Trailer and Power Generator
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From: whit3rd on 24 Jun 2010 13:36 On Jun 24, 9:36 am, "amdx" <a...(a)knology.net> wrote: > Ya! The initial purpose is to keep 12 chest freezers running. Zowie! Think about getting a walk-in freezer, dude! Twelve chest freezers has a lot of surface area to insulate, one big unit would be lower maintenance and less power usage.
From: amdx on 24 Jun 2010 15:06 >> Ya! The initial purpose is to keep 12 chest freezers running. >Zowie! Think about getting a walk-in freezer, dude! Twelve >chest freezers has a lot of surface area to insulate, one big >unit would be lower maintenance and less power usage. Yes, but they also dry out the food quicker. Then fan blows cold dry air over the food whenever it runs. Maintenance on a chest freezer? About the time it goes bad it's time to get a new one. Also if the walkin goes bad, where do I put $20,000 worth of seafood, NOW! Plus it is over three tons, 65 lbs at a time. If one freezer goes bad, we always have one empty one to move product into. I have a 1 wire system that runs to my computer. Several time a day when I'm on the computer. I monitor the temperature of each freezer. Here's a screen shot; http://i395.photobucket.com/albums/pp37/Qmavam/LampomitarriScreenprintJPG.jpg I have 13 sensors, Three are in the empty freezer group. note they are red, meaning they are over temperature (-5F). In that EMPTY group I have one that senses outside air temperature (#10). The other group of freezers that has seafood in them, I call the FULL freezer group. If anything in the full freezer group turns red, I need to look at it. Mike PS. been at this 11 years, got it pretty well figured out, now the oil may put us out of business.
From: Neon John on 24 Jun 2010 16:17 On Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:36:43 -0700 (PDT), whit3rd <whit3rd(a)gmail.com> wrote: >On Jun 24, 9:36�am, "amdx" <a...(a)knology.net> wrote: > >> � Ya! The initial purpose is to keep 12 chest freezers running. > >Zowie! Think about getting a walk-in freezer, dude! Twelve >chest freezers has a lot of surface area to insulate, one big >unit would be lower maintenance and less power usage. Well, let's do a little math based on actual data. I've logged all the power consumptions of all the appliances in my house and in my restaurant. Initial cost. An 8' square walk-in costs about $5,000 installed. A large chest freezer is around $300 at Sam's Club. 12 freezers is $3600. The win on initial cost goes to the chest freezer. Capacity: No contest - 12 large chest freezers hold far more than a walk-in because, well, one must leave room to walk around in the walk-in. Operating cost. The large chest freezer that I have in my home consumes $4.41 a month in electricity. Multiply that by 12 and $52.92. My approx 10' X 6' walk-in freezer consumed $94.92/month measured during the summer months. Again, the win goes to the chest freezers. All measurements were done with calibrated revenue meters. http://www.neon-john.com/Misc/Energy_Audit.htm Reliability The walk-in has several single point failure vunerabilities. The condensing unit. The liquid solenoid valve. The defrost timer. The defrost heater. Etc. All failed during the 12 year life of that walk-in. Unfortunately the compressor failed during our vacation closing and all was lost. Insurance paid out about $8000 for that one. If a chest freezer fails, he might lose those contents but the other 11 are still running. Win goes to the chest freezers. The one major area where the walk-in wins is cool-down. The chest freezers are so economical to operate because their refrigeration systems are just barely large enough to keep already-cold contents cold. Cool-down is very slow. The walk-in, OTOH, with its 3HP compressor and high velocity evaporator fans would freeze a steam table pan of boiling hot stew in about an hour. So based on the numbers, the correct advice is "keep the chest freezers, dude!"
From: Leo Lichtman on 24 Jun 2010 16:22 "amdx" (clip) there is some thought about > getting a transfer switch installed, (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Before I installed a proper transfer switch, I used a kludge that worked well, and didn't cost much. I inserted a 4 connector twistlock connector pair into the line from my meter to the house. I then ran a line from my generator to the spot where this twistlock pair is located. The line from the generator was wired with a female connector that matches the male connector running to my house. In a power outage, I go out into the garage and unplug from the utility, and plug into my generator. This is simple, completely eliminates any possibility of hooking the generator to the incoming power line, and costs a lot less that a heavy double-throw switch.
From: Jim Wilkins on 24 Jun 2010 17:26
On Jun 24, 4:22 pm, "Leo Lichtman" <leo.licht...(a)att.net> wrote: > ... > Before I installed a proper transfer switch, I used a kludge that worked > well, and didn't cost much. I inserted a 4 connector twistlock connector > pair into the line from my meter to the house. ... I asked the electrical inspector about that, but with an RV type plug wired to only a single receptacle inside and no connection to the house wiring, and he threw a snit fit. Is that legal and if so how can I prove it? jsw |