Back-up power generator - $3.2M Leduc

[Aliva]

In my younger days I was a tech for an electrical wholesaler which sold Onan generators made in Minneapolis Minnesota. They were a great genset and had very few problems. My repair territory was Northern Ontario from Barrie Northwest to Thunder Bay. Most of the work was to install and repair prime power units mostly for camps , fishing lodges, hospitals , and couple of coast guard ships and malls. The sizes ranged from 3KW to 500KW. Did a lot of work for CN Rail. Onan generators was bought out by Cummins many years ago. There are still many out there a lot in RV's.
I'm not sure what the quality of the Cummins Onan is now but it might be worth a look see.
Cummins has dealers in Regina and Lloydminster

 

[phaxtris]

I've seen them load bank some of those big guys a few times at different jobs over the years, (given not quite THAT big...but still sea-can size)

that's quite the sight/sound to see, the amount of coal they roll would make every Terry in Albert jealous

 

[garageguy]

280 gal/hr in fuel. mmmkay, I'm out. Somebody else can have 'em.

 

[trevj]

Wow, that is quite a saga! You must have an infinite amount of patience; I probably would have sold the thing or had an insurance claim by now.

Not me. I would dig deep, and have it delivered back to the dealer it came from. Probably by helicopter. From about 800 feet up!

 

[jcdammeyer]

I think I may have posted this photo before. It's an ONAN genset, 110VAC only, 30kW diesel used to recharge AGM batteries once they discharged to 50% SOC. Apparently in the field the biggest issue they found was that the recharge curve of AGMs. For the last 20% or so the charge current is very low but takes way longer to go from 80% SOC to 100% SOC than getting from 50% SOC to 80% SOC. Hours. Therefore the generator was barely loaded and the exhaust stack would get all carboned up.

The system batteries were sized so it would only require a once per day recharge and that was scheduled during daytime rather than at night.

Lithium batteries were much better. There they could take 90A into a bank and then switch to 10A for the last 30 minutes.

 

[Susquatch]

Clearly there's no point in me buying it.

Simply because I learned something important from a friend who wanted to burn used cooking oil in a Lister Diesel engine and generate power for the house. The problem is that you can't just dump energy back through the meter. BC Hydro has two limitations on feeding power back. One: it has to be done with one of their inverters that can be synchronized to the power line electronically. Two: no more than 5Kw is allowed to be fed back.
So much for a 25kW Genset for for that matter up in the 4 or more Megawatt range.

Screw them! Just buy it and setup your own neighbourhood power utility! Then cut the wires to BC Hydro.

 

[Chicken lights]

When we bought the kennel 21 years ago I promptly bought a 10000 watt portable from PA. It was important to have heat and water for the kennel in the event of an extended outage. Worked great. Kept it in the shop and had a small manual transfer switch. Never had a problem with it.
When we switched the kennel heat over to geothermal we needed to upgrade the genset to something bigger. If both heat pumps kicked in at the same time they pulled over 150 amps at startup.
On the recommendation of the local electrician I bought a 36 kw Generac running on propane with an automatic transfer switch.
It has been the biggest piece of crap I have ever owned. I had 7 service calls before it ever produced a usable watt of power. In the first year they replaced the coil packs, cam sensor, crank sensor, 2 control panels and finally the entire wiring harness before it would run reliably.
Warrantee expired after a year. The local Generac service company lost it's tech and never replaced him. For service I had to get someone out of Winnipeg, 5 hours away and of course he was on the clock from the minute the truck started so it would cost about 900 bucks before he got here. Only did that once to replace the transfer switch which had literally exploded. Ended up with a Saskatoon service tech who was closer but always too busy to make the trip. Generac had service guys in Regina, 25 minutes away but they only worked on the small portables, not the bigger stationarys. Local Caterpillar dealer sent a guy out once to replace another crank sensor. He ended up making 3 trips to get it running and when it died again 2 weeks later they said no thanks, we'll pass, you're own your own. Currently I am on my third transfer switch.
There is a Regina tech that will come out now which helps, sort of. He will only replace parts with genuine Generac parts. The starter failed last year and the Generac quoted price was around 2 grand. Got it rebuilt locally for a hundred.
This winter the power went out twice and both times the generator wouldn't start because it had to be installed outside and with the winter storms we got this year the enclosure would pack absolutely full with snow. I'm going to put a garden shed around the damn thing this year. Probably still won't start when the power goes out but at least I won't have to look at it.
I get worked up just thinking about this piece of crap.
They only thing worse than having your power go out on a minus 30 day is also having a generator that won't work when the power goes out.

That type of story is preventing me from moving west, however there has to be better alternatives

 

[Doggggboy]

That type of story is preventing me from moving west, however there has to be better alternatives

Other than the exploding transfer switches, nearly all the generator problems were related to failure of the crap that is supposed to prevent catastrophic failure. It was almost always a sensor of some sort. When they originally replaced the coils and the computer and the wiring harness they were just firing the parts cannon at it.
Having the enclosure fill with snow is a recent problem due to changing weather patterns.
But the lack of available service technicians was a real eye opener.
I know someone in Regina that says he has to have his Tesla serviced in Saskatoon.
If I had a do over, I would probably go with Caterpillar.