ApparatusTech
New member
- 3
- -1
- 1
- Location
- Southern California
Hi all,
A while back when I was considering purchasing the 803a I did a bunch of looking to see if it would start up a 5 ton ac unit. Saw a lot of 3 and 4 tons but no 5 tons. Here is my results.
When I first got this unit, I was skeptical if it would run the 5 ton ac unit. Lock rotor without the house fan factored in was about 176A. I tried it anyway....LOL.
The AC unit failed as expected. It is roughly 15 years old with virtually no maintenance just cleaning. To top it off, my wiring to the house from generator was sub par at best, maybe 8 gauge wire so i was expecting a fail just on that.
I started the trouble shooting sequence and replaced the cap unit and contactors. I also put in a hard start kit 5-2-1. That dropped the lock rotor to 123A running amps was about 19.2 amps per leg. I replaced the gen wiring with 4 gauge copper in conduit on a 60 A breaker, (too small?) and put the necessary interlock between the panel main and the generator so as wife cannot kill a lineman that is likely to be a friend of mine, I work at the utility.
I have run a few load tests, during my monthly maintenance and run everything in the house except the AC unit, yea, cold feet. With the PSPS (public safety power shutoffs) that are imminent in my area, a high fire area, I knew the time was at hand.
After the rebuild of the AC unit electronics and the new heavy gauge wire feeding the panel, I felt I had a good shot at the AC unit running. I warmed up the 803a until it was at full operating temp and added about a 20% load for 10 min. I shut all load off and turned on the AC breaker and the FAU breaker to run the fan inside the house. I positioned the wife at the Air conditioner control and told her to turn it on in 1 minute. I was at the generator waiting to dump the load if anything crazy happened. With a heavy belch of smoke the 803a shrugged off the load like it was no big deal. It was running about 45%. After a few minutes I added more load. The load gauge went to about 55% hmmm. I turned on the pool pump, 2 hp and another belch later it was running at about 75%.
The wife cooked dinner, we watched a movie on the 65 inch and i checked the gen set every 15 min. What a champ that machine is!!
I am very impressed and maybe next time, I will let the AC unit cycle. I just put it on 50* and let it run! I'm thinking it has more than enough juice to do the job!!
Thank you to everyone here, this is a great site
Happy camper now!
Pete
A while back when I was considering purchasing the 803a I did a bunch of looking to see if it would start up a 5 ton ac unit. Saw a lot of 3 and 4 tons but no 5 tons. Here is my results.
When I first got this unit, I was skeptical if it would run the 5 ton ac unit. Lock rotor without the house fan factored in was about 176A. I tried it anyway....LOL.
The AC unit failed as expected. It is roughly 15 years old with virtually no maintenance just cleaning. To top it off, my wiring to the house from generator was sub par at best, maybe 8 gauge wire so i was expecting a fail just on that.
I started the trouble shooting sequence and replaced the cap unit and contactors. I also put in a hard start kit 5-2-1. That dropped the lock rotor to 123A running amps was about 19.2 amps per leg. I replaced the gen wiring with 4 gauge copper in conduit on a 60 A breaker, (too small?) and put the necessary interlock between the panel main and the generator so as wife cannot kill a lineman that is likely to be a friend of mine, I work at the utility.
I have run a few load tests, during my monthly maintenance and run everything in the house except the AC unit, yea, cold feet. With the PSPS (public safety power shutoffs) that are imminent in my area, a high fire area, I knew the time was at hand.
After the rebuild of the AC unit electronics and the new heavy gauge wire feeding the panel, I felt I had a good shot at the AC unit running. I warmed up the 803a until it was at full operating temp and added about a 20% load for 10 min. I shut all load off and turned on the AC breaker and the FAU breaker to run the fan inside the house. I positioned the wife at the Air conditioner control and told her to turn it on in 1 minute. I was at the generator waiting to dump the load if anything crazy happened. With a heavy belch of smoke the 803a shrugged off the load like it was no big deal. It was running about 45%. After a few minutes I added more load. The load gauge went to about 55% hmmm. I turned on the pool pump, 2 hp and another belch later it was running at about 75%.
The wife cooked dinner, we watched a movie on the 65 inch and i checked the gen set every 15 min. What a champ that machine is!!
I am very impressed and maybe next time, I will let the AC unit cycle. I just put it on 50* and let it run! I'm thinking it has more than enough juice to do the job!!
Thank you to everyone here, this is a great site
Happy camper now!
Pete
