Major Power Outage Mep-002 Getting Workout

[Dewie38]

MEP8XX Series
3.9 Environmental requirements.
3.9.1 Starting and operating. The set shall start and operate under each and any
combination of the following operating conditions:
a. All possible relative humidities, with ambient temperatures ranging from -32 to
49 °C (-25 to 120 °F) at sea level; and from -32 to 35 °C at 1,219 m (-25 to 95 °F at
4,000 feet). The high temperature requirement remains at 35 °C (95 °F) at altitudes
above 1,219 m (4,000 feet).
b. Altitudes up to and including 2,438 m (8,000 feet). Rated load may be
reduced by 3.5 percent for each 305 m (1,000 feet) above 1,219 m (4,000 feet) (e.g.,
at 8,000 feet rated load may be reduced by 14 percent).
c. With 127 millimeters (mm) (5 inches) of rain per hour impinging on the set at
angles from the vertical up to 45 degrees.
d. With 355 British thermal units (BTUs) per square foot per hour of solar
radiation.
e. With sand and dust particle concentration of up to 1,400 milligrams per cubic
meter (mg/m³). Particle sizes shall range from less than 74 micrometers in diameter to
1,000 micrometers with the bulk of the particles ranging in size from 74 to 350
micrometers.
f. With a steady windspeed of 22 meters per second (m/s) (73 feet per second
[ft/s]) and gusts up to 29 m/s (95 ft/s) at a height of 3 m (10 feet) above ground level.
MIL-DTL-53133C
15
g. With accumulations of ice glaze, freezing rain and hoarfrost of up to 13 mm
(0.5 inch) and up to a specific gravity of 0.9.
h. In a salt fog or sea spray environment.
3.9.2 Storage. The set without packaging shall not be damaged (see 6.4.3.1) by
exposure to:
a. Storage at -51 to 71 °C (-60 to 160 °F).
b. Salt fog environment.
c. All possible relative humidities.

 

[Light in the Dark]

Still chugging or have services been restored? Got 8" of snow yesterday here, and its been raining all day at 48 right now. Going to drop to 9 tonight... hoping all that ice takes it easy on us.

 

[Guyfang]

I guess I'm just a worry wart. I could not sleep with generator running overnight thinking about possible "what if" scenarios. My biggest concern is a fuel leak springing up in the middle of the night and starting a fire. Then when some load kicks in (freezer, refrigerator, etc.) and I hear the pitch change in the exhaust note I would probably wonder what was that? lol When so dependent on genset power my mind tends to fixate on - How long will my 30 year old generator keep running before some sort of failure crops up? I guess that is why I have a spare backup unit (plus a few spare parts) in case one of the 2 that are needed to run our property fails.

I'm envious, it sounds like you have the perfect fuel set up!

This message sent while on MEP Power (day 3)

You will never guess how hard I laughed when I read your post! In the 70's, when I was in basic and improved HAWK, I was on 24/7 TAC power. Lived with the sounds of gen sets. I had 24 hour duty every second or third day. Seven gen sets, (at least) running 24/7. I would wake up, no matter where I was asleep on the TAC site, (missile site) no mater how much beer or mind altering recreational drugs I consumed. If a set burped, I sat up straight, eyes wide and listening for any other sounds. In the field, I slept on top of the middle gen set, (45 KW Stewart and Stevens) to be nearer to the action, and hear better what was going down. The most terrible sound I could imagine at that time, .................. was silence. With the sound of electric fuel pumps ticking and grinding away, when the fuel tanker we fed from, was empty! Silance. Nightmare. Yeah partner, I KNOW HOW YOU FEEL!

 

[jimbo913]

