A Generac Ecogen 6kW in the Suburbs: A Look and Listen

[Trickle Charge]

I posted this vid for interest as I've been asked how loud the unit is.  Really it's a bit louder than a gas mower but not by much.  The camera is just a small Nikon S8000 and I didn't have to raise my voice while filming next to it.  Anyway, cheers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgji4MiZV6U

[laszlo]

You have a nice system there.   How many hours do you have on the Ecogen, and are you happy with it? About a decade ago I had a Generac geneator but it was pretty noisy and did not last long.

[Trickle Charge]

I've had the unit since last Oct, used as a backup to a small PV system that I put in to run a sub panel in case of a power outage.  Now I've expanded that system to the point that I'm going to pull the utility meter and go it alone so it hasn't had many hours of use and the real test will be this winter when there's less sun.


Cheers.

[Vic]

Hi TC

If there is any convenient way that you can put some hours under half-load or more,  it may serve you well.  A member on another Forum had this genset sieze up in less than 50 hours of use.  He reported that the warranty-replacement genset failed shortly after installation.

You may have seen these posts elsewhere.

If you can get some hours on yours before the warranty runs out,  it might be a good thing to try.  Just opinions,   Vic

[Trickle Charge]

Hi Vic,

We've had some terrible weather this last week or more and the Ecogen has been called upon 4 times now with a bulk charge load of 240VAC and 30 to 35 amps, running for almost two hours each time.  No issues so far. 

[Trickle Charge]

I've been running the Ecogen three days a week for 2 to 3.5 hours each time.  This goes through a bulk charge through to an absorb charge but only a few times have I seen a float charge.  I've had the odd "Check Battery" message from its  control panel and have had to put a tender on it when that happens but it's been weeks of use without issue. 

I like it!

[Halfcrazy]

I had heard rumors the idle draw on the ecogen was very high like 60-100 watts continuous?

Ryan

[Trickle Charge]

I doubt it's that high for a 2 line LCD display.  You might get a bump like that from the battery charger.  I'm not experiencing any measurable draw compared to the tender I had on there before and the battery is in better shape.

We stopped using the ecogen from the first week of March to the 21st of Oct when we got sopped in a fog bank for over a week.  Now though we'll generate 2 kWh from the PV system on a good day, but the houses uses 2.4-3.4 kWh/day so we're having to regularly supplement with the ecogen.  Now I've got 120V to the T1 terminal for the smart charger and it's been running well.