Your last generator Maintenance Run

[daugen]

I have severe tinnitus in my left ear, and that rotational noise is like an drill in my ear. I had to turn the volume down in a hurry.

ok, here's a stumper, how many hours between oil changes on a mini turbine?
talk about some high speed bearings
and I wonder what oil it takes. Must be aviation oil of some kind, no 4 bucks a quart for this baby.

I'd like to see a tear down on that gen, see what's inside it. How they gear down to 3600 rpm, or
would they have to? Turbines only go very fast, pretty sure they don't have a useful slow speed. Low torque at low speed?
I'm just guessing.
Think your local Generac dealer would work on it?

GRS, I think you would start a forest fire first....

 

[daugen]

So that I don't have to get out of bed at 3am in a driving rain any more, as I have done several times in the last year,
including last week, to start the gen and get power back on, which I must do promptly.
Why? So my basement sump pump stays powered. Will flood basement quickly if no sump pump.

So...bought a group 27 AGM battery and a sump pump back up kit and will have plumber install it. Not complicated but he didn't have the right part.
Nothing new there. This way I can sleep in and turn the gen on when I wake up later.
just one more reason to have an automatic generator.
One of these days I may treat myself. I'm getting too old to do this in the middle of the night, in winter, in six inches of snow.
I've done that too.

My 10kw Westinghouse gen has been very reliable, runs clean on propane, always starts. Remarkably noisy.
I lose power mostly from trees taking down local wires, and that happens a lot.
So many dead ash trees, folks leave them in the woods because it's so expensive to cut them down.
Well...the dead tree falls over and the top of it takes down the wires. That activates the breaker on the community
pole and instantly seven houses lose power. The joys of living in/near the woods.

 

[3930dave]

Water.... the great equalizer, and hard to ignore.....

Turbines to Speed..... reminds me of Batman !

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

supposedly that generator runs at 100,000 RPM.

https://gasturbineworld.co.uk/dynajet

 

[Patrick Herd]

Did a quick skim through of that PDF, Thanks GRS.
At an engineering glance.
The alternator runs at the full 100k rpm shaft speed giving an ac output at 1.6kHz.
An inverter is then used to produce 50 or 60Hz as needed. Just like a conventional inverter generator.
It mentions being based on turbocharger technology, something I was expecting given the size.

Assuming it's a conventional ball bearing turbocharger core then it will happily run with just about any oil that's suitable for a turbocharged engine.

The kicker is that the service period is likely longer than a conventional turbocharged infernal combustion engine as the oil is kept further away from combustion than in a piston or rotary engine.

 

[90cummins]

Sounds awfully fast for a generator. I would think the rotational inertia would spit the copper or magnets into orbit!!
90cummins

 

[sea2summit]

Sounds awfully fast for a generator. I would think the rotational inertia would spit the copper or magnets into orbit!!
90cummins

Probably a lot like the Abrams tank….lots of gears in there to get the actual torque you need.

 

[Patrick Herd]

Probably a lot like the Abrams tank….lots of gears in there to get the actual torque you need.

It's direct drive, the alternator runs at 100,000rpm

 

[90cummins]

Just got another generator project.
My BIL brought over a 15kw (32) hp Generac standby engine that he wants to have as a spare.
This particular unit was replaced because of excessive blow by which covered the entire interior of the genset with oil. Prior to teardown I performed a compression test. 180 & 190 psi surprised me but then propanes auto ignition temp is over 800 degrees versus gasolines auto ignition temp of 530 degrees so it can utilize higher compression. I took it apart Saturday & found that something went thru the engine. Someone had taken it apart in an attempt to fix their mistake.
Lots of signs of inexperience here.
The piston looks like a grinder was used to remove an imbedded object.
Dimples on the piston & signs of heavy oil consumption & blow-by.
Cylinders have scuffs but a light hone should clean it up. Oversized pistons are not available.
Parts list is 2 pistons & ring sets, gaskets & seals.
Now to find a source for these parts.
90cummins

 

[wwidmer]

Interesting. Not at all temped though for 2.6 K watts at $9K. New Small Turbines, 600 Watts to 2 MW - Cleantech.Org