Need advice on emergency power generator purchase

[raggie33]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

id guess rust kevin.i used to live in fla man everything rust bad down there i live in ga now we have very little rust.

 

[cy]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

been seeing Chinese 3,000 watt, Honda clones w/ overhead valve engines. chinese generators

Coleman's pulse 1850 watt, very simular in size to Honda's nice 2,000 watt unit. coleman pulse 1850 for $499

anyone have experience with these?

 

[Chris_Medico]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

Oh.. I meant to add that I have a Honda EU1000 and EU3000. I use them primarily for my camper. In fact I lived in the camper for 1.5 years without electricity (long story). The EU1000 ran every day to charge up the batteries on the RV and the EU3000 ran on the days I wanted AC. They are both still kicking. The EU1000 is starting to use a little oil but I figure it has much more than 500 hours on it. I also use synthetic oil and air cooled engines usually consume some of that stuff. Neither one has ever given any trouble. I am pretty anal about running them completely out of fuel if I intend to store them though. I can't stress enough how quickly gasoline goes bad and messes everything up. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

On the home front - we had ice storms in this area a couple of winters ago we were without power for about 10 days. I took the EU1000 around to the neighbors houses and let them run their fridges for a couple of hours each. It kept them cold enough to be safe for food. It used about 1 gallon of gas a day doing this. That little thing has been such a trooper... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/happy14.gif

 

[markdi]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

I have my 88 year old grandfathers 6 kilowatt generator.

it needed a new electronic ignition(upgrade - no points)

and a carbeurator rebuild kit.

and there was a problem with the solid state voltage regulator but it was a simple fix.

I think he bought it used in the late 70's

I store it completely drained of fuel.

you put gas in it and it starts on the first pull.

you would think it would take a pull or two to get gas flowing to the carb.

my oil furnace and oil hot water heater plug into an outlet - they have power cords so if the power fails I can plug them in to my generator with an extension cord.(my mom had 2 brand new 12 guage super heavy duty power cords she was throwing out so I modded my oil burners)

 

[CJR]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

>what's the problem with humidity?

Mold can be a big problem here in Florida. Wet drywall + heat = mold that doesn't go away.

 

[cobb]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

If you have a truck with the PTO option, have you considered realacpower.com ? it is a generator that runs off your trucks pto and uses its idle speed to generate 12kw of power.

I agree with the above. My parents had considered one, but a house one would be large and consume a lot of fuel and we would get little use out of it. A small generator we would need to rotate loads like the freezer, refigerator, winder ac heater, space heater depending on the season, house hold appliances to cook not to mention fuel for the little generator. We used two keroscene heaters during a 2 week freeze with no power and found we used a gallon ever 12 hours per heater. THat ment are 5 gallon jug would last 2 1/2 days. We thought one jug was more than enough til we had to use it.

We now days just keep plenty of food on hand that does not need to be froze and ice or used bottles with water in them as ice packs in both the fridge and freezer.

 

[paulr]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

That PTO thing is interesting. I'd been wondering for a while if it was feasible to run a large (e.g. 20kw) generator from a salvaged car engine. I didn't realize PTO existed. Cool.

 

[watt4]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

CJR,

instead of dessicant, consider running some dehumidifiers

 

[DieselDave]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

I was thrilled with the performance of the Honda EU2000's. Paralleling them, if you have two, is essential. Run time under load was a consistent 6.5 hours (1Gal) I will build the 5 gal fuel tank mod for them before the next hurricane, it's another must. A bigger and cheaper 5-8k unit as a backup for big work during the day is a plus.

Wiring directly into your house is a great idea. A couple of my friends did it with portable units with great success. You turn off all the breakers and just turn on what you need. This eliminates all the stinking extension cords running all over the house. In my case this wouldn't have worked because I had so much water in the house I wouldn't have dared plug into a wall.

Bottom line if you go with the Honda EU2000's and plan to power more than just a fridge and a couple of fans then buy two. Paralleling them is a must if you plan to run more than one large item. They will not run all night unless you do the gas tank mod. The 5 gal tank mod would run both of them for a whopping 22-23 hours under load. Getting gas can be a problem for up to about 10 days after a hurricane and possible longer for a snowstorm or other. That's a lot of gas so plan accordingly. I now have (8) 5 gal. cans plus another 10 gals in my lawnmower so I am good for at least a week. I will fill them all up early if a threat is approaching. If it misses me I will immediately begin to use the fuel in my vehicles until all tanks are empty. I will leave them open to dry out then put them away for the next event. I keep one gen. in usable condition year around and the other two have been treated for long-term storage. The long-term treatment is a pain but I know they will work when they are needed. Buy one 25'-50' super heavy duty cord for each gen. You run that cord in the house then feed off it with smaller cords. I used a heavy duty 6 plug surge protector at the end of each one. Don't forget to have a couple of quarts of oil around. The Brigs motors may use oil and the Honda's need changing. A dog carrier would make a great shelter for the gen. if it's raining or snowing. You already know the gen. stays outside, so I won't say it, oops, I said it. Be safe.

