American Standard 5 ton unit and Hardstart Device on generator

[jbgreig]

OK, I appreciate all the responses. So what I am seeing on my unit is a running capacitor, right? Does anyone have experience with a Kickstart brand hard start kit, specifically?

Will this ease the load on my generator in any way? Again, this generator will start the 5 ton AC, but it seems to struggle, as stated in the initial post. ANY help in starting the AC will be worth it. I would consider the generator I have as being barely able to start the AC. It just needs a little help.

I wish I would have bought a larger generator to power this, but at this point I have what I have and just would like to make the starting easier. Suggestions?

Here is a link to the specific product I am looking at. Is this all marketing BS?

Thanks again for all the responses!

Brad

[Geoman]

Brad, I personally do not like these units except for emergencies.

If it were my A/C, I would contact an hvac company that sold your brand and have them order the correct Start Capacitor with a bleed resistor on it and Start relay. Start capacitors are just that, they increase the capacity to start the compressor with much less stress. The electronic ones do work, but I feel that the OEM type relays and start capacitors are much better.

Not knowing about your system or your generator, I would look into the potential of your generator not producing the correct hertx or cycles per minute. If your generator boggs down I think (Jake and others should jump in here) your RPM may change/slow down and the hertz may also change.

60 Hertz is critical. I believe if your generator droops to 57 hertz or lower you can really cause problems. I suppose the newer generators will have electronic checks on them, but once again, others here should jump in who may know more about generators, I don't even own one myself.

Rich

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[ftwhd]

Your post seems to indicate otherwise.

[Noon-Air]

Jake, You'll have to ask the engineers that design them.... I get them like that out of the box.

[Robert Gammon]

And the KickStart devices quoted earlier are a combination of a capacitor and a relay. For a system that already has a start capacitor and relay, you only need to add a capacitor in parallel with the existing start capacitor.

Per the Kick Start web site, their product does power factor correction at startup (makes sense, big coil in the motor, inductive load, offset by large capacitor). They quote power factor at start of as low as 0.50 and with a Kick Start device, as high as .98

For a system that is running on a generator, 0.50 PF vs 0.96 PF is a BIG difference, and fixing this could make a BIG difference in BOTH generator operation (lights do not dim) and A/C start.

[aka-SBM]

Glad to see you still are obsessed with everyone....

[Murdentech]

It makes me nervous to run a/c on a generator unless it is a commercial facility installation that can run elevators and life safety equipment, backed up by some mechanical engineer's liability insurance and license.

Too much potential for equipment damage from low voltage, phase conditions, incorrect hertz, etc. Particularly with any electronic control circuits.

You'll be stressing the windings of the compressor and possibly frying those pesky *non-PCB* components... ;-)

[Geoman]

I mentioned on another post about the issue concerning hertz stability. That is one of my biggest concerns.

I agree with your post completely.

Rich