Your last generator Maintenance Run

[PILOON]

In early days our electricity was only by water (hydro) power, hence the term Hydro Electric.

In Quebec the govt power co is formerly named Hydro Quebec.

 

[daugen]

Today, I use a Ptouch. ..
[/I]

Me too, going to put the new nut orchard labels out this morning, go on little copper name stands. Will see how
these labels hold up to the sun and weather. Prior black permanent ink did not last.

I've never had a problem with the ptouch labels coming off a hot engine though of course I put them on cooler plastic shrouding.
I just label over the old one. Like saving a history file...
Usually make them two lines, but still easy to read, about an inch long.

MIB, I bet those chickens start squawking when the lights go out and the sounds of all machinery stop for those 30 seconds.
how many hours do you have on that John Deere by now? Those are prized engines for long distance yachts/slow trawlers.
I'm guessing a 10,000 hour engine. Of course it the parts that hang on the side of the thing that fail first, the stop solenoids, the water pumps,
intercoolers, etc.

Buick, I remember being thankful I had taken French when trying to get home from a visit to friends in Canada and seeing the huge sign Le Pont. Long time ago, probably all
different now, but in many areas knowing how to speak French is helpful. I think we Americans forget that. Just assume everyone is going to speak
like we do. Of course I have problems understanding the local heavy Southern drawl so plenty of variety here.

 

[3930dave]

Each Wednesday afternoon at 2pm for 30 minutes.
Automatic transfers and start...80kw on a 150hp John Deere engine.
Good to power 2 layers barns and a pullet barn on our poultry farm.
Hydro goes out for more than 30 seconds...generator kicks in.

Nice setup. Can't imagine a commercial scale operation today w/o appropriate backup.

'98 was a bad ice-storm, and I remember some dairy farmers on the news complaining about no power - they had no backup systems at all.

Rgds, D.

 

[buickanddeere]

Today, I use a Ptouch. ..
[/I]

Me too, going to put the new nut orchard labels out this morning, go on little copper name stands. Will see how
these labels hold up to the sun and weather. Prior black permanent ink did not last.

I've never had a problem with the ptouch labels coming off a hot engine though of course I put them on cooler plastic shrouding.
I just label over the old one. Like saving a history file...
Usually make them two lines, but still easy to read, about an inch long.

MIB, I bet those chickens start squawking when the lights go out and the sounds of all machinery stop for those 30 seconds.
how many hours do you have on that John Deere by now? Those are prized engines for long distance yachts/slow trawlers.
I'm guessing a 10,000 hour engine. Of course it the parts that hang on the side of the thing that fail first, the stop solenoids, the water pumps,
intercoolers, etc.

Buick, I remember being thankful I had taken French when trying to get home from a visit to friends in Canada and seeing the huge sign Le Pont. Long time ago, probably all
different now, but in many areas knowing how to speak French is helpful. I think we Americans forget that. Just assume everyone is going to speak
like we do. Of course I have problems understanding the local heavy Southern drawl so plenty of variety here.

Quebec is it's own country within canada with it's own rules regarding french language signs, taxes and immigration. They also receive the lion's share of federal tax money collected from other provinces. There are places with little love for Anglophone Canadians in quebec.

 

[farmer2009]

Each Wednesday afternoon at 2pm for 30 minutes.
Automatic transfers and start...80kw on a 150hp John Deere engine.
Good to power 2 layers barns and a pullet barn on our poultry farm.
Hydro goes out for more than 30 seconds...generator kicks in.

Mine is Sunday morning at 10am, same run length, same size only with a Cummins.
4 20,000 sqft. broiler barns.
What size are yours?
Mine starts after a 5 second outage.

 

[ultrarunner]

How many are required to have remote emergency stop buttons so First Repsonders can turn off power to reduce risk of electrocution in the event of a fire... but also begs the point that Hospitals require power and turning off the sole source could be disaster in other ways.

My permitted install of a 150 kW Onan diesels was in 1995.

Multiple inspections every year... Bay Area Air Quality Management, Fire Department, AAAHC, etc.

Last week I was written up for not having a remote "E" stop button.

These buttons are often just outside the Generator area or enclosure.... my units are in a parking lot with a cyclone fenced enclosure.

Having an E stop anywhere the public could access would be problematic for a Hospital...

Testing is limited to 20 hours annually so my schedule is 25 thirty minute runs plus cool down and one 4 hour run under my 39% building load with cool down.

 

[3930dave]

Having an E stop anywhere the public could access would be problematic for a Hospital...

Even inside a cyclone fence, I can see that being a headache - all it would take is a long enough stick. During an actual emergency, you'd have to tie someone up standing there, to ensure no interruption. Scratch that - at a hospital you'd have to do the same just during your extended Real Load test !

I understand the issue though, emergency shutdown is worth considering, esp. on the larger systems people in this thread have installed at the homestead.

If we build something ourselves at home, we can lose sight of what may not be obvious on a larger system:

Where is the main output breaker ? Is it clearly labeled ?

With external tanks, is the fuel shutoff valve easily accessed, and labeled ? In ur's example, I'd say this fuel control is critical too, and perhaps somewhat less susceptible to monkey business than an E stop button.

Us motorheads tend to gravitate to such things, but ur's points are a good reminder - we tend to focus on getting things running fast in an emergency (logically) - the next level of thinking-ahead concerns making it obvious to hopefully everyone how to shut down a generator quickly/safely When Something Else ! Goes Wrong....

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Mine is Sunday morning at 10am, same run length, same size only with a Cummins.
4 20,000 sqft. broiler barns.
What size are yours?
Mine starts after a 5 second outage.

One of the things I enjoy about this thread is hearing about the details of systems that I don't have the $ to engage with :thumbsup:

You can often learn valuable lessons (applicable to smaller gens) paying attention to the hardware and practices used with larger industrial systems.

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

The code is constantly evolving and then more often than not inspectors can vary on interpretation...

One thing that has changed is permitted "Grandfathered" installations are no longer safe across the board as they once had been.

My Gensets are modular units and with alarmed double containment "Belly" tanks... this was required by the city back in 1995... so shutting of the fuel would still require access to the generator housing.

The main generator breaker and transfer switches are all deep inside the building in the centrally located panel room...

The main switch gear for the entire building is 5' from the generators... one 1200 amp 3 phase 480 volt circuit.

Even back in 1995 the generator was not supposed to be in the vicinity of the switch-gear but the city dictated location...

The idea of keeping a separation is to minimize physical harm... say a flood or a big rig crashes at that location... if the Genset and main switch-gear were some distance apart the likelihood of both being damaged or compromised is reduced.

 

[3930dave]

The code is constantly evolving and then more often than not inspectors can vary on interpretation...

One thing that has changed is permitted "Grandfathered" installations are no longer safe across the board as they once had been.

My Gensets are modular units and with alarmed double containment "Belly" tanks... this was required by the city back in 1995... so shutting of the fuel would still require access to the generator housing.

The main generator breaker and transfer switches are all deep inside the building in the centrally located panel room...

The main switch gear for the entire building is 5' from the generators... one 1200 amp 3 phase 480 volt circuit.

Even back in 1995 the generator was not supposed to be in the vicinity of the switch-gear but the city dictated location...

The idea of keeping a separation is to minimize physical harm... say a flood or a big rig crashes at that location... if the Genset and main switch-gear were some distance apart the likelihood of both being damaged or compromised is reduced.

I understand some of the first-responder issues and concerns.

I know commercial regs were changing here (re. fuel) a couple of years back. Haven't dug into the current regs yet, but I have the impression that belly-tanks have been affected.

Rgds, D.