At some point I will replace my very old 4k-5k Coleman. That sucker has an 11HP B&S and uses a quart of oil every 15-20 hours. I know the thing has to be at least 10 years old. I bought it used from a friend back several years ago and it had seen quite a bit of use when I bought it. It had white paint over spray on it which means it was used for construction. I will buy a run of the mill 5k-7k cheapie for about $600-$700. One that size fits nicely in my garden trailer I pull with my mower.

If I lived in an area that had frequent power loss of 1-4 hours I would own a single Honda EU2000. If the power losses were often more than 12 hours AND hurricanes weren't a threat then I would buy a built in whole house unit that ran off my natural gas or LP and had the feature where it started itself every week. I would also have one of the EU2000's just in case. The problem with the whole house unit in my area is that water damage may preclude you from using it. Lot's of people in the area had the whole house unit but I haven't talked to anyone that used it after the storm.

OBTW: Another plug for the Honda. My wife just happened walked in the room a few minutes ago and said she needed to use the Honda next month and wanted to know if it was ready to go. I asked her why and she said she was going to shoot some people photos on the beach at sunset and thought she might need her photography lights. They are 300 watts each. She couldn't do it with a larger unit.

Happy shopping

 

[paulr]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

I've never understood why those Hondas have such small fuel tanks. Can you fuel them while they're running? What's the story with the 5 gal mod? 5 gal is more like it.

 

[DieselDave]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

I often filled my tanks with the gen. running but the instructions say turn it off and let it cool. I work with a guy that burned down his house filling a gen. with gas while running so...

Here are links for making the parallel cord and fuel tank mod. for the Honda EU 2000.

Parallel two Honda EU2000's without spending $200

Make your own 5 gal. fuel tank mod.

Disclaimer: Build these at your own risk. I am not telling you they are safe. The person that built the mods. is not encouraging you to build them, he is just showing what he did. I say all that because I was provided with the link discreetly and I don't think he's interested in discussing the project or endorsing it for others.

 

[KevinL]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

raggie, CJR, thanks for the education. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif Over here the houses are built out of solid brick and concrete, so that takes care of the mold problem. Probably just a different way of doing things.

 

[turbodog]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

Any generator OTHER than a honda eu series is gonna get might old on the noise problem after a day or so.

I have lived for days with out power and the honda eu2000 is the only way to go. It's portable so you can use it for other purposes. I have had no problem with fueling while running. The exhaust can be used to dry clothes and heat jugs of water.

I have also had an eu1000. It will run some microwaves and some fridges, but not all. For a few dollars more, get the 2000.

I would also get the 12v dc charge cord for the honda also. That way you can use it to recharge you car battery/lawn mower battery/etc that you are using indoors for light.

I also agree with someone else's above post. Heating with electric heat is really inefficient. This also goes for cooking. A multi fuel (gas, diesel, white gas, kerosene) camping stove can be had for $50 (cheap) or $100 (excellent). These guys will cook for a week on a single gallon of auto gas/white gas.

It has been stated somewhere else that you're really only looking at running the fridge and a few lights. Most of the time will be spend in daylight, or sleeping at night.

I'd be sure to keep an extra spark plug on hand. There's no fixing these things, and your neighbor is not likely to have one to loan you.

But back to the original post for a minute...... propane and natural gas have low energy densities compared to gasoline. If you store it yourself, it's gonna take a LOT of this stuff to keep you in power. If you go with a gas engine you could simply siphon/pump the gas from the tank on ONE of your cars and you instantly have enough gas to run for a week or more. I'd keep a small hand operated pump around. This way you can suck gas out of cars/lawn mowers (mine holds 11 gallons!)/the neighbor's car (at night)/etc.

Candles keep forever and provide a long lasting source of light. Don't burn your house down though.

My current kit/setup includes:
honda eu2000
various lights
candles
oil for generator
hand pump for gasoline
200w inverter (so we can run a radio w/o running the generator)
msr cook stove with 1 gal or so of white gas
candles
water purification pump/filter assembly
14 gallons gas in cans
11 gallons in lawn mower
24 gallons in truck
14 gallons in car

That's 63 gallons of fuel. That'll run the honda 2000 for 15+ days straight at full load. If you don't have some help by then..... it's time to go hunting and try and kill something to eat.

 

[ledlurker]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

Has anybody had any experience with Kits that will allow a generator to run off propane/natural gas and gasoline? I have seen these on the web and know of an individual in my area that does propane conversions for most types of ICE. I looked at his generator which has the capabily to run off natural gas, propane and gasoline. It seems a propane/gas system would work well and that the generators can be configured for what you want in as little as 5 minutes. What I like about it is that you can run gasoline for a long time, then drain the system (tank/carburator) then reconfigure it for propane and run it for 20 minutes to an hour to clean it up and put it on the shelf. If you need to occasionly run the generator for an hour or two then the conviencence of propane might make up for its cost.

 

[turbodog]

Re: Need advice on emergency power generator purch

No experience with them. Unless I am wrong, propane/ng conversion will give slightly less power than gasoline.

Conversion may void your warranty.

Sounds like a lot of trouble.