Generator PTO generator attachment to the Home.

[JackMentink]

I was wondering abouyt the attatchment of a 15 KW PTO generator set to my home. The question I have is that most I have seen have a 30 amp and 50 amp 230 Volt plugs and several 110 Volt. If I want to hook the generator up to power my whole home, I figure it would a take a 80 Amp breaker as 80 Amps X 230 Volts X 80 Percent trip on the breaker equals 14720 Watts.

None of the generator units have that large of a recepticle ? Do these things have a way you can by pass the arrangement of plugs and breakers and direct all the wattage to one output that could be connected to a manual transfer switch that would have a breaker ?


Can some of you folks that have hooked these up to your home can you let me Know?

 

[hr3]

The easyest way I think is to install a 100Amp. manual transfer switch in front of you house panel and hard wire in the genny..a 100 plug would cost an arm and a leg,..you might even check on E bay for a Generac auto transfer switch..My boss sells the ones we don't use there,,good price i think..This would make it much easyer also if you didn't have a disconect before your main panel..They wire into the panel and have breakers in them to take care of several loads..

 

[RonMar]

230VAC? Should be 240 VAC. 15,000W divided by 240VAC = a max current draw of 62.5A
You have also hit on the reason why most gensets this large are usually hard wired into the panel.

That 50A plug is usually used in RV service installations where regular hook/unhook are required. Common use, commonly available at a reasonable price. There are larger ones out there, but I sure wouldn't want to try and carry a wallet with enough cash to pay for one Look to the marine/shore tie suppliers. Over 50A is not so common use I think, so not so avaialble, and not at a very reasonable price...

Another good reason to ask "Do you really need 15KW?"

Options:
1. Hardwire the generator.
2. Drop the coin for a 75-100A shore-tie plug and receptical.
3. Evaluate your EXACT maximum power needs and see if you can get by with less. If you can get your needs under that 50A plug limit, use it with a 50A circuit breaker on the generator output and limit yor capacity to that.

There are a couple of ways to calculate your eact needs:
1. Get a Kill-A-Watt, you should have it anyway if you are making your own power. It will tell you peak and overall average over time power use of individual appliances, as well as if their start and run capacitors are maintaining a proper power factor.
2. Do you have a mechanical power meter on your comercial power service? If so, you can see the watt/hour load of your home at any given time using a stopwatch. Here is how, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The amount of energy represented by one revolution of the disc is denoted by the symbol Kh which is given in units of watt-hours per revolution. The value for Kh should be printed on the face of the meter. The value 7.2 is commonly seen. Using the value of Kh, one can determine the power consumption at any given time by timing the disc with a stopwatch. If the time in seconds taken by the disc to complete one revolution is "t", then the power in watts(P)= 3600 X KH Divided by "t".

For example, if Kh = 7.2, and one revolution took place in 14.4 seconds, the power is 1800 watts. This method can be used to determine the power consumption of household devices by switching them on one by one.

I tried this and it seems to work pretty well. 3600 represents the number of seconds in an hour. This is similar to the formula I use for checking a speedometer. 3600 divided by the number of seconds required to cover a measured mile = speed in MPH. The value for Kh should be on the face of The meter somewhere. Mine was 7.2. Just time the wheel thru one complete revolution. and use this number to divide 3600 X Kh...

 

[JackMentink]

You guys missed the question that I asked. I know my loads. I have a continuous watt meter that measures my loads at all times on both of my 200 amp panels. I need 15 KW to get everything started and run the basics. (I have a large Home with ground source heat pump and well).

I can run conduit or what and what ever size conductors I need to install the gen set. I will get a manual transfer switch as I will need to shut off a bunch of non critical loads prior to actual switching the power over. My intention is to kill utility power and switch to gen power.

The question I had was on the PTO Gen sets. Do they have outputs that by pass all the breakers where you can get the full 15 kw through a single set of conductors, so I can get a full 63 amps through to my panels without being tripped out by a too small breaker (50 Amp)?

 

[LBrown59]

I was wondering abouyt the attatchment of a 15 KW PTO generator set to my home.

Congrats on the Gen Set.
May I ask how you intend to keep enough fuel on hand to last through an extended power outage?

Lot of Gen talk on the board but i never see this matter discussed.

 

[JackMentink]

I really don't plan on keepping that much on hand. Usually the powere is only out in a small area and I could run into town and get fuel if needed. That was my thought. Maybe a little short sighted. Its a whole other item to start getting large fuel tanks. That wold be the alternative for the fuel.

 

[MT. Sparky]

Generators that are designed to power houses usually have main breakers to connect the loads to Then you just run wire from there to gen panel with critical loads in.

 

[LBrown59]

1*I really don't plan on keepping that much on hand. Usually the powere is only out in a small area and
2*I could run into town and get fuel if needed. That was my thought.
3*Maybe a little short sighted.
4*Its a whole other item to start getting large fuel tanks. That wold be the alternative for the fuel.

1*What if it turns out to be a bigger area than usual?
2*Unless the roads are impassible for some reason!
Or the town's with out power too.
3*Wouldn't it be the pits to have a Gen ya could not use cause of a lack of enough fuel?

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/118658-todays-seat-time.html
4*I think I'm all set with this.Now if I just had a Gen

 

[RickB]

You guys missed the question that I asked. I know my loads. I have a continuous watt meter that measures my loads at all times on both of my 200 amp panels. I need 15 KW to get everything started and run the basics. (I have a large Home with ground source heat pump and well).

I can run conduit or what and what ever size conductors I need to install the gen set. I will get a manual transfer switch as I will need to shut off a bunch of non critical loads prior to actual switching the power over. My intention is to kill utility power and switch to gen power.

The question I had was on the PTO Gen sets. Do they have outputs that by pass all the breakers where you can get the full 15 kw through a single set of conductors, so I can get a full 63 amps through to my panels without being tripped out by a too small breaker (50 Amp)?

I power my home when needed with an older Winpower alternator that used to keep a 70 cow dairy up and running when needed. I don't know the output offhand, but it's much bigger than I need and bigger than the PTO units typically discussed here. My transfer switch has individual #4 leads that plug directly into the alternator which has its main output protected by an onboard 100 amp circuit breaker. Big load capacity without big connector cost.

 

[tessiers]

As for fuel most people have 200 + gals of #2 fuel oil in their basement that will run a diesel tractor for an extended period of time. I have used an old generator, on the farm I worked at, that is capable of running a 50 head dairy farm, I don't know the cost of the plug but they have one. That generator has a full load receptical on it.