Worth the upgrade to MEP 003a from 002a?

[Spring1898]

Greetings all,
I have been working through the MEP002a generators I picked up a while back. I have been considering purchasing an MEP 003a, if one becomes available.
At the moment I think just about my entire house can run 5kw as most appliances are NG. If there are additional needs I do have smaller gas generators I can plug specific loads into.

Is there any downside to the MEP003a? If it was running at less than 1/2 load say around 3-4kw most of the time, would that be a problem with wet stacking?

Also does anyone have a fuel consumption/kw chart for the 002a and 003a?
I would assume the 003a would have slightly higher consumption at lower output since it moves more engine mass and has 2x the cylinders, but if it is significantly higher I probably wouldn't consider the project.

 

[brianrbull]

The MEP003a is Twice the Generator of the MEP002a in every way... uses a gallon an hour vs 1/2 Gallon an hour.

 

[Spring1898]

Right it uses 1.1gal/hr @ 10kw vs the 002a uses 0.57 @ 5kw.
So I guess my question is what does the 003a consume at 5kw and everything in between?

I thought there was a chart somewhere that gave estimates of fuel consumption per/kw but haven't found it.

 

[Guyfang]

There is no army chart that I know of. For sure, if you asked a CECOM LAR, (Communications Command Logistics Rep.) he or she can give you that info. But unless you know one real good, they will not help you. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo, maybe you need to set down and start your own chart. Times two should be about right for the MEP-003A.

Yeah, at less than 75% load, you will experience some wet stacking. But unless you intend to spend significant time on Tac Power, this is really not a problem. If you run the set at 75% load, for less than a 6-8 hundred hours a year, I would not even worry about loading the gen set up, for several years.

The difference between civilians and the military is that civilians NEVER run sets very long. Even if you have a power outage of several days, maybe a week, its just not a long time. I was in a unit that ran 24/7, 365 days a year. We had some wet stacking. But certainly not earth shattering. Once or twice a year, we ran 120% load, for 8 hours, and after the downwind area looked like a charcoal factory had blown up, we were good to go another 6-8 months.

If a MEP-002A will not pull the entire load, go to the MEP-003A. But try it out. You could hook up the house, fire the gen set up and take some measurements, or figure out what your house will total up to for a load, add some kentucky windage, and make your decision. But know, don't think, (assume) what your requirement would be. If your best guess is, say 95 percent of your rated output, I would go to a bigger gen set. Running too close to your rated load, can cause you to be standing there in the dark. All the sudden something unexpected comes up, gets turned on or one of your kids plugs in a 50,000,000 watt boom box, and your set kicks the load off. It would be nice if it could do selective load shedding, but that is beyond the 002A or 003 A's capabilities.

 

[DieselAddict]

I found out that a MEP003 was much too much for my all electric (except gas cooktop) house. When I tested everything out I found that I had to turn on the dryer, water heater, and oven at the same time to get the load up to 75%. A neighbor that owns a farm finally pestered me enough that I sold it to him. I hated on one hand to sell it because it was a pristine set but I know it will go to good use on the farm.

I can comfortably run my house (not including heating/cooling) on a MEP831. That one will even kick over the 1hp well pump. It won't run my water heater but I have solar for that. AND its ridiculously good on fuel.

With the advent of smart meters you may have access to more consumption data than you realize from your power company. It would be worth a try and see if they have some data to offer. If not see if you can get your hands on one of the data recorders you connect to your incoming power line. They have dropped in price. Down to a couple hundred bucks or less. Look at your usage. You can even "simulate" you are under generator power and live as minimally as you can. You may be surprised on how little electricity you consume (while still being comfortable) if you try.

As an overall recommendation (especially with a MEP) you should lean towards underbuy and not overbuy capacity wise.

If you already have a nice running 002a I would say to keep that thing and try to run it into the ground. Its not likely you'll succeed in residential service.

Sorry for the scatterbrained response. Trying to type and run.

 

[Recovry4x4]

My 2 cents would be to add a smaller inverter genset as a supplement. It's quiet and can run all night on a sip of gas. Good for fridges and such.

 

[Triple Jim]

Agreeing with all the above, I'd say that unless you occasionally find the 002A can't keep up with the demand, then don't get an 003A. An 003A at half load uses significantly more fuel than an 002A at full load. I find that my 003A still uses the better part of a gallon per hour, even if the load is only 25% of capacity.

 

[rustystud]

I also bought a MEP-003a for the house. We lose power several times a year for days at a time. The problem is with the whole house "on" we're only using about 6KW. That is running everything ! So when it came time to go to bed and everything was shut-down the generator was only at 5% load ! It wet-staked ! A lot ! I have since bought 2 MEP-002a's and one runs the house just fine. Though at night I'm still only using 20% load . So I bought a MEP-016D and opened up another can of worms ! I since have replaced the generating unit with a modern aftermarket unit and it now runs great ! Now when power goes out I start-up the MEP-002a and then when it's time to go to bed I switch over to the MEP-016D unit.

 

[Guyfang]

Rusty,

I would have saved the MEP-016D money for fuel, and then once a year load tested at 120% (on the MEP-002A) for a few hours to burn out the crud. You would have had some money left over for GOOD beer!

 

[Chainbreaker]

In addition to the -003a's added fuel consumption there's the added maintenance potential (2x injectors, 2x valve adjustment, 2x piston rings, etc.) plus added weight when it comes to transport/lifting aspects. Depending on your altitude, a good running -002a can run at 7kW to service intermittent peak loads just fine. Those are some of the factors that steered me to the -002a and I'm very happy with the results I have achieved with the -002a. Its a fine workhorse of a generator and pretty darn simple to maintain. During an extended power outage fuel burn rate becomes very pertinent. How much fuel can you safely store and maintain and how much do you want to pay after you've run for a week long+ power outage to refill those tanks?

 

[rustystud]

Rusty,

I would have saved the MEP-016D money for fuel, and then once a year load tested at 120% (on the MEP-002A) for a few hours to burn out the crud. You would have had some money left over for GOOD beer!

Yes I did pay a bit for that generator, but the Yanmar engine is such a fuel sipper that in the long run I came out OK. Especially if we ever experience an extended outage like we did 10 years ago.



Here's some pictures of my MEP-016F generator. I call it the "F" series since the gen-head is a modern brushless unit. Much smaller then the old MEP-016D had, but it actually puts out more power since the old MEP and it's 3 phase 6 wire configuration never allowed full 3KW in single phase.