We bought a used Kohler from a farmer in Alberta had it shipped to us for under $30k. Worked perfectly with a little maintenance. Even ran a full work day on it when our power company was replacing a pole. But I didn't want to rely on it so I made a sub panel for our NOC with a manual override and a massive 50 amp cable that is like 50ft. "Just in case" both power and generator failed.
That "just in case" happened. We were hit by lightning couple weeks ago and the panel blew including access to the generator. So we were on battery at 4am with 2-3hours runtime. We pull about 30-40 amps. So our guys ran the 50 amp plug to a mobile generator, did the manual override and we were safe with 1 hour left to go. We have a mobile air conditioning unit with a long pipe to vent outside. So moral of the story. Don't have just 1 backup. In my case I had 4 layers of backup for worst case scenarios. That scenario happened! I'm glad I planned for this because we got hit the Friday before my vacation! So nobody was down (except people on our tower) and I was able to go and enjoy my vacation. Can't stress enough to have multiple options! On Sat, Aug 27, 2022 at 12:17 PM Chuck McCown via AF <af@af.afmug.com> wrote: > Well, larger wires need larger conduit. They all work the same but the > control wires are all different so you cannot use the old switch for the > new generator... almost guaranteed. The amperage will almost certainly be > too small etc. I am always astounded at how large the enclosures are for > these things. Upgrading to a larger generator will likely require twice > the wall space for the transfer switch. I think I would shop based on what > the transfer switch looked like and if you can fit it somewhere on the > wall. > > Nothing wrong with Generac. I have used their larger units without issue > other than in the past their built in starter motor battery charger would > fail and it would not be known until you actually needed it. I outfitted > all the sites with telemetry and we watched that voltage carefully. > Especially after they exercise each week or month. We also resorted to > installing the starting batteries inside the climate controlled area and > adding a high quality battery maintainer to them. That battery is the > weakest link in the whole system. > > Not sure what your climate is, but the colder areas need engine heaters. > That is important. And larger is almost always better for longevity. I > once installed a unit that was fine for the load, but we had those external > wall mount AC units and after a power outage, especially a short one, the > generator could not start both ACs at the same time. Had to put a device > on that would only allow one AC to run under generator power. > > I always required the techs to check the hour meter each time they went to > the site. Our call center kept logs of generator hours and notified techs > if they discovered an hour meter was not advancing (from the exercise > cycles). > > *From:* Chris Fabien > *Sent:* Saturday, August 27, 2022 8:45 AM > *To:* AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group > *Subject:* [AFMUG] Larger Standby Generators > > Our main datacenter has for years had a single 11kw residential style > generac. Due to increasing power load and improving redundancy I want to > upgrade to dual larger generators. > > Trying to decide between new 22kw air cooled residential units or used > larger liquid cooled commercial style units. Maybe one of each. Building > has 200A single phase service so ~50kw is the max that would make sense. > > I am leaning towards used commercial style units but not sure how the > controls/ATS work, and if there is a concern of being able to fish the > correct transfer switch for an older generator, or if they are fairly > universal. Have only installed whole kits from generac before. > > Thanks for any input. > Chris > > > ------------------------------ > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > > -- > AF mailing list > AF@af.afmug.com > http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com > -- NOTICE OF CONFIDENTIALITY This communication, including any attachments, is intended only for the use of the addressee(s) to this email and is confidential. If you are not an intended recipient or acting on behalf of an intended recipient, any review, disclosure, conversion to hard copy, dissemination, reproduction or other use of any part of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you receive this communication in error or without authorization, please notify the originator immediately and remove it from your system.
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