Thing is, the inverter generator engines actually turn FASTER with significant load than a constant speed generator. For example, per the manual, the EU2000 turns 5000 RPM at full load. They don't give any indication in the manual as to what the load vs speed slope is but from first hand experience, it doesn't take much load to get the engine spinning rapidly.
Check around the net. Many of the larger generator dealers offer free shipping.
John
-- John De Armond See my website for my current email address
Power failures up here in the mountains are practically a weekly affair so my generators get quite a workout. I roll my big one (either 5.5 kW Generac Quiet Pack or 10kW homemade diesel, depending on which fuel is the least cost at the moment) out 50 ft away from my cabin and I STILL get CO build-up in the cabin when the outside air is still.
I use a NightHawk CO detector, the rectangular one with the digital readout. It only takes a couple of hours sometimes to register >50 ppm in the cabin. I have a whole-house fan that I can run periodically to clear the air (windows on the other end of the cabin open) but that's a pain, especially in hot weather.
I'm going to have to do something to address this problem, as I can't go to sleep with the generator running for fear the house will load up with CO and I won't wake up. I'll probably make a vertical stack taller than my cabin that connects to the generator's exhaust.
I'd be VERY wary of running a generator inside any type of closed building absent the exhaust being plumbed outside and verified air-tight. I'd much rather roll the genny away from the house and sling a chain around it and a tree if you're afraid of it growing legs.
John
-- John De Armond See my website for my current email address
Don't do it. The old Maytag washing machine engines had a metal hose to direct the exhaust outside. Similar to how dryers exhaust through a duct. In winter auto garages would test engines with a hose over the exhast pipe and directed outside through a port.
On Fri, 19 Sep 2008 23:22:02 -0400, Neon John wrote Re Re: Honda (and Yamaha) generators:
That's lower than I used to get living in an apartment near a freeway in Pasadena CA. It never occured to me to take it in the car with me to see what the reading was while driving (sitting actually) on the freeway.
Hi, Bob. I'm a real fan of the Honda EU2000i. In a couple of earlier threads I posted stuff about my experiences with it. Rather than repeat, here are the links to three of those posts:
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As far as pricing goes, I found a good price at a local Honda dealer. If you go to the Honda website, you can find what dealers sell/service generators. Here's the link to that
Honda will supposedly yank their distributorship if they list prices lower than retail. Last time I looked they were going for about $900.
I had one eu2000 last about 12,000 hours and the second one lasted about
7500 hours. They both were running about 1/3 throttle most of the time. Instead of buying another one (got kinda pissed off at Honda) I bit my tongue and bought a cheap Chinese 2000 watt genny from Pep Boys for less than $200. It's not as quiet and portable as the eu2000 but it has over
2700 hours on it and still runs great and has more power than the eu2000. Not so good for microwaves and such but works fine for most things.
I also have a 5000 watt genny powered by a Honda GX engine and at around 600 hours the ignition coil went out ($45 generic) and at about 2000 hours the exhaust valve broke and punched the piston. That cost about $65 for parts. Also, the muffler holes stripped out and I had to re-tap them and use bigger screws. Oh yea, right after I replaced the piston and valve the governor gear wore out and that required splitting the case again. That part was only about $15. Given all that the engine is fine now and I use it reguarly.
I have a rather roomy 3-car detached garage and I regularly run a 5000 watt genny in there with no additional ventilation other than opening the two big doors a foot or so, opening the small door and the window opposite the door. If I have any brain damage from exhaust fumes I can't tell.
I never run my generator inside my garage when I'm asleep. But I'm completely off-grid so I only use my generator to charge my batteries and run everything from inverters. One OutBack 3600 watt inverter will run a lot of stuff and doesn't cost all THAT much $$$. Add their X240 autotransformer and you can run a well pump or other 240 volt loads. They have all kinds of settings and controls so you can autostart a genny when the batteries are low and set it to not come on during the "quiet time."
I wonder how long that Chinese generator would run that same side-by-side refrigerator on a gallon of gas? I am guessing it would only be a fraction of the 13 hours you got from the EU2000? When you are talking thousands of hours on $4.00 gas, I wonder if you still wouldn't be better off with an inverter generator in the long run.
On the other hand, if you are now normally using your generator at 80% capacity to charge your batteries, that is a whole different deal.
500 hundred? That's 50,000. Did you really mean that?
BTW, posting stuff AFTER the sig is not a good idea. When someone uses a newsreader that handles the sig separator properly, it interferes with quoting.
Yes..I did. What's depressing is that I had plenty of practice using single digits when posting the 2 or 3 thousand hour figures. Not only am I getting senile, but blind too. I see no sig separator markings anywhere in my response.
Densa International=C2=A9 For the OTHER two percent.
'Think tanks cleaned cheap'
Due to the insane amount of spam and garbage, I block all postings with a Gmail, Google Mail, Google Groups or HOTMAIL address. I also filter everything from a .cn server.
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If you are only running the refrigerator then the inverter genny would certainly use a lot less gas. I'm guessing the Cheap Chinese 2000 watt unit would only run a few hours on one gallon. Six of one and a half dozen of the other. Personally I use the genny mainly for battery charging via an OutBack inverter so it would be running full speed most of the time. I figured at around 2500 hours (or something like that) the Chinese beat the Japanese as far as value per dollar spent to buy the thing goes. Once the cylinider and rings are worn out I suspect the Chinese engine can be rebuilt IF I can find the parts. It has an OHV engine that looks exactly like the Honda GX engine as far as the diagrams are concerned and I would not be surprised if Honda parts didn't fit right in there. I have not taken apart any of my Chinese engines yet so I don't know if the quality is there and I will say that the insides of Honda GX engines look like they were built to last.
I have an electric chain saw so I need to haul a small generator to my wood-cutting site and an eu2000 is a lot more portable than my UST GG2300 but it's not all that much trouble to put it in the back of a pickup. At least it's not worth the other $700 to me for what I'm doing. I have a worn-out eu2000 and if they ever make a replacement engine available for a reasonable amount I'll consider fixing it as they are very good generators and extremely quiet. But then the GG2300 is not particularly loud.
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