which portable generators do people have

[LouNY]

Nice, artesian wells can be nice and very handy, my drilled well artesianed for about 10 years and has petered out now the water level is holding about 10 feet down now. Our best water on the farm came from a spring in one of the upper pastures, it had been improved a long time ago and then again in the late 30's and now it needs to be dug out and cleaned up again.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Don't get me wrong, I don't respect any generator that runs at 3600rpm. But I have run the whole property through a 200 Amp AT switch on my Yanmar 3.7. Aside from electric heat, and my industrial shop equipment, I had hot water, fridge, and any amount of light, plus all my electronics. What more can you ask for? And NEVER a single failure.

Plus frugal, and it started last week in very cold temperatures without a charged battery or any source of heat.

Maybe a $4000.00 Yanmar 3.7 can't and shouldn't be compared with a $500.00 HF generator. I don't know.

Speaking of RPMs. I have even less respect for a manufacturer that has a whole page of specs and not one word about RPMs! How foul! It's the first thing, you want to know.

 

[dragoneggs]

Unfortunately, my 3kW Honda isn't enough to power our well pump so that is one thing we do have to go without during an outage. I can't justify another gen just for backup for well water.

 

[Industrial Toys]

If that is your only concern, there may be solutions. Like I said, I don't know motors, but apparently some can have the starting circuit modified, like adding more capacitors. I have a friend that knows AC and DC motors inside out. I often loose him. Or go with a soft start pump. Even though that's electronic and electronics are not our friend! lol That funny smoke is always looking to escape.

I Googled "Reducing the Starting Current of a submersible pump" I assumed submersible. A lot of interesting stuff.

 

[3930dave]

Unfortunately, my 3kW Honda isn't enough to power our well pump so that is one thing we do have to go without during an outage. I can't justify another gen just for backup for well water.

I haven't priced these lately (it may be cheaper to sell the 3kw and buy a basic 7.5kw, just talking pure #'s.... I know you like your Honda DE.....), these SQFLEX are more for off-grid.

Solar Well Pumps for Off Grid Homes

Kind of a neat option - you could have it run off 220Vac when the grid is up, then fail-over to 2 or 3 digit Vdc backup - until you stack lots of batteries, then the flow would be lower - but in an emerg, low-flow is way better than no-flow....

Rgds, D.

 

[Industrial Toys]

You need only a fraction of a second of high current to get that pump going. That power should easily be in the generator rotor.

Or a three phase pump and freq dive. But yes, it's starting to cost more then an upsized generator.

 

[dragoneggs]

One of the things I love about my generator is that it so quiet and runs a very long time on a tank of gas. If I upsized, I lose on both accounts just for the surge power needed. Not worth it. Got to be a better way though. Unfortunately, we replaced our well pump a couple years ago. We up'd the Hp a little on the advice of our well guy but what I didn't do (sadly) is research options at the time. But the with the existing pump dead, and in a hurry to fix, it didn't cross my mind to see what new technology pumps are out there. :mur:

 

[buickanddeere]

Don't get me wrong, I don't respect any generator that runs at 3600rpm. But I have run the whole property through a 200 Amp AT switch on my Yanmar 3.7. Aside from electric heat, and my industrial shop equipment, I had hot water, fridge, and any amount of light, plus all my electronics. What more can you ask for? And NEVER a single failure.

Plus frugal, and it started last week in very cold temperatures without a charged battery or any source of heat.

Maybe a $4000.00 Yanmar 3.7 can't and shouldn't be compared with a $500.00 HF generator. I don't know.

Speaking of RPMs. I have even less respect for a manufacturer that has a whole page of specs and not one word about RPMs! How foul! It's the first thing, you want to know.

For all the hours a portable standby generator is used, higher rpms means the generator will be smaller and lighter per Kw output. Nobody is going to put enough hours on the portable generator is 30 years to make 'wear" a factor.
For reasons unknown, some people think their consumer equipment should be spec'd like 24/7 marine propulsion , 24/7 power generation or 24/7 irrigation equipment.

 

[3930dave]

One of the things I love about my generator is that it so quiet and runs a very long time on a tank of gas. If I upsized, I lose on both accounts just for the surge power needed. Not worth it. Got to be a better way though. Unfortunately, we replaced our well pump a couple years ago. We up'd the Hp a little on the advice of our well guy but what I didn't do (sadly) is research options at the time. But the with the existing pump dead, and in a hurry to fix, it didn't cross my mind to see what new technology pumps are out there. :mur:

Hindsight is 20/20.... don't beat yerself up too much DE..... challenging to run a household w/o running water, so lack of water provides lots of other pressure....

Things change fast enough though.... this thread had me thinking about some really efficient DC submersible pumps I'd often read about in Homepower in years past, and I was doing a search just now because I couldn't remember the manufacturer name. That's when I stumbled across this Grundfos model - didn't know that existed.

That is a pretty sweet power option - you could take it the other way too...... Let's say you've started your off-grid system, and are building it in stages (like most of us non-lottery-win, non-trust-fund-baby types would have to do....). So you have a basic 48vdc battery bank in place, built out of 6 volt cells. Regular household operation works fine off 48vdc.

Let's say some "surge" event comes along for water - fill a swimming pool, or a nearby brush fire has kicked up. Fire up an 8kw+ generator to run this Grundfos on 220VAC, and presto, you've just amped up your water volume on demand....

More and more, I'm liking combining batteries and generators.....

Rgds, D.

 

[grsthegreat]

For all the hours a portable standby generator is used, higher rpms means the generator will be smaller and lighter per Kw output. Nobody is going to put enough hours on the portable generator is 30 years to make 'wear" a factor.
For reasons unknown, some people think their consumer equipment should be spec'd like 24/7 marine propulsion , 24/7 power generation or 24/7 irrigation equipment.

thats my opinion exactly. i thought about getting the 1800 rpm version, but seriously, spending an extra 4 grand for something that may or may not be needed just didnt enter my picture. now if i was planning to use it to supplement off grid system, then i would definitely go with the 1800 rpm system. the thing that i do love about the quietsource series that run at 1800 rpm....there alot quieter. but my generator is far from any neighbor so i have no issues with it. i cant even hear it run inside the house.