NFT: Generators

[laxing22]

Morning All,
I need to look into a generator at work for our server room (UPS won't allow whole room to stay up) and I know a few of you guys have them for your tanks...

Do they only power the fish room? Run the whole house?

Are they better to get portable ones? / How portable are they?

I was thinking what would be best is being able to power just one room (that uses more power than most rooms would, but some of your fish rooms might compare). Right now there are 6 dedicated / isolated wall outlets. If it was possible, I would like to have the generator between the wall and the equipment (before a conditioner and UPS's). Is this doable?

Brands to look into / stay away from?

Thanks for your help in this somewhat off topic thing. :rollface:

 

[Bluephish13]

I talked to my brother in law who sells them more commercially. He told me for portable generators the top they sell is OPEL (Not sure if that was the right spelling). AS for the big box stores, he said to get a generac. Then you just have to determine how big you need, and how portable. The smaller 3000-6500watt units are usually the most portable and most good units come with wheel kits. My parents have a opel 6500 watt it has the 120 plug for the panel, and they can run pretty much the whole house, + 2 freezers.

I plan on a Generac 3500 for my reef tank and some other things in the house.

honestly that probably did not help much sorry. basically 2 brands worth looking at are opel and generac.

 

[SquidwardTentacles]

I have two to keep things up and running. I added a transfer switch in my house and can run most of the house with 8000 watts. For my aquariums, I added two dedicated 30 amp circuits (yes, overkill but it makes me feel better).

I also have a smaller 2000 watt to use for smaller applications / shorter outages.

As for a server room... I work for an IT Outsourcing company (the two-letter one / not the evil empire) and could speak on this for days. The solution will depend upon redundancy & budget. Do you want something that kicks in automatically? If so, a diesel is the way to go. What's the total load of the room? Or do you want something inexpensive that requires manual intervention? If that's the plan, a $1000 portable would work.

 

[laxing22]

Both answers are very helpful.

Phish - Does your BIL work upstate? If we go bigger I don't mind a reference from you as a place to look.

ST, Would love to chat about this, Can the portable $1,000 dollar units take much of a load? Would need to be running three beefy servers and a SAN, a few switches, maybe be able to run a few PCs in an emergency for base line. (BTW - two letters? I used to work for CTG, not sure of a two letter one)

I'm thinking portable may be the way to go. We do not own our building and I'm not sure how permanent of a setup are they?

I am guessing the portable ones are a bit more simple to setup? The permanent one need a contractor / professional install?

 

[laxing22]

ST - do you have any brand loyalty?

 

[SquidwardTentacles]

..begins in with an H and ends in with a P...

How big a SAN? How many spindles? Last one I put in at a client site required a separate big-*** circuit. If it's EMC, they get funky if temps get too high and shut down so you need to think about your AC as well.

As for brand loyalty. I try to do USA as much as possible. My big boy is a Generac. It kept my reef up during eight-day power outage during Buffalo's "October Storm" five years ago. I had to clean/change the spark plug (at least) daily but it kept chugging along almost 24x8.

My little one is a knock-off of the Honda. Pep Boys was selling them years ago but I think they are now pretty illegal due to IP infringements. I read that someone took the Honda 2000 watt and the knock-off apart, spread the parts out on a bench, and put both back together with random parts from each unit. Both worked fine. Honda: $1200+, knock-off: $599.

 

[Bluephish13]

No sorry, just buffalo.

They have portable generac's up to 12000watt's maybe higher, they cost 2G's but you should definitely be able to find a portable to suit your wattage.

The little info i gathered on them.

Some generac's have the better emission options.

Some have the options for a transfer switch, this is what i imagine you would need.

Some have the options of more outlets. This is for running extension cords, i believe it divides the power more evenly.

 

[laxing22]

Thanks guys, you have been very helpful.

How do you estimate how much power you have to replace? Even ranges in general? I was looking at a Guardian Series 8,000-Watt Generator... is that a lot? What does an average house need?

 

[SquidwardTentacles]

Best bet is to create a quick spreadsheet and list everything you want to power. Most devices have power usage marked on them. If not, Google it and make an educated guess.

8000 watts is plenty for a house. When I wired mine in, I didn't feed the circuit to the microwave (2000 watts) as that would be a pretty big surge. And do you really need a micro during a power outage?

My former 125 drew ~2000 watts with 3 250 MHs & 2 170 VHOs. My new 28 Nano draws all of 180 watts with all of my mods turned on. If both 50 watt heaters are on; 280 I hooked everything NOT in the water (dusk to dawn lights, MP-10, cooling fan) to a UPS. It keeps the water moving for a couple hours to buy some time in case I'm not home.

As for a server room, 8000 watts may be OK. May be a drop in the bucket depending on what you are trying to keep running. Again, add up all of your wattages and go from there is my advice.

 

[jcw]

I thought you couldn't run sensitive equipment on the power off a conventional generator.

I've read that the inverter "sinewave" generators which are much quieter also provide better power supply for these equipment.

I've been wrong before though...

I have an ALMOST whole house Kohler unit. (it won't tolerate the startup load for the houses 2 air conditioning compressors) I've since read that Kohler has gone down in quality while generac has gone up. I think these are the two mainstream brands for whole house generators. I'm sure there are others that are better and more expensive.

 

[SquidwardTentacles]

I thought you couldn't run sensitive equipment on the power off a conventional generator.

I've read that the inverter "sinewave" generators which are much quieter also provide better power supply for these equipment.

I've been wrong before though...

I have an ALMOST whole house Kohler unit. (it won't tolerate the startup load for the houses 2 air conditioning compressors) I've since read that Kohler has gone down in quality while generac has gone up. I think these are the two mainstream brands for whole house generators. I'm sure there are others that are better and more expensive.

You are correct. I should have noted he'd need some sort of conditioner between the generator and the equipment. When I ran my tank off gen power, the pump made a distinctively different sound due to the modified sine wave. Good catch. Thanks for noting.