3000W Chinese Gensets Info.
professor95 wrote: EDIT ADDED 45/5/2013- When this thread started in March of 2005, I never expected to see it survive this long or amass the quantity of information that has been shared here. In...
Forum Discussion
AVR & COOLING DUCT REDUX!
The computer server fans that "worked so well" to cool the alternator apparently had some sort of thermal shut-down and one fan (closest to the muffler exhaust) suffered a failure and I suspect a short. They were never intended to function in the environment I put them in ... "alternator hell":E
When I lost the cooling, I lost the AVR. You already know how DuroPower felt about that! HA! Randy happened to have a spare Champion AVR and sent that to me. (THANKS!) The Champion AVR is a much better part ... larger, ribbed surface area and metal rather than plastic case - all should contribute to cooling the AVR and heat-sinking it. Although the connector plugs were wired differently (and the DuroPower manual's schematic had no bearing with reality of wire colors, anyway!), the Prof suggested it would probably be harmless to connect it up and see if I got the correct voltage and NO SMOKE! I tried it and got 120v unloaded and 119v with the 15K BTU A/C connected!:C Here's a few pics:
DuroPower AVR:
Champion AVR mounted on alternator:
DuroPower AVR connector on top, Champion AVR connector below:
Once that checked out OK, I installed my latest cooling duct design. I went with a 124 cfm single 12v fan. I "think" this fan is "dumb" and does not have any thermal shutdown sensors to trigger an unexpected shutdown! I extended the duct to get the fan out from under the metal enclosure panel and also put some aluminum stick-on insulation (the kind used to protect floorboards from catalytic converter heat) along the side of the duct facing the exhaust. I also fab'd a rain hood for the fan that I will trim out with some vinyl edge trim later. A grill has been ordered to keep fingers out of the blades:
The exhaust is (unintentionally!) angled in the direction of the duct - I did this because it was cooking the bumper mount and had to take it in to a welding shop to get the exhaust pipe welded and that's what I got! It definitely was heating the duct, so in addition to the insulation, I happened to have a deflector (that I never use) that goes on the end of a heat gun. I clamped this to the tailpipe and now it deflects the exhaust away from the duct and disperses it - a definite improvement:
Here's what it looks like all buttoned up:
But this picture is the best ... that indicated temp is the cooling exhaust from the alternator after running the 15K BTU A/C for about 30 minutes: :C (pun intended!)
I also finished up my automatic transfer switch on my FW. I took a 30 amp cord, plugged one end into the genset and ran the cord under the FW to the compartment where all the power connections are. Connected the other end to an IOTA ITS-30R automatic transfer switch. The generator has priority over the shore line - if you start the generator, it waits about 20-30 seconds for it to stabilize and then transfers the genset's power to the FW and cuts out the shore line. Works great!
Regards,
John
The computer server fans that "worked so well" to cool the alternator apparently had some sort of thermal shut-down and one fan (closest to the muffler exhaust) suffered a failure and I suspect a short. They were never intended to function in the environment I put them in ... "alternator hell":E
When I lost the cooling, I lost the AVR. You already know how DuroPower felt about that! HA! Randy happened to have a spare Champion AVR and sent that to me. (THANKS!) The Champion AVR is a much better part ... larger, ribbed surface area and metal rather than plastic case - all should contribute to cooling the AVR and heat-sinking it. Although the connector plugs were wired differently (and the DuroPower manual's schematic had no bearing with reality of wire colors, anyway!), the Prof suggested it would probably be harmless to connect it up and see if I got the correct voltage and NO SMOKE! I tried it and got 120v unloaded and 119v with the 15K BTU A/C connected!:C Here's a few pics:
DuroPower AVR:
Champion AVR mounted on alternator:
DuroPower AVR connector on top, Champion AVR connector below:
Once that checked out OK, I installed my latest cooling duct design. I went with a 124 cfm single 12v fan. I "think" this fan is "dumb" and does not have any thermal shutdown sensors to trigger an unexpected shutdown! I extended the duct to get the fan out from under the metal enclosure panel and also put some aluminum stick-on insulation (the kind used to protect floorboards from catalytic converter heat) along the side of the duct facing the exhaust. I also fab'd a rain hood for the fan that I will trim out with some vinyl edge trim later. A grill has been ordered to keep fingers out of the blades:
The exhaust is (unintentionally!) angled in the direction of the duct - I did this because it was cooking the bumper mount and had to take it in to a welding shop to get the exhaust pipe welded and that's what I got! It definitely was heating the duct, so in addition to the insulation, I happened to have a deflector (that I never use) that goes on the end of a heat gun. I clamped this to the tailpipe and now it deflects the exhaust away from the duct and disperses it - a definite improvement:
Here's what it looks like all buttoned up:
But this picture is the best ... that indicated temp is the cooling exhaust from the alternator after running the 15K BTU A/C for about 30 minutes: :C (pun intended!)
I also finished up my automatic transfer switch on my FW. I took a 30 amp cord, plugged one end into the genset and ran the cord under the FW to the compartment where all the power connections are. Connected the other end to an IOTA ITS-30R automatic transfer switch. The generator has priority over the shore line - if you start the generator, it waits about 20-30 seconds for it to stabilize and then transfers the genset's power to the FW and cuts out the shore line. Works great!
Regards,
John
