In this case it's more of a question of making sure you understand what you are getting into. It wasn't clear that you did. It's still not completely clear. You do wish to build this?
If so narrow it down a bit. There are a lot of answers to your general question of doing this. How do you wish to proceed? What mix of digital verses electromechanical infrastructure do you want to build for this? Do you wish to completely roll your own or is money no object and assembling this from commercially available stuff an option. The $10k another poster joked about is not totally outlandish if you wish to buy a complete or near complete solution.
It's not a task that is beyond some of the members of this group but even laying out a solution would probably require more time than anyone is going to provide for free. Best you should expect from here is some general suggestions on where to start looking. But there are a number of direction you could head and we'd need to get an idea of which way you want to go first.
Along those lines another aspect I'd give careful consideration to is pulling permits and having any inspection done, if they are required, as they are in most cases. I wouldn't want the house to burn down for whatever reason and then have the insurance company looking at a melted pile of relays and a homebrew controler, denying the claim because they claim it caused the fire and did not meet code.
That's a big generator. Big enough that you do not need to be concerned about the freezer and fridge. Both of those are a small fraction of the full capacity. Even a 4 or 5 kw generator is not going to care about either of those. Frankly your generator isn't going to care if the hw heater and the well pump are both on either but you did say you'd like to be able to use a smaller generator.
Since you also took the stove out of the equation now I'd say that you just have two major loads to deal with. And since you will always want water when you turn it on now all you really need to do is create a lockout for the hw heater. You could do that with a currrent detection device on the pump line and a large contactor in the power to the hw heater.
On your more complicated scenario the biggest problem I see is that you want to detect when things are turned on and then decide if you want to power them or not. Detecting when mechanically switched loads are turned on could be accomplished with some sort of signal injection that you would then detect on the other line. But that would not work on appliances that have electronic controls. Which is more and more common. Appliances that have electronic controls would need to be internally modified.
These days you can get thyristors big enough to handle just about any residential load. You can also get low voltage usb connected i/o devices that you could use as input/output. That's probably the direction I'd head.
Good luck with it. We'd love to hear some progress reports with pictures.
# # That's a big generator. Big enough that you do not need to be # concerned about the freezer and fridge. Both of those are a small # fraction of the full capacity. Even a 4 or 5 kw generator is not # going to care about either of those. Frankly your generator isn't # going to care if the hw heater and the well pump are both on either # but you did say you'd like to be able to use a smaller generator.
Completely agree But my ultimate intent is to set up the cabin with a smaller one that only works when needed possibly off a large propane tank, and move the big one to the city house and attach it to the natural gas line. City house has natural gas heat, hot water, & cooking stove. Also no water pump. Power needed for lights, air circulation and other devices. Again, this generator is overkill - But I'm $0 out of pocket with it. Might even trade down to a couple of 5-8kw generators that would be more suitable in size to my needs
So the real purpose of this exercise is to see a) if my idea is feasible b) cost-effective c) worth the effort.
Consider the idea of having a system where you throw 1 switch and tell your generator "go to it- do your thing - but don't run all day - or during the night".. At the cabin where life is supposed to be simple, a few steps are no big deal.
# # Since you also took the stove out of the equation now I'd say that you # just have two major loads to deal with. And since you will always # want water when you turn it on now all you really need to do is create # a lockout for the hw heater. You could do that with a currrent # detection device on the pump line and a large contactor in the power # to the hw heater. # # On your more complicated scenario the biggest problem I see is that # you want to detect when things are turned on and then decide if you # want to power them or not. Detecting when mechanically switched loads # are turned on could be accomplished with some sort of signal injection # that you would then detect on the other line. But that would not work # on appliances that have electronic controls. Which is more and more # common. Appliances that have electronic controls would need to be # internally modified. # # These days you can get thyristors big enough to handle just about any # residential load. You can also get low voltage usb connected i/o # devices that you could use as input/output. That's probably the # direction I'd head. # # Good luck with it. We'd love to hear some progress reports with # pictures.
From input gleaned, I'm thinking a small flow detector and or pressure detector on the water pipe to tell me of water use and remaining water pressure. Such already exists on well pump, So tapping into that circuit can solve that
Hot water heater is locked out, until water pump is done and no other device is on. Fridge and Freezer could be programmed to turn on x times a day to make sure they are cold enough. Setting up the generator to start on that schedule is no biggy
Electric stove use could require an on switch to generator before use and lock out other devices until done. And when done, the system could cycle through all the other devices to make sure they are nominal. Then the generator shuts off.
And to the poster who made the remark about using electricity to generate heat, I'm from Quebec originally, where Hydro was so plentiful and cheap that a great many houses were electric only. That thinking changed suddenly in the Ice Storm of 1998 (thankfully a few years AFTER I left Quebec
There was a question in the HepC support group. Can pets get hepatitis? One answer was yes. One answer was no. And one answer was.......not unless you are having rough sex with it.
These response reminded me about a recent bio of Charles Kettering in Investors Business Daily.
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Apparently he suffered from poor eyesight and considered it a good thing later in life. "Eventually, Kettering came to see his poor vision as an asset. It keeps me from reading all the theories that tell why things can't be done," he said. That attitude would help him when he developed the electric starter."
I wonder if that applies to the above opinions :-)
Thanks all for the input. Particularly from those who pointed to possible ways and means to address this little problem..
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