which portable generators do people have

[Larry Caldwell]

same here.. the EU2000 - I actually have 2 of them

one will run a fridge OR a deep freezer OR a 5/6k room window AC.. on a fuel tank of fuel (about 1 gal) it will run about 7 hrs..

the other we use to power the necessities -TV, satellite dish, internet router, phone chargers - the REAL important stuff


Recently i converted both to run off propane - US Carb was running a special last year for about 50% off - and they came up with a design that you dont need to 'drill' the carb anymore.. You get less run time from propane - BUT at ~4.7 gal per 20# tank - it should run at least 25 hrs or more on a tank..

we are on a well and electric water heater - so i have thought of trying to find a used PTO generator that could be used to heat water, then switch over and run the well pump while we showered

Brian

Even a small PTO generator should run the water heater and well pump just fine. A huge energy guzzling water heater pulls 4600 watts, and a huge deep well pump won't pull more than 6000. Call it 12 kw absolute worst case, and probably a lot less than that.

 

[Oaktree]

Contrast that to my mild climate and a house outfitted with fine 19th century technology. Electricity is a convenience, not a necessity. We can cook on the wood stove, or heat water for a bath. We can go a couple weeks without doing laundry, and gravity feed water will last almost a month. When I used a gas powered generator, I wouldn't even bother to get it out of the barn until the second day of a power outage. I often used a little 1000w camp generator to run the fridge and freezer or the satellite dish.

Same here. 1830s-vintage farmhouse. Gravity-fed well (not city-water pressure, but probably 35psi...enough for a shower), propane stove & hot water, woodstove for heat. I did pick up a 4000W Champion generator a few years ago mostly to keep the refrigerator & freezer cold (figure on running it for an hour or so 3x/day). Good insurance...haven't lost power for more than a couple hours since I got it.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Same here. 1830s-vintage farmhouse. Gravity-fed well (not city-water pressure, but probably 35psi...enough for a shower), propane stove & hot water, woodstove for heat. I did pick up a 4000W Champion generator a few years ago mostly to keep the refrigerator & freezer cold (figure on running it for an hour or so 3x/day). Good insurance...haven't lost power for more than a couple hours since I got it.

That's the problem. You have to run the darned things or they quit working. You have to know how to flash the coils or exercise them periodically. Then you are stuck with gasoline in the tank. There's nothing like finally getting the generator running, only to find there is no electricity coming out of the generator. A 12v battery will flash self-excited generator coils, but it's not the sort of thing you want to deal with in a blizzard. That's why I went to a propane unit. Turn the tank on, hit the electric start, run a couple space heaters for 20 minutes and shut it down. The directions say run it under full load, but I figure 15 amps on each leg is good enough for a 6 kw genset.

I bought my 4400/3600 w gasoline powered generator about 1997, from Harbor Freight on closeout, for $279 including free shipping. That was before the Y2K panic that inflated generator prices. About 2002 we had a 5 day outage and it served well. My wife had the flu, and was really pleased that she could take a hot shower. In 2006 it provided power for an addition on my barn. It has maybe 50 hours on it total. I should sell it, because it's just taking up space in the barn. The big problem with gensets is how reliable power is. If you had outages every year it would be a regular thing to maintain them. If they sit in the barn for 10 years, it might take some tinkering to get them working.

 

[747driver]

Thanks for all the replies ! Some of you really have nice whole house units. The welder/generators are great as well. So far the Champion dual fuel at Costco is what i think serves us best. Portable...which allows me to take it anywhere on the property. That way i don't have to bring things back to the shop for welding if needed. Like the idea of having propane as a backup since we live in a somewhat remote area with propane service. We also have a rv that has a Onan 7500 watt generator for added supply, it runs off diesel. Now to get a electrician out to wire a receptacle at the water pump well so i can plug it in to either generator.

Thanks again everyone

 

[airbiscuit]

That's the problem. You have to run the darned things or they quit working. You have to know how to flash the coils or exercise them periodically. Then you are stuck with gasoline in the tank. There's nothing like finally getting the generator running, only to find there is no electricity coming out of the generator. A 12v battery will flash self-excited generator coils, but it's not the sort of thing you want to deal with in a blizzard. That's why I went to a propane unit. Turn the tank on, hit the electric start, run a couple space heaters for 20 minutes and shut it down. The directions say run it under full load, but I figure 15 amps on each leg is good enough for a 6 kw genset.

I bought my 4400/3600 w gasoline powered generator about 1997, from Harbor Freight on closeout, for $279 including free shipping. That was before the Y2K panic that inflated generator prices. About 2002 we had a 5 day outage and it served well. My wife had the flu, and was really pleased that she could take a hot shower. In 2006 it provided power for an addition on my barn. It has maybe 50 hours on it total. I should sell it, because it's just taking up space in the barn. The big problem with gensets is how reliable power is. If you had outages every year it would be a regular thing to maintain them. If they sit in the barn for 10 years, it might take some tinkering to get them working.

Exactly how do you flash the coils?

 

[Travelover]

Exactly how do you flash the coils?

One way is to plug in a drill motor and spin it by hand. You know it is flashed when the drill starts running.

 

[Michael Aos]

I don't have any real pressing NEED for a generator, but for years I've thought a $1K Honda EU2000i would be handy to have around.

I recently noticed the new $1K Honda EG2800i. I'd been thinking about it, then I saw a video of something similar mounted on the front of a tractor (instead of weights). That pushed me over the edge and I decided to order it.

Hadn't gotten around to the actual ordering when I noticed this A-iPower SC2000i at Costco for $499. Only 2 of them left, so I decided to grab one.

I haven't opened it yet. Still kind of deciding whether I want to keep it.

Right now I envision tossing it in the back of the RTV500 when I'm headed down to the sheds about 1/4 mile away. I'd use it to run a vacuum, or electric impact, or leaf blower.

I'm pretty invested in the Dewalt cordless ecosystem, so something like the $250 DEWALT DCB1800B Portable Power Station might actually make more sense for me.

 

[TomSeller]

These are nice generators, but for a home, it is really nice to have 220 volts, especially with a well pump.

Right, the well pump is my biggest concern while on the generator. I have a 7000W Gillette with a Honda GX engine. 6%THD. I have not seen mention of THD but if you are powering some electronics you want as low of number as possible. To allow more amperage for the pump I try to have most everything off other than necessities. ie the wife can't use a hair dryer. No toaster, no microwave that type of thing. Big things like clothes dryer and heat pump are not on the generator.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Exactly how do you flash the coils?

Simplicity itself. Self-excited coils rely on induced voltage to generate a magnetic field. Over time the residual magnetic field will decay to the point that it will no longer generate enough current to excite the coils. All you have to do is plug in to both legs of the generator and hook the plug to a 12v. battery. All it takes is a couple of seconds. The hassle is finding a plug, wiring a pigtail onto it, and clamping jumper cables to the pigtail, in a blizzard, in the dark. Piecea cake.

That's why the generator instructions tell you to run the generator under load every 3 months. That's overkill, but nobody knows how much. Vibration will speed up the decay of a residual magnetic field.

There are other reasons a generator might not make electricity. Reset the breakers before you do anything. Check the brushes. Look for dauber nests on the armature. If you have a bug infestation, you may have to take the whole thing apart and clean it.

 

[airbiscuit]

Exactly how do you flash the coils?

Apparently you can do this while smoking a heater!