On Friday, December 12, 2014 2:12:39 AM UTC-5, Danny D. wrote:
The power went out today, as expected (it goes out in almost every good storm),
but, what was unexpected was that the Generac 8KW generator didn't kick in.
https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7488/1...ff47f371_b.jpg

I had to manually flip the power switch a few times, from auto to manual to off
and back (even though it was on auto all the time and the battery was charged
as evidenced by a 3.8VDC check on the side panel) and there is plenty of
propane in the 500 gallon propane tank. I flipped the breaker a few times.
I pulled the fuse and it looked good.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8679/1...86fb0b88_b.jpg

Everything looked ok electrically, and, after a few flips of the switch,
it turned on. Recently on its weekly charging cycle, it had been turning
off and on after only a few seconds, so, that's probably related.

While the Generac not starting is one problem, the other oddity was that,
once started, and seemingly running full force, the transfer switch(s)
inside the garage were clicking for about five or ten minutes and then
stopped clicking.
https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7505/1...1ae182de_b.jpg

I opened the panels, but by the time I opened them, the clicking had
stopped.
https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7508/1...a2d214de_b.jpg


What was going on with the power to the house while this clicking
was going on? Lights going on and off?





I took a video of the clicking, but I'm not sure where to upload
the movie (it's a 24MB MOV file from an iPad) if needed. Here is
a closeup of each panel - which seems to have a big solenoid inside:
Left: https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7522/1...0301e7ec_c.jpg
Right: https://c4.staticflickr.com/8/7525/1...e9eca41d_c.jpg

I'm guessing that the propane generator wasn't up to speed at first,
for whatever reason, and that the voltage wasn't as high as it needed
to keep the solenoids down, so, they were clicking?

It's possible it's RPM related. They have control electronics
that presumably look for certain conditions to be present, eg correct
voltage, before putting it online.



But I never heard
that clicking before, and, the lights were running as soon as the
generator kicked in.

Any debugging suggestions?

I guess that answers the question about the lights, sounds like
they were on the whole time.

Any possibility the utility power was intermittent, coming back
sporadically? If what you were hearing was the main power relay's
moving, I don't see how you could have clicking and uninterrupted
lights.

For what it's worth, I did some digging into about a 5 year old Generac
that I got for free, to try to resurrect it. The company that had
sold/installed it said it was shot and not worth fixing. This was
just used for house standby here where the power rarely goes out for
more than 15 mins. After I read the many
horror stories on reviews at Amazon, I concluded that I wouldn't buy
one, wouldn't rely on one, and that it wasn't worth putting the
money into the free one. At a minimum, the rotor was shot, possibly the
stator too. So, if I had one that's going, I'd put some money into it,
but before I put a lot into it, I'd go look at those reviews.