We have a couple of the dualfuel generators. I really like them. We've
only ever used them with propane. Small enough to carry around, and
will run for over a day on a 30lb tank (with our normal site load), and
we're somewhat suburban, so within 30 minutes I can get to a store that
does propane tank exchanges. The thing I don't like about them is
there is no 'weather proofing' on them. The outlets are just exposed on
the side, along with all the control switches. Maybe they're all
sealed, but nothing says that. I'm always worried about deploying them
in a rain storm. All the promo pieces show people using them on their
picnics and RV's on bright sunny summer days. Years ago, I had one of
my gas generators fail during a sunny afternoon power outage. At a
landscaper, the tree sprinklers decided to turn on, and shorted out the
generator, so I think that heavy rain might do the same thing. Some
simple weatherproofing would have prevented that, but I haven't seen any
small portable generators that have that.
On 1/31/2020 9:28 AM, ch...@wbmfg.com wrote:
The problems I have with diesels are as follow:
The fuel goes stale. You can treat it but it still has problems with
age. Most of us want a large tank, but with just short weekly
exercise cycles that fuel might be in the tank for years.
The fuel poses a hazardous clean up risk. Both with refueling and
with a fuel line break. Huge problem if you are in a national forest
or really any public land.
Fuels can gel and make the generator not start in zero and below zero
conditions. Also diesels are just notoriously hard to start when cold.
All liquid cooled generators I have ever seen have block heaters, but
Murphy says that block heaters and engine start batteries will always
fail prior to actually needing the generator. I think I have had more
trouble with the trickle chargers for the engine start batts than
anything else. That is why I remote the battery inside to a heated
area and put a better charger on it than comes with the generator.
But you can refuel them yourself.
There are tri fuel generator carburetors that will take gasoline,
natural gas and propane. To me that is the ultimate in redundant
backups.
*From:* Nate Burke
*Sent:* Friday, January 31, 2020 8:14 AM
*To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group
*Subject:* Re: [AFMUG] Generator advice..
What brand Diesel generator are you using? Are they permanent or
portable?
On 1/31/2020 2:51 AM, Mike Meluskey wrote:
In the islands we get lots of power outages.
Our go-to generator for a site like you described is a 12.5kw diesel
generator.
Diesel is much easier to re-fuel after a disaster (ie. Cat5 Hurricane).
I became an expert at re-fueling, oil changes, priming, clogged fuel
filters, etc. after Hurricane Maria.
People with propane/natural gas generators could not get them
re-filled easily during our 2 - 3 months with no Utility power.
Generac’s did not hold up well, lots of fried circuit boards.
Again, this was on a small island in the Caribbean. Generac natural
gas generators might be a good fit for your environment.
On 30 Jan 2020, at 18:59, Nate Burke wrote:
We've seen that too, running an (industrial) 120v garage door
opener, pulled one leg out of phase/voltage enough with the
starting current that the control board shutdown the generator
(15kw diesel). It ran a 5ton 240v AC unit cycling on and off
just fine.
On 1/30/2020 4:49 PM, Adam Moffett wrote:
Using 240V AC may help with that.
We had trouble where the generator had way more load on one hot
leg than the other. It ran rough and stalled often.
On 1/30/2020 5:14 PM, Chuck McCown wrote:
The only reason you might have trouble is the air conditioning
starting load. I have seen them cause a generator to stall and
die before.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 30, 2020, at 2:16 PM, Josh Baird
mailto:joshba...@gmail.com wrote:
We're shopping for a generator for one of our larger POP's.
The electrical contractor is recommending this:
https://www.generac.com/all-products/generators/home-backup-generators/guardian-series/22kw-7043-whole-house-switch-wifi-enabled
This would be supporting 4 30A circuits (powering 4 APC UPS)
that are currently drawing about 30A between them (powering
network gear and servers). There is also one of the on-wall
indoor/outdoor air conditioners in this room - unsure what
it's drawing.
The contractor also seems to think that this generator, with a
second transfer switch can power the remainder of the small
building which includes some lighting, a refrigerator and some
small electronics like PC's, etc.
Can someone who actually knows something about generators and
this kind of stuff give me some advice here? Will this
generator support our load and not fall over?
Thanks!
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