MEP8XX Series
3.9 Environmental requirements.
3.9.1 Starting and operating. The set shall start and operate under each and any
combination of the following operating conditions:
a. All possible relative humidities, with ambient temperatures ranging from -32 to
49 °C (-25 to 120 °F) at sea level; and from -32 to 35 °C at 1,219 m (-25 to 95 °F at
4,000 feet). The high temperature requirement remains at 35 °C (95 °F) at altitudes
above 1,219 m (4,000 feet).
b. Altitudes up to and including 2,438 m (8,000 feet). Rated load may be
reduced by 3.5 percent for each 305 m (1,000 feet) above 1,219 m (4,000 feet) (e.g.,
at 8,000 feet rated load may be reduced by 14 percent).
c. With 127 millimeters (mm) (5 inches) of rain per hour impinging on the set at
angles from the vertical up to 45 degrees.
d. With 355 British thermal units (BTUs) per square foot per hour of solar
radiation.
e. With sand and dust particle concentration of up to 1,400 milligrams per cubic
meter (mg/m³). Particle sizes shall range from less than 74 micrometers in diameter to
1,000 micrometers with the bulk of the particles ranging in size from 74 to 350
micrometers.
f. With a steady windspeed of 22 meters per second (m/s) (73 feet per second
[ft/s]) and gusts up to 29 m/s (95 ft/s) at a height of 3 m (10 feet) above ground level.
MIL-DTL-53133C
15
g. With accumulations of ice glaze, freezing rain and hoarfrost of up to 13 mm
(0.5 inch) and up to a specific gravity of 0.9.
h. In a salt fog or sea spray environment.
3.9.2 Storage. The set without packaging shall not be damaged (see 6.4.3.1) by
exposure to:
a. Storage at -51 to 71 °C (-60 to 160 °F).
b. Salt fog environment.
c. All possible relative humidities.

Much appreciated. I can stop worrying and thats an understatement. I doubt I will ever encounter 5" rain per hour, with .5" ice buildup, at 120f in the middle of a sandstorm.

 

[Chainbreaker]

Still chugging or have services been restored? Got 8" of snow yesterday here, and its been raining all day at 48 right now. Going to drop to 9 tonight... hoping all that ice takes it easy on us.

We are now into day 6 of our power outage and no progress on our downed power lines and broken pole. Our County power company is working it on a triage basis. They work their way out from established power and address restoring power to where it will give the best benefit. We are in an area that is not that densely populated so its gonna be a while. Local news said this is the worst ice storm to have hit the area in 50 years! The damage in some areas is unbelievable. Many people without generators (my neighbors included) have bailed out of their houses and checked into hotels. Hotels are offering distress rates.

Day 4: I hit my first "MEP malfunction crisis" on Friday afternoon. My #1 generator (house unit) had been running great for 3+ days. Due to everything going so smoothly I let my guard down and became complacent and was not using good power management practice.. Apparently due to a rare combination of things that kicked on simultaneously I think I bumped up against or past the 26 Amp rating per leg while running in 120/240 mode. I was upstairs using my PC at the time and heard its UPS sound an alarm saying there was an over voltage. I raced down the stairs to head outside to check the generator. As I was speeding through the kitchen I saw faint smoke and smell of burning electrical coming from under a kitchen cabinet. When I got to the generator, voltage on both digital meters was showing 166 VAC. I shut off the breaker and killed the generator. Raced back to Kitchen to open lower cupboard to investigate and discovered a small surge protector had blown with black soot on it. Then I inspected all the other power strip type surge protectors and it had taken 2 of those out.

Due to only having 2 hours of day light left and temperatures dropping fast and heading to 21F. I was in a heightened state to troubleshoot the problem. My first thought was it probably took out the Voltage regulator board (output transistor?). I happened to have a spare used control cabinet box of "unknown state" purchased off eBay. I never tested it but guy who sold it "said" it was all working when it was removed . I removed the voltage regulator board (no burned/scorched components that I noticed) and swapped it out with the one in my generator (no burned/scorched components on it either). Fired it back up and same issue with high voltage, wasted some daylight. So...maybe both boards are bad or something else failed on my #1 genset? No time to further troubleshoot being in an emergency power mode state. I then swapped out my # 2 unit (1991) that I had only ran a few times and never had connected to house. After reconfiguring it from ground rod configuration to house ground configuration and I got power restored to house and all was good!

Day 5: Started up #2 spare unit hooked to house and all is good. Went out hourly to visually check on things and found a neg battery lead was flailing in the air as the tab connecting to a battery disconnect switch had broken off. So I had to shut down power to house and make an on the fly repair. Fortunately I had a spare battery lead and swapped it out and all was good. I was worried that it might have taken out the DC voltage regulator but I caught it in time and batteries are charging OK. However, I don't like the way the prior owner had installed the cut-off switch on a 6" long tab bolted to side of fan shroud; it vibrates badly. Will change that out when out of crises power mode.

Day 6: Went out at 0700 to start up #2 house genset and noticed some fuel drips below last fuel filter canister. Wiped it up and started up genset and saw fuel dripping. Inspected it closely and noticed that the top brass air purge bolt was not fully tightened, I had never messed with it as unit had been serviced by prior owner and apparently was not tightened fully. I tightened it and no more leaks! Still running good.

