One of the things that the standby generators have over inverters etc, is a
rotating mass. My water cooled 30 KW diesel Generac runs the whole farm and
house on power outages and behaves like the others mentioned, it never misses a
beat or hicups with the deep well pimp or 5KW electric dryer kicks in. Mine
has been in service for over 25 years, and keeps on ticking...... No soft
starts, staging or such anywhere.
Mel, K6KBE
From: "wb4...@knology.net" <wb4...@knology.net>
To: AB4IQ <ab...@comcast.net>; "'Joe Subich, W4TV'" <li...@subich.com>;
'Elecraft' <Elecraft@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2018 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] A/C "Soft Start" ...
Not "soft-start", but....
We have a Generac 20kW air-cooled generator at our house, that works
wonderfully! IIRC, anything larger is water-cooled. Our house has two,
200amp breaker panels. We have three A/C units, an induction cooktop,
ovens, dryer, and other goodies. When I started looking for a whole-house
generator, almost every electrical contractor/company told me that I needed
a 37kW, water-cooled generator, which has a small car engine for a motor.
Generac even told them to tell me that's what needed for the loading and
wiring in my house.
I had done some research, and found that Generac sold a system that works
with their ATS, called Nexus (or Nexys, or similar spelling). It includes
"smart switches" that go in series with each heavy load device, such that
the ATS can control those switches to turn on/of various loads, depending on
what's running at any given time. There was only one electrical company
here in Charleston, SC, that even knew about this system, they had just
taken a course on it. Needless to say, they got my business.
We've been through both summer and winter storm outages, up to about 24
hours, and the whole system works great! It does "stage" the air
conditioners, depending on the load. The cost is higher, but I did NOT want
a water-cooled car engine running on the side of my house.
I've also switched to Rennai water heaters to get rid of constantly heating
water for occasional use. We do have natural gas at the house, so the
generator runs on that. We were going to get a gas cooktop, but during the
kitchen remodel, we found the induction cooktop is as fast or faster than
gas, and keeps the cooktop very clean. We can cook stuff with a layer of
butcher paper between the cooktop and the pan. Highly recommended.
73, Terry, N4TLF
-----Original Message-----
From: AB4IQ
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2018 5:20 PM
To: 'Joe Subich, W4TV' ; 'Elecraft'
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] A/C "Soft Start" ...
I have a Generac 20 KW here at the house and a 22KW Generac at the farm. I
have Central Heat/Air in my garage and house and you never see a blink when
the compressors kick on. There are times when both are running like at the
present time with all of the high temperatures. Last week we had a three or
so hour outage and the 20 KW never missed a beat. At the farm, which is all
electric we had a 5 hour outage and the 22KW never missed a beat. They do
make devices that the water heater and air will not work at the same time or
at least partially from what I understand. I also have a well at the farm
and we see no problems at all.
We had an Ice Storm here in W. Kentucky in 2009 and was out of power for six
or seven days. We won't go through with that again. HI..
Ed.. AB4IQ
-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Joe Subich, W4TV
Sent: Wednesday, July 18, 2018 1:30 PM
To: Elecraft <Elecraft@mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Elecraft] A/C "Soft Start" ...
A year (two?) ago there was a discussion of whole house standby generators
on this list. One of the things mentioned was "soft start" modules for A/C
and other heavy current motor devices.
Of course, the discussion was not pertinent to me at the time - we've been
using a 6 KW portable for 10 years or more. But now the wife has decided it
is time to get auto-start and capability to handle the A/C. She doesn't
want to spend another weak without A/C like we've faced following both
Matthew two years ago and Irma last year and doesn't want to risk that my
back/neck won't act up and prevent me from rolling out/starting the old
portable.
Does anyone have a pointer to the A/C soft start controllers? I know our
A/C (168 LRA) will certainly bog down even the biggest (22 KW) whole house
unit (and going to a 30 or 50 KW just to start the A/C is not economically
effective at 3 to 5 X the cost <G>).
--
73,
... Joe, W4TV
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