Your last generator Maintenance Run

[orezok]

my parents use to turn off their water heater everyday for 30 years. still the original breaker.

But they don’t make ‘em like they used to.

 

[LittleBill21]

But they don’t make ‘em like they used to.

it was a homelite panel, it was not special.

 

[3930dave]

Good points about breaker characteristics, as any "switch" is normally spec'd for cycle-life.

And.... another vote for Genmon, covering the switching too .

Rgds, D.

 

[check]

In 35 years as an electrician, ive replaced 1 main breaker. Ive replaced quite a few individual breakers though.

Some people install a switch to break one of the power sensor leads of a transfer switch. Me, my Genmon system allows for a loaded test electronically. No breakers to switch.

Also, no one needs to test an air cooled generator under full load every month. Once a year before winter is all i suggest. On mine, i usually wait until november for service, however i was showing someone just starting out in generator maintenance how to do general service. I used both mine for training.

We also get enough real blackouts here not to really need a yearly test most of the times.

Diesel liquid cooled generators generally require load banking.

Good to know. We get plenty enough power outages as well. When they installed my Kohler generator 15 years ago or so, they set it up to exercise once a week. Well, we put the kibosh on that, so now it gets exercised well enough each time we have a power outage.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I was wondering when I should do the next generator maintenance run when the decision was made for me. The power went out yesterday morning for just over 6 hours. It was a clear sunny morning with no wind and no heat to stress the grid but a transformer blew, putting around 20 customers in the dark.

It sure was nice to just push a button and start the new whole house diesel genny. I had thrown my back out cutting wood the previous day and I would have been hard pressed to hook up the previous PTO unit.

I'm not sure if it's just this area but outages are becoming more frequent and of longer duration. The local power company spent $2.3 B a decade ago to upgrade their transmission grid but nothing was spent on local distribution. Tree trimming used to be done every 2 or 3 years here but none in the last 5. Winter & summer storms are becoming more frequent and of greater intensity and the distribution network is showing its age. All things considered, I'm glad I invested in the new system!

 

[mrmikey]

Our power corp is the same. We had a bad storm blow thu here a few years back some people were without power for weeks. Then the scumsuckers had the nerve to increase the rates to pay for the repairs after raking in ridiculous profits and laying off the normal Joes that actually work. All the while their head rates in I think last year was $16M.

 

[ultrarunner]

I was wondering when I should do the next generator maintenance run when the decision was made for me. The power went out yesterday morning for just over 6 hours. It was a clear sunny morning with no wind and no heat to stress the grid but a transformer blew, putting around 20 customers in the dark.

It sure was nice to just push a button and start the new whole house diesel genny. I had thrown my back out cutting wood the previous day and I would have been hard pressed to hook up the previous PTO unit.

View attachment 3682460

I'm not sure if it's just this area but outages are becoming more frequent and of longer duration. The local power company spent $2.3 B a decade ago to upgrade their transmission grid but nothing was spent on local distribution. Tree trimming used to be done every 2 or 3 years here but none in the last 5. Winter & summer storms are becoming more frequent and of greater intensity and the distribution network is showing its age. All things considered, I'm glad I invested in the new system!

You have the unit I had designs on… just the right size and diesel.

 

[subhunter]

I run the twins the first of the month. This is the

Pre-Hurricane season run so they will be getting

a oil change. Load was a heater set on 600w.

 

[3930dave]

I was wondering when I should do the next generator maintenance run when the decision was made for me. The power went out yesterday morning for just over 6 hours. It was a clear sunny morning with no wind and no heat to stress the grid but a transformer blew, putting around 20 customers in the dark.

It sure was nice to just push a button and start the new whole house diesel genny. I had thrown my back out cutting wood the previous day and I would have been hard pressed to hook up the previous PTO unit.

View attachment 3682460

I'm not sure if it's just this area but outages are becoming more frequent and of longer duration. The local power company spent $2.3 B a decade ago to upgrade their transmission grid but nothing was spent on local distribution. Tree trimming used to be done every 2 or 3 years here but none in the last 5. Winter & summer storms are becoming more frequent and of greater intensity and the distribution network is showing its age. All things considered, I'm glad I invested in the new system!

Great when A Plan Works Out Well, isn't it...... Back Muscles usually take a while to normalize after "tweaks", so Paid For, right there !

It's not just California...... plenty of areas are affected by the same Financial cutbacks, which reduce tree-cutting. Our societal energy needs are going up (long conversation right there....), but that notwithstanding, seeing these problems today underlines how significant the accomplishment of the original grid build-out was, AND that it was paid for Back When.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

I run the twins the first of the month. This is the

Pre-Hurricane season run so they will be getting

a oil change. Load was a heater set on 600w.

Great looking pair of Red-Heads !

I was talking with my buddy in the next ofc @ work, he's been putting mega-hours on his little Honda for decades, marine-duty.

For some reason he doesn't want to juggle a 200#+ generator up/down the gangplank !

Rgds, D.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Great when A Plan Works Out Well, isn't it...... Back Muscles usually take a while to normalize after "tweaks", so Paid For, right there !

