Hi,

Today I tested out my newly installed Koleman Powermate
Industrial 5000 genset and newly installed Transfer Switch (and
found good advice on the groups here too).

Turns out to be a great match for emergency power. I was
impressed to find that my 1 HP submerged well pump pulls exatctly
750W according to the watt-meters g.

At any rate, based on my P3 Kill-a-watt:
-- Frequency is 60.3Hz constant. If it changes with motor
starts, the meter doesn't show it. The grid usually measures
between 59.9 and 60.0 Hz.

-- Output voltage a little high at no-load (just the P3 plugged
in); 129V each leg.
-- Under normal loads, about 1000 watts, the voltage is 128 V
+/- a tenth. A little high, but fine for emergency power.
-- Sort of maxing it, power off, water pressure dropped to run
pump, both furnaces turned up, and living room/kitches lites on,
computer room lites on and computer running, started everything
as I turned it all on as near simultaneous as my fingers would
allow.
Using a memory meter, the voltage dropped to 111.1 for about
half a second, then recovered and hung at 120.1 when the furnaces
and pump were all going at once.
-- The only "surprises" were the amount and length of starting
current times when the furnace fans kicked on - the draw lasted
over a second, maybe 1 1/2; didn't measure accurately.

In the end:
-- Guess it's pretty much OK for emergency power. Voltage's a
little high but is within grid specs, so I might toss an
indandescent or two during an outage.
-- Other than during starting currents, the genset never lugged
down audibly and did a very good job of holding its own.
-- Probably -could- run the whole house, for the ckts that are
powered anyway, all at once but then if the fans, pump, fridge,
feezer managed to kick on all at once I'd likely be out
resetting a breaker or two.
-- I thought about adjusting the voltage downard a few volts,
but, well, it's not out of spec, so ... motors will like it at
least, so don't think I will.
-- Well pump is the biggest hog: Went down and listened to it
start a couple of time on genset and grid power; couldn't tell
any difference, but then it's also a sumbergible so the sounds
are pretty soft anyway, but you can hear the pump work if it's
quiet.

I think I'm pretty happy with it. Anyone see any problems in the
numbers & comments I made?

Thanks again for the great posts - you know who you are and I
appreciate it.

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