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Thinking about our neighbor at the print shop...
They have a dispatch center here in the mechanical building. Every other week, promptly at 0800, their propane powered generator kicks off and runs at speed for a half hour. Unattended. Nobody walks out there and looks at it or opens the fence or anything else. It just fires up and runs. Same time on the alternating week, one of the mechanics (same one every time) comes out and checks the engine oil and radiator fluid level.
The switch gear is automated and there is a battery bank between the equipment and power.
It seems like a heck of a nice way to have power and know that they have a functional backup power source.
Having it checked every other week seems excessive, but it really depends on what the standby generator is classified as.
Generators in medical backup systems have a lot of specific requirements on how often they get checked, tested under load, etc. The ones I do for an Alzheimer's center and a rehab center do a standard weekly run of about 15 minutes, and every year they have to have someone with some type of certification do a 1.5 hour load test and sign off.
For non-medical generators, there really aren't any requirements, unless the fire marshall in that jurisdiction came up with them.
Most standby units I work on fire up every week for 12 minutes. Some are every other week, some once a month, depends on how the customer wanted them set up, but standard is once a week.
Once a year they are supposed to be checked out. Some customers are religious about this, and schedule it months in advance.
Others don't bother.
I've had generators that were installed (not by me, I just do repairs) and never touched until they failed. Current high score is 14 years old on the original battery, oil, filters, and no valve adjustment.
Many customers have no clue for anything to do with their equipment, and the fact that it's all automated is the only reason it actually works. Taking the human out of the equation is often a good thing, especially when the power goes out.
(I do Generac standby generators for a living in case you were wondering)