Backup Generator

[Industrial Toys]

I used to see a lot Deutz air cooled trailer mounted 15K or so sets at auction. No housing, just a fuel tank, engine and alternator.

I get my stuff from a dealer I know. Two units had burned up rotors. Had them rewound, so maybe have a grand into a 7.5 Diesel 1800rpm unit. The dealers that sell new, can't be bothered to repair this old stuff, and the agencies and utilities like to have new stuff anyway.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

In the manual for my Winco PTO generator, I'm going to go with the mfg's recommendation, it clearly states: for maintenance, change the rotor bearings every 80,000 hours. (eighty thousand)

SO, I guess they last a little while!

LOT's of folks around here without power right now, but ours is doing just fine, for the moment.

SR

Yes, two bearing alternator bearings generally have a longer life. Single bearing alternators in the 15-1500kw range are typically 20-30k hours and are the cheapest and easiest thing to change to prevent total destruction.

Most small generators under 15kw don’t even give rating to this but if there’s a recommendation, follow it, particularly on grease type if it’s a greasable bearing.

 

[RoyKing]

To run pto's your tractor is probably running at 75% of max rpm, I'm not comfortably running an expensive equipment all night without monitoring, blow a radiators hose and you will cook the engine, most tractors don't have auto shutdown. Tractor eats a lot more fuel per hour. The pto sets vary greatly from brush to brushless. This kind like the old rule pick two of three, can't get cheap$, long running, clean power. Closest I could get was used military mep-802a $2500, diesel, 6kw, down side big heavy 800 pounds, needs monthly running, but It will deliver long running power at average 1/2 gallon an hour. so 12 gals a day, so 4-5 days per drum, three drums 12-15 days, hope diesel will be in less demand than gasoline.

 

[Industrial Toys]

My feelings EXACTLY. Soyer Rob disagreed with me, years ago. Without critical shutdown like (Murphy) gauges, I am not going to have a tractor running full tilt, all night long. My JD 770 did run, total, all out, full tilt on an Onan 15KW PTO set. Did a great job.

The Chicken farm where I got my 15kw Onan PTO set years ago, could afford to pay for an engine job. Just added to overall operating costs. It's as stupid as a fan belt breaking, while you sleep. I can't afford a $10,000 engine job!

 

[goeduck]

My feelings EXACTLY. Soyer Rob disagreed with me, years ago. Without critical shutdown like (Murphy) gauges, I am not going to have a tractor running full tilt, all night long. My JD 770 did run, total, all out, full tilt on an Onan 15KW PTO set. Did a great job.

The Chicken farm where I got my 15kw Onan PTO set years ago, could afford to pay for an engine job. Just added to overall operating costs. It's as stupid as a fan belt breaking, while you sleep. I can't afford a $10,000 engine job!

Ah ha.. a thinking man :thumbsup:

Nothing wrong with a PTO generator, but my generator needs to run 24/7 when it runs and I prefer a dedicated engine that costs a whole lot less than a tractor engine rebuild.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

If someone is afraid to leave their tractor running, that's fine, don't do it... BUT that doesn't mean every one is...

My tractor runs at 1,900 at pto speed, is THAT, that much worse than 1,800?? I look at things like that BEFORE I buy a tractor, not complain about it later when I bought something I'm then afraid to use.

My tractor will power my whole house on less than one gallon an hour, yes that is a bit more fuel, but my tractor AND pto generator cost me less than a stationary diesel generator would have cost me, and I have a tractor to use when it's not generating!

SR

 

[thewirewiz]

I was installing a 22kw generac in 2011. The backhoe operator rolled his bucket a little too much. Strap came off and dropped the machine from above my head onto the ground. Still running today.
Tree fell on my own 13kw. Same brand. Not pretty any more but still running fine 5 years later. The car parked next to it, not so much. Not doing a commercial for this brand. Just saying. I'm in NH. Lot of this brand up here.

 

[RoyKing]

Maybe if you got KTAC on that Kubota, but I don't walk away from running machinery without auto shutdown

 

[Katahdin]

I hope you guys running large generators at night can justify the fuel usage. Check out this this graph from my home:



The 4 spikes are from running the clothes dryer. The rest of the day and night I can get by with a 1600 watt inverter generator that is quiet and runs 6 hours on a gallon of gas.

My electricity usage this day included:
Oil Fired Boiler for heat and hot water
Full Sized Fridge w/freezer
LED Lighting
240V well pump
PC Laptop
Clothes Washer
Coffee Maker
Non-Energy-Star Compliant Clothes Dryer
Woodstove fan
I probably did some light cooking with the electric range, but don't remember.

I am now shopping for an energy star compliant clothes dryer....and my point is: you don't need to run large generators 24x7. Switch over to a smaller/cheaper unit when you can and save your fuel reserves.

 

[RoyKing]

Yes its called AC, pretty hard to live without in Florida during the summer. Florida inland isn't livable without it.

 

[fried1765]

A liquid cooled generator will outperform any air cooled unit. Period. Even generacs website states that their air cooled units are not designed for off grid use. There BACK UP UNITS.

GENERAC DOES HAVE AN OFF GRID AIR COOLED VERSION, but it has a 5 quart oil bath instead of the usual 1.7 quart version.

