Portable Generators

[willie]

Care to explain? It's been working for me and lots of others....

There are too many possibilities of human error to list but here are the biggies:

A loose male plug energized with 240v is on the very top of the list.

Back curcuits and the aforementioned massive liability.

 

[Bonehead]

Have the installation done correctly with a ten circuit transfer switch installed next to your main electrical panel. The switch can be found in a notrhern hydraulics or other tool catalog. About 250 $. Another 200$ should be enough to have it installed by a qualified electrician. My genny is 8125 watts peak and 6500 continuous. I feed 220 into the panel and the switches do the rest each switch has a line (normal) gen or off position. I have enough reserve to power the water heater or the well pump but not simultaneously. I always switch a light on that I know is not powered by my generator so when it comes onI know SMECO is back up. Consider using LP gas vs gasoline. It is dangerous and nasty to deal with refueling a hot generator sitting right by your house. LP is clean and won't gum up a carburetor if left for a while. A couple of other cosiderations do you think that you are going to get a large 13 HP gas engine to start if it has been sitting in a shed for a month at 20 degrees ? Where are you going to store the generator ? Lots of things to think about before spending the money. There are setups that are permanently installed that start themselves once a month and run for an hour under load and then shut themselves down and auto start on power failure.

 

[itsbob]

Have the installation done correctly with a ten circuit transfer switch installed next to your main electrical panel. The switch can be found in a notrhern hydraulics or other tool catalog. About 250 $. Another 200$ should be enough to have it installed by a qualified electrician. My genny is 8125 watts peak and 6500 continuous. I feed 220 into the panel and the switches do the rest each switch has a line (normal) gen or off position. I have enough reserve to power the water heater or the well pump but not simultaneously. I always switch a light on that I know is not powered by my generator so when it comes onI know SMECO is back up. Consider using LP gas vs gasoline. It is dangerous and nasty to deal with refueling a hot generator sitting right by your house. LP is clean and won't gum up a carburetor if left for a while. A couple of other cosiderations do you think that you are going to get a large 13 HP gas engine to start if it has been sitting in a shed for a month at 20 degrees ? Where are you going to store the generator ? Lots of things to think about before spending the money. There are setups that are permanently installed that start themselves once a month and run for an hour under load and then shut themselves down and auto start on power failure.

PTO powered off of a tractor, alleviates most of those issues.

 

[itsbob]

Good idea Bob just remember that the pto output on the tractor is 540 and a gearbox on the pto genset spins it up to 1800 for a 4 pole head or 3600 for a 2 pole head in order to achieve 60 cycle power.
The prime mover needs to be rpm governed to stay at 60 cycle or you may need to bump up the throttle under load as the frequency dips.. 58 to 64 is ideal. Frequencies below 57 often overheat the windings of electric motors (like the refer compressor) and transformers found in everything.
On gensets without rpm regulation set the frequency to 64 cycle then apply load till it drops to 58 now that load is the kw limit regardless of powerhead rated output.
To get a bit more you can turn on all constant load stuff like lights that will not be switched off and set that as the 64 then load till 58.
Some tractors have cruse control that will keep the pto at 540 in this case let err rock.

Very good information, now I have to go look at my tractor. I haven't had a reason to use the PTO yet, so will need to do some research on the RPM of the PTO shaft.

 

[Pete]

Very good information, now I have to go look at my tractor. I haven't had a reason to use the PTO yet, so will need to do some research on the RPM of the PTO shaft.

Some tractors (larger ones) have an extra shaft so you can switch from 540 to 1000. A 540 has large grooves on the shaft, a 1000 has smaller grooves.

 

[aps45819]

Its a 6250 watt max Coleman Powermate, with 5000 rated wattage. I do not have a heat pump.

5000w/120v = 41 amps
dig out the owners manuals that came with your appliences and figure out their current draw (amps) then decide what you NEED to run.
The math is wattage divided by voltage = current (W/V=A) or (A x V = W)
A 100 watt bulb running off of a 120 volt line will draw .83 amps

the extra wattage will cover "start up" of things like the blower motor on you furnace.