I'm curious if you checked the frequency of the output? Which I assume is adjusted by engine speed, like on the puny generators the rest of us have. I wonder how the waveform looks and what the THD is on a generator like that? The first video of yours I ever saw you were also starting an engine, it was titled "Cold-starting my Peugeot 205 in -10 °C" and I've enjoyed every video since. It's hard to believe that was 10 years ago already!
Yeah, it's mechanically governed and spot on at 50 Hz. It was part of a maintained multi-generator system, so I expected nothing less. Stability and distortion should be very good, since these old units just use so much more copper in the windings than newer units. Its size, weight and where it came from also suggest that it's built more as a grid-forming generator than a backup unit, so performance was probably weighed fairly heavily when it was built. It will definitely get tested at some point.
Watching this makes me really appreciate what BMW engineers did with the i3 REx. The range extender in the i3 generates the same 25 kW (34 hp) as the diesel generators but only adds about 120 kg (265 lbs) to the car. Compare that to the maybe 400-700 kg (880-1,540 lbs) but it's also not built to survive the end of the world :P
Yeah, range extending engines are impressive in their own right, but I don't want to know what they'll look like after running continuously for over two straight years... Hehe. Also, it weighs 900 kg (or 7,5 BMW engines) ;)
@@FFcossag If you have a battery in the car you dont need any of the rotational inertia to handle current spikes, that probably helps a lot to lower the weight.
Just need to get a big lot of 500w halogens and have them wired up with an equal number on each phase to see how it does, but from the sound of it, it's case of Jenny don't care, she's got this... :P
Get some old 22kW tankless water heater, should get it for free or nearly free from a plumber. Makes a good test load, is small and as said, usually free.
