TURTLE HUB ELECTRIC GRID TRAINING

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INTRO

• This is theory
• Practical training on-playa (Thursday of build week)
• Ask questions! No rush!
• Still confused? Write down slide #

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INTRO

• Wide range of experience, from actual electricians to complete newbies
• Mostly the goal is just to learn practical stuff
• How to connect, operate, and troubleshoot our grid
• There is very little actual physics and math here:
• Volts, Watts, and Amps
• Watts = Volts x Amps

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WHAT'S THIS?

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GENERATOR

• Closed frame
• 120V
• 2200 Watts
• (Available up to about 5000 watts)

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WHAT'S THIS?

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GENERATOR

• Open frame
• 120V
• 13,000 Watts

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FOOD FORT BACKUP

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WHAT'S THIS?

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GENERATOR

• Three Phase (we’ll get back to that…)
• 120 - 240 - 480 Volt
• 56,000 Watts
• (available up to about 500,000)

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What’s all this about Volts and Watts?

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WATTS VS VOLTS

• VOLTS is like water pressure.
• Standardized household: 120V
• All household devices in US use 120V
• They just “sip” or “gulp” depending on how much power they need
• Battery: 1.5V
• USB: 5.1V
• European house: 240V

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WATTS VS VOLTS

• WATTS: measures power.
• “Gallons per minute”
• Single LED: 0.02 watts
• Household light: 2 - 10 watts
• Refrigerator: ~300 watts
• One horse: 746 watts
• Window AC: 1000-1500
• Our sound system: 1000
• Hair dryer: 1500
• RV: 4000

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HOW MANY WATTS?

• Most things say on them!

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Add up all the watts that your things need to determine how big a generator you get!

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE?

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2awg�200 amps�$1500

6awg�50 amps�$500

12awg�15 amps�$50

16awg�10 amps�$20

WIRE GAUGE

• The thicker the wire, the more current it can carry (measured in amps)
• Thinness is measured in awg. The higher the thinner.

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SO WHAT ARE AMPS?

• AMPs = WATTs ÷ VOLTs
• WATTs = ?
• WATTs = AMPs x VOLTs
• Determines wire size. Thicker wire carries more amps.
• Household wiring, outlets, and breakers can handle 15 or 20 AMPS

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WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THESE?

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2awg�200 amps�$1500

6awg�50 amps�$500

12awg�15 amps�$50

16awg�10 amps�$20

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What does a BREAKER protect?

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A BREAKER protects WIRES

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A BREAKER protects downstream WIRES

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It keeps them from burning up from too many AMPS

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It does not care if someone is getting shocked.

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Unless that would draw too many amps.

More about safety coming up soon.

WHY ARE THERE FIVE WIRES COMING OUT OF THIS?

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HOUSEHOLD 120V AC

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• Copper = Ground
• Black = Hot
• White = Neutral

Hot is where the

electricity “comes from”.�Neutral is where it “goes back”

THREE PHASE POWER

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• Green = Ground
• Black, �Red, �and Blue = Hot
• White = Neutral

THREE PHASE POWER

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• Black + white = 120V
• Red + white = 120V
• Blue + white = 120 V
• Any two hots = 208 V

THREE TIMES THE FUN!

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DISTRIBUTION

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SPIDER

BOX

GENERATOR

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

DIST

PANEL

SPIDER

BOX

DIST

PANEL

DIST

PANEL

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

DISTRIBUTION

DISTRIBUTION

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GENERATOR

5 WIRE BANDED CABLE

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DISTRIBUTION PANEL

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DIST

PANEL

50 AMP CABLES

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4 CONDUCTORS

ONLY CARRY 2 of 3 LEGS

SPIDER BOX

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SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER

BOX

SPIDER BOX

WHAT KEEPS US SAFE?

• Breakers
• Protects the wires downstream from heat/fire
• Short Protection
• What is a short? Why are shorts so bad?
• Overload Protection
• GFCIs
• Measure return current. Not enough? Someone is being electrocuted
• Keeping shit out of water

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OH NO! SOME BREAKER FLIPPED!

