AC soft start

[dmorris800]

Hi
Has anyone placed a soft start on their AC units? Trying to protect the generator from the hard start / inductive load of starting them.

thanks

 

[SKybolt]

Depending on the size of your generator and the number of AC units you have, the soft start is a good idea, but even more beneficial could be a staggered start.

 

[dmorris800]

Hi, 7 KW generator with 2 16k btu AC. I do stagger start or more common just run one of the units. Just curious if anyone else on the board has done this and if they have seen a benefit?
Thanks

 

[northern]

We have an 8KW generator and a watermaker. If anything is on when the watermaker starts they go off momentarily. I start it with all things off the system is fine after that.

 

[dtfeld]

Depending on the size of your generator and the number of AC units you have, the soft start is a good idea, but even more beneficial could be a staggered start.

And the staggered start is free.

Hi, 7 KW generator with 2 16k btu AC. I do stagger start or more common just run one of the units. Just curious if anyone else on the board has done this and if they have seen a benefit?
Thanks

Its easy to program in a start delay (if you can remember the 3 finger salute to get into the menu mode). I have mine set at like 5, 10, and 15 seconds. You really shouldn't need soft starts unless you are cruising to areas with bad or linmited AC shore power, or are trying to run on an inverter.

 

[dmorris800]

As always thanks for the advice, never knew the AC had that setting, was just doing it manually (ie give a minute between throwing the breakers)

 

[Bill Curtis]

Don't know if a soft start would work against any head pressure, unless the system has an unloader built into the HP gas circuit

 

[John E3]

In another thread I have regarding replacing a genset with a smaller 1800 rpm unit, soft start was suggested, and a search lead me here.
What exactly is "staggered start"? The obvious, to me, answer is to turn on things one by one, but there must be more to it, as you have no control over when AC units cycle, and an overlap could easily overload and stall the genset. I have a 16k unit that would be an ideal candidate for a soft start. The other 2 units are only 7k. The in rush current for the 16k unit could reach 50% of the genset capacity, 7kw.