Fw: Re: Kohler RES Units in PV Applications [RE-wrenches]

Allan Sindelar allan at positiveenergysolar.com
Wed Jan 5 16:53:23 PST 2005


 

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Wrenches,
Here's some background communication about the Kohler RES gennies. I sent a
bunch of saved Wrench postings (including a few gripes from years ago that
I'd saved) about Kohler units to a man at our Kohler distributor. Below is
some of the relevant RES stuff, in reverse chronological order. It appears
that a good solution hasn't yet been found to the controller battery-drain
issue.
Allan @+E

(Kirk Herander to Allan)
Terry has a good point. The manual states that any service work should be
performed with the battery disconnected, but of course that won't happen. So
we need to put warning labels on generators where the remote start is
paralleled with the run contacts. I also pull off the auto-start lead from
the generator's control switch to insure that if it is misstakenly put in
auto position the battery will not run down. Putting the switch in auto
position will disable any remote start posibilities as well.

In regard to the 48 hour power-down jumper, I have removed the jumper on
several systems and the battery still runs down to the point of not being
able to kick over the generator. Why? Because the controller uses a measured
685 ma continuosly out of the starting battery when in auto mode(NOT the 250
ma the manual states!!!!). Over a 48 hr period, thats 33 ahr, enough to drop
the shallow cycle 675 CCA-recommend battery to nearly dead status.

Kirk, Vermont Solar Engineering

(From: "Robert Hilkemeier" <RobertH at e-c-co.com> to Allan)
>      I sent the message from Kirk to our Service Manager, Terry Klein
> for his comment (see below).
>
>      I am definitely looking to be able to make a recommendation to our
> dealers to address this specific issue.  Because the latest involves a
> safety issue, we can't recommend this approach.
>
>      Do you possibly have any input about pulling the continuous power
> mode jumper to allow the controller to power down after 48 hours and
> then using the output of the generator to power a battery charger to
> charge the batteries while the unit is running?  Is this somehow
> problematic or not an effective solution?  Why do people continue to
> look for other ways to do this?

(From Terry Klein, Kohler service manager, to Robert)
HE IS RIGHT IT CAN BE PARALLELED. THE PROBLEM IS IF SOMEONE IS WORKING ON
> THE GENERATOR THERE IS A POSSIBILITY FOR THE PERSON SERVICING THE UNIT
> THAT THE INVERTER CALLS FOR A START AND THE UNIT WOULD CRANK WITH
> SOMEONE'S HANDS IN ROTATING PARTS, OR THE OIL IS DRAINING OUT OF THE
> UNIT. THERE IS NO WAY TO STOP THE CRANKING FROM THE UNIT WITHOUT PULLING
> A BATTERY CABLE.  THIS METHOD IS REALLY A SAFETY ISSUE. I WANT TO KEEP
> ALL OF MY FINGERS, THANK YOU!
> TERRY KLEIN, EC POWER SYSTEMS AURORA

(From Allan to Robert)
> Thanks for the CC. Here's another piece by Kirk, that I think was posted
> after I forwarded all of those messages to you. I think it's pretty
relevant.
> By the way, the RE-Wrenches list is primarily focused on Renewable Energy
> issues, of which generator integration is but one aspect.
>
(From Kirk to Wrenches) Duh, here's the easiet way to eliminate the power
draw of the
> controller for
> remote start. Simply wire the remote start switch in parallel with the run
> contacts of the Kohler on-board switch. Do not put the on-board switch in
> the auto position. Leave it it the stop (middle) position. It will
> start/stop just fine remotely and the starting battery will not drain
down.
> No need to remove the 48 hr power-down jumper either. No additional relays
> required.

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