generator advice

[sunset on the dock]

I had my new house, built 5 years ago, wired such that I could plug my 5500 KW Honda generator into the system. I have never needed to use the generator until this week. Well when I tried it out this is what happened. I turned the power to the street off on the panel and turned the generator switches from off to on on the panel. Good so far. I turned on the generator knowing I have a capacity of 5500 Watts. The refrigerator ran as well as the oil heater kicking on. Still good…..But the air handlers for the heater did not work….no big deal…we primarily heat with wood. The cellar lights didn’t come on either nor certain plugs where I charge the phones and laptops. And my fish tank….the filters didn’t work…but even when I plugged them into an outlet that was powering a working floor lamp they didn’t work even though the lamp kept working.

Now it was 5 years ago that we built the house so I don’t remember. I thought the plan was that I could power anything and everything as long as I didn’t go over 5500 Watts (keeping in mind the surge when an appliance kicks on)? Or did I intentionally decide to power only certain “essentials”? I know that at the my old house I could power anything and everything…just not all at once requiring me to do a bit of arithmetic so as not to go over 5500 Watts. There must be a logical explanation. Any advice?

[WinnisquamZ]

Originally Posted by sunset on the dock

I had my new house, built 5 years ago, wired such that I could plug my 5500 KW Honda generator into the system. I have never needed to use the generator until this week. Well when I tried it out this is what happened. I turned the power to the street off on the panel and turned the generator switches from off to on on the panel. Good so far. I turned on the generator knowing I have a capacity of 5500 Watts. The refrigerator ran as well as the oil heater kicking on. Still good…..But the air handlers for the heater did not work….no big deal…we primarily heat with wood. The cellar lights didn’t come on either nor certain plugs where I charge the phones and laptops. And my fish tank….the filters didn’t work…but even when I plugged them into an outlet that was powering a working floor lamp they didn’t work even though the lamp kept working.

Now it was 5 years ago that we built the house so I don’t remember. I thought the plan was that I could power anything and everything as long as I didn’t go over 5500 Watts (keeping in mind the surge when an appliance kicks on)? Or did I intentionally decide to power only certain “essentials”? I know that at the my old house I could power anything and everything…just not all at once requiring me to do a bit of arithmetic so as not to go over 5500 Watts. There must be a logical explanation. Any advice?

Have a LE check the wiring


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[Descant]

We installed a standby generator in 2004. We have two panels, one with heavy power users (e.g. dishwasher, washer/dryer, electric oven) and a second panel for everything else, (furnace, fridge, lights, computers), powered by the 6KW generator. Now, I understand, there are load monitor panels so there is automatic control when you top out, 5.5KW in the Op's case.

The auto start for the standby generator is great. It comes on in 30 seconds and shuts off when not needed.

With a "manual" generator, by the time you start it, the power is back on, or your house cools down and you suffer for some time before you decide to get it out and set it up. If you lose power while at work, you come home to a cold house and have to set up the generator in the dark, and wait hours for the house to warm up again. We used to have a lady down the street who always had to call a neighbor when power was out and she couldn't start the portable generator when hubby was out of town. I remember being at the hardware store once during a power outage. They had no gas cans and listed four other local stores who also had no gas cans. Gas stations who had no power were closed. The propane delivery truck never shuts down.
The list goes on, but bottom line is, convert to a whole house standby system.

[NH.Solar]

Hard to say without being there, but the most of the loads you described should have been within the capability of a 5.5 kW Honda. The killer for overloading generators in most cases is any high surge startup loads such as a well pump and HVAC blowers and compressors. In many cases even these are possible to power if you add a soft start device to your high surge loads. By equipping your air handlers with soft start mechanisms you might be able to run those as well and keep your home equally conditioned during an outage.

[camp guy]

In early 2000 I wanted to install a generator. The electrician suggested a unit large enough to carry the entire house, auto-transfer, weekly auto-exercise, and an over-sized LP tank. My reaction was "over-sell", and we talked about it for a while, and I finally agreed to his plan. The was the best decision. Never had a problem. When we moved, I wanted a generator, called (now a different electrician) the electrician, told him I wanted a unit large enough to carry the whole house, auto-transfer, weekly auto-exercise, and extra LP tanks. He was silent for a moment, then said, "You've done this before." Yes, so that is what I had installed. It isn't cheap, but it is money well-spent, peace of mind, and one less "system" to worry about. The punch line by me about generators is very simple" "Go big, go auto-auto, and have periodic (annual) service".

