john niolon wrote:
> tell me all I need to know.... I'm looking at 7-10 grand (25-30kw) and
> that's a lot to swallow... I need all the info I can gather..
At my office I installed a coleman powerstation 25kW. With automatic
exerciser and transfer switch. This one is natural gas/propane, backup
for a small computer room.
A lot of the decision was made on price, but for occasional duty this
one has seemed excellent.
You can spend 4 times that much to get one that is designed to run
continuously for months, but as a standby generator this price class
seems acceptable. They are car engines so they are good for a few
thousand hours, which is a lifetime as a backup generator.
The only problem I had was a loose connection on the onboard trickle
charger, which I think is actually dealer installed. The display and
electronics are powered from the battery (and the charger) so it all
works when the power goes out. When the trickle charger failed, after
about a week the battery no longer could start the unit and the self
test failed that week. No downtime, just fixed trickle charger connection.
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
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