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Messages - ronmar

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1171
Everything else / Re: Breaker X-fer switch recommendation...
« on: December 12, 2006, 03:22:50 AM »
Have you tried Gen-tran.com?  They make several different options for manual transfer, either as an add-on panel or as a replacement panel for your existing breaker panel with an interlocked main and generator circuit breaker.  Their prices didn't look too bad.

1172
Generators / Re: my usage
« on: December 12, 2006, 03:04:31 AM »
If you have one of the clamp on ammeters you might be able to open up the breaker panel and clamp around the hot legs of the devices while they are running and see what you get.

I just did this a little while ago in reviewing my own needs. 
3KW(sustained load on a 6/1 genset?) is about 12.5 Amps of current at 240 VAC or two 120VAC legs at 12.5A(25A total for both 120volt legs) or some combination of the two.  As an example, my electric oven draws about 10.8A @240VAC on Bake.  The duty cycle will of course drop off dramatically after the oven is up to the set temp, but each time the controller cycles it on, it will pull that much.  That dosn't leave much leftover for any other loads, but it is doable on a 3KW sustained budget.  On my range, a large electric burner on high pulls 8.5A @240VAC. A large and small burner combined pull 14.1A, too much for sustained operations and no reserve for other loads.  How often do you use more than one stove burner? two small ones might work on lower settings for a short duration, but again with little or no reserve.  My little microwave pulls 11A at 120VAC, or nearly half the capacity of one of the 120VAC legs.  At least you don't have to worry about a well pump cycling on and off.  Your freezer or refer are going to pull between 1 and 2 amps @120VAC depending on their age. But since these are automated loads, you need to engineer enough reserve for them or disable them during high generator loads.  My electric dishwasher pulls around 8A @120VAC during the drying cycle

I think you will find that a dryer or water heater are out of the question on 3KW.  My dryer pulls 20.5A @240VAC and I don't think there is any way to reduce that other than configuring it for air-dry only which means long dryer runs.  A typical water heater has elements in the range of 4500 watts, mine pulls 15.9A @240VAC.  There are ways to reduce this load, at the expense of reduced water heating speed/recovery time.

If you absolutely positively have to have a dryer, you will need a single larger generator, or a small efficient average load genset(big enough for A/C, entertainment and lights) and a larger peak load genset(greater than the 5KW that the dryer requires by itself) that only runs on laundry day(and at dinner time to run the stove and oven and A/C at the same time:).  As mentioned the dryer and stove could be swapped over to gas, removeing these loads from the genset.  You could also possibly look into using the waste heat from the engine cooling system and exhaust of the smaller average load genset to warm the air for the dryer or to heat the water in the hot water tank(cogeneration).  This of course would require the heavy modification of the dryer and some plumbing and controller skills as well as a greater capital investment in the heat exchangers to reclaim the waste heat.  But you payed for the fuel, might as well get all the use out of those BTU's that you can.   Batteries/inverters are another option to store energy at off peak times to help power the peak loads.  the use of batteries, means conversions.  At the least, DC back into AC but most likley generated AC into DC to charge the batteries.  Conversions are always less than 100% efficient, sometimes significantly:(.  The batteries and inverter capable of running your peak loads would also mean another significant capital investment.

Good Luck.

1173
Generators / Re: ST Gen Head & Electronics
« on: December 02, 2006, 04:42:53 AM »

Hey Folks,

Most UPS units have a sensitivity setting that changes the threshold at which they kick-in.  Check the instruction manual.  If you lost the instruction manual, check for one on the manufacturer's web site.


Ray
Correct...  Most modern UPS's will also require a computer connected with the appropriate comms software(APC's is called "PowerWare" I think)  to adjust the voltage and frequency tollerances and configure it's reactions to internal alarms.  some others will have a dip switch on the back for setting these windows.

Most modern UPS's require that the input be within the set parameters for volt/freq(good input power) before they can be started.  Most modern UPS's provide very little filtration of the line power comming thru them.  It is passed from input directly to output load.  The UPS just monitors it and takes a little to keep the batteries peaked.  If the volt/freq goes out of tolerance, then the inverter kicks in(in less than 1/2 cycle, too fast for the load to really see) and feeds the load for as long as the batteries have power or untill the input returns inside the set parameters, at which time it will re-connect the input power directly to the load.  The older UPS's I used to work with were true powerline filters.  They also made a lot of heat and consumed a lot of energy in the conversion processes(AC to DC to AC).  The load equipment ran on the AC generated by the inverter. The input was converted to DC and maintained at a level to float charge the battery bank and provide enough current to power the inverter.  As a failsafe, if the inverter stopped feeding output power, a relay would open and connect the input directly to the output bypassing the failed UPS.

Dkwflight:  Freq usually dosn't vary much from source to load, but the line voltage can vary greatly from source to load depending on your wireing and the ammount of current being drawn.  If your UPS works fine on commercial power, but won't startup on your generator with good volt/freq at the point where it is plugged in, you either have a bad ground that is faulting the UPS or you have some other noise on the line that is confuseing the monitor circuitry of the UPS.  Other noise might be seen as a jittery volt and freq reading on a meter(transients too short for the meter to fully react to) but would be readilly evident on an oscilloscope.  Have you tried plugging the UPS into commercial to get it started and allow it to fully charge, Then unplug it from commercial(simulated power fail) and plug it into your generator output?

Most electronics are pretty forgiving of the input as most all the power used internal to them is DC converted and filtered from the input AC.  Probably the worst are large positive spikes that overwhelm the filtration and brownouts that drop the available converted DC below the level at which the DC regulator can maintain proper output.  The UPS should be adequate(and fast enough) to protect from these things.  A lot of appliances on the other hand work with AC in to save space inside cramped appliance cases/control panels.  The storms and power fluxuations we had here last week handgrenaded the control board on my dishwasher which is on a circuit breaker to raw AC.  The entertainment center, computers and pellet stove hummed along happily thru the power fluxuations on their respective UPS's.   

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