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.