A 4 pole rotor is so large and heavy an air cooled motor just cant handle it. Generacs liquid cooled 22 generator has a huge rotor. I question weather a 4 pole is any better than a 2 pole as far as output goes. My 22 air cooled keeps its output very steady. The lights dont even flicker.

Bought my ovhd valve, liquid cooled, electric start, Honda 6500ES, nearly 30 years ago.
Longest outage 5 days, only a few shorter ones, still worth it.
Wonderful piece of machinery!

 

[John White]

We use to have the power outages pretty often. Keeping enough gas on hand and maintaining a gas generator got to be a hassle. About five years ago we had a major storm and you couldn't even get gasoline. Was without power for 2 weeks. After that I begin to think seriously about a diesel generator, didn't want to spend a lot of money on something I could live without. Found one of these light tower generators that they use on road construction. It had been hit and two lights were gone and fender smashed and tires not very good. It was a Kubota 4 cyl diesel with a Leroy summer 8kw gen (a monster) I gave I think around $1100 for it. I changed oil. filters and had to clean out fuel tank as it was full of algae. I can tow it any where I want. Crank up the mast with the 2 flood lights and play ball at night if you want. The only thing I don't like is that it is constant voltage. You have to put a hz and volt meter on it and sort of watch it, if you put a larger load on it, like if the well pump kicks on, it might go down to 110 volts and when it shuts off it will go back up to 120..

 

[Industrial Toys]

I don't have what you would call a modern house. No heat pumps and stuff like that. I laugh at what people think they need for backup. A 7.5 does me fine with electric heat shut off and my little Yanmar 3.7 will also give be everything I need including water pump, but it's a screamer at 3600. The trick is managing loads and I understand that is moe than some people can or want to do.

We have had all kinds of storms go through here lately. Another due on Tuesday. Lights didn't as much as flicker once! Go figure!

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

Need vs want...

Wired in an outlet beside the furnace today and another outlet wired to a cord end outside so the furnace can be easily plugged in to the es1000i Yamaha inverter gen. Last power outage pipes were starting to freeze after 8hrs of -11C and 80kmh wind... ‘Need’ to stop that from happening and the little Yamaha will run the furnace easily plus charge the phones and run a lamp or two.

‘Want’ is the well pump and all fridges and freezers and a house full of lights. For that I’ll run the 6.5 on the whole house for a few hours at a time.

I did discover something interesting about the new high tech high efficiency furnace we have. It recognizes a floating neutral and refuses to open the gas valve and flashes a code 9 on the control board. Since I’m unplugging the from the house wiring and plugging it into the generator only the neutral is floating as it is on the generator. After confirming I could safely bond the neutral on the Yamaha everything is good and the wife can easily have heat back if I’m not around.

Don’t take neutral bonding for granted as I’ve seen a few inverters (not generators) go up in flames instantly when the neutral was grounded.

 

[goeduck]

Dont take neutral bonding for granted as Ive e seen a few inverters (not generators) go up in flames instantly when the neutral was grounded.

?? Nuetral is always bonded to ground at the breaker panel.

 

[Toyboy]

All good informative information here. It all breaks down to where you live and power outages occurrence. We had several days of -37 deg and the last thing I would have wanted to do was start and babysit a portable generator since we are seniors.

Now that being said, I have a 20kw Generac whole house NG gen-set sitting outside that I don't have to worry over.
It came with the automatic transfer switch and cold weather kit. We have a well, septic lift pump, two fridge and a freezer, heat, AC and a separate garage/shop with water and heat also. Plus I have a "chicken little" wife to deal with.
We can be gone for a couple weeks and have outage and never know about it other then the clocks blinking. Everything is on auto pilot so to speak. We loose power (short term) on occasion, but who knows when the big one will hit.
Maintenance is minimal.
I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[shooterdon]

My buddy who lives near Grand Rapids MI lost power for almost 4 days this week. He had a 5k watt gas generator and went through nearly $100 of gas. But a least he had power.

He is now looking at a whole house automatic system. His concern is what would happen if he wasn’t home and lost power?

After talking to him, I am thinking about doing the same. Expensive to install and run, but if I am home and/or it is a long outage, I can still use a small gas generator.

 

[Industrial Toys]

If you have Elderly parents in the home on life support, it's not a bad idea. Failing that, why? I have all the components to provide automatic power, but why? I don't want the generator coming on when I am not here. Right now, I am generally only a few hours away. I do get AC fail notification on my phone, via the alarm monitoring station. Just finished wiring up freezer temperature monitoring and water heater leakage sensor. Fun stuff!

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

?? Nuetral is always bonded to ground at the breaker panel.

I put a cord end on the furnace so when it’s unplugged from the house and plugged in to the generator it has no connection to the service entrance bond.

I was aware of this, I was just surprised the furnace was aware of it as well.

 

[Toyboy]

My buddy who lives near Grand Rapids MI lost power for almost 4 days this week. He had a 5k watt gas generator and went through nearly $100 of gas. But a least he had power.

He is now looking at a whole house automatic system. His concern is what would happen if he wasn’t home and lost power?

After talking to him, I am thinking about doing the same. Expensive to install and run, but if I am home and/or it is a long outage, I can still use a small gas generator.

When your out of power, not home, and the fridge /freezer is thawing OR in winter the water pipes are freezing price/cost is irrelevant.
From what I gather here, is the majority of respondents never go on extended vacations or are lucky enough to be home when mother nature throws a hissy fit.
For us it's one last thing to worry about home or not.