[TomC]

When some outlets work, and some don't, you may have dropped a leg and only have half your panel powered. Your 220v appliances (air handler?) will not work and any of those 220V devices that remain connected, such as baseboard heat, will energize the dead leg through high resistance and cause a low voltage/brownout condition on that side of the panel. That can cause all kinds of weird effects on circuits on that side, such as dim bulbs and motors that won't run - like perhaps your fish filters? Check your connections at the generator, on the transfer switch, any cords you may use, and inside your panel...

[John Mercier]

Originally Posted by sunset on the dock

I had my new house, built 5 years ago, wired such that I could plug my 5500 KW Honda generator into the system. I have never needed to use the generator until this week. Well when I tried it out this is what happened. I turned the power to the street off on the panel and turned the generator switches from off to on on the panel. Good so far. I turned on the generator knowing I have a capacity of 5500 Watts. The refrigerator ran as well as the oil heater kicking on. Still good…..But the air handlers for the heater did not work….no big deal…we primarily heat with wood. The cellar lights didn’t come on either nor certain plugs where I charge the phones and laptops. And my fish tank….the filters didn’t work…but even when I plugged them into an outlet that was powering a working floor lamp they didn’t work even though the lamp kept working.

Now it was 5 years ago that we built the house so I don’t remember. I thought the plan was that I could power anything and everything as long as I didn’t go over 5500 Watts (keeping in mind the surge when an appliance kicks on)? Or did I intentionally decide to power only certain “essentials”? I know that at the my old house I could power anything and everything…just not all at once requiring me to do a bit of arithmetic so as not to go over 5500 Watts. There must be a logical explanation. Any advice?

Did you check all the fuses? Not just the breakers, but individual fuses in the fish filter. The USB ports may have internals that protect against dirty sine wave power... so that may be an answer.

[ITD]

5,500 watts is not a lot of power for a whole house. The Oil heater and air handler would use a bunch of that power, add in a refrigerator or two, plus lights, chargers and a bunch of other things and you can easily go over your wattage. You probably will eventually trip the circuit breaker on the generator, but maybe not. More likely your voltage will drop and things just won't work. You really don't give any detail as to your set up, but with this small of a generator, I would switch from the street power to the generator with all loads off, which I would probably do by shutting off all the circuit breakers, start the generator, then selectively turn on only the heat and maybe a light and tv. When the well needs to run, turn all off again, the turn on the well. There could be something else wrong, but that's where I'd start. I used a 5,000 watt generator in an old house, I used one of these switches to manage the load.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Reliance-50...TCH/5015292865

It worked well. When I moved up here full time, I installed a 24kw propane generator with a 200 amp automatic transfer switch. This setup runs almost everything in the house and has worked very well over the past couple of years.

[chachee52]

Are you sure the outlets that you mentioned are wired into the transfer switch? That would be the first thing that came to my mind. I ran a forced hot air oil system and a frig plus a fish tank on a small 2000 Honda back in the '08 ice storm without issues. But when I finally did add a transfer switch so I didn't have to wire the 2000 in every time I lost power, I only put one bank of lights in the entire house on it. Figured that lanterns were easy enough and would rather have other things on the switch seeing it was limited to 6 ( or 8, I can't remember) circuits at that time.
Or as someone else mentioned the wiring is bad and you run half of the outlets. My work actually had that happen years ago when a transformer burned out, half the lights worked and only 1 of the 2 plugs in the outlet worked. Weirdest thing I ever saw before I knew what was going on.

[SAB1]

Not an expert but agree with ITD. That’s a small generator. I would think you would be much better off with a 10kw.

[BrunoSR]

I am not an expert but I believe TOMC has it right, only half of your box is powered by the generator.

As for the size of the generator, it is a bit small but I had a 5500 for years and it powered the whole house, I just didn't use the dryer or stove other than one burner for soups. I also made sure all items and lights not needed were turned off. I have since gone with a 8500.

[jeffk]

I don't want to lead you on a wild goose chase but considering you have a new house and probably modern appliances and systems, I wonder if you are having a problem with "dirty" power from a typical old style generator.

For example, I can run most things off of my generator BUT NOT my microwave. Some electronics, like those in my microwave, have problems with dirty power and, these days, electronics are buried in LOTS of devices.

