50KVA generator on a 4 cylinder Dorman diesel engine

[Mads Barnkob]

I came by a small emergency generator that has been in service and still is, for a atleast 50-60 years.

The generator itself is a Titan København 50 KVA 3 phase 380 VAC, 76 Ampere and the diesel engine is a British Dorman 4LBIII 4 cylinder engine, which was also used in large excavators at the time.

The control panel was upgraded once, from a purely mechanical control, to a phase lock controller, which is still pretty old by todays standards.

[rikkitikkitavi]

"came by" ?
Do you have government approval to bring that home?

Must feel great to be able to run your largest coil even in case of a TEOWIKI

https://rib.msb.se/filer/pdf/28706.pdf they forgot this chapter, I will remind them

I dont know corresponding document with DEMA...


Cool anyhow, those old diesel engines.

I know some farmers with cattle farms that have backup power to run the milking robots for the cows etc, light/heat for the pigs etc , sometimes stand alone units and sometimes something you can run of your tractor power take-off system. As we know in Sweden what happens when the wind starts blowing in the trees and snapping power cables...


I also like that frequency meter with vibrating forks for frequency control . I have had the pleasure of doint that with a 6MVA generator once to the existing grid as a summer worker (I was not alone, the original operators was present but they let me throw the switch. You have to get both phase and frequency correct. Damn I was nervous ...

Mod edit: fixed broken link to PDF (had a - appended to the end)

[Mads Barnkob]

"came by" ?
Do you have government approval to bring that home?

Yes, I came by it in my work, belongs to a customer. So it was just some pictures taken out of interest

I do however hope to get parts from a different decommissioned 400KVA generator set, at another non-related site, there will be a video on that if I succeed in getting access to it.

[johnf]

I  bought a bigger version from work a few years ago 150kVA 6 cylinder Dorman turbocharged
 [ Invalid Attachment ]
 [ Invalid Attachment ]  [ Invalid Attachment ]

[johnf]

[johnf]

I sold it a few years later as it was rotting away outside

[Experimentonomen]

It's not the same dorman as the cheapo shitty china replacement parts for cars, is it ?

[Mads Barnkob]

I sold it a few years later as it was rotting away outside

Did you ever have it up and running? 150kVA is about the size I would like to own, on a trailer, but it would have to be a more modern generator set to get down in size for being dragged by a normal car

It's not the same dorman as the cheapo shitty china replacement parts for cars, is it ?

I guess that the brand Dorman, which was once a British produced product, is today, as many other brands, just a shadow of itself and either has a complete different business case today or the brand was sold off to some large conglomerate to take advantage of a known brand name.

[klugesmith]

Didn't think it worth starting a new thread...

Today in California, hundreds of thousands of people are without electric grid power.
Shut down on purpose, for the first time at this scale, because the weather forecast says critical risk of wildfire starting.  High temperature, low humidity, and fierce winds in the wooded and brushy hills where power lines run.

Maybe P G & E company is pushing it more than necessary.  Public support for higher electricity rates could bring more money to maintain thousands of miles of HV wires in fire country.  Enough to buy plenty of rakes, as recommended by national president after the record-breaking fires of 2017 and 2018.

[DICKEYBIRD]

I came by a small emergency generator that has been in service and still is, for a atleast 50-60 years...

Related thread: https://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,12989.0.html

[johnf]

Yes my Dorman was 55 years old with 420 hours on thew clock
not quite broken in yet
sump heater and watere jacket heater to make starting easier with less wewar when going to full noise 10 seconds after start