Went down to horse barn to start #3 generator (it was 25F out) and it was again hard to start (batteries are new and fully charged). I think I may have a bad glow plug on one cylinder. After it starts on one cylinder 2nd cylinder finally fires off and unit runs smooth. Unfortunately, due to using the NF-2 enclosure its going to be a little challenging to work in a tight space to test and possibly pull the glow plug. So I will leave that to when our power crises is over and I can devote more time to it. Still have issue with having to exercise voltage reconfiguration switch to get power. Seems to be cold related. But I have a complete spare rebuilt voltage distribution box if worse comes to worse and it goes belly up.

Anyway this seems like its going to go on for a few more days and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can keep everything running while attending to everything else on the property (horse troughs with frozen water pipe faucets, etc). Regardless, I am so glad I had the 3 MEP gensets to work with and I have most of the critical spares to effect any necessary repairs.

 

[jimbo913]

Sounds like my pre-mep days, although last outage my 803 did fail to distribute power until I flipped the AC interrupt toggle several times. I was in panic mode and posted on SS and I was prompted to try the toggle a second time and it worked. I would have given up since I flipped the toggle several times prior to posting.

Like you, I am rural and at the very end of a line so always the last to get power back. Luckily we have not lost power more than a few hours since getting the MEP generator 1.5 years ago.

Good luck and pray it ends soon for you. I know it can be super stressful. Did you get more fuel?

 

[Chainbreaker]

Good luck and pray it ends soon for you. I know it can be super stressful. Did you get more fuel?

Yesterday, the phone co came out and marked where the underground phone lines are near the old power pole that went down. Today the rural power company came out and put their location markings on the pavement where the new pole will go. I guess those are bread crumbs so when the crew that removes the old pole is able to pass on the location to the "pole putter-upper crew". So I guess that's a slow double drip of progress. Yes, generator life (being your own grid) can be a bit stressful at times. The 2x generator routine of start, monitor, repair when necessary, shutdown, refuel only piles on to the "normal" daily tasks. Yes, I did manage to refuel and fuel situation is good!

 

[TucsonVTXF]

my remote fuel tank

 

[Triple Jim]

Chainbreaker, good going! It's good to hear that you've been able to solve everything that's been thrown at you.

As far as hearing the generators running at night, I'm in the same situation, listening for any little sign that something is wrong. My son likes the low frequency hum in the house, and finds it soothing, helping him sleep. I bet if I got him involved in generator maintenance and repair it might adversely affect his enjoyment of the sound.

 

[Chainbreaker]

Chainbreaker, good going! It's good to hear that you've been able to solve everything that's been thrown at you.

As far as hearing the generators running at night, I'm in the same situation, listening for any little sign that something is wrong. My son likes the low frequency hum in the house, and finds it soothing, helping him sleep. I bet if I got him involved in generator maintenance and repair it might adversely affect his enjoyment of the sound.

So far I'm holding my own thanks to all the knowledge I have gained over the last 3 years from all the good members here on SS sharing information & tips! According to late TV news tonight...we are 1 of 2,000 customers remaining without power. They say it may be days before they get everyone taken care of and we may get more ice or snow tonight/early morning and then rain with possible flooding in some areas due to melting ice. So...I am getting a bit nervous that my # 1 generator is down and I'm 100% dependent on my 2 remaining generators required to run our property. Therefore, I am going to order your Lakeland AC voltage regulator and install it and see if that might take care of my high voltage output issue in #1 generator. Regardless if that is the problem or not, you board seems more robust and I will know its a known good board.

Just sent a PM order your way.

 

[Guyfang]

Chainbreaker, you are all over it. Good job! Let me know when you start to sleep on top of your gen sets!!!!!!

 

[Chainbreaker]

Chainbreaker, you are all over it. Good job! Let me know when you start to sleep on top of your gen sets!!!!!!

Not much rest here for the weary. Put the generator to sleep at 23:30 last night and had to get up at 0500 this morning to start the generator. Wife is a nurse and gets up at 0515 so I had to have genset warmed up and going before she was up.

Now, if I were ever to sleep on top of my genset I could envision building a covered bunk rack up on top of the trailer bows. I can imagine that would be quite the interesting effect to sleep up there, ear plugs along with some good vibrations! I remember as a kid that whenever I would go on a road trip vacation with my parents we would stop at motels along the way. Some of them had vibrating beds that you had to put a quarter in and the bed would (in theory) vibrate you to sleep. Your vibrating bunk was free!