It's not just California...... plenty of areas are affected by the same Financial cutbacks, which reduce tree-cutting. Our societal energy needs are going up (long conversation right there....), but that notwithstanding, seeing these problems today underlines how significant the accomplishment of the original grid build-out was, AND that it was paid for Back When.

Rgds, D.

I've been considering an EV, but this aging grid is cause for concern. The idea of using a diesel generator to charge an electric vehicle just seems ridiculous.

As you said in an earlier post, I too have learned a great deal from this thread. It was information I learned here that contributed much to my project. Thanks for starting it!

 

[bdhsfz6]

You have the unit I had designs on… just the right size and diesel.

I had been looking at these Kubota Lowboys for a couple of years before I finally pulled the trigger. The $$ per KW cost is a bit high but I like the Kubota name, and there is a dealer just a few miles away. I was concerned at first about the capacity of the GL11000, since it replaced my old Baumalight 12.5K PTO model. I considered the 14K model but I never came close to stressing the 12.5K though, so I don't regret the choice. I also liked the fact that the wheel kit was available for the 11K, but not the larger 14K.

 

[3930dave]

I've been considering an EV, but this aging grid is cause for concern. The idea of using a diesel generator to charge an electric vehicle just seems ridiculous.

As you said in an earlier post, I too have learned a great deal from this thread. It was information I learned here that contributed much to my project. Thanks for starting it!

Funny you say that........ plenty of high-visibility public EV projects charge on diesel (meaning All the Time), due to lack of infrastructure.

I like dzl/elec in general, and that would sit towards the top of my consideration list for a hybrid. Not just me..... there have been interesting military dzl/elec projects.... something like a scout vehicle for example - you have long-range capability, but can select electric for quiet/low signature conditions. Locomotive engineers figured out the attraction long ago, but only got around to adding batteries quite recently.

This thread has been a lot of fun, and only exists due to the extensive documentation and great pictures supplied by countless people. I've learned a ton, hanging around here.

Rgds, D.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Funny you say that........ plenty of high-visibility public EV projects charge on diesel (meaning All the Time), due to lack of infrastructure.

I like dzl/elec in general, and that would sit towards the top of my consideration list for a hybrid. Not just me..... there have been interesting military dzl/elec projects.... something like a scout vehicle for example - you have long-range capability, but can select electric for quiet/low signature conditions. Locomotive engineers figured out the attraction long ago, but only got around to adding batteries quite recently.

This thread has been a lot of fun, and only exists due to the extensive documentation and great pictures supplied by countless people. I've learned a ton, hanging around here.

Rgds, D.

My comment was meant mainly as a joke. I would buy an EV for "green" reasons and running a diesel to charge it would defeat that purpose.

Sure, there are many practical industrial / commercial diesel-electric applications, but I'm talking about a small compact vehicle for around town use, not a hybrid

If I were going to regularly charge a small electric vehicle with a diesel generator, I would just buy a diesel powered vehicle instead.

Again, it was mostly a joke.

 

[Patrick Herd]

No better better a test loadbank for a generator than an charging EV In all seriousness an electric car could perform a useful task while a backup generator is running for actual backup reasons: The EVSE (the bit on the wall, incorrectly called the charger) tells the car how much current it can safely draw. The current signal can be varied on the fly and the car must follow that direction.

So by means of a current transformer or interfacing with the generator control system you can have a load that uses excess generator capacity while loads are light to prevent wet stacking and the likes - My car can also deliver 7kW of AC to allow for using banked electrons when you want to sleep We do this at my friend's off grid holiday house. The car happily runs everything for two or three nights which is about the frequency of resupply missions to the nearest town with fast chargers.

 

[LouNY]

No better better a test loadbank for a generator than an charging EV In all seriousness an electric car could perform a useful task while a backup generator is running for actual backup reasons: The EVSE (the bit on the wall, incorrectly called the charger) tells the car how much current it can safely draw. The current signal can be varied on the fly and the car must follow that direction.

So by means of a current transformer or interfacing with the generator control system you can have a load that uses excess generator capacity while loads are light to prevent wet stacking and the likes - My car can also deliver 7kW of AC to allow for using banked electrons when you want to sleep We do this at my friend's off grid holiday house. The car happily runs everything for two or three nights which is about the frequency of resupply missions to the nearest town with fast chargers.

Depends on the vehicle and the charger, The Chevy Equinox EV with the factory charger is a 32 Amp draw for 7.7 Kw.

 

[Patrick Herd]

But you can turn it down, all vehicles that are compliant with J1772 can charge on as little as 6A generally on either 110 or 220V

 

[LouNY]

But you can turn it down, all vehicles that are compliant with J1772 can charge on as little as 6A generally on either 110 or 220V

Yes, 120 volt setup can be used at 6 amp or 12 amp, the 240 volt setup can not be adjusted it will max out at 32 amp with no user ajustability.

 

[Patrick Herd]

Factory supplied EVSE sure, but there are adjustable options on the market

 

[LouNY]

Factory supplied EVSE sure, but there are adjustable options on the market

Depends on the vehicle and the charger, The Chevy Equinox EV with the factory charger is a 32 Amp draw for 7.7 Kw.