Generator question....portable

You are right the govenor wont keep a steady rpm when loading and
unloading he is going to have big swings that can damage things, cheap
gens often go from 125 to 100 under full load, my generac keeps it
near to 2 v with electronics and Honda EUs do maybe 1v

Posted by cshenk on March 31, 2008, 11:11 am

"ransley" wrote

>Something else to consider, is how you balance the load so you dont

>burn our the unit, its two legs make 220, using only one is not

>correct, thats where a transfer panel makes it work safely.

Interesting! I wouldnt have thought of that aspect. Still havent got one
and our circumstances are not the same (no intent to hook it to the house
wiring for example) but I'd assume that above would still be applicable.

I was looking at one with 3 'outlets' but some are smaller and have 2.
Could be I'd do better with one that has only 2? We've gone a few times
without power for a few days in hurricane season (happens about every other
year). So far, never lost the freezer load. We keep it's empty spaces
filled with frozen water bottles (at least, we do that when a storm
approaches). If you dont open it much, it stays frozen for 3 days easy.
The one time we needed longer, Ice bags did the trick.

Posted by Eric on March 30, 2008, 2:11 pm

Rich wrote:

> I'm in the market for a portable generator and just need it to run the

> fridge the furnace and just small things after that. I went on a few web

> sites and they seem to be geared to running your whole house instead of just

> a few things to get past the storm or what ever. I live SW of Chicago and

> the longest I've been without power was 3 days when a tornado came through.

> I would like to buy one that would get me by for a day or two at the most

> and only run the basics. What I'm having trouble with is sizing the unit to

> my needs. Sump pump, furnace, fridge and some lighting but I have all

> compact fluorescents.

> Thanks for any advice, especially from someone that has this basic setup,

> Rich

I've got an 11 HP McCulloch 5100 Watt from Wallmart (FG5700AK), runs my
fridge, freezer, gas furnace, most of my lights are on it(CFL's throughout
the house), with plenty of power to spare. Bought it for less than $500. I
installed a transfer panel kit from Home Depot which ran me $200.
This thing starts 1st time every time. The Transfer panel had a defective
breaker which tripped well below its rating and wouldnt ever reset. I called
the mfgr, Connecticut Electric (which is not in Connecticut BTW, its just down
the road in Puyallup WA - go figure...) and they sent me a replacement
breaker free of charge. Very nice outfit to talk to on the phone.
Back to the generator: I also bought 2 1500 watt electric heaters ($15 each)
Each heater has 3 power settings and at the hi setting actually draws a little
over 1600 watts. Once a month (or sometimes 2 months) I wheel the generator
out of the garage and fire it up for 30 minutes, the 2 heaters provide a good
exercise load. Also, I have Stabil in the gasoline (I only use Top Tier gas),
the oil is Mobil 1 and I always run the carb dry after using or testing it.
Next time, when you turn the fuel back on, you have to wait about 30 seconds
before trying to start it, pull out the choke, 1 or 2 easy pulls and Bang!
off we go. Oh, one more thing, beware of the microwave, they draw a hell of a
lot more on start up than they run at, kinda like a motor. Mines not on the
transfer switch. We get frequent power outages here in winter, I have 2 dozen
D-cells for my flashlights (florescent lanterns), a coleman stove and a
couple small screw on bottles of propane for it, plus the bbq tank is full if
i need it. Gasoline is a problem in extended outages so I've learned to head
into town early in an outage and if the town is still lit, i can get gas till
it runs out due to high demand after about 2 days. I'd prefer to have a NG
fired generator (unlimited fuel supply due to my NG supplied by pipeline),
but i have what i have and adding a tap to the NG line after the meter is
going to be tricky due to short exposed pipe and I sure as hell aint gonna do
it myself on something like that, we leave that one to the pro's) plus I'd
have to install a conversion kit on the generator. So, the generator is full
all the time, and i have a 5 gallon can besides and a siphon hose in my
emergency box for getting gas out of my car - close enough.
It took me 2 separate week long outages in winter (here its typically
30's/40's and rain in winter)to smart'n up and get prepared, now I'm ready
and the last big outage went smoothly, furnace running, fridge cold, coleman
stove running - we (My wife and daughter and me) had it good, our neighbors
were looking for hotels (with genny's) up to 50 miles away and STILL had
problems finding one.
Eric

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