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« on: September 24, 2023, 12:31:08 PM »
As you probably know I run a belt driven 15KW head with a 1115 China horizontal that is running a tick over 1500 RPM so maybe 16?? HP. My reasoning for the large head is as your post here, It starts our motor loads effortlessly. When I decided to spend on a whole house stand by the wife said I want to be able to keep house same as grid. Our large starting loads are same as most everyone else's, well pump, A/C, Plans were to add a flywheel to the generator shaft but that turned out to be unnecessary. Outside of initial cost there is little reason to not upsize the head for a stand by set. Years ago there were many posts about more drag from the fan and bearings but lets face it they were splitting hairs, same with the serpentine belt deal. Maybe had some importance with a 6/1 running 18 hours a day every day but who does that now? I don't know of anyone. In a stand by situation its pretty much immaterial. Being as I am an engine mechanic and pretty much electrically illiterate I also figured the large head working at half capacity would last longer?? The set up is now about 13 years old and outside of the always bad bridge rectifier replacement it has been trouble free. Largest surge load it has seen was last summer when we lost power, AC was on, wife was washing clothes, lights etc and I needed to run my 6.5HP air compressor. To my supprize the compressor fired right up with a puff of smoke from the 1115. At that time I didn't have a load monitor which I have since installed.