One other suggestion is, whatever internal combustion device you have,
switch at first oil change to 100% full synthetic engine lube and never
go back. Guaranteed 50% longer between changes and far better
performance. My 2 ¢...
*Jim Duncan Solar Acres Farm 817.917.0527 solarguy2...@gmail.com*
On 2/27/2020 9:24 PM, Maverick Brown wrote:
Ray
Your list mirrors mine.
Never. Ever. Ever. Buy or believe you’ll get support of any kind from Generac.
I fell for the lure of the ECO GEN and it ate itself one night while helping
our off grid home get through a hot cloudy summer day.
For my off grid experience since 2005, I would vote for:
1. For Big Systems, I’d vote for a Cummins 1800 water cooled unit. 20kw is
great genny for a double stack or more of Radians. They work. Period. After a
few tries, a couple customers agreed to water cooled and life is grand.
Kohler RES-14 and RES-20 air-cooled units have also been great. For those
customers there are big battery banks and the generator is less needed.
2. Kubota GL11000 or GL7000. I have a few in my customer group. I have the
GL6000 at my shop. It can be made auto start. Diesel is man-potable. They
always start and run and they are water cooled even though they are 3600 rpms,
they are quiet.
3. Honda inverter generators. I have several customers with different wattages.
I love these. Won’t do much good to put a EU2000i on a 2400Ah bank, but the
EU7000i can be auto started in some climates with a 3-wire controller like a
XW-AGS. Keep the oil changed.
Also. The key here is use vs capacity for use. If you design a system that
needs the generator to run every. single. day., you might want to spec a
generator that costs more than the solar array. Or have enough battery for a 8x
load and solar for 2x or more.
The old adage you get what you pay for is still valid in the off grid world.
Thank you,
Maverick
On Feb 27, 2020, at 4:25 PM, Ray <r...@solarray.com> wrote:
I know we have covered this before, but I just continue to be disappointed
with the Generac Ecogen. Very high failure rate, and support is poor. Service
requires expensive on site service. Also the no load AC draw and programming
setup is just not off grid ready at all. I'm still not seeing any other great
choices, though. Here's some other possibilities:
1) Quality portable, like the Honda EU 7000i or Northstar with Honda motor.
Not the best choice especially for autostart, no propane, but at least they can
take it in to the shop if it goes down.
2) Kubota (or MQ) diesel. expensive, and possible cold weather start issues?
3) 20+ kW water cooled, 1800 rpm propane model. Overkill, expensive, but
probably will last a really long time.
4) Similar Home standby unit, but Kohler brand. Kohler used to be great, but
now a days I'm not so sure.
I just can't keep recommending a generator I know has been giving other
customers trouble. Any new ideas on this age old problem?
--
Ray Walters
Remote Solar
303 505-8760
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