• Instantly re-flips?
• Short!
• Reflips after a minute?
• Overload!
• Main breaker at the generator?
• Turn off ALL distros, flip generator on, then bring up one distro at a time.
• Breaker at a distro?
• Turn off all branches (power to spider boxes), flip distro on, then bring up one spider box at a time
• Breaker at a spider box?
• Turn off all breakers on the spider box, turn on spider box, then turn on breakers one at a time

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MYSTERY!

• Everything was running fine.
• We turn off the generator to check the oil.
• Ten minutes later, we turn it on again.
• The main breaker on the generator flips right off

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STARTUP POWER CAN BE MANY TIMES MORE THAN RUNNING POWER

(AC, PUMP, MOTOR, FRIDGE)

ANYTHING WITH A MOTOR

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COMMON PLAYA PROBLEMS

• Generator is not tuned to 120, or too much voltage drop at the ends of the network
• GFCI itself is faulty
• Overload because of heavy load (AC, heater, motor, stove, fridge)
• Sometimes this is a fan or motor clogged with playa dust

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MEASUREMENT AND TEST TOOLS

• outlet tester
• multimeter - for volts only

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MEASUREMENT AND TEST TOOLS

• clamp meter
• works on banded cables
• doesn't work on 50A or extension cords (why not)?
• but there is a tool to make it work on a regular outlet
• generator SOMETIMES has meters built in
• distribution panels SOMETIMES have meters built-in

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SAFETY

• Wear boots with rubber soles
• You may think you know the path of least resistance, but electricity always knows!

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SAFETY

• Don’t let your knees touch the ground

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SAFETY

• Use sockitboxes for all outdoor connections (plug into extension cord, power outlet, etc)

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SAFETY

• “Anti Murder Screwdriver”
• When you’ve got the generator turned off for maintenance, put a screwdriver through the lock latch of the control panel.
• If you see that screwdriver there, do not turn on the generator and murder your fellow electrician.

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ARCING

HIGH CURRENT -> ARC DANGER

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Don’t plug and unplug anything that is powered on

ESPECIALLY banded cable or 50 amp cables! Jeez!

SAFETY

• Flip breakers off before plugging or unplugging anything more than household current
• Low loads can be plugged and unplugged while hot
• Motors, ACs, etc may spark
• 50 amp / 200 amp plugs are not designed to be safe to plug and unplug while hot

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SAFETY

• Don’t be LoveBurn
• Don’t use household extension cords - only outdoor rated, 12awg or lower
• Don’t plug extension cords into extension cords (this is a camper problem usually)

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SAFETY

• Assume the ground is wet. Look at everything you see with that in mind

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SAFETY

• Don’t coil excess high amp cables
• That will make a magnet
• Make a figure 8 instead

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THREE PHASE LOAD BALANCING

• Each distribution box splits up 3 legs into 2 legs per 50A circuit
• Each spider box takes splits up 2 legs among all outlets
• Measure load on each phase (in amps)
• clamp meter
• Log that in a book
• Move load from highest leg to other legs until they are closer together
• usually by moving a spider box from one outlet on the distribution panel to another outlet

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THREE PHASE LOAD BALANCING (2/2)

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For convenience outlets, color lights above them indicate phase.

For 50amp outlets, each consecutive outlet uses different phases:

DAILY GENERATOR MAINTENANCE

• Morning and evening:
• Fuel level (turn off generator before running out of fuel!!!!)
• Load balancing
• Morning only:
• with generator off:
• oil check
• Coolant overflow tank, add water as needed
• Remove air filter, bang out dust, replace if it has been a dusty day
• Turn generator back on (ideally one distro at a time)
• Blow radiator out with leaf blower or air compressor

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"IT DOESN'T WORK" DIAGNOSES

• Is the generator on?
• Work your way back from the load
• Testing tools
• Multimeter
• Plug in diagnostic

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WHERE DOES DIESEL FUEL COME FROM

• BRC Petrol and other backup plans

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OUR RV AS EMERGENCY BACKUP

• Mainly for health and safety. We can run lighting and maybe audio if we have a party, but no ACs
• Might keep reefer running
• Has a single 50 amp outlet in one of the bays
• RV generator would have to be running

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FOOD FORT GENERATOR BACKUP

• This is the big open-frame generator that we use to run the walk in fridge from Reno to playa
• But we don’t have any way to add fuel

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ON PLAYA

• Build team
• In-person training and certification
• Guidelines to your campers about permitted / non-permitted use and what to expect from the power system

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