Is the MEP003A a good gen set to power a home? I know next to nothing about generators. Can someone point me to a better place to get more information on these gen sets and using a military gen set to power a home? After the back to back disasters here, I want to get a generator
It's only my humble opinion but, as an industrial electrician and the proud almost new owner of 2 MEP-003's (waiting on EUC). 10kw should be plenty to run the "average" household. Unless you happen to have an electric range and electric hot water (but maybe even with those things depending on circumstances). Cooking a meal on an electric range could easily use 5KW on it's own. Other than those two things, really the only things you'll have to worry about is the motor loads. But keep in mind that for the most part the only motors in most homes are going to be a fridge, freezer, furnace and possibly a well pump and of course the A/C. Obviously the A/C and furnace aren't going to run concurrently (other than the furnace blower, which in most cases is negligable). The odds of the fridge, freezer and well pump cycling on all at the same time is very remote. Fridge and freezer don't have a ton of draw to begin with, accept at inrush (start-up), and again the odds of starting at exactly the same time are slim. Well pumps can pull some pretty high current, but there again probably not going to start at the same time as other things. Now for the A/C, they will have a heavy draw and a high inrush at start-up, but the running load should easily be handled by a 10kw along with lights and probably the fridge or freezer already running. However, on the A/C that initial start-up current can be reduced significantly by the installation of a starting capacitor and potential relay (any GOOD reputable HVAC tech will call this a hard start kit). This can be placed on any A/C unit at any time during it's life, not just near the end to extend it's usefullness as some would have you believe. I installed one on my brand new geothermal 2 ton heat pump (for about $30 DIY) and dropped the inrush current from 75 amps down to about 44 amps.
With all of those loads in mind, I've read and heard that the surge rating on these gen-sets is quite high due the the under rating of the military units. I would guess the surge rating to be probably 200% or more of the rated current for these sets. I can hear some people saying right now, "But what about my air compressor and shop equipment?" I can't speak for everybody, but I don't do too much shop work when I'm on back-up power. You can easily and probably fairly cheaply have an electrician come in just to "amp grab" your main lines while you're turning on appliances and flushing the toilet (to bring on the pump) and tell you what you're current draw is. Then you can figure out exactly what you'll need for size, but I still think 10KW would run most households nicely.
I personally wouldn't run my home computers or sensitive electronics on a generator just because it's "dirty" power (even with a "UPS" because most "UPS's" arent nearly as good as people think, and sailsmen say they are). TV's and the such may be ok but I would run them through a surge suppressor strip (a good one).
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