Converting KW/hr to amps

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K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
Use the "Snip" tool, save it as a PNG or JPG to your computer, then upload it using the image feature:

View attachment 20503

If the snip is too small, use the "zoom" tool to enlarge the image on your screen and do the snip again.

View attachment 20504

Snip tool? What's that? I have Prt Scrn which puts the screen image on my clipboard. When I paste it to Word, it becomes a .doc file.
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Snip tool? What's that? I have Prt Scrn which puts the screen image on my clipboard. When I paste it to Word, it becomes a .doc file.
If running Windows I think it is already an included app with Windows 8 and higher. If you don't have it it is a free app in the app store. Allows you to capture a portion of or the entire screen and convert to an image file.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
If running Windows I think it is already an included app with Windows 8 and higher. If you don't have it it is a free app in the app store. Allows you to capture a portion of or the entire screen and convert to an image file.

I am using an old computer, pre Windows 8.

I know there is a way to do it on this machine, but IIRC, it's kind of a PITA.
 

Besoeker

Senior Member
Location
UK
That still doesn't show demand. The number of kWh used in an hour will not show a momentary spike in demand when (for example) a large motor starts up. For that you'd have to have data with much higher resolution.
What you really need is continuous current and load traces.
 

K8MHZ

Senior Member
Location
Michigan. It's a beautiful peninsula, I've looked
Occupation
Electrician
That still doesn't show demand. The number of kWh used in an hour will not show a momentary spike in demand when (for example) a large motor starts up. For that you'd have to have data with much higher resolution.

I totally agree. My peak showed about 700 watts for one hour. I know a 700 watt generator wouldn't start up my shallow well pump or my 10,000 btu air conditioner. I would even consider 7000 watts to be conservative for a whole house generator here.
 

Coppersmith

Senior Member
Location
Tampa, FL, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I thought I would give you guys an update on the generator situation. I suggested to the GC that we do a study to see how much power is actually being used and then add some for the new additions. Instead, GC decided to consult Kohler's website where they have a handy dandy generator sizing calculator. Based on that we are buying a 48Kw liquid-cooled beast. That's 200 amps on a 225 amp service. No doubt all power requirements will be covered in spades. No worries about the neighbors walking over with extension cords. I haven't heard what the total onsite propane capacity will be. I expect it to be huge as well.

It's going to be fun to wire. :)
 
I thought I would give you guys an update on the generator situation. I suggested to the GC that we do a study to see how much power is actually being used and then add some for the new additions. Instead, GC decided to consult Kohler's website where they have a handy dandy generator sizing calculator. Based on that we are buying a 48Kw liquid-cooled beast. That's 200 amps on a 225 amp service. No doubt all power requirements will be covered in spades. No worries about the neighbors walking over with extension cords. I haven't heard what the total onsite propane capacity will be. I expect it to be huge as well.

It's going to be fun to wire. :)

makes perfect sense to let the company selling the generator tell you how big a one you need :slaphead:
 

drktmplr12

Senior Member
Location
South Florida
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
Kohler: How big is the service?
Contractor: 200
Kohler: You need a 48kw
Contractor: But I haven't told you what's connected..
Kohler: Forty. Eight.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Kohler: How big is the service?
Contractor: 200
Kohler: You need a 48kw
Contractor: But I haven't told you what's connected..
Kohler: Forty. Eight.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
Continued:

Contractor: but Generac says we can use a 16 kW
Kohler: what are your loads?
 

Coppersmith

Senior Member
Location
Tampa, FL, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
I'm having a hard time getting any answers from the county planning people. Can anybody tell me what the usually setback from property lines for a generator is? How about height of the pad? The property is on a lake. It's in a 500 year flood zone. Does it need to be elevated for flooding purposes?
 

drktmplr12

Senior Member
Location
South Florida
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
I'm having a hard time getting any answers from the county planning people. Can anybody tell me what the usually setback from property lines for a generator is? How about height of the pad? The property is on a lake. It's in a 500 year flood zone. Does it need to be elevated for flooding purposes?

set backs are usually determined by the town/city. lots of local municipalities provide their rules/by-laws on municode. you can use the ctrl+f function of your web browser to search. might be worth checking there. :thumbsup:
 

Coppersmith

Senior Member
Location
Tampa, FL, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
set backs are usually determined by the town/city. lots of local municipalities provide their rules/by-laws on municode. you can use the ctrl+f function of your web browser to search. might be worth checking there. :thumbsup:

I finally got an answer today. I had to go down to the permit office (downtown, metered parking) and wait for a zoning person to talk to me. Apparently, they can ignore emailed requests for information. She showed where the regulations were and then interpreted them for me. It varies by town and zoning. In my case 15 feet from the side property lines, and 50 feet from the front and back property lines. Rules are the same for the buried propane tank(s).
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
I finally got an answer today. I had to go down to the permit office (downtown, metered parking) and wait for a zoning person to talk to me. Apparently, they can ignore emailed requests for information. She showed where the regulations were and then interpreted them for me. It varies by town and zoning. In my case 15 feet from the side property lines, and 50 feet from the front and back property lines. Rules are the same for the buried propane tank(s).
I think some places you basically can be same distance from back property line as the sides, and can be nearly right up to the line with some things.

Front is usually is 50 feet or so.
 

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
I finally got an answer today. I had to go down to the permit office (downtown, metered parking) and wait for a zoning person to talk to me. Apparently, they can ignore emailed requests for information. She showed where the regulations were and then interpreted them for me. It varies by town and zoning. In my case 15 feet from the side property lines, and 50 feet from the front and back property lines. Rules are the same for the buried propane tank(s).

Is there a max size for a tank, whether above ground or buried? If the property were large enough to accommodate a 10,000 gallon tank, someone is bound to express some concern. ;)
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
Is there a max size for a tank, whether above ground or buried? If the property were large enough to accommodate a 10,000 gallon tank, someone is bound to express some concern. ;)
Yes, often there is maximum size for such tanks, especially on residential property. Non residential - distance to other structures may a big factor but often is less restrictions on size otherwise.

We had a fire several years ago now at a tank at a plant in a City in this region not sure how big the tank was - probably bigger then 10,000 though. Fire was at a point in piping that was discharging gas for whatever reason - and it was right under one of the end caps of a horizontally placed tank.

This was a city of ~25000 people and they immediately started evacuating about 1/3 of the main portion of the city - just in case.

Was a really cold day on top of everything - they kept spraying water on the end of the tank just to keep it cooled, finally got a firefighter to crawl up to the tank and close a valve to end the main excitement of this incident.
 

Coppersmith

Senior Member
Location
Tampa, FL, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Is there a max size for a tank, whether above ground or buried? If the property were large enough to accommodate a 10,000 gallon tank, someone is bound to express some concern. ;)

Luckily for me, the propane tank is not in my scope of work. I would assume the gas contractor would know the rules for that and not install something that would fail inspection.
 
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