It’s not a bad idea on a trailer. Hummm I’m going to take a look at gov planet and eBay. How well do the m116 trailers hook up to an suv? That would be cool the more I think about it.
On the power side I’ve had concerns about “clean” power. That the whole reason I didn’t get a generac was because of the tv my server and range. i need a good clean 60hz the mep831 on an oscilloscope looks pretty good. And I took it under assumption that the larger units would produce the same kinda power. I know there not inverter units but should produce some clean power.
This form is great so many great ideas. So now I need a drive in bunker just for my gen set hahahahaha
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The 831 is an inverter type generator, so yes, it should have clean power.
All the larger generators (00X, 80X series) are mechanical governors. They have a lot of rotating mass, but a heavy load can still cause power fluctuations, just like any civilian generator.
I'm trying to say just because it's military, doesn't mean the power is going to be any better/worse than a good quality civilian generator. It's older tech, so in some instances it might be worse overall power quality.
These are designed to be prime power units, meaning they are expected to be run 24/7 for weeks or months on end. They'll last for many thousands (even tens of thousands) of hours.
So Generac has the largest share of the residential standby generator market.
I'm a Protector certified tech. Basically means residential and commercial warranty certified.
I have yet to hear a single customer mention any issues with any of their electronics while running on the generator.
It might not be perfectly squeaky clean power, but it's more than good enough for household electronics.
For over a decade now they've used electronic governors on their engines, so frequency stays right where it's supposed to be.
So I do have a few questions about your situation.
(some of this is just to clarify that we're talking about the same information and terminology)
How often does the power go out, and how long is a normal outage?
About how many hours a year do you estimate that you are without power?
That "12k full tilt" is a constant load, or is it things that cycle on and off like hot water, aircon, well pumps, etc.
What is the maximum possible load at one time for everything you might possibly have running?
How long of runtime do you plan to store fuel for? How much fuel storage capacity do you currently have?
Do you want this to be an automatic transfer operation or do you plan to do all your hookups and load balancing manually?
As others have pointed out, diesel engines like to be operated within a certain load range. Usually that's between about 60% to 90% of their rated load capacity. Too little load will cause wet stacking (unburned fuel oil as oily, fluffy carbon in the exhaust system) Propane generators don't have this issue, so you can run it at 1% load or 90% load and no worries about carbon buildup hurting performance.
Also it's been noted that you can't get single phase generators above 10kw. The 15k you still only get 10k usable for single phase application.
So while the 803 might be able to full load to 12kw, you don't have any leeway for surge loads like aircon compressors, well pumps, and other surges like that.
The majority of home standby generators fail due to age, not run hours. Very few of my customers (unless they are off-grid) run more than 50-100 hours a year where I'm at. I've only seen a few that failed due to run hours, but they also had many years on them as well. Even the ones being used off grid have lasted thousands of hours. At least one with their "990" engine was over 4500 hours when it got replaced, and that was for an electrical issue.
I understand the coolness factor and wanting a military generator. Heck, I have one (and 802 5kw) on a trailer that I use with my house when the power goes out, but I'm no aircon, wood heat, and only hot water, dryer, and stove for heavy loads when utility power is out, so it's pretty easy to balance.
It's certainly NOT the best generator to use as a home standby though.
That's probably enough info/opinions/questions for now. I'm more than happy to answer anything I can about Generacs as well if you want to know anything.
