Galvanized pipe is perfect approved for above ground piping. Underground the preferred choice is PE, or coated black schedule 40 steel pipe with cathodic protection installed. Go check every natural gas meter setup and you will see galvanized piping. (A retired natural gas corrosion specialist/ district engineer/ operations manager).
Natural Gas Generators
- Thread starter IReallyLikePizza2
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biggen
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- May 6, 2018
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Yup. I also have galvanized pipe outside on my generator. Paint will protect it from rust
Paint galvanized can prolong the life of the zinc coating, which by the way is a sacrificial metal that protects the underlying steel by generating a negative voltage (cathodic) to prevent corrosion.
biggen
Known around here
- May 6, 2018
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Zinc rich paint (cold galvanizing) sticks well, seems to last longer and blends over time. I'd use at least 93% zinc.
It works best directly on galvanized steel, then next on bare steel; can be applied over existing paint or coating if it is adhered well and shows no signs of peeling or flaking BUT not the best choice.
Inorganic zinc-rich paint seems more durable than organic in most applications. More here:
Coating Characteristics of Zinc-Rich Paint
Organic or inorganic zinc-rich paints are applied to a dry film thickness of 2.5 to 3.5 mils (64 to 90 µm). Adhesion bond strengths of zinc-rich paints…
Zinc-Rich Paint Coatings - Cold Galvanizing
Zinc-rich paint contains high levels of zinc dust or powder that works to combat corrosion. It is commonly referred to by the misnomer "cold galvanizing."
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You can spray it on paint, but you won't get any benefit from its protective zinc coating. The paint must be in contact with the steel to provide cathodic protection, otherwise you are wasting money.
Hey — curious how the Grasten quote ended up looking. Once you had the actual proposal, what part was hardest to judge: the generator size itself, what was included in the installation, or whether the total price was justified?
I am very happy with the work Grasten did. Price was in line with others in my area. I had already decided on the features and size needed. They did their calcs and said the size that I had asked about was good. We discussed the issue of having UPS's and how that can impact the size needed. I ended up seriously decreasing the amount of UPS capacity.
Everything was included in the installation. I did not have to do anything else. They did the digging, mounting, gas and electrical connections. They even swept up the sheetrock dust in the garage.
Air. Less hassle. Is this an all in cost? There is considerable electrical work to be done....
Less hassle may be very wrong. We had a 7 day outage in Beryl and my liquid cooled unit burned next to zero oil
My neighbors air cooled unit was almost off the dipstick. And the air will require oil changes more frequently DURING outages. IMO that is more work than changing coolant every 5 or so years (Which is not exactly hard anyway)
Also confirm the valves. Often the air cooled units won't have hydraulic lifters and will need valve adjustments (This may be less true nowadays), where the liquid will not
I'm biased because I have the 27kw liquid cooled, but if you're gonna do it, do it right IMO
My neighbors air cooled unit was almost off the dipstick. And the air will require oil changes more frequently DURING outages. IMO that is more work than changing coolant every 5 or so years (Which is not exactly hard anyway)
Also confirm the valves. Often the air cooled units won't have hydraulic lifters and will need valve adjustments (This may be less true nowadays), where the liquid will not
I'm biased because I have the 27kw liquid cooled, but if you're gonna do it, do it right IMO
Here in NW Indiana been running on a Generac NG generator since Tuesday. We just moved here from Illinois. I tuned it up this year and it is running OK.
Currently have no power (Nipsco) or internet (Xfinity). T-Mobile service just came back a couple of days ago.
We drove around and saw much damage in Illinois and Indiana. Mostly trees uprooted and falling on automobiles and houses.
Using T-Mobile / modem for internet right now. My kids are local and they switched over to Surf Internet (Fiber) and up and running right now.
I noticed though dirty power from it and not too happy. I disconnected all of the UPS's here cuz they kept tripping on.
Estimates for power on are next week TUE.
It seems that most folks in the neighborhood are using Generac.
