Running electronic controls & pump with generator

[Retired Engineer]

I am about to hook up Tekmar controls and alpha pump in my shop and house and wondering how to protect them when running the system on a generator when power is out. When power was off during the flooding in Sept. the transformer in garn control, a fence charger and the transformer & brake release coil in a hoist were burned out when running on a generator. All buildings and circuits are wired per the NEC and have proper grounding (bounding). The garn anodes show only slight activity and water tests are OK after a year of use (DHW all summer).
All help appreciated.

Tom

 

[Clarkbug]

I cant really tell you the best way to protect them, but if you burned out that much stuff with your generator, I would consider getting it tested before you use it again. It sounds like you had some seriously dirty power coming out of that thing, or perhaps a severe dip/surge in volts or amps. (Again, not really an electrical guy here)

Test it first, see what you get for output from your generator.

Worst case, put the controls on a computer UPS. They tend to filter the power, and if its too lousy to use, you have a battery backup.

 

[DaveBP]

I'd be very skeptical about that generator.

My 20+ year old Honda generator with a LOT of hours on it had to have the brushes replaced because my computer UPS was complaining that it was too noisy (electrical noise, not sound) for the "low tolerance" setting I had it on. But the waveform of a typical generator is pretty smooth, I think; at least compared to the more affordable inverter supplies that use the "modified" square wave, not pure sine wave, type of output.

Motors, transformers and other coils will hum noticeably when on inverters (except probably the pure sine wave type, I've never used one) but I am suspicious of why all those things burned out when on a generator. Perhaps the generator was laboring under a max load and therefore running at low voltage for a while? I know low voltage can heat motors badly.

Any electrical engineers out there that can do more than speculate?

 

[velvetfoot]

No expert, but running it out of gas can cause some bad rpm fluctuations.

 

[oldspark]

Sounds like th HZ might have been off. Dont use that gen until it gets checked out.

 

[DaveBP]

Sounds like th HZ might have been off. Dont use that gen until it gets checked out.

My generator sounded odd a couple years back but I thought my imagination was just playing tricks on me. When my computer UPS said there was something wrong I put my voltage-frequency meter on it and it was running at 56Hz, not 60Hz. Quick check showed that the mice had been building a nest near the engine and in the process had modified the rather exposed governor linkage with acorn shells and other crap. Still had to tweak the adjustment a little but that was easy.

 

[Retired Engineer]

Thanks for the replays.

The generator was borrowed, brand new, never had oil or gas before we started it. I know that doesn't mean that it was OK. Before trying to run the garn it had been running 3 chest freezers and a couple of refrigerators and a 3/4 hp well pump (not all at once). It is a 6.5K generator and ran the 3 freezers (for my son's business) at the same time OK. I now have my own generator, waiting for the next long power outage. Any ideas or just bad luck?

Has anyone successful ran a electronic control and a alpha pump with a generator?

Tom

 

[REFire]

Run Tekmar 260 Bolier control and Grundfos Alpha Pump whenever we have a power outage on a Perkins Diesel Generator, no problems, very clean power.

 

[Clarkbug]

Didnt mean to go all off topic on you Tom, it just seems like thats a LOT of bad luck for one power outage. Seems natural to want to blame the equipment.