gang generators together?

[sdowney717]

I now have 2 generators.
one is generac 6500 watt 8125 surge
one is troy built, 8000 watt 13000 watt surge

can they be wired together to power loads such as the house?

 

[Tscott]

Not without the ability to sync both generators together. You can use them on separate circuits as long as they do not share a neutral. If you intend to use them together then the AC waveforms need to be synced up or you will have a voltage potential between the generators. If you tried it you would most likely just trip the integrated breakers on the generators, but you could destroy one or both of the generators if the breakers do not trip. Even if you could get it to run then whatever you plugged into it would receive 2 different waveforms of AC and would probably be damaged.

Tom

 

[mrb]

absolutely not. The only generators that can be paralleled are certain inverter types such as the honda, and larger commercial units with expensive paralleling gear.

You could use them for different loads. You could put a transfer switch on the house and use one generator for that, and put a seperate transfer switch on one large load like a well pump and use the second generator there.

 

[Joe92GT]

If you were successful in actually getting them together, you wouldn't have two wave forms. You'd have one generator pulling the other along.

Two things need to sync together, the frequency and the wave form. If the wave form matches and the frequency was off, it would theoretically pull the other generator up or down in frequency.

However if the wave form doesn't match up when you sync the two together, really really bad things start to happen. If your lucky the breakers on the generator will trip. If your un-lucky, the weaker generator will come to a dead stop in a fraction of a second. I've heard stories of 1 megawatt 12cylinder diesels weight probably 20k lbs ripping themselves out of floor mounts when connected to a load not synchronized.

In the industry we use synchro check relays, and or Generator controllers with the built in function to match up the generators, and then bring the other one into the "island". Its called paralleling. Paralleling to the utility is a whole other ball game, needing tons of safety's and checks.

 

[cowboyjosh]

Without the proper paralleling gear, it'll be bad news and a potentially dangerous situation.

 

[sdowney717]

Thanks, good information to know and makes sense.
so the inverter type Honda generators can be linked up?

 

[mrb]

Thanks, good information to know and makes sense.
so the inverter type Honda generators can be linked up?

there are ones that can be with a special paralleling cable. as far as I know, those have only a 120v output, not 120/240

 

[The Muffin Man]

there are ones that can be with a special paralleling cable. as far as I know, those have only a 120v output, not 120/240

Yamaha inverts also can run in parallel when you use their cable. They are also limited to 120v.