.

Step 8: Review what's normal versus what triggers a call. Tell the customer to expect a brief flicker at transfer and retransfer, and that hearing the engine run is normal, not a fault. Give the specific call-in triggers: any fault light or alarm, no start during a scheduled exercise, or the generator still carrying the house more than 30 minutes after they can see utility-powered lights elsewhere on the block. That figure matters most; a customer without a concrete trigger either calls at the first flicker or never calls at all, and 30 minutes past visible neighborhood restoration rules out a staggered recovery without leaving a real fault unaddressed for hours.

Step 9: Close the visit with a complete, signed record. Every field gets a value, not a checkmark: the clearance reading, the panel and fuel-odor result, the demonstration voltage and frequency, the teach-back result, the exact schedule, the monitoring status. The customer signs, keeps a copy, and the original stays with the file. Offer the annual maintenance contract by name before you leave the driveway; whether accepted or declined, the next-service reminder gets entered the same day, since a decline is a reason to have the conversation again at the eleven-month mark, not a reason to skip the reminder.

Exception path

Customer or authorized adult not present: reschedule. Do not run Steps 4 through 6 with a tenant, house sitter, or unrelated adult who can't authorize the schedule or accept the contract on the owner's behalf.

Gas odor at Step 3: full stop per that step's rule. The orientation does not resume that day regardless of how minor the smell seemed; reschedule only after the gas utility or a licensed technician clears the line and a new leak check passes.

Clearance obstruction the customer can't move that day, a fence, a shed, permanent landscaping: do not proceed past Step 2 on a promise to move it later. Document the obstruction and distance as an open finding needing a return visit; a shed can't be moved back before the next real outage either.

Customer declines the schedule negotiation and wants the factory default: program the default, but still complete the Step 6 teach-back by having them restate the default day and time. Declining to customize isn't the same as declining to know it.

The record this produces

The orientation record lists, per address: the commissioning reference and date confirmed, the clearance measurement on all four sides, the panel-fastened and fuel-odor check results, the demonstration voltage and frequency readings, the teach-back result, the negotiated exercise day, time, duration, and load mode, the monitoring status, and contract accepted or declined. It's signed by the customer and filed with the job; office and scheduling enters the next-service reminder and any open monitoring item into the CRM the same day, per the handoff named in Roles and responsibilities. A technician arriving for the eleven-month service call should be able to read this one record and know exactly what schedule the customer agreed to and whether anything was left open at handoff.

A worked orientation, including a stop

Kohler 20RESAL, 200A whole-house ATS, natural gas, single-family residence. Step 1: commissioning record on file, dated two days prior, all four modes passing, transfer delay 15 seconds, return delay 20 minutes, cooldown 90 seconds. Proceed. Step 2: the clearance walk finds three mulch bags stacked against the cabinet's louvered side by the landscaping crew that morning, measuring 14 inches, not the 36 required. Stop rule invoked: no demonstration start. The technician and customer move the bags together; re-measurement reads 40 inches on that side, the other three sides confirm 38 to 44 inches. The new readings are logged, not a note that the bags were moved. Resume to Step 3. Step 3: all four fasteners seated, no gas odor at the regulator or supply line, shutoff valve confirmed open. Step 4: customer clear of the exhaust path, manual start commanded, engine reaches rated speed, ATS transfers at 15 seconds matching the commissioning value, controller reads 236 volts and 59.9 Hz, both within band. Step 5: the customer operates the switch through OFF, MANUAL, and AUTO themselves, explains each position unprompted, unit left in AUTO. Step 6: the customer works from home Wednesdays and prefers late morning; schedule set to Thursday 10:00 AM, 12-minute duration, no-load weekly with a quarterly loaded exercise, programmed and restated correctly. Step 7: the monitoring record is on file from the day before, all four closing checks passed. Step 8: outage behavior and the 30-minute call-in trigger explained and repeated back correctly. Step 9: every field completed with the actual values above, the customer signs, a copy stays with them, the contract is accepted, and the next-service reminder is entered in the CRM that same afternoon.

References

• See related: Automatic Transfer Switch Commissioning Technique, the prerequisite this SOP checks for in Step 1.
• See related: Remote Monitoring Setup and Customer Handoff Technique.
• See related: Generator Exercise Cycle and Generator Exerciser Settings and Tuning, the schedule-tuning guidance Step 6 draws on.
• See related: NFPA 110 Weekly Exercise and Monthly Load Logging for Commercial Standby, the Level 1/2 EPSS scope this SOP excludes.
• NFPA 110, Section 8.4, edition as adopted by the jurisdiction; governs Level 1/2 EPSS, not the residential and light-commercial scope here, cited for the exercise-interval convention only.
• NEC Article 702, Optional Standby Systems.