Standby generator

[Labman]

When I was studying hooking up my 6250 generator, I added my furnace, refrigerator, freezer, and pump up. In the unlikely event of all 4 running at once it would be about 4000 watts. You don't need a huge generator, just a legal hookup.

 

[Patrick62]

My collection

My workshop is entirely off the grid. A large collection of aging Golf car batteries and a modest wind machine take care of most of the light loads.
Then I have to start a gen to run the serious stuff.

A older 6500 Onan works for most of the loads. Smaller generators includes a pair of 1.5K military gensets. And a 3K (3 phase!!!) version of about the same thing. There is also a small chinese made 3K that showed up (can beat free!). Little tinkering and it is doing pretty well (so far).

The BEAST is the homemade 15,000 ST generator head connected to a 4 cyl Isuzu engine. Flyball governor added to engine. Possibly going to be upgraded to a 20K or 24K unit next spring (I like overkill). This generator can pull the stick welder running 5/32 rod. The waveform isn't perfect, and the regulation isn't either. But it works, and is a very simple design. 1800 rpm means decent engine lifespan, but they did not even try to balance the rotor. I had to do that myself.

 

[Billy_Bob]

My power has gone out for up to two and a half days sometimes. So I have a 6500 watt generator. I just use extension cords (12 ga. contractor) to connect what I want. I'm mainly concerned with the refrigerator and freezer.

Be aware that generators can provide "dirty electricity" and some electronic things may not work with this electricity.

I'm reading lately that some new furnaces (with electronic internal controls) are not working on generator power.

For the electronic stuff and furnaces, get what is called an "online UPS" with "pure sine wave". This will provide perfect electricity for picky electronic devices and furnaces.

Match the wattage of the generator and UPS to more than what all you want to plug in and have running at the same time.

Dirty electricity looks like the following...
(First picture is what it should look like.)
http://www.jkovach.net/projects/powerquality/

Google shopping "online UPS" "pure sine"
http://www.google.com/products?q="online+UPS"+"pure+sine"&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd

 

[Octane]

I've got the 8KW Generac standy unit, and love it except for one thing. Constant light flicker and exhaust note changes due to rapid and constant throttle changes. If I hold the governor by hand, perfectly smooth.

Sounds like the governor needs to be adjusted. Those governors can be kind finicky and cause the engine to hunt if they arent adjusted correctly.

 

[Octane]

Who makes your engines?
I'm shopping for a 10-12KW unit

We make our engines. They are designed, tested and built in America. The engines are made in the Whitewater, WI plant where I work.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

Sounds like the governor needs to be adjusted. Those governors can be kind finicky and cause the engine to hunt if they arent adjusted correctly.

I would have thought it was to lean. When the throttle cracks a bit the motor bogs slightly, causing the govenor to open the throttle further. When the engine "takes a breath and catches up" suddenly, the govenor has to back off because of excess RPM. Then the cycle repeats itself continuosly or until sufficient load is added to hold the throttle fully open.

Adjusting the govenor is going to change the speed of the engine and the 60 Hertz output will no longer be set to 60 Hz.

Adjusting the High speed enrichment would seem like a more reliable and reasonable fix.

Of course I don't work on governed engines often but when the Minneapolis Moline M-505 went to acting up, with no load, the fix was to tweak the mixture. It seemed to pull better afterwards too.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Labman]

My power has gone out for up to two and a half days sometimes. So I have a 6500 watt generator. I just use extension cords (12 ga. contractor) to connect what I want. I'm mainly concerned with the refrigerator and freezer.

Be aware that generators can provide "dirty electricity" and some electronic things may not work with this electricity.

I'm reading lately that some new furnaces (with electronic internal controls) are not working on generator power.

For the electronic stuff and furnaces, get what is called an "online UPS" with "pure sine wave". This will provide perfect electricity for picky electronic devices and furnaces.

Match the wattage of the generator and UPS to more than what all you want to plug in and have running at the same time.

Dirty electricity looks like the following...
(First picture is what it should look like.)
http://www.jkovach.net/projects/powerquality/

Google shopping "online UPS" "pure sine"
http://www.google.com/products?q="online+UPS"+"pure+sine"&btnG=Search+Products&hl=en&show=dd

My furnace and computers run just fine on my Coleman Powermate 6250. Of course, I have everything wired up to code including proper grounding. I have read a lot about problems with furnaces and can't see them being more critical than computers and all the other electronics. The newer ones must be grounded to the power source to run. .

 

[046]

newer super high efficiency furnaces have a circuit board that controls the different stages furnace goes through. it does this with several sensors, solenoids, switches... etc.

in other words.. it's like a small PC in terms of power requirements.

I've had no problems with any of the Honda's putting out dirty power. Honda's have a reputation for putting out cleaner power.

have had no problems running my PC off of standby power. but all my PC's power goes through a mondo large surge/cleaner, then a UPS.

My furnace and computers run just fine on my Coleman Powermate 6250. Of course, I have everything wired up to code including proper grounding. I have read a lot about problems with furnaces and can't see them being more critical than computers and all the other electronics. The newer ones must be grounded to the power source to run. .

 

[Octane]

I would have thought it was to lean. When the throttle cracks a bit the motor bogs slightly, causing the govenor to open the throttle further. When the engine "takes a breath and catches up" suddenly, the govenor has to back off because of excess RPM. Then the cycle repeats itself continuosly or until sufficient load is added to hold the throttle fully open.

Adjusting the govenor is going to change the speed of the engine and the 60 Hertz output will no longer be set to 60 Hz.

Adjusting the High speed enrichment would seem like a more reliable and reasonable fix.

Of course I don't work on governed engines often but when the Minneapolis Moline M-505 went to acting up, with no load, the fix was to tweak the mixture. It seemed to pull better afterwards too.

Just my 2 cents.

On those units, the fuel regulator is control by the control board, so there is no tweaking it.
I know that on the 7KW units, they had an older style fuel regulator that had an adjustment screw that controlled how much fuel the engine got and those were a pain because you had to mess with adjusting the 2 governor screws and the fuel screw.
It is possible that the fuel regulator isnt working properly, but Id be looking at the governor first.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Lab; Are you happy with the 6250?...thinkin 'bout buying one.

 

[Labman]

It has enough capacity that we can live, not exist on it, and the furnace and computer do fine on it. At $370 for a factory refurbished one, I didn't see how I could go wrong. Likely somebody bought it after the one big ice storm, used it for a week or something and took it back.

It has always started fine.