Power out, Generator on.

[gerard]

How big is your generator? You probably have a 220 plug (30amp) and a few 110 amp female receptacles on it. The 220 consists of two, 110 volt lines. One line goes to each side of your panel. When a breaker picks up both legs, it's 220. If it only picks up one leg, it's 110. So your generator is actually putting out a usable 220 AND 110 at the same time. Your should be able to run a normal house off a 5000 watt generator, including a 220 well pump. I power a 480 foot 220volt well, freezer, refrigerator, all house electric, and oil furnace without a problem. I have a 6250 continuous/8000watt surge generator.

You just need to make sure when your panel was wired, that both legs get picked up. If they aren't, I'd say you had a poor electrician.

 

[Carl_NH]

Mousefield,

Most all gensets provide 120 or 240V circuits except small units under 2000W or 2KW. A 5000W generator usually has a "surge rating" of say 6000W so 5000 Watts equates to 40 amps 110 V or 20 AMPS 240 V then the surge rating alllows for the higher starting current.

You have three choices -
1) get a larger genset for the house circuit and run the barn and water pump as well on one system/generator

2) Get a separate generator for the barn and water supply - a 1/2HP 240V pump will draw 7 AMPS @ 240V in operation and a little higher on startup so you will need about a 3000W as others have pointed out to run this separately.

3) Keep your existing generator and turn off some circuits and selectively run the water system in the barn on 240V (your generator should handle this if it has a 240V plug)

 

[Mousefield]

Thanks to all. A separate generator in the range of 3,000 - 3,500 runningt watts and having a 220 volt outlet seems to be what is needed for the storage tank submersible pump. Read with interest the link by TheGoose. :thumbsup: Sounds like I don't need a separete generator panel but will get the electirian to put in a generator plug. The pump panel is on an outside wall in the shop so will not be a big problem to drill a hole to the outside area for the generator. I plan on having the electrian who wired in our house generator panel to come out and add 4 more circuit breakers to it. It had 8 when I got it but does have space for 4 more. Found a few things we would like to add to it (like the plugs in the computer room) so with the 4 extra breakers we should be set. At the same time I will have him do the shop generator plug. Not to keen on doing it myself although I wired my barn including a separate panel properly.

 

[BobRip]

Bob if you hook up your genset to a transfer in the 220v mode and I feel sure it will provide 110V to ground with each hot conductor. I could be wrong but my machine is set up this way as well. In the 220 Mode it will supply 110V and 220V. Is this how yours works? Oh I have a Aurora 6500Watt Diesel.

Mine works fine, I was just trying to help Mousefield.

 

[BobRip]

Thanks to all. A separate generator in the range of 3,000 - 3,500 runningt watts and having a 220 volt outlet seems to be what is needed for the storage tank submersible pump. Read with interest the link by TheGoose. :thumbsup: Sounds like I don't need a separete generator panel but will get the electirian to put in a generator plug. The pump panel is on an outside wall in the shop so will not be a big problem to drill a hole to the outside area for the generator. I plan on having the electrian who wired in our house generator panel to come out and add 4 more circuit breakers to it. It had 8 when I got it but does have space for 4 more. Found a few things we would like to add to it (like the plugs in the computer room) so with the 4 extra breakers we should be set. At the same time I will have him do the shop generator plug. Not to keen on doing it myself although I wired my barn including a separate panel properly.

Mousefield, well pumps can be tough to start. Basically the water acts like a flywheel which has to be accelerated. My pump takes 30 seconds to get upto speed and down to normal running curent. I had a 4kw generator that would not run my pump. I upgraded to an 8kw and that had problems till I went to larger wire in my well. Now my pump is 1.25 HP and is down 300+ feet so that is part of the issue. I suggest you get a guarantee from whoever you buy the generator from that it will run your well pump. 3kw may be fine, I just don't know without testing the actual system.

 

[TheGoose]

What kind of pump do you have? Unless you have a 3" submersible, it should only take a few seconds for your pump to get up to normal operating speed, if not sooner.

The 3" pumps are different because they spin at a much higher RPM and have to wind up. I'm guessing that is what you have since I'm not aware of any 4" pumps with 1.25 HP ratings.

For the 1/2HP you can get by with a relatively small generator.

Mousefield, well pumps can be tough to start. Basically the water acts like a flywheel which has to be accelerated. My pump takes 30 seconds to get upto speed and down to normal running curent. I had a 4kw generator that would not run my pump. I upgraded to an 8kw and that had problems till I went to larger wire in my well. Now my pump is 1.25 HP and is down 300+ feet so that is part of the issue. I suggest you get a guarantee from whoever you buy the generator from that it will run your well pump. 3kw may be fine, I just don't know without testing the actual system.

 

[Mousefield]

The pump is 1/2 horse power. It is in an above ground 2,000 gallon storage tank. It fills up the pressure tank which is about 80 gallon size. The idea is when we have a power outage we run the pump/generator, 2-3 times a day for 30 minutes or so, let the three dwellings flush toilets, wash dishes and fill up pots etc. If it was just us I wouldn't bother but we do have one couple in one of our mobiles and a single mom with two kids in the other. It is more for their benefit than ours. We survived OK when we had no power for five days several years ago but would have been very nice to have had running water.

 

[dmccarty]

For the power needs of the pump can't one just look at the circuit breaker amps size and work out the wattage? Or if one can actually see the pump see the amps/wattage on the plate?

I always struggled with how much power our well pump needed. Then it occurred to me to check the panel. It is on a 20 amp circuit and the generator is 30amps so I have enough power to get water. As long as the pump is the only thing needing power.

Later,
Dan

 

[TheGoose]

Mouse,

A 4KW generator should have ran and started your well pump, but the quality of the generator will make a big different when starting motors.

It should never take 30 seconds for a regular well pump to start and get up to speed. If you are talking about the amps leveling out then that might be possible but it should not be a huge difference. As your pressure goes up your amps should drop slightly. If you're amps are going up while pressure rises then you have a problem with your pump/motor.

 

[Mousefield]

Looked up the 1/2 hp 230 volt aermotor submersible pump on the internet and looks like it runs at 6 amps. Like most motors I'm sure it draws more at the start. Like most people don't have a ton of money to spend so trying to keep it reasonable as it may not even be used some years (I hope ). Will look at what is out there, the little bigger ones are electric start which is a nice feature.