Glad we have this Isuzu Diesel generator

[RalphVa]

High winds. Woke up on generator power. Wife said it came on about 5 am.

It's our 12 kw Isuzu diesel generator from Central Maine Diesel outfit. Our friend, Darryl, ex electrician from Ohio, did the install right at the end of 2012 when I was recovering from CHF. My wife was his chief electrician helper. Had to replace the one circuit breaker box in the house in which were installed some special load sensing breakers like the water heater, clothes dryer, etc. that would only come on if there's room in the generator.

Well, the wife left for the gym late, not very long ago. Driveway alarm just went off. She may have had to come back for some reason.

I cannot get the Miata out of the carriage house to drive it to the extension office to volunteer because those are heavy doors and aren't on the generator. She may have run into a road block somewhere. Earlier, a neighbor reported the road out was blocked by a downed tree.

Here her stomping around upstairs. Y is out without power.

Ralph

 

[TheMan419]

Stay safe! Glad you are wired up. Looks like a nasty storm hitting the east coast today.

 

[EddieWalker]

Good deal. I didn't know Isuzu made generators, but I've always heard good thing about their engines.

 

[LittleBill21]

can you tell us what kind of breakers/load sensing they are?

 

[Peter 315]

Good deal. I didn't know Isuzu made generators, but I've always heard good thing about their engines.

They just use Isuzu engines.Diesel Generators for Home Power or Off-Grid Electricity

 

[RalphVa]

can you tell us what kind of breakers/load sensing they are?

The main box and sensor boxes are from GenTran Ovation Series. Darryl had to make lots of calls to their service techs to figure out how to set it up.

We had at least other "whole house" generator outfits come in here for estimates. They came up with needing 30+ hp units, just brute force.

I knew from experience using our 4 kw unit to power a good bit of the house that 12 kw would be enough, if there were gizmos to selectively allow loads. There are from GenTran, hardly anyone else.

Darryl had to wire something in that would shut off the backup coil to the upstairs heat pump to allow it to be on the generator. Since then, we've replaced the upstairs heat pump that works fine without the backup heat coil now and have locked it out with the thermostat (old unit didn't allow this). We've also since then put in ductless heat pump units for the basement. These have no backup electric coil like a regular heat pump does. For those of you who can burn wood, it would have sense to have one of those outdoor wood burning furnaces to provide hot water backup to your main heat pump or even a fireplace insert that heated hot water to provide to the heat pump circulator system.

Ralph

 

[RalphVa]

Love this Isuzu diesel engine. It does not clatter and bang like every other (except VW TDIs and probably a lot of modern diesel car and SUV engines now) other older diesel engine. Starts fairly quickly, like about 5 seconds or less after power goes down.

For the first 50 hours before the 1st oil change, the oil on the dipstick was crystal clear. I replaced with Castrol 5w30 oil bought from the VW dealer for TDIs. Still, the dipstick looks like the slightly tan color of the Castrol. Has not turned black yet at all.

Fuel usage is 0.2 gallons/hr. For any years with no power outage, just running 15 minutes ever other week, it uses 2.5 gallons of diesel. I pump some from its 60 gallon tank every so often to put in the tractor, just to get some more out and back into the tank to refresh it. Thank goodness for low sulfur fuel. In the old days, that diesel sitting there would go brown like it did in our 240D when stored 4 years while we were in Singapore before low sulfur diesel came out. The high pressure hydrotreating they do on low sulfur diesel to treat it will remove impurities as is done for all the group III "synthetic" oils out there.

Ralph

 

[Peter 315]

I looked at there web site for a generator before, Not far from me ,Just trying to convince the wife we need to spend that much money

 

[TnAndy]

Fuel usage is 0.2 gallons/hr.

Ralph

Sounds kinda low Ralph if there is any load. Most of the ones I've been looking at are in the 8kw range and use about 1/2 gal/hr or so at 50% load.

 

[RalphVa]

I looked at there web site for a generator before, Not far from me ,Just trying to convince the wife we need to spend that much money

The wife today said that it's about the best $15k that we've ever spent. You'll spend a lot more if you go to one of the whole house outfits and may end up with a diesel that'll just sit there and loaf away and get carboned up.

