Your last generator Maintenance Run

[Chilliwack Murray]

I see both sides of it. Many critical units that failed or would not have performed if required because someone who thought they knew what they were doing (or more often knew better) were taking care of it. Sometimes this was the owner or maintenance people and other times a service company.

This, and the increasing complexity of equipment led to certification and inspection requirements but like all things government,
Insufficient oversight and rules for the sake of rules leads to pencil whipped forms by inexperienced people with varying levels of competence.

A big part of the reason for a young tech not being able to fix old equipment is just the nature of industry and the overbearing safety culture today. Techs are taught NOT to think outside the box and to follow procedure to the letter or face discipline. The only path when the problem isn’t in the book or the steps don’t provide resolution is replacement.

Very few are in a position these days to do anything outside of published steps or touch anything they haven’t been specifically trained on. This is especially important in power generation where so many different components and suppliers overlap and be the source of a problem.

I consider myself lucky to be in a position to do this type of work... Try as they might to eliminate this role, there is a never ending stream of unresolvable issues that come up that require a “specialist” to sort out. It’s a good gig, hopefully it lasts until retirement.

 

[groundcover]

Last year I had a 60KW LP Cat go out on falt. Called Cat service, have contract for PM . Dispatcher tells me he doesn’t know when he can get a technician out, he has two guys in the hospital and is all backed up. I call a local guy that mostly deals with homeowner rigs but he said he would get someone right out. The local guy is trouble shooting the generator and all of a sudden there is the Cat truck in the driveway. Guy is on the phone and is pretty upset that someone else is working on the rig. I said the service wrighter said no one was available and that you were in the hospital. He said yes we were AT the hospital - fixing a generator !! I got him calmed down and the two of them got it back in service. Cat guy had the part , magnetic pickup or some such thing.

 

[ultrarunner]

A generator failed during surgery 29 years ago and this is the how and why I earned my first hospital paycheck coming in to fix it when no one else could do same day service.

The contract service provider had not been there in many weeks and the battery terminals corroded. Turned out the owner of the generator company had a heart attack and the clinic simply fell through the cracks...

 

[daugen]

Insufficient oversight and rules for the sake of rules leads to pencil whipped forms by inexperienced people with varying levels of competence.

Chilliwack, you write beautifully. The trick of integrating sarcasm into the flow of information is an art when you can make someone smile in the process. I worked in a form intensive industry, insurance, most of my life, and finance. Lots of forms.
Used a lot of sign here stickers over the years... I worked for Travelers Insurance in their home office in Hartford for while. in the late 70's, and there sure were a lot of rules to learn. Like not talking about anything important while in company elevator.

It would seem that the more critical the install, some type of predictive monitoring could/would be installed. I did that for two years on gas and steam turbines in power plants, what a fun job that was. Schlumberger monitoring equipment, replacing strip recorders
and consolidating data. And most importantly, alarming properly at designated numbers. And making attractive charting for the operator. Knowledge is power, and the goal was always to prevent an unplanned shutdown. As Ultrarunner does in his hospitals.

alarming for temps and pressures is basic, the question is what else? Which bearing is most likely to fail? And where do you find that information? Vibration monitoring is usually helpful and then some software you can use to set alarm points. I have zero engineering background, always went with boss into power plants, including one nuke plant powerhouse. He was the engineer, I was the gopher.

 

[daugen]

I'm surprised Generac doesn't market an optional instrument panel for this standby unit.
I would have bought it... but thank goodness for IR temp guns.
I especially want to know oil temperature and exhaust temp.

 

[3930dave]

"The trick of integrating sarcasm into the flow of information is an art when you can make someone smile in the process."

I've read some of the best prose ever, on TBN here.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

A big part of the reason for a young tech not being able to fix old equipment is just the nature of industry and the overbearing safety culture today. Techs are taught NOT to think outside the box and to follow procedure to the letter or face discipline. The only path when the problem isn’t in the book or the steps don’t provide resolution is replacement.

I consider myself lucky to be in a position to do this type of work... Try as they might to eliminate this role, there is a never ending stream of unresolvable issues that come up that require a “specialist” to sort out. It’s a good gig, hopefully it lasts until retirement.

Can't imagine you running out of work.....

It often only takes one wire being chafed to separate the Parts Swappers from the real diagnosticians.....

Rgds, D.

 

[mmancuso13]

Generac supposedly has an instrumentation board and app (Mobile link) that sends gen set operating parameter data to you over WiFi.

Supposedly you can use it to retrofit older generators but I can’t find a retrofit install manual online and let’s just say I want proof before I jump in...

Here is what they say it will do:

 

[3930dave]

mm13 - post the Generac model you're thinking of.

Next time grs stops by, he will likely know off the top of his head what it would take to get that done....

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

generacs mobillink either cellular or wifi will NOT tell you oil temp or exhaust temp. even my GenPi unit doesnt do that. Ive seen some huge industrial units that dont even give this info on remote monitoring units. The Generac unit will email or text you to tell you when unit is running, and will tell you of any issues. It does NOT give you running values during outage. My GenPi unit does.. either monitor can give propane fuel tank readings, however you need to add a wifi fuel tank monitor and these run a few hundred bucks.