Comparison What's best for standby power?

[farmer2009]

Thanks was wondering how affordable units like that were. What can you run for the 30 amps and 7 kW.

 

[Sparks45]

I'm probably confused, and you've figured it out but... 7,200 Watts @ 30 Amps means it's output voltage is 240 Volts. In your first post you say you need 120V for a stair climber and I'm guessing other things as well. Is your generator panel wired to send 120V into the house? Or are you taking power from a 120VAC generator tap? If so, then you'll only have 3,600 Watts available (30 Amps @ 120V).
Charlie

 

[arlen4720]

I'm probably confused, and you've figured it out but... 7,200 Watts @ 30 Amps means it's output voltage is 240 Volts. In your first post you say you need 120V for a stair climber and I'm guessing other things as well. Is your generator panel wired to send 120V into the house? Or are you taking power from a 120VAC generator tap? If so, then you'll only have 3,600 Watts available (30 Amps @ 120V).
Charlie

Usually (but not always) the generator windings are center tapped, and a neutral is run along with the 2 hots. So you can pull 2 3600 watt, 120 volt loads, or 1 7200 watt, 240 volt load.
You would run 4 wires to the house panel...2 hots, 1 neutral, and 1 ground.

 

[Rod in Forfar]

I'm probably confused, and you've figured it out but... 7,200 Watts @ 30 Amps means it's output voltage is 240 Volts. In your first post you say you need 120V for a stair climber and I'm guessing other things as well. Is your generator panel wired to send 120V into the house? Or are you taking power from a 120VAC generator tap? If so, then you'll only have 3,600 Watts available (30 Amps @ 120V).
Charlie

It's a four-wire feed with 30 amps on each of the 120 circuits. It has a white wire to serve as the neutral for the 120 circuits, and a green ground wire. The generator panel is set up just like the breaker panels in the house, only smaller, so I have both 120 (2 banks) or I can combine them and have 240 volts for the water pump or any other 240 volt appliance which doesn't overload the system. Water heater's too much load, I fear.

Maybe I should put in a propane water heater.

 

[jenkinsph]

You can use a dual element 4500w water heater but that is inefficient imo. Understand that only one element is run at a time, so your load is figured with 4500 watts which is within your limits. Whether you can run the W/H and the well pump at the same time is doubtful if it is a deep well. Still you could heat up the water first then shut it off and get a shower or two

Having a gas range, water heater, clothes dryer and the oil fired furnace would really lighten the load on the genset and increase the comfort level.

 

[CRE1992]

If your looking for standby power look for a generator that is water cooled and runs at 1800 rpm. I have 3 kohler generators rated at 7.5kw which are 4 cylinder water cooled units that run at 1800 rpm. They have power factor of 1 meaning they can sustain 7500 watts indefinitely. I bought all of the units I have for $400 each. They do not use much fuel about a gallon an hour at a high to moderate load and are very reliable. It also has the ability to use propane/natural gas/ or gasoline to run on if you have a regulator. My other identical set has a regulator and I am setting it up to run solely on nat gas. Plus they are all very quiet. The cart is from tractor supply and is not really up to handling the load as the generator weighs around 500lbs.