I always get the Generac “cold weather kit” now. It’s really just a battery heater pad and a heater sleeve that goes around the oil filter. It’s overpriced for what it is, but when you get theirs it’ll have the correct wires and connectors already. I think it’s ok to pay extra to not have to worry about sourcing the right molex connector. I did it once by just splicing bare wires into their system, but I have to consider that the next guy who comes along might be dumber than me….He’d have to be extra special dumb to plug in a molex connector wrong.
-Adam From: AF <af-boun...@af.afmug.com> On Behalf Of Chuck McCown via AF Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2022 12:16 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <af@af.afmug.com> Cc: Chuck McCown <ch...@go-mtc.com> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Larger Standby Generators Well, larger wires need larger conduit. They all work the same but the control wires are all different so you cannot use the old switch for the new generator... almost guaranteed. The amperage will almost certainly be too small etc. I am always astounded at how large the enclosures are for these things. Upgrading to a larger generator will likely require twice the wall space for the transfer switch. I think I would shop based on what the transfer switch looked like and if you can fit it somewhere on the wall. Nothing wrong with Generac. I have used their larger units without issue other than in the past their built in starter motor battery charger would fail and it would not be known until you actually needed it. I outfitted all the sites with telemetry and we watched that voltage carefully. Especially after they exercise each week or month. We also resorted to installing the starting batteries inside the climate controlled area and adding a high quality battery maintainer to them. That battery is the weakest link in the whole system. Not sure what your climate is, but the colder areas need engine heaters. That is important. And larger is almost always better for longevity. I once installed a unit that was fine for the load, but we had those external wall mount AC units and after a power outage, especially a short one, the generator could not start both ACs at the same time. Had to put a device on that would only allow one AC to run under generator power. I always required the techs to check the hour meter each time they went to the site. Our call center kept logs of generator hours and notified techs if they discovered an hour meter was not advancing (from the exercise cycles). From: Chris Fabien Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2022 8:45 AM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group Subject: [AFMUG] Larger Standby Generators Our main datacenter has for years had a single 11kw residential style generac. Due to increasing power load and improving redundancy I want to upgrade to dual larger generators. Trying to decide between new 22kw air cooled residential units or used larger liquid cooled commercial style units. Maybe one of each. Building has 200A single phase service so ~50kw is the max that would make sense. I am leaning towards used commercial style units but not sure how the controls/ATS work, and if there is a concern of being able to fish the correct transfer switch for an older generator, or if they are fairly universal. Have only installed whole kits from generac before. Thanks for any input. Chris _____ -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com <mailto:AF@af.afmug.com> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
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