Wish I had a friend like you, we could nerd out and have a blast. Instead no one around me gets technology so I am a solo nerd. Love your videos. Impressive, fun, and I learn things.
Sometimes a contractor will “hang” when it is closed and take a few milliseconds to open when the coil is de-energized. This is probably what is happening when the generator overload trips when utility power is restored. The contractor for the generator briefly hangs when the contractor for utility power closes, causing a brief period when both contactors are closed. That causes a period of a few milliseconds when utility power feeds into your generator and causes a transient that trips the circuit breaker on the generator. The solution is to either use one contractor with double throw contacts, or use two contractors that have a mechanical interlock between each other. That way, it physically impossible for both sets of contacts to be closed at the same time.
Nice work! You've taken concepts we design into commercial/industrial buildings for emergency backup and scaled them down to fit into a residential setting - well done!
hi from the uk I love the set up I don’t do nothing with the fire alarms. I do with CCTV but I would like to get into the fire alarms As like a hobby I love your work keep doing what you doing
Love how its completely overkill. But if you learn stuff by doing it, it is completely justified. One thing that I noticed, is that the terminals of the contactors look pretty close to the lid of the box (might just be the camera lens distorting it). Maybe get a deeper box or try to insulate the lid somehow so it doesn't short out on accident.
Excellent work! This is something I wanted to do with my backup generator but just can't justify the cost. We don't get power outages often enough. But don't get me wrong... I'm really geeked out with your setup. Bravo! I can make a couple of suggestions, though. 1) Unless I'm missing something, an ATS should be a break-before-make switch design. If for some reason, contactor 1 gets stuck in the closed position (ie. due to arcing and had welded closed) and contactor 2 turns on, your generator will see utility power and... that's all she wrote. That's probably why you're seeing a glitch when utility comes back and the generator trip. I'd say, one contactor is closing while the other isn't opening quick enough. Pretty dangerous. And 2) I'd put a delay before switching back to utility power. Oftentimes in bad weather, utility power might flicker on and off so you don't want the ATS to switch back to utility power immediately, unless it's been stable for at least 30 seconds (or any arbitrary delay you deem necessary). Cheers!
Thank you. There is a 30 second delay before switching back I did explain that in my sequence explanation. The transfer switch also is mechanically interlocked so there is no way to have two contactors closed at the same time.
The overload trip on restore will be contactor laaging and the generator seing the grid connection momentarily. As its most likley out of phase its overloading. You need to hard interlock the contactors so its physically impossable for one to be energised while the other is.
It is though. it isn't just electrically interlocked but mechanically interlocked as well if it wasn't and there was a period of time where both sources were connected there would most likely be a big arc flash
Hey Nic, what would happen if you removed utility power from the building as soon as it switches back from generator? Would it just go back to generator or would the generator restart?
Utility power has to be back for about 20 seconds before switching back to it and then after those 20 seconds the generator still runs for another couple minutes before shutting down
Eh depends, some equipment doesn't turn off but some will it depends how long it takes after a power loss to fully shut down I wouldn't suggest it though as it could be harmful to it that's why it's best to have it on UPS
Do you happen to have a parts list of what you used for your setup? Just bought a 10kw firmam, has remote control to start. LL and I want an auto transfer setup here in Calgary, without spending thousands
@@nics-systems-electric yes I’ve watched them. Figured out some of the components used, might just get a proper transfer switch/panel to only energize essential circuits only. But I like what you’ve done!
happy to say ive ran my entire house on the generator now. i only have 100a from utility, 50a from generator, but worked like a dream!! maybe one day ill upgrade to an auto system like yours@@nics-systems-electric
Your generator overload problem may be caused by arcing on your contactor. I know your contactor uses a mechanical interlock from previous comments, maybe when the utility contactor is closed the generator contactor is still arcing. The solution is you can try using an electrical interlock using NC contacts on the contactor, it won't necessarily solve the problem but what's the harm in trying? The consequence will be an additional (several ms) delay when the contractor transfers, but it's better than risking damaging your generator.
i was looking at a house a few days ago and it looks like they used to have a fire sprinkler system but took off all the heads and plugged where all the heads would go. if they really didnt want it, couldn't they have just turned it off and drained it that way there isnt a bunch of holes in the ceiling?
the problem with that is people thinking that there is a fire system installed when in actuality it has been disabled. "well i saw the sprinkler heads so I ***assumed*** it was working"
@@neiltheplayer yeah, but still, going through the effort of removing and plugging EVERY head?!?!? they probably paid someone to do it. they could just tell the renters that move in "Hey, its disabled by the way." also, why would they disable it? where i live, home fire sprinklers = reduction in insurance cost!
Hey dude I've been watching your videos a lot since I'm getting into the commercial fire alarm community. But I can tell you one thing about that fire alarm that's not wanting to turn off at that Middle School believe me I have 3 family members who are firefighters so what I would do in case it doesn't reset but it keeps going off I would call either law enforcement or the fire department let them know hey you not send your guys over here because of the issue with the alarm. For example when I was in Port Charlotte Florida I heard a fire alarm go off when I have my driver side window down and it was a MRI building that went off and no one was there to reset it so my opinion is you can either call the sheriff or police or { Highway Patrol I highly doubt they will} but in that case I would rather call the non-emergency line for law enforcement or the fire department and explain to what's going on if some of the fire alarms at one of the schools are having issues
They were aware of the situation as they were already at the building earlier that day. the standard protocol here is to call the monitoring company and put the system on test/disregard however they failed to properly do that.
If you want that to happen you would like have to get like one of those 24 kW generac Home standby generators like I have. That just replaced one of my old 16 kW.
7:16 Maybe you should just get rid of that heat detector in the generator building. What is its purpose with a smoke detector right next to it. You would think that the smoke detector would have a much quicker reaction time and might even trigger before a fire really starts.
I get my stuff left over from jobs or electrical wholesaler there are also wire wholesalers that usually have cheaper costs but you have to get it in large quantities
@@nics-systems-electric apologies I saw it was open frame and from how loud it is assumed it was not an inverter generator. Your system is very impressive. Smart to have block heater and temperature control inside the enclosure so that you can have such a short delay transferring a full load to a generator that just started up.
Great video, Can we be friends? Because i really love your videos. I wonder how you get all of this. Anyway. I am Fire Alarm & Safety AU, i am new to this channel. Keep up with the good work. love it.
