Your last generator Maintenance Run

[Chilliwack Murray]

Not having to store gas, not have the contamination issues in the carb and not having to try and go in search of gasoline, never mind trying to know how much you are going to require, would be a HUGE benefit. Without gasoline, unit could be stored nicely inside too.

Make sure it's capable of long run times (temperature issues) and of course have a low oil shutdown.

What could go wrong?

Gasoline hasn’t been an option for large standby units in 25 years. The last dual fuel 100kw I saw was about 1997. In the late 80s gasoline formulations started changing to improve emissions leading to much greater storage issues.

After diesel, propane is the most reliable for standby and the similar BTU rating as gasoline mean there’s often no derate. It’s nearly impossible to get the volume required for 20kw or more without a heated vaporizer system. Availability of large scale delivery also varies greatly region to region and cost saving Propane and especially Nat gas are finicky about air fuel ratio though and all brands have constant issues with hard starting and stability.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

On another note... came across these mini meters on Amazon a couple weeks ago. They fit in a standard 7/8 hole and the A/V meters even came with their own current transformer. $12 for the freq meter and about $15 for the Amp/Volt meters.

Switches are to shut the voltage supply off. $15 doesn’t inspire the level of trust required to leave them on 24/7.

They came with zero instructions and a connector between the meter and CT so a word of warning for those that don’t know - never, ever pass current through a CT if it’s not connected to a meter.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I'm not a fan of these pissy little portable generators. But my hobby is small Diesel generators so admit I'm not normal. Just saying, that a NG or propane kit on some high quality portable (Honda or Yamaha) could alleviate many of the drawbacks for emergency applications.

 

[3930dave]

I'd like to thank those that provided links pertaining to soft start electronics.
I chose to go with Schneider Electric which is the manufacture of my Xantrex XW4024 inverter at a cost of $124.70 with free S&H.
The Schneider Electric Altistart ATS01N112FT is rated at 12 amps, is 1 or 3 phase & 110 to 460v compatible.
As mentioned previously the squirrel cage blower motor pulled 21.7 amps on start-up and gave my Honda EU2000i fits.
The Honda would over-rev and surge until the motor came up to speed and then stabilized at 2.3 amps, 262 watts.
After installing the soft start module and adjusting the initial starting voltage and ramp up time the Honda easily handled the load in ECO mode and amperage peaked at 16.9 amps.
The initial low voltage and timed ramp-up gave the Honda time to react and accelerate with the load rather than getting hammered all at once.
It has been running for over a week on utility power with no issues.
This (should) allow me to utilize the Honda which is my most efficient power source thru the night powering the wood furnace and save my diesels for the daily heavy lifting (charging & support of whole house back-up batteries).
I have yet to verify this with an actual hours long or overnight test.
Hopefully one issue resolved 1 more to tackle. Next challenge is to get my DC generators automated with the AGS (auto generator start). Documentation is very vague and I may have inadvertently damaged the circuitry.
Just ordered a replacement. Hopefully I've learned a thing or two and get this up & running on its own.
After the mess in Texas I need to tie up all my loose ends and get my system at 100% readiness.
90cummins

Teaching a ninja-gen a new trick...... great when a plan works out.

About as close to having cake/eating it that you can get, lifting that type of load while in ECO.....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

On another note... came across these mini meters on Amazon a couple weeks ago. They fit in a standard 7/8 hole and the A/V meters even came with their own current transformer. $12 for the freq meter and about $15 for the Amp/Volt meters.

Switches are to shut the voltage supply off. $15 doesn’t inspire the level of trust required to leave them on 24/7.

They came with zero instructions and a connector between the meter and CT so a word of warning for those that don’t know - never, ever pass current through a CT if it’s not connected to a meter.

View attachment 687196

Great deal !

Extra points for the caveats posted :thumbsup:

Rgds, D.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

Yes, it has definite advantages for storage but there is a trade off in overall reliability. For the less technically adept, keeping a fresh supply of gasoline can be simpler than determining when and why an engine is running lean.

Personally, I’d prefer a diesel but I have a gasoline unit. Either are readily available when I need them. I had a 4500w propane generator I gave to my neighbour because I don’t want the hassle of LP tanks and that particular model was hard to find a gasoline carburetor for.

 

[Industrial Toys]

There is a ton of neat, dirt cheap metering stuff available on E-Bay/China. I make sure I use appropriately low fusing on all of it. Not sure of the CT remark.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

CT’s will build unlimited voltage if they are open circuited with current passing though.

Most often they arc and melt but they can give you a nasty shock as the leads can easily reach thousands of volts with only a fraction of the rated current passing though them.

Ammeters are nearly zero resistance so normally no voltage is developed. These meters came with a plug in connector on the CTs which is quite unusual and may invite people to unplug them live. Also, there are no warnings whatever included with them. And yes, voltage inputs fused at 2/10 amp.

 

[Fallon]

Bonded/floating neutral question

My PTO generator has a bonded neutral. It's quite old so no manual available for it & I'm pretty sure it can't be safely configured to floating neutral.
The main breaker panel in the house obviously has neutral & ground bonded properly. Well, I haven't checked, but it's a safe assumption.

All the fun in Texas & similar issues with ice taking out massive amounts of power lines at my parents back in Oregon have finally motivated me to get around to getting backup power properly sorted & tested. I have a manual generator disconnect switch that was installed with my solar several years ago that I have never used. I went to go pop it open & try to see if it switched the neutral & what not. But it apparently has a lockout so you can't open the box unless it's set to off. I need to crack it open later when a power outage won't tick off the wife.

If the transfer switch disconnects both hots & the neutral from the grid, does that make it correct? Even with the neutral being bonded at the generator & at the main breaker panel? Do I only hook up the 2 hots & the neutral from the generator to the outlet & disconnect box? In either case should I run a ground from the generator to the ground rod? My decent amount of electrical knowledge & Google fu is failing me. Decent amount out there on floating vs bonded neutrals, but I'm not finding diagrams that make sense to me.

No GFCI on the old generator, but I do want to do things safely, which generally means to code.

 

[check]

Ok, just kidding. Have a nice electric exhaust fan on the other end that plugs in to the generator, plus the side walls don’t go all the way up. That should be enough.

However, I was reading the manual again and they said to keep it 5 feet away from combustibles. So, I may have to go inside and screw a bunch of Tin to the walls!