Emergency Power/Storms/Prepping etc
- Thread starter IReallyLikePizza2
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crunchy airy crust... 24:41 "I'm Italian too... at least part Italian"... honest pizza man
crunchy airy crust... 24:41 "I'm Italian too... at least part Italian"... honest pizza man
I have my big liquid cooled Generac, and I have some portable generators, but the portables are not very tough, and I don't really trust them to run for weeks on end. So I wanted a better backup to the backup generator, if that makes sense
$1200 later, I found it!
Its only 6kw output, but its prime rated and will do 100% load forever. It has a massive 30 gallon tank, and will run at full load for 60 hours! Still debating if I should remove the lights or not
1800RPM, liquid cooled, Kubota D1005 Diesel engine
$1200 later, I found it!
Its only 6kw output, but its prime rated and will do 100% load forever. It has a massive 30 gallon tank, and will run at full load for 60 hours! Still debating if I should remove the lights or not
1800RPM, liquid cooled, Kubota D1005 Diesel engine
That’s exactly what I was going to use if I switched over to diesel, those things run forever on fumes so as long as you can get by with 6kw then you’re golden. For $1200 that was a steal.
So jealous!!! I was bidding on one of these a few years ago mainly for the light mast to put a ham radio antenna on. Idea was to remove the lights and put a camera or two as well! Or at least replace the lights with an LED one.
After my last outage I learned that 6kw is actually plenty. Most of the time we were sitting well well below 6kw. The only things that spiked it over were using things like the Microwave and Air Fryer at the same time, oven, big AC (We also have mini splits)
So, I could easily "get by" with just 6kw. Perfect for an emergency backup I think
So, I could easily "get by" with just 6kw. Perfect for an emergency backup I think
Here was 6 days and 6 hours of outage for Hurricane Beryl. We were living life as normal, zero changes. So we can easily reduce things a little. The big 14kw peak was the main 4 ton AC, oven, and microwave going if I recall
AS you can see, 6kw would have been fine. Ignore the things crossed out, those metrics don't work for going back in time, I need to fix that
AS you can see, 6kw would have been fine. Ignore the things crossed out, those metrics don't work for going back in time, I need to fix that
Happy to spend your money! I’d be curious how clean the power is from these. All my UPSs refused to accept the power from my cheap gas generator so I had to buy a more expensive Generac one from Costco with a low THD. Had a dual benefit of being electric start so I wired a raspberry pi to it to auto start during power outage (in conjunction with a Generac transfer switch to properly isolate from the utility)
I've not yet powered much from it, but the voltage regulation is not transformer based, but rather capacitor based which doesn't make for very stable voltage. There can be quite wide swings in the voltage, and by default the unloaded voltage is quite high around 134v per leg.
I think the power itself is quite good, its just the voltage that's the "problem". You can swap the capacitor to lower the voltage a bit and improve things. I'll report back on how things go and what I do to fix it
My long term plan for this is to add an EG4 chargeverter, some batteries, and an inverter of larger size. This will let me effectively turn it into an inverter generator of a larger size. Everything would work, assuming the average load is equal or less than 6kw. The more battery, the longer the time you could spend at a higher load. You could also easily attach solar, and even configure the generator to auto-start and stop depending on state of charge
The problem isn’t so much voltage regulation (higher voltage is always better than too low for circuit boards) as it is THD (how close the AC generated power sine wave is to being a perfect sine wave). Now smaller portable generators usually vary wildly on THD but these larger units are usually brushless designs that typically have low THD (often 1-2%). Not sure what the specs are on this one specifically or who makes the generator head on it but I actually custom made my own gas generator using a GX390 Honda motor (originally a Coleman generator head with terrible THD specs) mated to a brushless Mecc Alte generator head which produces less than 1% THD (I tested it with a Fluke Power meter). Mine produces roughly 7kw which is why I was holding off but would probably take the plunge if I could get a 10kw diesel for a good price.
I'm hoping the THD from this light tower is pretty good, I wish I had a meter! The guy I bought it from ran his AC and lights all through Beryl with no issue
I can’t really find anything on that specific unit other than this:
GENERATOR
• Marathon Electric® Brushless
• 6 kW standby output
• 120/240 VAC – 50/25A
• +/-6% capacitor voltage regulation
Too bad you’re not closer or I’d let you borrow my power meter to check it out. That’s the only real way to know for sure. I’ve see some of the whole home generators (ex generac) claiming to have low THD (below 5%) and when you test it in reality it’s far higher than you’d expect. The other way to clean up the power output is to run it through an inverter but that does add some complexity to the system.
Part of me wants the THD meter, but part of me also just thinks plug stuff in, and if it works, it works!
Tomorrow I will test with a line interactive UPS and see what it makes of it, if the UPS doesn't complain, I suspect everything else will be fine
Tomorrow I will test with a line interactive UPS and see what it makes of it, if the UPS doesn't complain, I suspect everything else will be fine
Today and yesterdays task, remove all the nonsense stickers. I really want to also remove the outlines of the stickers. The paint has oxidized where the stickers weren't, so I'll probably have to hit it with some compound or something (Not a paint person!)
