Been getting signs that winter might be coming - down to 4.2° F at 5:57AM last Monday. So I decided it was time to get some sort of generator preheater set up. I was going to put a small 50 watt silicon pad heater on the engine block. But there's no real suitable place to put one. So I put a 75 watt heat lamp on it instead:
2 hours of preheat with that heat lamp and the cylinder and block are nice and warm. That Honda fires up just like summer at 10° F.
I don't need to keep the generator preheated 24 hours a day because the generator never, in the two years since we put in our new battery bank, has ever run after 8:00 at night until about 7:00 in the morning. The only time it will run that early in the morning is if we had a "bad" power day so the bank is hanging about 70% SOC at sundown the night before, and the wind is not blowing so the turbines don't hold the bank up during the night. We get up and make breakfast, which uses a lot of power (coffee maker, induction cooktop, toaster, etc..) That will make the generator start around 7:00 AM sometimes.
Our inverter has what is called "Quiet Time" in it for the generator. I programmed that so the generator will never try to start from 8:00 PM to 7:00 AM. Now I just needed a way to turn the heat lamp on automatically in cold weather. I need to keep the generator preheated all day when it's cold out because that's the peak times that we use it for Load Start. And I like automatic stuff so I don't have to baby sit this system all the time. I picked this thing up at Menards:
I set it to turn on the heat lamp at 5:00 AM (for two hours of preheat in the event the generator wants to start at 7:00 AM), and turn the lamp off at 7:00 PM. And it will only turn it on if the temp in the gen enclosure gets below 14 degrees F, and it will turn it off if the temp in there gets above 19 degrees F.
How's that for Wisconsin Northwoods Crude?
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Chris