You are a thousand miles away. The generator either ran when the power went out, or it did not — and the difference between knowing and guessing is an app on your phone. This page explains what remote monitoring actually does, what the two manufacturers charge for it, and what the app can and cannot tell you about a house you are not standing in.
What monitoring is, in one paragraph
A standby generator has a controller — a small computer that manages starts, stops, exercise runs, and faults. Remote monitoring is a cellular or Wi-Fi module that connects that controller to the manufacturer’s servers, and an app on your phone that reads the servers. When the generator runs, exercises, or faults, the event is logged and, depending on the tier, pushed to you. It is not magic. It is the same controller, reporting to you instead of waiting for you to walk outside and read its display.
What it tells you
The things that matter to someone a thousand miles away:
- Whether the generator is in automatic mode. If somebody — a service technician, a house-sitter — has left it in manual or off, the app says so. This is the single most valuable reading on the list, because a generator left in manual will not start when the power goes out, and it is the easiest failure to prevent.
- Whether it exercised. A standby generator runs itself for a few minutes every week — the exercise cycle. The app logs it. A missed exercise is the first sign of a battery or controller problem, and it is visible weeks before a storm tests the unit.
- Whether it ran, and for how long. During an outage, the app shows the generator started, that it is carrying the load, and when the power returned. You do not need a neighbour to confirm it.
- Whether it faulted. A fault code — overcrank, low oil, overspeed, undervoltage — appears in the app, with the time it happened. Some faults clear themselves; some need a technician. The app does not fix them. It tells you they exist, while there is still time to act.
- Battery and maintenance status. Battery voltage, oil life, service-due reminders. A battery that is dying is visible as a declining voltage, not as a surprise on the night of the storm.
What it costs now
Generac’s Mobile Link is the system most Palm Beach County owners will meet. Basic is free — it has been free since May 1, 2025, when Generac made the Basic tier no-charge. Premium is from $54.99 a year, and it is the tier that adds the detail worth having: maintenance reminders, battery voltage, and dealer alerts.
One figure to retire: the $49.99 price that still appears in older guides and reseller pages. It was the old Premium price before the May 2025 change. Any guide quoting $49.99 is quoting the retired price. The current published figures are free for Basic, from $54.99 a year for Premium.
Kohler’s system is OnCue Plus. It is included with the generator, with no annual subscription fee. The app is not an extra to buy; it is part of what the Kohler price already covers.
Figures last reviewed November 2026 · Sources: manufacturer monitoring pricing (Generac Mobile Link, Kohler OnCue Plus) — see “How we get our numbers” on the About page.
If you already have a generator, the first question is whether it is monitored at all.
The one thing the app cannot do
The app tells you about the generator. It does not tell you about the house. It cannot tell you the air conditioning is running — only that the generator is running. It cannot tell you the refrigerator is cold, the security system is armed, or the house is dry. Those need their own sensors: a temperature sensor in the house, a humidity sensor, a water sensor near the water heater. The generator app is one instrument on the panel, not the whole panel. If the house sits empty for months, pair the generator monitoring with a simple temperature and humidity sensor that reports to the same phone. The generator keeps the power on; the sensor confirms the house used it.
And the app depends on the phone network. If the cellular network is down across the neighbourhood — which a major hurricane can do — the app shows the last reading it received, not a live one. It is still better than nothing: the last reading before the network dropped tells you the generator started and was carrying the load. But it is a reporting tool, not a guarantee.
For the house that sits empty
Remote monitoring is worth most to the owner who is not there. It is the difference between discovering in November that the generator faulted in August, and discovering it in August, when there is time to call a technician. If you are buying a generator for a seasonal home, monitoring is not an optional extra. Treat it as part of the installation, not an accessory, and make sure the installer sets it up and shows you the app working before they leave. If you already own a generator and have never opened its app, that is the first thing to fix — before storm season, not during it.
Related: What a power outage does to an empty house · The snowbird’s checklist · Maintenance & service plans · Generac or Kohler: which standby generator fits a Florida home?
Do the research first.
The free Palm Beach County Generator Cost Guide puts the county numbers — the $11,000–$17,000 range, the permit fees, the fuel maths — in one PDF. We email it to you; we do not call you about it unless you ask us to.
Palm Beach Backup Power is an information and matching service — we do not install generators. We do not take a fee from you. Our installer partner pays us when a consultation they receive through us becomes an installed generator. The price you pay is the installer’s price either way.