 

[TehTDK]

Genny's are great. Spent a week at a deployment site with a couple because we had no mains power available to power our gear

 

[Triple Jim]

Therefore, I am going to order your Lakeland AC voltage regulator and install it and see if that might take care of my high voltage output issue in #1 generator. Regardless if that is the problem or not, you board seems more robust and I will know its a known good board.

Just sent a PM order your way.

Luckily I had an assembled board on the shelf, so I mounted it and the hardware on a heatsink panel (mounting plate) and did a final test. It's now on the way to you and in theory will arrive Wednesday. Thanks for the order, and I hope it solves the overvoltage problem.

I'll be watching your posts for progress!

 

[dk8019]

I remember as a kid that whenever I would go on a road trip vacation with my parents we would stop at motels along the way. Some of them had vibrating beds that you had to put a quarter in and the bed would (in theory) vibrate you to sleep. Your vibrating bunk was free!

I don't think that was their intended purpose

 

[Chainbreaker]

I don't think that was their intended purpose

You know...I believed what my parents said about those quarter vibrating beds until I was old enough to discover other uses for vibrating beds!

 

[Chainbreaker]

We are now into our 6th day of our power outage that began on the 14th. As of noon today local news reported that the 3 utilities companies serving our area indicate that 7,329 here are still without of power here. The good news is my #2 generator is purring like a kitten but its owner is starting to get a bit weary of "2x generator sitting" between it and #3. I did manage to locate my drum/jerry can adaptor and I hooked it up to a full jerry can today to feed #2 generator. Lifting full Jerry cans up to the fuel tank on a trailer mounted genset gets old real fast. I didn't realize how spoiled I had become with my #1 generator (the unit that failed) with its aux tank mounted onboard. Today the genset had been running since 0515 (full tank) and finally got below the 1/4 full mark late afternoon . I kept going out to check on the fuel transfer and it was a needle width away from the "E" mark and I decided not to risk a fuel depravation shutdown and had to do a fuel stop at 1800. Not sure what kept the fuel transfer from happening. My aux fuel pump clicks like crazy when I prime unit in Aux/Prime. Apparently no fuel getting to it. So just another problem to chase down. Fortunately, I do have a NOS spare fuel tank switch/float assy as well as a new aux relay. So I'll be able to fix/adjust whatever it needs to function.

The good news today is that the Utility trucks rolled up and removed the downed pole and set a new one. I think they just have to splice and pull wires tomorrow and we should have power restored "hopefully" by tomorrow Tuesday afternoon. If so, that will make this a 7 day living off grid generator event. I certainly have learned a lot about "becoming one" with my generator family! Each unit has its own character and quirks at times...myself and my 3 triplet gensets are all bonded much closer together now...LOL Although, not sure I'm quite ready for a "GUYFANG genset sleep-over".

 

[Guyfang]

What you lack is 2-3 months times with your little babies. Then sleeping on them sounds reasonable!

Check the K-4 Aux fuel solenoid. It may not be opening.

 

[Chainbreaker]

What you lack is 2-3 months times with your little babies. Then sleeping on them sounds reasonable!

Check the K-4 Aux fuel solenoid. It may not be opening.

I see the K-4 solenoid on the schematic. It's the one that sits on top of the Aux pump, correct? If so, not sure how to test. Might gently tap on it to see if I can jar loose anything that might be sticking. I do have a new spare but will need to wait for shutdown to replace it if that is what's required.

I don't know if I will ever be ready to sleep on top of any of these rigs...but a hammock tied to a corner trailer bow and a nearby tree is a possibility. A beer in hand while resting in hammock listening to the generator drone (headset on) just might work!

 

[Guyfang]

Yep, on top of the Aux pump. They do stick, are prone to not work if the fuel is full of water and do not like crap, (trash in the fuel) being pumped through them. If its bad, this is the same solenoid that fits every gen set in the recorded history of man. And lots of other things. A new one is sure to be pricy, but someone here in the forum is bound to have one in a junker, or drawer.

There is a test procedure in the TM's. Or you can (later) put the start switch in AUX/RUN position, (but engine not running) and then unscrew the cannon plug to the solenoid. When taking it off and sticking it in a few times, you should be able to feel/hear it work. This often is all you need to get is free, but then you need to find out WHY it sticks. It you feel/hear nothing, it's probably bad, or full of crap. If you feel something, you do NOT trust it! It can make noise and thump, and still not open. Or it can have crap in it. If it sounds like it works, disconnect the output hose, (I screwed an old junk piece of hose on the fitting) and turn it on. Let the hose end into a bucket to observe the flow of fuel.