Another dry camping question/mystery!

[kingdaddy]

Originally Posted by Dam Worker

If your HW-50C is the same as mine and you have the remote that shows the voltage and amps according to their trouble shooting techs. You can just turn it off at the remote and presto you can run your inverter genset with out messing around with the modified neutral. At least on mine it works like a charm and as the tech. Said if it is an inverter type generator you shouldn’t have any worry with unusual voltage.

Tom Marty

Good point...but since the solution was so cheap and simple, I just bought a couple of these:
Of course, having the HW50C remain in service was what led to my questions on the readout discrepencies...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[DebNJim B]

The problem with these generators is the neutral is not bonded to ground so the EMS sees it as an open ground. Mine would power the system ok until I tried to run the microwave and put a good load on the system then the generator would kick off with an overload. Made a simple bonding plug and all works fine now. Just took a heavy duty plug I had on hand and jumped from the ground to neutral lugs.
http://noshockzone.org/generator-gro...utral-bonding/

[R.S.O'Donnell]

Originally Posted by kingdaddy

Although I doubt that is the source of the discrepancy, I guess it's possible...

I'm gonna put some load on it now that we're home and then compare the digital gauge readout with my clamp on ammeter and see how it compares.

Just seems like the load measured in amps should be very close when reading the gen. output on the digital gauge and when checking the load on the HW50C digital gauge...

When we first got to camp, I fired up the gen. and the HW50C was reading 23 amps on L2! Assuming the inverter was charging the batteries?
(That load did slowly diminish over time down as low as 8 or 9 amps.)

Then my wife turned on the microwave and it had something like 11 amps on L1. So I'm now concerned that we have 11+23=34 amps on it!

But the gen. gauge showed only something like 18 or 19 amps as I recall...
(I didn't carefully check the numbers so these are just from "memory")

Never tripped a breaker or caused any issues with the gen. just throttled up and handled the load like a champ! (never used the A/C).

We've got the same generator. Chose it because over the years we've lost count of the numbers of them we've see happily purring away in no hookup campgrounds. We run one AC and everything else with no issues whatsoever. Like you said "just throttles up and handles the load like a champ!".

[rohrmann]

I have a couple questions that haven't been asked yet. Who installed the EMS? And regardless of who did the install, have you checked that there is only one hotleg through each amp sensor coil? The reason I ask, is if there was also a neutral wire along with a hotleg through one of the coils, that may throw off your readings at the display.

[mlh]

Hook something up to your generator that uses a lot of powder say an electric heater and see how many amps you use then.
Lynwood

[kingdaddy]

Originally Posted by mlh

Hook something up to your generator that uses a lot of powder say an electric heater and see how many amps you use then.
Lynwood

Thanks, great suggestion and I did just that about 2 hours ago!

I took the wife's hair dryer (rated at 1,875 watts on high) and plugged it in.
Power is back on at home, so I unplugged the fridge and freezer.

The gen. digital readout showed right around 1,700 watts (about 14 amps).
So that is close enough for me to trust the numbers on the generator gauge again.

Apparently, the two appliances did not need the compressors to come on even after two hours of no power??
So the load I was seeing was simply the fans running which don't draw much power obviously.

Surprising, but that seems to be what was happening. I would have bet money that the load would have been much higher.
But, that's one of the reasons I don't gamble!

I just deleted my previous comment that I guess you read and replied to, since most of what I said became somewhat irrelevant after my load test and results!

Still no clear understanding of why my HW50C had completely different numbers than the gen. readout.
Talking to an engineer at Progressive Industries did not yield any useful information at all...

EDIT: I decided to try PI again and THIS time got someone who was willing to listen to my questions and then agreed with the idea that rohrmann (thanks Bob) suggested about miswiring the HW50C.
Possible that the tech who installed it miswired and although the unit still works (has protected my trailer several times from bad power sources) it is giving me bogus current (amp) reads.
This tech support guy did agree that the sum of L1 and L2 on the EMS remote display should agree very closely with the readout on the generator ammeter...which of course seems intuitive and makes sense!
Gonna dig into it and see how it looks compared to the install instructions. Stay tuned...

[mlh]

Do you like your 3500 Predator generator? I have a 2000 watt it seams like a very nice little generator. I also have a lot of Harbor Freight’s Icon tools. They are a real bargain.
Lynwood

[kingdaddy]

Yeah, maybe a notch or two below the Yamaha/Honda in quality in some areas...but for less than half the price, it gets the job done!
I do like the idea of some with dual fuel capability and it would have been nice to have a remote start/stop. Overall happy with it.

Ran everything we needed on a week long dry camp this past summer at 9,000 ft. elevation no problem.

[h2ojocky]

kingdaddy, I had the exact same thing happen to me. My PI showed higher values than the HF 3500.

[kingdaddy]

Originally Posted by h2ojocky

kingdaddy, I had the exact same thing happen to me. My PI showed higher values than the HF 3500.

FINALLY... someone else who experienced the same thing. I was beginning to think I was being "gaslighted" or something!

Did you ever figure out what was going on?

What are your thoughts about the possibility of the HW50C being wired wrong? By the way, on their website I found an excellent installation instruction with photos of the inside of the unit with how to wire it etc. Excellent!

[h2ojocky]

I never figured it out. I wired it myself so I know it was done correctly. I assumed the HW50 C was the accurate number but I never ran any test to confirm.

[kingdaddy]

Originally Posted by h2ojocky

I never figured it out. I wired it myself so I know it was done correctly. I assumed the HW50 C was the accurate number but I never ran any test to confirm.

Give PI tech support a call and ask to speak to Jason. He was very helpful and knows the HW50C product.
He was willing to send new parts if necessary to make it right if there was some kind of issue.
I verified the gen. output accuracy by putting a load with a known value on it. The gen. performed flawlessly both at the campground last summer and also in the last day or so here at home with the power outages.