Best Place to Buy MEP-003 or MEP-803

[Korgoth1]

If you have an electric water heater, range/oven, or heat pump, I recommend the 803. The 803 is the sweet spot for most people, unless you have gas appliances and furnace. You can figure it from your electric bill.

In my experience you will use one gallon for every kilowatt produced regardles of engine size. After running a month straight, the 802 will have a couple gallon more fuel left over than the 803-04.

 

[Korgoth1]

The figures I've seen sited are .1 gal/1kWh, being nearly universal for wet fueled engines(gas/diesel/kerosene/etc.)

it has been speculated that these can be paralleled, but I've yet to see it confirmed. At issue is the governors are not synced. The output wave and frequency may be in sync, however, once a load is applied, the sync is likely to be lost. The power plant units, 2xMEP on a trailer, are intended as a redundant power source, not a parallel power option.

Gasoline doesnt have as much energy per gallon as diesel, and natural gas has less the gasoline.

 

[lonesouth]

Gasoline doesnt have as much energy per gallon as diesel, and natural gas has less the gasoline.

agreed, it was stated specifically for diesel, but could be used as a quick estimate of burn rate for commercial gas units. I went diesel for the very reason that propane, though I already have it for the house, burn 1.5-2gph, which would run me dry in no time.

 

[DieselAddict]

I would suggest doing some measurements and see what your average load is without any of the high power appliances running. That will help you find the sweet spot for the generator you need. If you do go with a MEP803 just keep an eye on the load. If you aren't loading it enough dry a load of clothes or bake a casserole (assuming electric appliances). You'll be fine. Build a rig to do a full power load test and test it a couple times a year. If you see any issues with wet stacking you can use your load bank to clear it up.

I have a MEP803 and its way overkill for my house. A 802 would have been enough. It even will run my 3t heatpump (no heat strips enabled). I did build my house with energy efficiency in mind though. What I did to keep from running the MEP803 (and before that a MEP003) to lightly loaded was to add a MEP831 to the mix for when I don't need to run the heatpump. That little thing keeps the lights/TV running and will even start the 1hp well pump while sipping an average of 0.2gph. Only my Honda EU1000 burns less fuel than the MEP831. Both MEPs have the same connectors so if I need more power I just move the cable from one to the other and fire it up. Its overkill to put 50a outlet on a MEP831 but it keeps things simple from a connection standpoint.

For the future I'm going to add an inverter/solar/battery setup for high power short term demands. That will stretch the ability of the MEP831 a lot. I expect with that setup I won't have to fire up a MEP for an outage that lasts less than a day (assuming not running heatpump).

 

[tscott8201]

If you have an electric water heater, range/oven, or heat pump, I recommend the 803. The 803 is the sweet spot for most people, unless you have gas appliances and furnace. You can figure it from your electric bill.

In my experience you will use one gallon for every kilowatt produced regardless of engine size. After running a month straight, the 802 will have a couple gallon more fuel left over than the 803-04.

Ive got a heat pump (4 ton with a soft start), an electric oven and an electric cloths dryer. Stove top and water heater are both LP. I'll get the panel cover off this weekend and take some measurements with my amp clamp to get some hard numbers, but I'm pretty certain with proper load management I could run the house AC and all with the 10Kw 803a.

I would suggest doing some measurements and see what your average load is without any of the high power appliances running. That will help you find the sweet spot for the generator you need. If you do go with a MEP803 just keep an eye on the load. If you aren't loading it enough dry a load of clothes or bake a casserole (assuming electric appliances). You'll be fine. Build a rig to do a full power load test and test it a couple times a year. If you see any issues with wet stacking you can use your load bank to clear it up.

I have a MEP803 and its way overkill for my house. A 802 would have been enough. It even will run my 3t heatpump (no head strips enabled). I did build my house with energy efficiency in mind though. What I did to keep from running the MEP803 (and before that a MEP003) to lightly loaded was to add a MEP831 to the mix for when I don't need to run the heatpump. That little thing keeps the lights/TV running and will even start the 1hp well pump while sipping an average of 0.2gph. Only my Honda EU1000 burns less fuel than the MEP831. Both MEPs have the same connectors so if I need more power I just move the cable from one to the other and fire it up. Its overkill to put 50a outlet on a MEP831 but it keeps things simple from a connection standpoint.

For the future I'm going to add an inverter/solar/battery setup for high power short term demands. That will stretch the ability of the MEP831 a lot. I expect with that setup I won't have to fire up a MEP for an outage that lasts less than a day (assuming not running heatpump).

Our house is fairly energy efficient as well. We built it back in 2008 so if I can get the kids to turn off lights and take it easy on the TV we should be good. I'm also planning on a PV system sometime in the near future. At that point, I will probably only need the 803a in the summer when we want to run the AC as I've yet to see a PV system that can handle any decent sized AC unit.

Tom

 

[DieselAddict]

The inverters for the PV systems have no problem with AC units. Its the reserve power that will get you. What I'm planning to do is go with a LiFePo4 battery bank from a salvaged Chevy Volt. Those are more stable and less dangerous than standard LiPo batteries. They also allow for deeper discharges without significantly impacting cycle capacity.

I have a Xantrex 6048 inverter. It will run a 4T heapump without issue. The key is to disable your heat strips (I've put my heat strips on their own breaker). Putting enough PV on it will be the part that hurts your wallet. Fortunately the cost per watt for panels has come down dramatically over the last couple of years. I'm going to start with 4kw. Over time I plan to get up to 12kw and have at least 20kw of batteries in service.

 

[Guyfang]

I'm also planning on a PV system sometime in the near future. At that point, I will probably only need the 803a in the summer when we want to run the AC as I've yet to see a PV system that can handle any decent sized AC unit.
Tom[/QUOTE]

Then you haven't seen a PV setup for real. I install them here in germany, and we install "small" rigs that power house, barn, milking robot, feeding robot, cleaning robot, lights and farm equipment up the kazoo. That's why we love farmers, they have LOTS of roof to install on.

The middle sized rigs are for plastic extrusion factories, saw mills, furniture factories and the like.

The BIG sun parks are truly neat!

 

[tscott8201]

I'm and EE for a utility and we have a few small setups on our system, but not many people run a battery bank. Most use them to be "green" and offset their power bill. I feel like if you're going to spend the money on a PV system then you might as well add the batteries and make it available off grid as well. I've got 20 acres to work with so I may go with a ground mount array that will eventually be around 12kw. I've also got a 40x60 workshop I can mount on as well. It won't be anytime in the next year but hopefully not much further out than that. I'm hoping someone will make a breakthrough and really drive the cost per KW down but I'm not holding my breath.

Tom

 

[Triple Jim]

Accidental post.