The answer is an inverter generator that delivers clean power. They are also quieter and more fuel efficient. The downside is they are more expensive.

Again, I'm not sure this is YOUR problem, but I know the problem exists and that newer smart appliances are susceptible.

However, as others have pointed out, the STARTING load capacity of whatever generator you have MUST meet the needs of the device. In a quick look, air handlers, for example, can have a high starting load capacity AND can be susceptible to dirty power.

PLUS, not all inverters deliver pristine power. Some are better than others so a careful choice is needed. "Pure Sine Wave Inverters" deliver the cleanest power, similar to that delivered through power lines. Also the more expensive inverters.

Since you know which systems are NOT working with your generator, you should check the startup power requirements for each system and see if that system also needs clean power. Owners manuals and customer service might have answers. It can be a real hunt to chase the information down for your whole house. It might be easier to track down and borrow a pure sine wave, high capacity inverter and see if everything works while on that power source. If so, you have your answer.

If I am correct, the "whole house generators" usually work well because they have plenty of capacity AND pay attention to clean power requirements. They add in auto start and long running capacity to provide a no hassle solution. And again, you pay for what you get.

[8gv]

Do you have a generator sub panel?

In that case the circuits that were chosen to be powered by it may not be to your liking.

OR...

Do you have the alternative set up which includes a movable lock out plate that, when positioned for generator use, locks out the main breaker and allows the generator breaker to be turned on?

In this case I suggest that you start with all of the breakers turned off and try each circuit individually while keeping all the others off.

This should tell you if it is a generator capcity issue of something else.

[8gv]

One more possibility:

Considering that the house is new, you may have arc fault breakers.

They will trip when an imbalance is detected on the neutral side of the circuit.

I once had a power failure that tripped several if these.

Try turning the affected circuits off and on again to reset them.

[John Mercier]

He had an outlet that ran a light, but would not run the fish filter.
That is almost a sure sign that the onboard fuse to the fish filter popped.

The USB charging ports, that would be a sine wave issue.
A dirty sine wave can damage sensitive electronics, so the manufacturers put in protections against that.

[sunset on the dock]

Thanks to all of you for the very informative advice. I'm going to reread all of it and then do some more investigating starting with turning off all of the breakers, running the generator, and then seeing what I can and cannot run. BTW, this was one of the more expensive generators with inverter. But it is about 15 years old. And it ran my old house (much smaller) with ease during a week long power outage about 15 years ago.

Thx again...I'll report back later!

[Blue Thunder]

The first thing I would check is to make sure the switch on the generator is set to 240volts. If it’s set at 120 volts that will only power half of your panel.
Secondly you stated that you turned on the generator breakers. Plural. That doesn’t sound right. The method you are using is backfeeding the panel. It should be one double pole breaker 30 or 40 amps. It should have 2 wires usually one black and one red. Each is 120v. One powers the right side of the buss bar, the other powers the left. The wires going to the plug on the outside of the house should have a white neutral and a green ground. Those connections are in the panel as well. Hope this helps.

[Descant]

When my stndby generator was about 15 years old, the tech said it needed ne brushes and was not putting out full power. Easy fix.

[sunset on the dock]

OK everyone...I'm a dope. My Honda generator has a switch....one side is 110, the other 110/220. I had not switched it over to the 110/220 side. I exercise the generator once a month, change the oil and gas, replace the battery, etc. But I messed up on this one. I tried it out on the 110/220 this AM and voila...everything in the house runs (just not all at the same time).

Thanks to all of you for responding and helping me fix the problem. Spring is right around the corner and I hope to see you on the lake.

[Blue Thunder]

Originally Posted by sunset on the dock

OK everyone...I'm a dope. My Honda generator has a switch....one side is 110, the other 110/220. I had not switched it over to the 110/220 side. I exercise the generator once a month, change the oil and gas, replace the battery, etc. But I messed up on this one. I tried it out on the 110/220 this AM and voila...everything in the house runs (just not all at the same time).

Thanks to all of you for responding and helping me fix the problem. Spring is right around the corner and I hope to see you on the lake.

Sounds like something I said…lol

[sunset on the dock]

Originally Posted by Blue Thunder

Sounds like something I said…lol

You nailed it BT. I'm happy to have a working generator; not so happy to have slipped up on such an important detail. Thx. Beautiful day out there!