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Small house generator possible failure

L

Lou from Wi.

Well-known Member
Last evening wind took out power so son fired up the 5500W Coleman . Powers up selected circuits in main panel box. It has run my bed room window Air conditioner during previous outages.
Last night when we lost power, son fired the generator up and it worked flawlessly for a couple hours then the breaker on the generator tripped. Son reset it several times . Now what I was wondering my room has a 30 amp breaker so I am thinking that one leg of the generator may be failing. Had son change bedroom breaker to the opposite side of the panel box to see if the balance of power changes out the tripping on the generator, Could use information as to why this problem may be showing up after 5 years of intermittent use could weaken one side of the generators output.We only run 120 volt receptacle,and no 220,cut off water heater,big A/C. Thanks for any information.
Regards LOU.
 
How many BTU is the AC? Must be pretty big to have A 30 AMP Breaker.

also did you turn your main breaker off?

Each 120V circuit from the genny is only rated at 25 amps max.
 
I had one that the one leg quit working on. I took it to an electrican and he said it had lost polarity. He fixed it and works good. He told me that it if they sit for a long time this happens. I don't know if it is true or not but mine works now
 
I got tired of stringing extension cords to every
appliance when I had a 7550 watt Troy Bilt generator. It was also dangerous when fueling in the dark. In 2012 I had 14kw Kohler standby generator installed. It will run on NG or LP. All my neighbors were calling asking why my lights were on. One of those neighbors had a generator installed the following year. Hal
 
(quoted from post at 20:02:34 06/17/14) I had one that the one leg quit working on. I took it to an electrican and he said it had lost polarity. He fixed it and works good. He told me that it if they sit for a long time this happens. I don't know if it is true or not but mine works now
Click to expand...

Oddest excuse for trouble shooting and repair I ever heard.
If the residual magnetism had been lost. There would have been no power instead of half power.
 
Lou,
I think the problem is running an A/C. Your 5500w genny is mostlikely only 2750 watt on each leg and that's not really designed for continious use. Keep in mind starting a compressor draws a lot of amps, LRA, which is stamped on every compressor I've seen. It also has FLA, full load amps.

I have a 4000w peak and 3500 watt RV genny. It puts all the watts to one 120v outlet, the RV out or it splits it in half for two 120v outlets. The RV genny may handle a 5000 BTU A/C if you have a hardstart kit on A/c and powerfactored.

Just my opinion. Sure it you may have gotten buy in the past. Let us know what you find.

George
 
An amprobe and volt meter would make the diagnosis much easier.

With everything up and running as usual, check the voltage of each lead to neutral, see if they are in the 120v range and equal. Then check the amp draw on each leg, see if it is within the amp rating of the breaker. If the breaker is tripping below it's rated amps, or if it is heating up, the breaker could be going bad or have a bad connection. Bad connections are common on generators because of the vibration. Best to keep the load below 80% of the rated breaker amps.
 
Steve@Advance,
We're going to check for vibration as a possible cause. Unit sets sometimes for over a year or 2 without use depending on power outage. We put an oversize tank on it for continious use (10 gal gas). Another thing we researched for our records was the amount of appliances that was left attached, come to find out only household lights and if in the winter blower motor on wood furnace, thats why nothing showed up, until this week with 80 + deg weather and need A/C for living. We've had more power outages in the winter than in summer,where A/C wasn't a factor. Thanks for your helpful reply,
Regards,
LOU
 
George,
I believe you may be right, as mentioned above, most of the outages was during the winter where A/C wasn't required,just a minimum of lights and well pump all on 110 v with no compressors. We done some research, and determined it was winter power outages. I sure would like to have a whole house generator,but can't see thousands tied up in it,as I don't have the $$ thousands to tie up in it. I'm waiting to hit the lottery,lol,but it would help to buy a ticket I guess. Thanks again,
Regards,
LOU
 
El toro,
Thats one thing we don't use is extension cords, we have the genny in our detached garage (40 ft from house) and feed it thru the panel box in the garage to the house panel box with the main disconnected. When we call the power company, we make sure and mention we have the genny in line and to call us back when power is restored so we can safely disconnect the genny. We read JDs post on some generators and he said to keep away from the air cooled generators (whole house) and stick with water cooled (kohler) generators. But being without power I would take any generator over------ nothing.lol. Cant keep the gerbil alive by turning their exercise wheel to power the geeny, won't work for free corn.lol. Thanks again for your reply.
Regards,
LOU
 
Ivan,
we think our problem was trying to pull to much power with the AC. We will check the connections when we can to check for corrosion as its stored in the garage during the winter.
Thanks for the helpful reply,
Regards,
LOU
 
One leg of the generator?? So is your window A/C 240 volts? I would suspect the breaker on the generator is bad.
 

So you are back feeding with a dangerous home made double male ended power cord. To make it worse, probably plugged into a three prong welder plug in the shop. Then using a non-interlocked main breaker for isolation.
That is not one but three errors.
 
Lou,
I only have 2 3500w RV gennies and only plan to use them on the well, refrig, and coffee pot. I designed an energy management circuit so when well kicks on, everything shuts off. It works very well. It also waits 5 minutes before it returns power to refrig.

Then I modified it to soft start my electric chain saw which needs 70 amps when saw is turned on.

If I lost power in summer, I'll sleep in basement bedroom where temps rarely get over 60.
George
 
Don't overlook the air-conditioner itself.
I've had to replace many plugs on window air-conditioners
with something a little more heavy duty than originally equipped.
First sign was always tripping a breaker that never tripped before.
Feeling the cord plug when running on high....too warm.
Put a real plug on it, end of problem.
(had to do one as soon as I got it home. Could have took it back, but it probably was the same plug on all of those models...way too light duty)
Your house wiring might handle a borderline situation, a generator usually won't.
 
If you have either NG or LP gas I would buy a standby generator. You can buy a 14 kw Kohler for about $3700.00. Free shipping to your home and no sales tax. Get a licensed electrician that you know and a plumber. They use Wardflex piping for the gas. Also have it inspected. If you want the details where to buy send me an email. You can install 15 circuits in the transfer switch plus one for an ac circuit to charge the battery. Hal
 
Thanks for you post, I am going to check into one of these propane units....sounds like a perfect setup in you have propane backup heat, and are gone for 3-4 days or more in the winter....automatic starter, etc....

Tim
 
I can't help to question how difficult is it to start a propane engine in the winter? In the 70's a man has his ford 250 truck set up for gas and propane. He said he had to start it on gas then switch over to propane in the winter.
 
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