mep-005a hertz/frequency

[shanekarl]

I finally have my mep-005a hooked to my house and have noticed some frequency swing with load.

When I fire the generator up I adjust the throttle until im running 60.5 hertz and its rock solid - I have checked it with a multimeter and the gauge is accurate.

What I have noticed is when something big kicks on in my house, AC hot water heater or a lot of little items, the generator loads down and the hertz drops to somewhere between 55-59. If I throttle up the generator I can bring the hertz back up but when that load kicks off it might jump up to 62-63 or higher.

I am not an electrician so im not sure how much this swing matters so I wanted to get some feed back and if it matters get some pointers of what I can do to stabilize it and keep it closer to 60.5.

Thanks,
Shane

 

[Scoobyshep]

This happens, its due to the increased magnetic fields dragging the engine down. In an ideal world frequency (in the states) is 60.0 hz. Utility can fluctuate slightly. This set does not have an automatic throttle to adjust. Frequency mostly impacts motors, specifically rpm (it also screws with things that use frequency as a clock source).

Short version, small discrepancy in frequency typically wont hurt things .



Me abusing my skills as a nerd built a controller for my 004 that measures frequency and adjusts a servo to regulate frequency.

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[Guyfang]

Like Scooby wrote, the slightly higher/lower Freq is not a big problem. I would, if I was to be in this situation, simply always set the gen set freq at 62, and leave it there.

Scooby made a controller. The Military made a MEP-104A. A precise Power gen set. Its simply a MEP-005A, with an electronic governor control. Loooooong ago, when all the 004A, 005A and 006A's were upgraded from electronic/hyd gov controller's, teams went around and did the upgrade. I helped do our gen sets in the Battalion. 60-70 gen sets, if I remember right. Took 3-4 hours to do one. Hardest part was drilling a hole in the bell housing and threading it. If you should ever see a -B model as a parts machine, might be worth looking at. At some point in time, all the White engines delivered to the military came with the proper hole drilled in the bell housing. So all you would need is the other parts. It was a stable platform when properly adjusted.

Edited. Changed the model numbers from 005B, to 005A. My mistake.

 

[shanekarl]

Like Scooby wrote, the slightly higher/lower Freq is not a big problem. I would, if I was to be in this situation, simply always set the gen set freq at 62, and leave it there.

Scooby made a controller. The Military made a MEP-104A. A precise Power gen set. Its simply a MEP-005A, with an electronic governor control. Loooooong ago, when all the 004B, 005B and 006B's were upgraded from electronic/hyd gov controller's, teams went around and did the upgrade. I helped do our gen sets in the Battalion. 60-70 gen sets, if I remember right. Took 3-4 hours to do one. Hardest part was drilling a hole in the bell housing and threading it. If you should ever see a -B model as a parts machine, might be worth looking at. At some point in time, all the White engines delivered to the military came with the proper hole drilled in the bell housing. So all you would need is the other parts. It was a stable platform when properly adjusted.

Guy What I just heard was find the parts - buy guy a plane ticket to Texas and have a lot of beer on hand!

 

[Guyfang]

My People come from Wills Point. Be glad to go fishing again!

 

[Scoobyshep]

Lol. If you are interested in doing some automation i can show some of my mad science.

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[shanekarl]

Lol. If you are interested in doing some automation i can show some of my mad science.

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I wanted to have a much more automated solution than I do but I ran into an issue with the power company to be "legal". And by leal I mean for them to sign off, nothing at all with code. I ordered a transfer switch but to install it the power company required I move my meeter to a meeter rack, and run new cable from the meeter to the transfer switch. They said this was required because of how close my AC would have been to where we could move the meeter on the house.

The power company wanted the meeter rack at the edge of the property 250ft from where the transfer switch was going to go on the side of the house. This mess was going to cost 10k. It would have been much cheaper to do it myself but they also required an electrician submit plans and do the work before they would disconnect the transformer... The seemed like overkill and I really didn't want to spend more on the install than the generator!

They let me go with a 125 amp breaker in my panel and a interlock switch so only the main or the 125 can be on at a time. It works just fine but no way to really automate much.

I would love to power up the generator and regulate the Hertz with out going outside in really bad weather so all I had to do was flip the interlock switch. It would be cool if they made some sort of remote panel but I have not seen that.

 

[Scoobyshep]

I wanted to have a much more automated solution than I do but I ran into an issue with the power company to be "legal". And by leal I mean for them to sign off, nothing at all with code. I ordered a transfer switch but to install it the power company required I move my meeter to a meeter rack, and run new cable from the meeter to the transfer switch. They said this was required because of how close my AC would have been to where we could move the meeter on the house.

The power company wanted the meeter rack at the edge of the property 250ft from where the transfer switch was going to go on the side of the house. This mess was going to cost 10k. It would have been much cheaper to do it myself but they also required an electrician submit plans and do the work before they would disconnect the transformer... The seemed like overkill and I really didn't want to spend more on the install than the generator!

They let me go with a 125 amp breaker in my panel and a interlock switch so only the main or the 125 can be on at a time. It works just fine but no way to really automate much.

I would love to power up the generator and regulate the Hertz with out going outside in really bad weather so all I had to do was flip the interlock switch. It would be cool if they made some sort of remote panel but I have not seen that.

I have a 004a and completely automated it along with an ats.

Since you need to go with an interlock kit you could still rig the generator to be a pushbutton start and self regulate the frequency.

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[shanekarl]

If I could get my generator to start with a flip switch or button I mount to the wall by the interlock that would be pretty nice. I saw a few people do something like that with https://greenmountaingenerators.com/product/mep004a-mep005a-mep006a-auto-remote-starter-kit/

I read the install manual and parts I understood and parts I did not but might be something to look into if it looks like I could install it or if there are other options. It did not look to control frequency but I could leave the throttle set where I want it for a simple solution

 

[flydude92]

Lol. If you are interested in doing some automation i can show some of my mad science.


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