[RE-wrenches] Outback Gen starting case study

[William Miller]

Colleagues:

I had posted earlier that I was having problems reliably starting a 
particular generator using an Outback Mate.  My resolve was to determine 
conclusively if the Outback mate was at fault or if I could trust it in the 
future.  I installed a data monitoring system to check battery voltage, gen 
start signal and gen AC waveform and briefed the care taker and staff to 
scrutinize the system carefully during the test period.  Here are the results:

There were 4 generator start failures over a period of about 4 weeks. 
Failure numbers 1 and 3 were verified to have been caused by the 
generator.  Failures 2 and 4 were due to failure of the customer to reset 
the Mate after failures 1 and 3.  This was a training error that was partly 
mine.  No failures can be blamed on the Outback equipment.

Moral of the story:  Generator start systems are complicated.  You need to 
know your generator and your customer needs to know his or her Mate.  But, 
the Mate AGS works.

More information:

The Kohler RES 15 displays numerals under normal circumstances and alpha 
characters under abnormal circumstances.  I posted a note in the generator 
shed informing anyone that if alpha characters are seen, to note the 
characters, time, date and then to call me.

The Mate is difficult enough for the technician to understand.  My customer 
has an elderly caretaker for whom English is a second language.  After I 
discovered the training error, I created a few flip charts with lots of 
graphics and copies translated into Spanish, followed up by on-site 
training.  This should prevent repeats of the failure to clear AGS 
Errors.  This highlights the industry wide problem of systems having too 
complicated a front end.

Data monitoring proved the point that generator failure was the original 
culprit.  If anyone is interested in more information about a roll-your-own 
low-budget data monitoring system, I created a page on the 
subject:  http://millersolar.com/case_studies/Data/data.html

I firmly believe that third party generator start hardware adds an 
unnecessary level of complication and removes the added feature of tieing 
generator stop to the float stage.  I will continue to use and recommended 
the Outback integrated AGS system.

William Miller




Please note new e-mail address and domain:

William Miller
Miller Solar
Voice :805-438-5600
email: william at millersolar.com
http://millersolar.com
License No. C-10-773985
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