The generator has been running for 3 days now, where it quit sans warning earlier today, where a check of the 12VDC car battery showed it was down to
6 volts, so, obviously, the charging circuit wasn't working (there's a lot of corrosion on the battery terminals, but it starts up the generator just fine when it's at 12VDC).
I know the battery was fully charged as PG&E had given us a day's notice, so I had charged it for that day until the power went out 3 days ago.
The 8KWH generator has been burning propane at about 50 gallons a day (near as I can tell from the gauge on the propane tank, which isn't all that easy to read accurately), and where I used a jumper cable from a nearby vehicle to debug that it was the battery and then, once debugged, I swapped in a second car battery to keep the electricity going today (and put the dead battery on a charger):
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Looking inside each of the two transfer panels, one for each half of the house, they seem to be listed as 100 Amp service each based on this wording on the outside of the Generac part number
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Where there are 4 fuses in each of those two panels, all of which are supposed to be the "uniquely sized" 600 Volt 2 Amp Buss SBS-2 fast acting fuses, where it currently has 4 and 5 amp Buss BBS-4 and Buss BBS-5 600 Volt fast acting fuses (which came with the transfer panel when I bought it) but where the 2AMP SBS-2 fuses have a similar (but not as bad) sourcing problem as does the circuit breaker.
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This is, I think, OEM but based only on Ebay listings, which may be wrong: o
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This is original that the electrician originally put in the transfer panel: o
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The house is 200 Amp service, where my understanding is that each half of the setup handles 100 Amps, but where I'm not sure why the original electrician put in 4amp and 5amp fuses when online, I see pictures of all sorts of sizes, but some of them are 2Amp fuses, so it's hard to tell what's the correct fuse amperage.
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I don't see anything else inside the transfer panel that is fused.
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Although the generator has the 35-amp circuit breaker & a fuse:
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Which is a typical 15-amp fuse shown in item #10 below:
You sir, are a veritable genius! Thank you for the purposefully helpful advice which you could only have found by extensive searches since nobody else knew of that but you!
UPDATE: o SUGGESTION: SAVE THIS POST (IT CONTAINS VALUABLE SOURCES!)
This thread contains a TESTED WORKING PROCESS for hard-to-find parts o At the best price & stock possible, in quantities of 1, for homeowners
Being a good Usenet citizen, not only do I put energy into providing tons of detail within the thread, but I always try to summarize the solution, so that others coming here, in the foreseeable future, benefit from our efforts), where this summary will reside in the permanent web-searchable archives:
This summary will reside in these permanent web-searchable archives: o
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And in these permanent web searchable Usenet archives: o
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The goal was to source "things like" the following part:
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o #5, Generac Part Number #74969, 35 Amp Circuit Breaker
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Home box stores were an instant fail, where those of you in the know would have known that before I even attempted Lowes, Ace, Home Depot, etc.
Also, the local electrical supply shops (roughly about dozen I called in the Silicon Valley), were (rather shockingly) completely clueless how to obtain the part in stock (that was, perhaps, my biggest shock). o AlexanderElec: 831-457-3911 (left message) o BayPower: 408-998-2980 (they don't stock, and can't order) o CupertinoElec: 408-808-8000 (don't deal with individuals) o Eckerman: 831-252-0987 (doesn't have any resource I don't have) o EdgesElec: 408-293-5818 (don't stock, don't order) o NicoElec: 408-446-4141 (left message) o Pfeiffer: 408-436-8523 (they don't do residential) o SprigElec: 408-298-3134 (transferred to sales, left message)
Generac doesn't normally recommend suppliers, but after three calls, I found one second-level tech who privately suggested these suppliers: o
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$ 92.45 (stock situation unknown) o
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$137.07 (stock situation unknown) o
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$233.45> (stock situation unknown)
Searching on the net by Generac part number isn't as useful as searching by the original part number, which, luckily, was still (barely) visible:
D -> labeling is ON/OFF in white, everything else black
1 -> 6-32 x 0.195 inches
C -> UL approved, CSA certified
o Amazon
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o FusesUnlimited
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o Walmart
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Carling, themselves part of a huge conglomerate, had a lost of a score or so of local "recommended distributors", again, only a very few of which had the part in stock who would sell in quantities of 1, but at a high price - but it turns out there's a better way (see trick later in this post) to bypass that score of parts distributor phone calls.
Carling AA2-B0-24-635-5D1-C 35-amp circuit breaker o Carling:
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Bridge: 408-335-6700 (you need to pick a person & leave a msg) o Avnet: 408-435-3500 (4-5 weeks lead time, $86.42) o Bates: 408-400-9586 (the number has been disconnected) o Digikey: 800-344-4539 (global sales only, min quantity is 20 parts) o Master: 408-970-8090 (not in stock locally, two weeks, $92.45) o Mouser: 817-804-3888 (not in stock, can send quote) o Newark: 800-463-9275 (not in stock, minimum order is 2) o Sager: 408-544-9500 (not in stock locally, can be ordered, $71.48) o TTI: 510-668-0830 (not in stock, can only order in bulk)
Thanks to the purposefully helpful suggestion by gfretwell, I called Grainger who put me in touch with technical support who told me that they definitely do not carry and cannot purchase the "right" circuit breaker, but that the 40-amp circuit breaker might work in a pinch.
