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MEP-005A Question

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CT-Mike

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Can this generator be wired to provide a single-phase output using low zigzag? Looking at possibly purchasing one to provide backup power to the house.

Thanks,

Mike
 
steelandcanvas

steelandcanvas

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CT-Mike said:
Can this generator be wired to provide a single-phase output using low zigzag? Looking at possibly purchasing one to provide backup power to the house.

Thanks,

Mike
Click to expand...
An 005A at 30KW is probably going to be too much generator for your house, 10KW (003A) is better suited for residential application. Just my 2cents.
 
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Isaac-1

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It can be done, someone either here or over on the smokstak board was talking about it a couple of months ago, (either MEP-004a or MEP-005a, they are close cousins) it seems someone in the Carolinas is rewiring them for single phase and selling them. I am not sure how much needs to be done to the instrumentation end, but it can be done. There was talk of posting the conversion instructions online, but I don't know if that was done.

Ike
 
Carl_in_NH

Carl_in_NH

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Do you need a genset that large for your application? There are two issues if it's significantly larger than you really need; it's water cooled, and will therefore likely suffer to some degree from wet stacking, and it's also going to really suck down the fuel - even lightly loaded. Wet-stacking aside, the rule of thumb is 1 gallon of diesel per hour per 10KW of genset; that means you're likely to see it sucking down almost 3 gallons per hour - loaded or not (rotating mass is what you're paying for in fuel costs - and bigger gensets have larger rotating mass).

Unless you're a really big user of electric power, you should look to a smaller genset to power your house. Larger isn't always better.
 
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Isaac-1

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I am not going to tell you that a 30 kw MEP-005a is too large for your house, but I will tell you that it is larger than is needed for the vast majority of houses. I have a 30KW diesel generator at my elderly mother's house and I feel it is the right size generator for the application. In this case we are talking about a 3500 sq ft. all electric house on a farm with a water well, electric appliances, electric resistive heating, etc. The 30KW unit allows for life as normal with minimal concerns for load management, all she has to remember to do is to only run 2 or the 3 central air heaters if it is a winter outage (which is not a big issue as the house has 2 fire places) when cooking or doing laundry. For summer outages it will run all 3 central air conditioners, supply power for all the stove burners and oven on at once, along with washing machine, dryer, and hot water running from all water heaters, and well pump running, plus normal amount of lights on. I consider this a near worst case which puts the draw at 29.5 kw (the generator is rated for 33kw single phase). Her situation is not typical though, as she lives in a large house on a farm and has a 1,500 gallon diesel tank in the shed a few hundred yards from the house (tank at the generator is 100 gal).

By comparison I have a 3 kw MEP-701a as my primary backup generator at my house (I also have a little 1,000 watt Honda), which will do all I really need, For summer (hurricane season) it will run a couple fo small window air condiitioners,, lights, refrigerator, freezer, as well as a few lights, tv, etc. It also has the advantage of only drinking about half a gallon per hour at full load, so the 55 gallon drum of diesel in my shed will fuel the generator for 5+ days. I have gas heat, and a gas stove, so in the winter all I need is power for the blower fans. These basics will do for a short outage, it would be nice to have enough extra to run the electric water heater, or do laundry, but not really needed. If I need to take a bath, I can always heat water on the gas stove and if I need to to Laundry the MEP-701a will run the washing machine, and should also manage the dryer on low heat with everything else turned off.

The big problem with houses is the load demand is highly variable, particularly if you don't want to do extreme manual load management, even out at my mother's house typical generator load on a nice spring afternoon is well under 3 kw.

Ike
 
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armyrino

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The answer is yes . The mel-004 and the 005 can be easily reconfigured on the voltage connection board for single phase operation. The instructions are posted on the board. You can also see the video by sewerzer on YouTube.
 
Guyfang

Guyfang

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INOVA says this will work it is a replacement for the T2 just wondering if it would work


You are posting the same problem in several threads. This is not in accordance with the forum rules. What you need to do is start a thread of your own.
 
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Ray70

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Back to CT-Mike's question.
Converting the 005 to single phase is pretty simple.
Only thing to look out for is that in Sewerzeuk's video, his buss bar was a separate piece on top of the connection plate.
On every machine I've converted the buss bar was riveted to the underside of the plate.
If yours is riveted underneath, use a dremel with a cut-off wheel to cut the buss bar and also to grind the head off the end rivet holding the cut piece from being removed.
Other than that the process is identical.
Make sure you do the full conversion so your gages work correctly, don't stop at just cutting the buss bar and adding the jumper cable.
 
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Ray70

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Matthew Verely is the right one. His Steel Soldiers name is Sewerzuk.
Make sure you read post #13 above and here is a list of the small wires you need to move under the AC connection board to get the gages to work correctly.
This is in addition to cutting the buss bar and adding the thick cable to make the AC conversion.

single phase gage conversion.JPG
 
Jimmie Morgan

Jimmie Morgan

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CT-Mike said:
Can this generator be wired to provide a single-phase output using low zigzag? Looking at possibly purchasing one to provide backup power to the house.

Thanks,

Mike
Click to expand...
OK That is the one I was using. Did not Know he had a ALIAS name. I have done the Change over on my 005A & it will not produce start up amps for my Air compressors. I had a video on here where I had my 10hp & 5 hp Air compressors running at the same time on 2 legs of 3 phase. I changed it over & TRIPPLE CHECKED EVERYTHING ON his video . It wll not run the 10 HP motor. It is like it is single phasing. Changed it back last night to 3 Phase & it is running everything in my truck shop . Pulling 61 amps on each of the 2 legs. This is just a Backup for the shop so I will not be using everything at once !!! Now to get the ADVR - 054 installed !!!
 
Guyfang

Guyfang

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re-wiring my MEP-004a for different voltages, including single phase

So…most of us with 3 phase MEP generator sets have wondered if it is possible to rewire the set for something other than 120/208 or 240/417v. Some have asked the question in the forum here and the consensus seems to be that it won’t work. I think it will. *I am using one of my MEP-004a’s for...
www.steelsoldiers.com
 
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