Getting a whole house genny installed...

[msb1766]

Nice write up and pictures, I had a GE 15 KW Whole house generator put in a few years ago worth every penny once the power goes out.
I always keep 6 quarts of oil and a few filters and spark plugs on had just in case there is a really long power outage.
Check out Lawn Mower Parts | Small Engine Parts - Jacks Small Engines for oil and air filters.
I also get them from Amazon.

 

[grsthegreat]

All done. Tech came out today, installed the battery & MobileLink unit, and plugged in the activation code.

Exercise period set for weekly (10A on Saturdays), initial changeover set at 15 seconds rather than the default 5 seconds at my request (we get a fair number of short term dropouts when weather is dicey).

Did a simulated power out (utility breaker on switch turned off), house switched to gen. power in less than 30 seconds. 5 ton heat pump was on a 5 minute lockout at switchover. Lowered the thermostat inside so it would come on for cooling asap & it cranked up as expected as soon as the lockout timed out. (UPS's chirped at heat pump start-up, indicating a momentary voltage dip - but immediately went back to normal wall power). Could not hear any real difference in the engine whether the heat pump was running or not.

Utility power was turned back on at the switch, there was about a 3-5 second delay & the switch relays fired to change back utility power. Generator continued to run a little bit for cool-down then shut off.

There is a 25 hour break in period for the generator, at which point oil & filter get changed. If exercise + outages don't get 25 hours in the first year, a change is done anyway. After that it is done annually or @ 200 hr intervals, whichever comes first.


Nick

Remember to have the valves adjusted at 25 hours... Very important

 

[nikdfish]

Remember to have the valves adjusted at 25 hours... Very important

Thanks for adding that. Believe it or not, I actually just mentioned that to the wife while we were talking about maintenance and service contract options!

If the 25 hour mark passes during an extended outage, would a service visit at the first opportunity following power restoration be sufficient (re: machine health & warranty coverage)?

Nick

 

[k0ua]

Thanks for adding that. Believe it or not, I actually just mentioned that to the wife while we were talking about maintenance and service contract options!

If the 25 hour mark passes during an extended outage, would a service visit at the first opportunity following power restoration be sufficient (re: machine health & warranty coverage)?

Nick

Nick if it is the typical Briggs OHV adjustment, it is real easy to do, you could do it yourself Just a thought.

 

[grsthegreat]

Thanks for adding that. Believe it or not, I actually just mentioned that to the wife while we were talking about maintenance and service contract options!

If the 25 hour mark passes during an extended outage, would a service visit at the first opportunity following power restoration be sufficient (re: machine health & warranty coverage)?

Nick

valve lash is not warranty issue. Its just helps overall life of engine. I did service on unit that wasnt running a few months back. Compression test showed about 70# in one cyllinder and nothing in other. Owner thought unit was toast. I set valves, and thay were WAY out of tollerance. After setting them compression jumped to 160# range in both. Gen ran nicely after that. The unit was 2010 vintage but never serviced.

 

[murphy1244]

valve lash is not warranty issue. Its just helps overall life of engine. I did service on unit that wasnt running a few months back. Compression test showed about 70# in one cyllinder and nothing in other. Owner thought unit was toast. I set valves, and thay were WAY out of tollerance. After setting them compression jumped to 160# range in both. Gen ran nicely after that. The unit was 2010 vintage but never serviced.

How do you set valve lash in a genny?

 

[grsthegreat]

How do you set valve lash in a genny?

same as with an old car. Remove valve cover on a COLD engine. Remove plugs. I remove cover from muffler bay and hand rotate fan to find top dead center of compression stroke (both valves closed). Set valves .002-.004 in

 

[murphy1244]

same as with an old car. Remove valve cover on a COLD engine. Remove plugs. I remove cover from muffler bay and hand rotate fan to find top dead center of compression stroke (both valves closed). Set valves .002-.004 in

Thanks much, need to find out how to get to the fan on my briggs set up.

 

[TheMan419]

Jealous of the whole house. Looked at putting one in at the old house. Just could not justify (in my mind) the cost. So we wired for portable. Turned out to be a good call because shortly after that our "dream" country home came on the market and we bought it.

So now I will have this new house wired for the portable.

Living out in the country and having the water go out in a storm.... you need back up power of some sort.

Certainly from an economic standpoint the whole house will never "pay for it's self" but that is not the point. The point is what kind of creature comforts do you want and what you are willing to pay for them.

For me we will have horses on the property here soon. Min need is 10 gallons of water per horse per day. More in the heat of the summer. So having the well operational is a must. Not too much more $$ for a portable genny that will run some other items (fridge/freezer, a few lights, blower on the furnace). Well worth the peace of mind.

 

[Gary Fowler]

When I built my retirement home, I thought seriously about getting a whole house genset but the cost of propane was a bit much for full time running. I bought a 10K Generac portable unit for emergency use but have not used it in 3 years other than to fire it up when I first bought it. I likely should gas it up and let it run a bit, I don't know how long they can set without loosing the field on the generator. Not an issue for comfort should we ever loose power for a long time, we can just move to the motor home which has its own generator and still have all the comforts. I think the fuel tank on it holds about 75 gallons and it is full at the moment along with the propane tank.
We have lost power one time for about 12 hours in the 5 years we have lived here so not a big issue for needing a whole house system.