SW4024 and Pizzo Ignitors [RE-wrenches]

Tue Jan 7 19:54:04 PST 2003

William wrote:
We've heard skepticism that the SW will "back-off" battery charging, and I'll 
admit
I've never tested either feature.  Has anyone out there tested either or
both of these features? 

William,
I have notice that the SW will back off as stated if the generator has good 
enough frequency control to stay in spec as the load is hitting it.  If the 
generator goes out of the voltage or frequency window due to the load hitting 
it, then the over/underspeed error will show up and often kick the generator 
momentarily off line.  If you have set the max charge amps on menu 10 well 
below the max that the generator can handle (3 to 6 amps lower) I find that 
the generator stays on line.  If you are working it hard, it has no excess 
power to keep rpms up when the load hits.  I'm running a 2200 watt Kawasaki 
generator now on my SW4024 while I am upgrading my propane conversion on my 
4600 watt Yamaha and find it is working fine at 11 amps max AC input.  It 
will run at 14 or 15 amps without kicking its circuit breaker but is lugging 
pretty hard and I have burned up two voltage regulators on it so far....so 
cutting back will hopefully save buying another $300 regulator and it doesn't 
kick off line at all with my washing machine running, microwave kicked on, 
coffee maker, 500 watt furnace fan etc.  I have seen the DC amps go from 38 
amps charge to minus 20 amps with the generator running steady.  Same idea 
works on the 4600 generator  except the numbers are higher. Seems that most 
generators don't like to work more than about 60% of rating.  I know airplane 
engines are required to be kept below 75% power to save the engines so guess 
the same applies to any engine.  

On a similar vein, I had a customer decide to upgrade to a Kohler 8.5 (3600 
rpm) from the propane converted Yamaha I had provided (there were starting 
problems-since corrected).  I bought the Yamaha back and have used it at my 
house for the last two years with no problems.  They ran the new Kohler 30 
hours and burned it up.  Circuit board, then the starter, then a circuit 
board again. The guy who sold them the Kohler couldn't figure out what was 
causing it.  Then I found out that they had the max AC2 set at 75 amps!!!!  
It states right in the Kohler manual in small print at the bottom of a page 
"Max continuous output 37 amps"  it doesn't say at 120 or 240 but amps are 
amps so I think they were just way overloading the boards (heat buildup?)  
Since reducing the max AC input at my suggestion... no more problems.  37 
amps at 120v is about 52% of its rated output.  I have noticed at that 
setting, frequency control on the Kohler is very good and the engine doesn't 
appear to work at all.  Anyone have good fuel consumption numbers for the 
Kohler?  I am trying to wean off my super efficient Kawasaki to cut down run 
time but so far haven't found a generator that gives me more watts per gallon.

John Blittersdorf
CVSolar

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