What are recommendations to replace the 12 year old Generac?
Currently have no power (Nipsco) or internet (Xfinity). T-Mobile service just came back a couple of days ago.
We drove around and saw much damage in Illinois and Indiana. Mostly trees uprooted and falling on automobiles and houses.
Using T-Mobile / modem for internet right now. My kids are local and they switched over to Surf Internet (Fiber) and up and running right now.
I noticed though dirty power from it and not too happy. I disconnected all of the UPS's here cuz they kept tripping on.
Estimates for power on are next week TUE.
It seems that most folks in the neighborhood are using Generac.
What are recommendations to replace the 12 year old Generac?
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FWIW, my Kohler 26RCA is an air-cooled 999cc V-twin with hydraulic lifters that require no periodic adjustment.
I've had this whole house Kohler 26RCA with a 200A ATS for a year now, it has 36 hrs on it, I calculate that 17 of those are from a 20 minute exercise every Monday at 10:00AM under full load. The other 19 hours runtime I'd say are from 8 to 10 outages, the longest one being 8 hours.
I have absolutely NO regrets, it runs flawlessly, the phone app via its own cellular radio works great and provides instant notifications and convenient, immediate access to many of the user-programmable features (more available on the control panel under the genset's nice, sound-deadening cover).
I posted pictures of it here last year (link below) after the install. Regardless of which brand you go with I highly recommend the poured concrete pad; it's a lot quieter than the precast plastic and if done correctly, will outlast the precast as well.
My three APC #BE600M1 UPSes and my one APC #BX1350M UPS have no problems with the generator's output.
Your generator is not giving 'dirty power'. It is due to the UPS's on the generator causing issues with THD. I have the Kohler 26RCA and had quite a number of UPS's when I was shopping for the gen. The company that I went with recommended the Kohler 26RCA, but when he found out how many UPS we had, said I would need a bigger gen. I had 10 units with a capacity of 6150 watts. Their calc take the total wattage and multiply by 3, which would be 18.5 kW, and add that to your total needs.
I got rid of a bunch and downsized the rest as I only needed a minute or two of UPS as the gen started. I got the total down to 2250 wats over 6 units. That only added 6.8kW to my total and allowed me to stay with the 26RCA.
The reasoning behind this is how UPS draw current and the THD they induce impact the generator. See below:
Thank you @samplenhold.
Yes here have 5 Cyberpower 1500's running. They are off now. They worked fine between the power outage and the generator kicking on. It was a few hours later that they kept switching on to battery power and eventually depleting the batteries.
Doing an AI search see this:
CyberPower UPS systems may not work properly with a Generac generator due to the "dirty" power output from the generator, which can cause the UPS to switch to battery mode. To resolve this, you may need to adjust the sensitivity settings on your UPS.
Dirty power from a generator is primarily caused by high Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), which indicates that the output waveform deviates significantly from a pure sine wave. This can lead to inefficiencies and potential damage to sensitive electronic devices.
Yes here have 5 Cyberpower 1500's running. They are off now. They worked fine between the power outage and the generator kicking on. It was a few hours later that they kept switching on to battery power and eventually depleting the batteries.
Doing an AI search see this:
CyberPower UPS systems may not work properly with a Generac generator due to the "dirty" power output from the generator, which can cause the UPS to switch to battery mode. To resolve this, you may need to adjust the sensitivity settings on your UPS.
Dirty power from a generator is primarily caused by high Total Harmonic Distortion (THD), which indicates that the output waveform deviates significantly from a pure sine wave. This can lead to inefficiencies and potential damage to sensitive electronic devices.
If the generator does output "dirty power" (erratic electrical output with jagged/ non-sinusoidal wave forms) and adjusting the UPS' sensitivity settings does not fix the problem with it switching on and draining its battery/batteries, you may need a more expensive "online double-conversion" type UPS. That type continually converts incoming AC power into filtered DC power, then reconverts it back into a pure sine wave AC output.