The critical items, of course, are the type of rear connection, which is what's different in the two Grainger alternatives, but which isn't obvious in the Grainger photos because the photos don't show the all important rear of the circuit breaker (spade type tend to vibrate off in generator applications, I'm told, and anyway, it's an unnecessary retrofit).
The 40-amp Carling breaker that Grainger does carry, as gfretwell astutely noted though, is pretty damn close (far better than the SquareD Q0B235, which was also a purposefully helpful suggestion that was posed prior).
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Circuit Breaker, Magnetic Circuit Breaker Type, Toggle Switch Type, Number of Poles: 2 Grainger # 10C608 Mfr. Model # BA2-B0-34-640-521-C Catalog Page # 201 UNSPSC # 39121601
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Circuit Breaker, Magnetic Circuit Breaker Type, Toggle Switch Type, Number of Poles: 2 Grainger # 3XC74 Mfr. Model # CA2-BO-34-640-111-C Catalog Page # 201 UNSPSC # 39121602
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I had never called Grainger before (always assuming they're the most expensive), but, at $40 anyway, they are actually the cheapest, by far, but they too didn't have the right part.
In the end, the BEST solution (if we don't go with the alternatives), is this URL which was kindly supplied to be by one of the Carling distributors (who said it's what _he uses_ to source _his_ parts!):
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*That's a neat trick!* o *My advice is to _SAVE THAT URL_*!
(That one URL is better than almost everything attempted to date to obtain the part in stock at the best price possible today.)
BTW, Bob Engelhardt, who purposefully helpfully and very kindly suggested the SquareD Q0B235 was on to something when he noted that the original part clearly failed its 10,000 cycle promise, as that breaker couldn't possibly have had more than a few score cycles in its short lifetime, given that it's not a part you generally touch unless you're working on the generator and want to disconnect it from the house (where you're more likely to just pull the 15-amp generator fuse on the front panel to prevent a start):
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That 15-amp fuse is item #10 in this Generac exploded diagram):
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The part is on order, thanks to purposefully helpful folks on this repair-related group.
David Lesher snipped-for-privacy@panix.com wrote in news:qt8bel$6hi$ snipped-for-privacy@reader2.panix.com:
Could be a bad, overcharged battery with greyed out cells, which are failed cells.
One way to get better longevity and lower maintenance is to replace that lead pig with a LiFePo. Quite expensive, but you get what you pay for.
Like LED light bulbs, the cost is amortized over the savings in longevity, in personal time and reduced lead exposure to yourself and the environment (for the battery).
It is like OLED TVs. Better costs more. LiFePo batteries are not more expensive to manufacture, they are like Donald J. Trump, and his psychological manipulations. They saw a lightweight product that does the same as this nasty, old, acid filled shitbox, and they knew that a jacked up price point would be met by demand. He played on the stupid half of America and fooled them all, and even some of the smart side doesn't see his bullshit.
They will always be overpriced and their makers will enjoy a higher ROI as a result.
BUT that is what you 'want' or 'need' to be able to relax. Unlike America and Trump. We need never put a joker like that in power again. But I digress... again.
Also, the charging of said battery is a low current affair, so the device keeping it topped off is less of a tax on your generator system.
devnull snipped-for-privacy@void.nul wrote in news:3g7KF.86525$ snipped-for-privacy@fx24.iad:
Another retarded, lame f*ck sub 100 IQ crack.
That way you talk, I funded you for the 45 years I worked and paid in, you stupid putz.
No, that is the RETARD tea party or misled southern white retard republican horseshit they feed into each other down at the sports bar.
Don't see any democrats out spreading this kind of retarded divisive horseshit. Sadly half the country are sub 100 IQ idiots like you. The nation used to get along before you retarded twits going to his rallies got the hate drilled into you.
You dumbfucks have place the entire globe into the Twilight Zone.
Fox's Mercantile snipped-for-privacy@att.net wrote in news:qfKdndUxT- snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
Yeah, except the way you used it was the "Drinking the Kool-Aid" expression, even, as its roots have always been the stuff Jones handed out, despite the misnomer it got for decades. As if he drank it and survived, with degraded nueral effects. That didn't happen when he became a republican. I know many whom are OK. It happened when the idiot embraced the NYC criminal Doanld J. Trump. THAT was his tainted Kool-Aid. Him and 63 million other idiots. NONE of them did their due dilligence on the stupid bastard.
And the last nit would be that it is "Kool-Aid", unless, I suppose you were referencing the above mentioned expression, then phonetic is good enough.
Invest 2.9% of your paycheck into a decent S&P index fund and see how much you got at the end of 40 years. Anyone with a real job will have a pile of cash big enough to fund a private health insurance policy on just the interest alone and they'll likely have a pile of cash to leave their kids too.
A government run by democrats is *never* a good deal for a working taxpayer.
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