My Ice storm/ generator lessons

[TomSeller]

I hate loud generators!!! Finally bought a Honda 3000is a few years back. Expensive but I love it. If I went bigger I would suck it up and pay for Honda. Don't know why I feel I have to sing the praises of Honda but I just do.

You should hear my air cooled 6 HP Yamaha pull start diesel. I only use it on a remote property that does not have commercial power with a LONG extension cord. But if my neighbors get out of hand I may use at my house

 

[dragoneggs]

You should hear my air cooled 6 HP Yamaha pull start diesel. I only use it on a remote property that does not have commercial power with a LONG extension cord. But if my neighbors get out of hand I may use at my house

Is your neighbor on 'your' remote property? :confused3: I'm understanding you are using a long extension cord off your neighbor's generator. :laughing:

Seriously I am getting interested in a diesel gen if they are as quiet as some say... diesel engine and quiet is an oxymoron in my book. What am I missing?

 

[3930dave]

Is your neighbor on 'your' remote property? :confused3: I'm understanding you are using a long extension cord off your neighbor's generator. :laughing:

Seriously I am getting interested in a diesel gen if they are as quiet as some say... diesel engine and quiet is an oxymoron in my book. What am I missing?

If ur is talking about the Honda diesel that I'm thinking of..... you probably have better odds with the Powerball... those Honda diesels are scarce, at least in Can/USA.

Fast answer..... start adding zeroes on the end of the price.....

Power Solutions

IIRC, they came up by supplying the movie industry - makes sense - shoot in remote locations, but need QUIET on set, and will pay a premium.....

If I ever come across a used one, I'd be willing to drive a few hours to check it out.

Rgds, D.

 

[ultrarunner]

Multiquip seems to have the market for the small quiet diesel units today... both standalone, trailer mounted, light tower, etc...

Priced one years ago and it was around 6k

 

[Toyboy]

I'm not one to be the first with new technology aka. battery. If I ever decided to go that route, it'd have to be several years down the road when it's been proven to be all that was advertised.

Now with that being said, a few years back I had a Generac 20kw natural gas whole house gen-set installed. No muss, no fuss with fuel. As for the sound of it running, we have no problem with that. You can hardly hear it in the winter, and with it also powering our AC, summer is not an issue either. Some of you fellows must have some awful noisy units, or are more sensitive to the sound then we are.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Hi Ron,

Good to hear from you... I am paying a penny or so under $2/gallon for LP here. Now that I own my own tank... got smart. I used to lease a big tank and that got me stuck with will overpriced fills... had to argue the $/gal each time. Back on topic, your 175.KW is almost 6 times the size of my 3K back up but dang, I cringed when I read your consumption rate.

Mark, remember I am probably running 6 times as much stuff too. Two rooms with aux wall heaters plus 4 bathroom heaters; that adds up to around 6 KW potential right there on a cold day.

 

[4570Man]

I went outside and tested my Generac generator. It runs amazingly constant, but doesn't handle high start up loads well. It runs with about 1 volt either way of variation which is pretty darn good for a generator. It puts out about 123 volts under no load. Under 80% load which was a 1500 watt heat gun it maintains about 119 volts. My house outlets maintained 117 volts with the same load and about 125 volts under no load. What kills the electronics was start up voltage. The generator dropped to about 110 volts by unplugging and plugging the heat gun up. That is acceptable, so I decided to try a miter saw. This miter saw was rated to pull 10 amps, but start up must have been much greater. My generator is rated to produce a tad over 13 amps continues. Starting the miter saw dropped the generator down to about 40 volts. After about 3 attempts to start it it tripped the overload on the generator. I have a cheap, extremely loud 3,500 watt generator that I'm going to test later. The miter saw dropped the house outlet down to about 100 volts. We recently ran the house for about 5 days with a 8,000 watt welder/generator that had about 10 volts variation. It was loud and very thirsty.

 

[Industrial Toys]

One of many things I built after my experiences with the BIG ice storm. DVMs tended not to have frequency functions back then.

It's big and clunky (the way I like things) uses no batteries, and has no computer. The nicest thing is, you can easily adjust the two red lines with the knobs and have over voltage and under voltage alarming. LED or buzzer.

 

[3930dave]

I went outside and tested my Generac generator. It runs amazingly constant, but doesn't handle high start up loads well. It runs with about 1 volt either way of variation which is pretty darn good for a generator. It puts out about 123 volts under no load. Under 80% load which was a 1500 watt heat gun it maintains about 119 volts. My house outlets maintained 117 volts with the same load and about 125 volts under no load. What kills the electronics was start up voltage. The generator dropped to about 110 volts by unplugging and plugging the heat gun up. That is acceptable, so I decided to try a miter saw. This miter saw was rated to pull 10 amps, but start up must have been much greater. My generator is rated to produce a tad over 13 amps continues. Starting the miter saw dropped the generator down to about 40 volts. After about 3 attempts to start it it tripped the overload on the generator. I have a cheap, extremely loud 3,500 watt generator that I'm going to test later. The miter saw dropped the house outlet down to about 100 volts. We recently ran the house for about 5 days with a 8,000 watt welder/generator that had about 10 volts variation. It was loud and very thirsty.

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Older consumer level generators used to come with Tables in the Owner's Manual, that gave listings of typical motor Running watts and Starting watts. Startup takes way more power than many people realize.

In an extended outage, the odds keep creeping up that with a fridge, sump pump, freezer.... connected, you may have a chance alignment where more than one motor tries to start at the same time. Makes upsizing a gen or a solution like 90cummins is using attractive (4kw inverter w. Gen assist).

IMO any well designed consumer product should be able to handle short-term brownouts (a reality with some grid connections too), but it's nothing I like to push my luck on - I bought a 7kw gen last time.

Size up your loads, add at least 25%, then buy the quietest generator that fits your budget is what I suggest to real-world friends.

Rgds, D.

 

[4570Man]

Older consumer level generators used to come with Tables in the Owner's Manual, that gave listings of typical motor Running watts and Starting watts. Startup takes way more power than many people realize. In an extended outage, the odds keep creeping up that with a fridge, sump pump, freezer.... connected, you may have a chance alignment where more than one motor tries to start at the same time. Makes upsizing a gen or a solution like 90cummins is using attractive (4kw inverter w. Gen assist). IMO any well designed consumer product should be able to handle short-term brownouts (a reality with some grid connections too), but it's nothing I like to push my luck on - I bought a 7kw gen last time. Size up your loads, add at least 25%, then buy the quietest generator that fits your budget is what I suggest to real-world friends. Rgds, D.

I have a whole house 22,000 watt natural gas powered generator. If that doesn't keep up I'm doing something wrong.,