I need to repair that fender, luckily you can still buy them new
I need to repair that fender, luckily you can still buy them new
Boy, lots of updates here. Get ready for a bunch of random notes and posts
Went ahead and ordered this block heater kit, I figure there is a good chance this gets used in another Houston snowpocalypse
Today I fixed up some wiring, installed a short whip with a L14-30R so I can easily connect to the house by running a long cord under the unit, swapped the default 240v outlet to a L14-30R also, crimped new battery lugs, marine battery terminals and mounted the NOCO 2D battery charger. I have not got the inlet mounted just yet, still trying to figure a location
These crimp ferrules are fantastic, much better connection into something like a ground bar
Got to use my Milwaukee light, very handy!
Went ahead and ordered this block heater kit, I figure there is a good chance this gets used in another Houston snowpocalypse
Today I fixed up some wiring, installed a short whip with a L14-30R so I can easily connect to the house by running a long cord under the unit, swapped the default 240v outlet to a L14-30R also, crimped new battery lugs, marine battery terminals and mounted the NOCO 2D battery charger. I have not got the inlet mounted just yet, still trying to figure a location
These crimp ferrules are fantastic, much better connection into something like a ground bar
Got to use my Milwaukee light, very handy!
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Just got in from some testing! APC SMT1000RM2U line interactive UPS on "Normal" mode it will complain and switch to battery. However, you can choose from "Normal" "Reduced" and "Low" Sensitivity. Changing it to Reduced, it works fine. APC Generally tells you to do this when running on generator power anyway
Charging an Ecoflow Delta 2, with no other loads plugged in, it sees the 120v and kicks on the charging circuit, but then drops out, and tries again, similar to what the UPS was doing. However, if I plug in a resistive load such as a heat gun, it will charge without issue at full power (This seems to be common with Ecoflow's and non inverter generators)
The fact the UPS doesn't complain when on the reduced mode gives me hope that most things will work with no issue.
The big test is a cheaper cheap 120v LED light bulb, plugged in, even with the heat gun running, there is some minor flickering. Not like fully on and off, but just very slight variations in light output. These cheap LED bulbs I tried with are by far the worst for flickering, so it would be interesting to see if a quality bulb flickered
Frequency is rock steady right around 60hz no matter what I do, voltage as expected is kind of erratic. With the Ecoflow charging at 1200w and the heat gun on the other leg, I got a nice 120v exactly however
The real test will be my fridge, freezer and mini split AC's. If those work, we're in business. All computers etc probably wouldn't care about the power input anyway, however, they are all on double conversion UPS in the house, so thats of zero concern. I didn't test the double conversion UPS as it means running a cord all the way through the house, however if the line interactive UPS was fine, the double conversion will be
Next test I'll dig out a spare recessed HALO branded light and see if that flickers (Thats all the lights in my house!)
Some pictures from the test. That cracked fender bugs me every time, but I have a new set on the way
Light testing rig
Short video of testing the UPS. You can see the voltage is pretty low, however there is essentially ZERO load on the light tower at this time, the UPS draws around 150w max, there isn't that much stuff being powered by it. So pretty much worst case for power quality, but everything runs fine
Its line interactive, so its passing the power directly through to the devices, and all of the hardware worked fine as expected
Charging an Ecoflow Delta 2, with no other loads plugged in, it sees the 120v and kicks on the charging circuit, but then drops out, and tries again, similar to what the UPS was doing. However, if I plug in a resistive load such as a heat gun, it will charge without issue at full power (This seems to be common with Ecoflow's and non inverter generators)
The fact the UPS doesn't complain when on the reduced mode gives me hope that most things will work with no issue.
The big test is a cheaper cheap 120v LED light bulb, plugged in, even with the heat gun running, there is some minor flickering. Not like fully on and off, but just very slight variations in light output. These cheap LED bulbs I tried with are by far the worst for flickering, so it would be interesting to see if a quality bulb flickered
Frequency is rock steady right around 60hz no matter what I do, voltage as expected is kind of erratic. With the Ecoflow charging at 1200w and the heat gun on the other leg, I got a nice 120v exactly however
The real test will be my fridge, freezer and mini split AC's. If those work, we're in business. All computers etc probably wouldn't care about the power input anyway, however, they are all on double conversion UPS in the house, so thats of zero concern. I didn't test the double conversion UPS as it means running a cord all the way through the house, however if the line interactive UPS was fine, the double conversion will be
Next test I'll dig out a spare recessed HALO branded light and see if that flickers (Thats all the lights in my house!)
Some pictures from the test. That cracked fender bugs me every time, but I have a new set on the way
Light testing rig
Short video of testing the UPS. You can see the voltage is pretty low, however there is essentially ZERO load on the light tower at this time, the UPS draws around 150w max, there isn't that much stuff being powered by it. So pretty much worst case for power quality, but everything runs fine
Its line interactive, so its passing the power directly through to the devices, and all of the hardware worked fine as expected
You can see in the last picture the tongue coupler looked rough, fixed that up a little
This bracket used to look very junky, not anymore!
This bracket used to look very junky, not anymore!