[aprssig] Generators and LPG Conversion (was APRS in NOLA)

[bob evinger]

I was hoping someone besides me would state this. I have two people both 
extremely electronics savvy that did this in my area, one related to me, 
one who has work in the electronics field for over 40 years. Neither of 
them realized or at the time felt there was anything wrong with doing it 
that way. Both were fully capable of properly installing transfer switches 
in their homes.

I have lived in two homes and in both cases I have installed a transfer 
switch. The first time I used and RV/Boat 30amp shore switch that used 
time delay relays to give the generator time to warm up  a bit. and I had 
a subset of circuits that I fed that were my "critical" circuits.
The shoreline switch was not terribly expensive especially when one 
considers the risks and legalities of a double male plug(SUICIDE plug).

House two where I am now. I found a manual transfer switch that is 100 amp 
service interior only and actually can switch over the entire residence 
and out building.

I have what amounts to a double redundant system. I can run the entire 
place on the generator. But I also have a 500 watt solar, 300 watt wind 
generator feeding a large industrial battery bank and a 2.4kw inverter. In 
the house I have permanent wiring with a transfer switch that runs the 
majority of the circuits in the house so that when there isnot enough sun 
I can put that part of the house back on commercial power. When it is 
storming or plenty of alternative energy available I run the house on sun 
and wind.  My aprs and full time packet system runs on a smaller UPS that 
when the battery in it dies it auto transfers to the solar 
inverter/batteries.

The manual transfer switches were under 200 for the generator.

bob


Bob Evinger EMT-I  WD9EKA/AAR5MG(Army MARS operator)
The public highway system is not Daytona, and you are not Jeff Gordan.

On Fri, 2 Sep 2005, Dave Baxter wrote:

> Sorry, but I have to say this, and sorry to shout...
>
> NEVER EVER IN A MILION YEARS USE A PLUG..PLUG LEAD TO POWER A HOUSE (or
> any other site for that matter) FROM A GENSET, OR OTHER TEMPORARY SOURCE
> OF POWER!!!!
>
> It's SO dangerous as you wouldn't believe.
>
> If you want to do that sort of thing, fit a propper inlet connector, and
> change over switch so you can reliably isolate the utility supply from
> the house/genset, or the genset from the house/utility supply, or
> trouble WILL happen at some point.  The result at best is a burnt out
> genset, at worst is DEATH!!!!
>
> Again, I (and any other competent electrician will say this)  DONT DO
> IT!!!   If your utility company ever find you doing that sort of thing,
> they will almost certainly prosicute you for it too...
>
> The risk is, that you may feed power back into the utility supply, and
> injure or kill one of their people, or other member of the public...
> One mistake is all it takes!
>
> Take care..
>
> Dave B. G0WBX.
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org
>> [mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org] On Behalf Of Wes Johnston
>> Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 12:20 PM
>> To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
>> Subject: Re: [aprssig] Generators and LPG Conversion (was
>> APRS in NOLA)
>>
>> Although this is drifting OT a little.... I have a portable
>> gas genset for which I made a double male 220v plug.  I
>> placed a 220 receptical behind my house in the middle of the
>> U which is defined by the master bedroom and back porch.
>> This permits me to run the genset so that it can't be heard
>> from the street and (hopefully) won't be stolen.  In Hugo in
>> 1989, my parents and I ran their genset in the garage simply
>> plugged into the welder outlet in the garage, but could never
>> leave it unattended because we were worried someone would
>> steal it before we realized why the lights went out.
>>
>> Wes
>
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