Portable Generator

[Larry Caldwell]

Electric hot water heater is a real killer and will pull 4.5KW all by itself.

That depends on the water heater. Mine is a 3600 watt water heater, which doesn't recover as fast as the 4500 watt tanks, but is easier to run on a generator. You can replace the heating elements in a water heater with lower wattage elements. They are all interchangeable.

Once you have a tank of hot water, you can shut it off and turn the well pump on to take a shower.

 

[jinjimbob]

That depends on the water heater. Mine is a 3600 watt water heater, which doesn't recover as fast as the 4500 watt tanks, but is easier to run on a generator. You can replace the heating elements in a water heater with lower wattage elements. They are all interchangeable.

Once you have a tank of hot water, you can shut it off and turn the well pump on to take a shower.

This is one reason I got a heat pump water heater than can run in heat pump only mode which uses less than 550 W.

 

[Skyco]

Some cars (I don't know all but Dodge minivans do) have a high drain line coming from the tank. On my van it was above the rear axle on one side and had a plastic cap on it. They figure that with a pump in the tank you need a way to drain the tank to replace the pump. You can start a siphon and drain the gas. Just something to look for. You can always use a pick on your ex's boy friend's tanks and catch it with a funnel

Ex boy friend? Now wait just a dang minute...boy friend? I hope that was addressed to financegal and not ME:laughing:

Interesting about the drain line..didn't know that.
My Honda Civic I keep around actually has a drain plug in the tank..or so the manual says. I'm not real keen on pulling a plug and here comes all the gas with no way to control it, especially while laying under a car!
One spark and....
I'd like to periodically cycle the gas out of that car since it is almost never driven..I've started looking into ways to disconnect at the fuel filter on the firewall and jump something to make the pump run..same idea of course would work for emergency generator supply.

 

[dcyrilc]

Ex boy friend? Now wait just a dang minute...boy friend? I hope that was addressed to financegal and not ME:laughing:

Interesting about the drain line..didn't know that.
My Honda Civic I keep around actually has a drain plug in the tank..or so the manual says. I'm not real keen on pulling a plug and here comes all the gas with no way to control it, especially while laying under a car!
One spark and....
I'd like to periodically cycle the gas out of that car since it is almost never driven..I've started looking into ways to disconnect at the fuel filter on the firewall and jump something to make the pump run..same idea of course would work for emergency generator supply.

What if you ran the car nearly out of gas, then pulled the drain plug and replaced it with a petcock valve or something similar. That would allow you to drain it with control to cycle the gas. You might even be able to put the drain plug back into the bottom of the valve for additional safety. Just a thought.

 

[Financegal]

Ex boy friend? Now wait just a dang minute...boy friend? I hope that was addressed to financegal and not ME:laughing:

Don't think there haven't been times I'd have liked to do something as sinister to punish BF but the voice of reason always kicks in just in time:laughing:

 

[BobRip]

Ex boy friend? Now wait just a dang minute...boy friend? I hope that was addressed to financegal and not ME:laughing:

That was supposed to be your ex wife's boyfriend. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[BobRip]

That depends on the water heater. Mine is a 3600 watt water heater, which doesn't recover as fast as the 4500 watt tanks, but is easier to run on a generator. You can replace the heating elements in a water heater with lower wattage elements. They are all interchangeable.

Once you have a tank of hot water, you can shut it off and turn the well pump on to take a shower.

If you run the hot water heater off of 120 instead of 240 it will pull only 1/4 of the power. It will take 4 times as long to heat, but you can do it with a small generator. See your electrician to do this.

 

[dcyrilc]

If you run the hot water heater off of 120 instead of 240 it will pull only 1/4 of the power. It will take 4 times as long to heat, but you can do it with a small generator. See your electrician to do this.

Not true. Heating elements are rated in watts which are a measurement of the power it will consume to operate. Watts = Volts x Amps. Attempting to run a 240 volt heating element off 120 volts will double the current draw and most likely overload the wiring. A 4000 watt element will draw 4000 watts regardless of the voltage applied.

 

[BobRip]

Not true. Heating elements are rated in watts which are a measurement of the power it will consume to operate. Watts = Volts x Amps. Attempting to run a 240 volt heating element off 120 volts will double the current draw and most likely overload the wiring. A 4000 watt element will draw 4000 watts regardless of the voltage applied.

Heaters are rated at watts at a given voltage, not a fixed watts at any voltage. If what you say is true then they would put off 4000 watts at 1 volt or even 0.1 volt. They are just a coil of wire and do not vary their resistance (very much) to compensate for voltage.

The resistance is pretty fixed (it does go up some with increasing voltage, but not much in this application)

Power = V^2/R (Look this up if needed)
R = fixed
240^2 = 57,600
120^2 = 14,400

14,400/57600 = 0.25

My electrical engineer degree is pretty old, but this has not changed much.

Light bulbs are also rated at wattage. They do get dimmer when the voltage drops. If they pulled constant watts they would not get dimmer. Again it's watts at a given voltage.

 

[dcyrilc]

Heaters are rated at watts at a given voltage, not a fixed watts at any voltage. If what you say is true then they would put off 4000 watts at 1 volt or even 0.1 volt. They are just a coil of wire and do not vary their resistance (very much) to compensate for voltage.

The resistance is pretty fixed (it does go up some with increasing voltage, but not much in this application)

Power = V^2/R (Look this up if needed)
R = fixed
240^2 = 57,600
120^2 = 14,400

14,400/57600 = 0.25

My electrical engineer degree is pretty old, but this has not changed much.

Light bulbs are also rated at wattage. They do get dimmer when the voltage drops. If they pulled constant watts they would not get dimmer. Again it's watts at a given voltage.

Hmmm....

After 30+ years of being an electrician, this wouldn't be the first time I've been wrong. I'll have to check on this.

Until then, I'll have defer to the knowledge you have from your electrical degree.