Hi Jeff:
I have had some similar issues with the Kohler generators in recent years,
after installing hundreds of air cooled and water cooled generators from them.
I have heard that they are less reliable now, and the company is harder to deal
with now.
Recently, I tried a Generac in an off-grid project, which I have found is
even more difficult to work with. They don't warranty the product for off-grid
applications, it requires hard wiring a battery charger, and it starts and
stops based on utility sensing, which required installation of a relay to
switch the sensing circuit on and off. It was a pain to deal with, and
required a few more trips to the site than I would have liked.
On a similar note, Xantrex provided the Auto Gen Start module, but it did
not support 2-wire start! Isn't that the most common gen start configuration?
The newer versions do offer that now.
Nick Soleil
Project Manager
Advanced Alternative Energy Solutions, LLC
PO Box 657
Petaluma, CA 94953
Cell: 707-321-2937
Office: 707-789-9537
Fax: 707-769-9037
________________________________
From: Jeff Yago <jry...@netscape.com>
To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Mon, March 29, 2010 7:53:18 AM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Kohler Generator Issues
Although we have specified and included Kohler RES models in all our off-grid
and battery based solar projects for over 15 years, we have seen a real decline
in the suitability of the Kohler line in the past few years for use in
solar/battery/generator applications. First they killed off the 1800 RPM units
under 15 kW. We had many older systems that would not work when we replaced an
aging 1800 RPM unit with their same kW size new 3600 RPM units, which made
inverters go nuts with under-voltage and over-current errors.
Then several years ago they got rid of the battery charging alternator or
whatever that re-charged the battery when the generator was running as a way to
reduce costs, so now the only way to keep the battery charged was to plug in a
full time float charger. This 24/7 electrical load is not a good idea for
smaller off-grid systems and requires another set of wires out to the generator
to supply this outlet. Finally, Kohler added a diagnostic electronics panel
that adds another 24/7 electrical load. We "kill" this off during installation
on any off-grid application as we cannot justify this 24/7 standby load. There
is a software switch to do this, but its not easy to find in the instructions.
Funny thing was the other day I received a call from the main Kohler factory
about some marketing issues and I finally let loose with the above rant. I
really complained that so far they have done everything they could NOT to serve
this very large and growing off-grid market, and I pointed out that most of
their recent design "improvements" made their generators LESS suitable for this
market, not better. This guy was absolutely dumb-struck, and it appears to me
that they have made no effort to understand this market. Their more recent
efforts to void warranties is just another reason to look for a different
generator supplier.
Has anyone on this list had any contact from Kohler central office about
finding out what features this industry needs? The guy I talked with may be
just blowing smoke, but he promised to have a followup call in next few weeks
to learn more about what they can do. According to him, he thinks they can add
a software "switch" in the programming for little or no cost like "on/grid -
off/grid" that we could access during setup that would adjust generator
parameters and standby losses when used in an inverter-battery application.
In case he really does followup, are there any other rants I could include from
you guys that have been a problem for you when using Kohler generators. I will
assume we are limiting this to their non-water cooled units under 15 kW.
While ranting on generators, the main reason we liked to use Kohler was the
easy 2-wire start/stop connections you can connect to the aux relay in most
inverters, while many other generator brands were not easy to remote start from
an inverter or required multi-step starting relays. Has this changed, and are
there now other brands of generators in the 8 to 15 kW range that work well for
backup of solar/battery charging applications and the manufacturer does not
have warranty issues when used in off-grid applications?
Thanks,
Jeff Yago
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