Best bet, if you have NG, is to get one that's on NG. No brainer.

Ralph

 

[RalphVa]

Sounds kinda low Ralph if there is any load. Most of the ones I've been looking at are in the 8kw range and use about 1/2 gal/hr or so at 50% load.

No, from the load vs. usage curve, I estimated it would use 0.2 gph. That's what it has been. I can read off the hours since refueling and know exactly how much to put back in. I keep track of how much is put in and taken out.

On average, the load isn't very much. You mainly need a big enough machine to handle the peaks. Trick is to estimate and to minimize those peaks. Helped that I had usage information from a couple years on the 4 kw generator.

Ralph

 

[Peter 315]

The wife today said that it's about the best $15k that we've ever spent. You'll spend a lot more if you go to one of the whole house outfits and may end up with a diesel that'll just sit there and loaf away and get carboned up.

Best bet, if you have NG, is to get one that's on NG. No brainer.

Ralph

No NG I was looking at these also
20,000 Watt Diesel Generator | 1P | 120/240

SKU # AGi20P.1.240.e
$ 11,110.00 USD
$ 13,619.00 CAN
6 reviews

Quantity
20,000 Watt Diesel Generator Enclosed

 

[RalphVa]

No NG I was looking at these also
20,000 Watt Diesel Generator | 1P | 120/240

SKU # AGi20P.1.240.e
$ 11,110.00 USD
$ 13,619.00 CAN
6 reviews

Quantity
20,000 Watt Diesel Generator EnclosedView attachment 542248

This one appears to be the same as what we got in 2012: Isuzu 12 kW Diesel Generator

Ralph

 

[Peter 315]

This one appears to be the same as what we got in 2012: Isuzu 12 kW Diesel Generator

Ralph

Close but it has a Perkins 3-Cylinder Diesel Engine ,We lucked out this storm. We were in the middle of it rain, no snow, no high winds Power stayed on I have a 7500 watt gas gen . I want to run the whole house and barn

 

[Old Red]

Check out the MEP 803a and 802a military diesel fired generators if you are in the market. I just can't say enough about how awesome these things are.

 

[Peter 315]

Check out the MEP 803a and 802a military diesel fired generators if you are in the market. I just can't say enough about how awesome these things are.

Auto start ? The wife is all done with manual start

 

[Old Red]

Auto start ? The wife is all done with manual start

Unfortunately no. I think some folks have put a remote start on it like for a vehicle or whatever....but an auto transfer start I don't think I have seen yet. But the benefits you get for giving up that one feature is an amazingly strong generator that is prime source rated to provide prime source power, that sips diesel fuel and automatically comes with aux fuel hookups. Oh, and they are about 1/4 of the price of similar rated diesel 1,800 RPM gensets.

On top of that you get a military spec generator. So when a consumer model generator is created they keep costs in mind to remain competitive and put it in the hands of consumers. The military specs it out to be "bullit" proof first, then cost is secondary. I believe Uncle Sam paid about $26 thousand bucks for these.

 

[OctaviaSlanter]

Haha...my firend got one Isuzu diesel generator before and it is good. I have a 6k propane generator, lasts about 4 hours on a 20lb tank, but since propane is for ever I plan on getting a large tank installed and feeding my dryer, generator and stove from the one tank.

I'm happy with mine. how ever it's important to remember that power from propane will cost you double the cost of power from diesel fuel as propane has a lot less "energy" when compared to diesel.

 

[YanmarFever]

I have a Yanmar 12kw diesel generator I bought in Japan, its been a good purchase so far.
It runs at 1800 rpm and its fully enclosed. Its so quiet that I can talk standing next to it. It runs the air cond, alarm, kitchen, and outdoor lights.
It seems to run all night on 2 gallons of diesel, the tank holds 15 gals.
Its a Yanmar 12kw whisper watt model.

 

[Industrial Toys]

My main plant at the moment is a Kubota/Onan 7.5KW Genset but I have a project 12KW Isuzu in the works and man, is it a sweet sounding Diesel. JAP Diesels, the best in the world!