All electric house and a generator

[Industrial Toys]

Apparently, I am told by people in the business that keeping moisture out of the rotor and stator is important. That is why testing under good loading is important. The power source is quite secondary (for testing) in my opinion.

As far as not running life support, well, I would rather not have any back-up, than think I do, and it fails. Because that really sucks! And it's why I lean in the direction of slow running commercial style back-up systems.

 

[MossRoad]

Consider a solar system with battery backup. You will get a 30% tax break and the array will reduce your electric load everyday. If you electric company has net metering, you should look very hard at solar as backup power supply rather than all the drawbacks of a standby generator. HS

Right now my solar array is producing 4.4kwh, it's quite, no fuel, meter running backwards. HS

That's a big investment for system that only works during an outage. With enough battery backup your assertion may not hold water, by the way the array still produces in bad weather. HS

Just remember while your thinking this morning my solar has already produced over 5kwh, and is running at 3.4kw and spinning up. No fuss, no fuel, and all that's happened is the sun came up.... Incredible... HS

The OP lives in about the poorest location in the country for a solar installation.
http://www.nrel.gov/gis/images/map_pv_us_annual10km_dec2008.jpg

And that's the annual picture. Don't look at the winter pictures, its way worse. Its not a good option for his location at all.

 

[Industrial Toys]

No. I am sure I pretty much have that (poorest) spot covered. Location, PLUS living in a valley on the North Side of a Forested Hill.

 

[Code54]

Yep around here you never see anything solar except a patio light or landscape lights. We are surrounded with trees so most of light comes when the sun is directly over head!
Thank you all for the wiring info, that helps make things a lot easier to figure out.
Looking tomorrow afternoon at 3 different propane systems and finding out the actual pricing.

 

[Industrial Toys]

You wouldn't see Solar around here either, except for the fact that our government threw a few billions of tax payers dollars into the scheme!

 

[zzvyb6]

I don't want to hijac this thread, but has anyone installed co-generation capability, whereby the motor cooling system is piped into the house for heating purposes? This can nearly double the thermal efficiency of your fuel usage. And a step further can be taken when you use a heat exchanger to extract heat from the exhaust. There are now commercial units that do this with standby power. Even a tractor could be modified with cooling system disconnects (via large hydraulic fittings) in order to circulate hot water into a house area.

 

[4570Man]

It doesn't seem like a worthwhile expense.

 

[Industrial Toys]

All the Mennonites around here with their own plants put the cooling water heat into the shop slabs via hydronic systems.

 

[4570Man]

Don't the Mennonites run the generators full time because they don't believe in on grid electricity? There's a big difference in a full time operation and a stand by generator that runs a few days a year. Another problem is a lot of the homeowner standby generators are air cooled.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Don't the Mennonites run the generators full time because they don't believe in on grid electricity?

Around here, they don't have much of anything on electricity, unless you include 12V.

They run a diesel motor twice a day, it has a compressor, vacuum pump and charges 12 batts... The compressor fills two 500 gallon propane tanks, the vac pump runs their milking machines and the batts run a few other things.

All the houses/stores have propane lights in them...

SR

 

[Industrial Toys]

Yes, apparently the Devil is in the wires! So I have been told. Funny, how they don't mind or feel threatened by the Internet!

They run for business only and shut down after work, as late as that may be. They often have a lot of heat to get rid of, and it's not uncommon to see their shop doors wide open in winter.

Big difference to occasional genset use.

 

[Industrial Toys]

One of their impressive NG sets.

They have a tiny Yanmar for nighttime use that keeps things alive.

They have a l

 

[Industrial Toys]

That could be the Devil they speak of.

 

[Industrial Toys]

File uploads not working very well tonight.

 

[newbury]

Thanks Larry but I think I am a little confused. It looks like the table does not go up nearly high enough of the AMP rating. I am think 22000 KW an running 150' of wire, so maybe something closer to service line? Am I reading it wrong or just overdoing things?
THANKS

Why 150'? If you are afraid of the noise get a good tactical quiet generator. Some of them were designed for movie sets and you almost have to touch them to know they are running.

This thread has sparked my interest in a Military surplus Gen set. It looks like they only go to 10KW in single phase units. All the 15KW and up only list 3 phase current.

My only experience with solar panels is of the small battery charger variety. I have 10w and a 30w Instapark panels. Both will put out 18v in the shade. They do not require direct sunlight to charge.

I would give anything to go solar but it just flat isn't cost effective yet. Some of the folks that got in on the subsidy systems made out okay but I missed that train.

Almost all of the ones I fielded were 15KW and did provide 3 phase - BUT remember 3 phase is basically two lines of single phase. They also provided 240V, but also provided 120V.

Sort of like a tractor - I'll tell you my FEL can lift 2 tons. I won't bother to tell you it can also lift 100 pounds.

Example off ebay:

U.S. Department of defense portable military electricity generator 15KW 50/60 hz r
You are viewing a military tactical quiet 15kw diesel gen. 3-phase with selectable 120/208 or 240/416 volt AC output, with approx 8% voltage adjustablility up or down at 50 or 60 HZ also selectable. It has a Diesel engine. Hour meter shows hours but the engine is clean. It was rewired by man I bought it from. I ran it to test it out. You are welcome to bring something to run off it. It is currently on a trailer. Comes with the trailer. Please call Me with questions 214-931-7059. Susan. LOCAL PICKUP PAY IN PERSON ONLY! If you live in different state you can send someone to pick it up with a positive idea and documenting it. You can do a Paypal in person. We are located in Dallas in 75220 area code it's in a warehouse. If have any questions or would like to view

One of the advantages of many of the mil surplus generators is that they can be used for parallel operations. Thus if I get 2 10KW units I could run one at the house and one at the shops, but if I need closer to 20KW capacity I could parallel them at one place.

 

[Industrial Toys]

What is involved with getting single phase out of a 3 phase set? Some are name plated for both, but are these simply de-rating the set for single phase power?

 

[newbury]

I'm interested in the Government surplus stuff, but have never found anything remotely close to where I live. I've seen some portable light towers for sale with big diesel generators that where pretty cheap and I've been thinking about going that route.

Eddie - What's "remotely close"?
This link shows 33 15KW (MEP804A) and 30KW (MEP 805A) that sold in Texas, some within 100 miles of Tyler, TX.

Admittedly I see a lot better newer generators being sold in Virginia and Maryland.

 

[newbury]

What is involved with getting single phase out of a 3 phase set? Some are name plated for both, but are these simply de-rating the set for single phase power?

It's all in the wiring.
/edit -
Here's a YouTube:

And be careful - I saw a Warrant twice weld a wrench to the battery posts.

Once I could understand but TWICE????

 

[dickfoster]

This thread has sparked my interest in a Military surplus Gen set. It looks like they only go to 10KW in single phase units. All the 15KW and up only list 3 phase current.

My only experience with solar panels is of the small battery charger variety. I have 10w and a 30w Instapark panels. Both will put out 18v in the shade. They do not require direct sunlight to charge.

I would give anything to go solar but it just flat isn't cost effective yet. Some of the folks that got in on the subsidy systems made out okay but I missed that train.

It's not the volts so much as the amps to get anything done even charging a battery. Power is voltage X amps.

 

[dickfoster]

Weekly testing for a homeowner standby generator? My standby generator is natural gas powered and I never test it. My diesel tractors sit for months and always start. These things aren't running life support.

I'm sure if you read the manual they want a weekly test. Mine starts and runs about 10 mins. once a week automatically. Letting anything set unused is always a bad idea because when you do need it, it might not be there for you.