What would you do? 5kw Gen w/ATS and as stubborn customer

[hurk27]

I had this very same set up problem, and found that if anything was on when the AC tried to start up, the inrush would stall the generator, so the only way the generator would run the AC would have to be with everything shut off till it started then some of the loads could be turned back on, a current transformer on the AC leads with dry contacts could do this but A&B stopped making them

 

[weressl]

Ok, we're moving a small 5kw gen and ATS for a lady who is moving. It used to be her mothers and she claims it ran the whole house.......haha. So we disconected it for her at her old house and moved to her new location. She had the A/C condenser, furnace blower, frig, and bathroom all on it...:roll: The husband said it never ran in the summer so the generator never experiencedthe A/C load. I told the customers that it is overloaded, and it wont caryy the load and that's that.

The customers wants it hooked up just the way I took it out.....I've tried putting my foot down and Im getting nowhere. So now the husband wants to be able to choose, if he wants the A/C, or the other loads mentioned in the case of loss of power, thus keeping it from overloading....I said "what are you going to do, if your not home?"

The previous electrician ran a 40amp 2 pole cir to the utility side of the ATS and the load panel had the breakers that I mentioned above, a 230, and three 120s. The A/C at the new location is only 2ton, but still we are overloaded....

Is it permissable by code to do this? It's protected and will kick a breaker. thus not hurting anything, but I think its crazy, and I dont want to do it.....I cant shut off or LOTO some breakers to unload it for the Home owners selection , as it has to be able to run everything on the utility side of the switch back through the load panel in normal operation.

Trying to make my customer happy, but loosing ground, I told them they need somewhere around a 14-15kw unit, but they want to use what they have obviously....

When they are not home the owen and burners are probably not on.
If the AC unit FLA - measured - exceeds the generator nameplate, then there is no further argument.
List all the loads and tell them which ones they want to be definetly on and ask them to shut everything else off when there is an outage. If the 'definetly' list exceeds the gen. FLA let them pick and choose until they do no exceed it or decide to get a larger unit.

 

[Mule]

When they are not home the owen and burners are probably not on.
If the AC unit FLA - measured - exceeds the generator nameplate, then there is no further argument.
List all the loads and tell them which ones they want to be definetly on and ask them to shut everything else off when there is an outage. If the 'definetly' list exceeds the gen. FLA let them pick and choose until they do no exceed it or decide to get a larger unit.

Hello, yes she finally agreed to drop the A/C which had a FLA of 17....we put the furnace motor on phase A and the frig, and a couple of ceiling lights on phase B, so its loaded to the gills. There was not a oven in the discussion. This lady, is really nice, but a worry wart, stubborn. Her husband won't stand up, but just rolls his eyes :smile: