ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Generator testing with bldg. load

Apparently nursing homes are required to test thier standby generators by transfering the building load to the generator. Has anyone seen any problems associated with this monthly switch throwing??
(e.g. voltage spikes or dips)

It is more than a dip, it is an interruption.

You will want to make sure any items like PCs are either off or on UPS.

I don't believe you will see see spikes or other issues as the switch won't transfer until the generator is running smoothly.

I am assuming a modern automatic transfer switch.

we have a gen. system in our fire station that we test monthly, we kick it over with everything on pc tv's what ever happens to be on at the time. Never had a problem in 11 years. let me tell ya you hate to be the guy to test it when that thing throws itself its loud.

[This message has been edited by NJ Wireman (edited 12-23-2004).]

I worked as maintenance supervisor for over a year at a nursing home and I never had any problems with our generator.

we were required to run ours once a week and throw or trip the switch once a month. I rigged a meter up to the panel that it feed to get voltage measurements.

all was fine til we had an ice storm and that poor thing ran for about 9 hours than finaly it gave the ghost. talking about a erious issue when it is 25 outside and your healthcare provider has no power or heat at all that was a long and intresting night to say the least

Many health care facilities specify a transfer switch that has the ability to sync and briefly parallel with the utility so there is no outage for the required testing.
Don