Inverter generator Do I need that?

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

If it runs on natural gas, it should run on propane as well. You can store that much longer than you can gasoline.

[snip]

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

It's also a lot quieter at low speed. I knew someone who bought a Honda (EU2000i IIRC), usually just to run a couple of fans. It was hard to hear it running 40 feet away.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I've seen a few. IIRC, most can be converted for natural gas or propane. However, I don't know about installing this on a inverter generator. A small generator (3kw?) can use a 20 pound propane tank. Larger ones can take 2 or more tanks (or a larger tank).

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Yes, that's what my friend paid. It was very quiet. I've seen other 2 kw inverters for half the price, although I don't know how good they are.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I used a meter, and my fridge (new in 2008) was using just about 1A when the compressor was running. It could be more with the external heater turned on.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

If you did feed the output of a single-phase generator to both hot wires in the house, this might cause problems with 240V equipment that uses the neutral, but would it cause any other problems?

[snip]

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

Here, 2000 would have been a good year to buy a generator. There were a lot of never-used "used" ones around after Y2K.

[hubops]

I just phoned my local Honda dealer < south Ontario Canada >

to check out the EU6500i - he says it's now replaced with

7000 i es @ $ 4900. < $ 3650. US dollars >

... someday ... John T.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

My meter isn't a "smart meter" but it does have a LCD that can be used that way. I suppose some people don't want to keep going outside to look.

Here, a neighbor across the street has a green porch light he keeps on all the time.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I have one for that purpose. It won't cool a whole house, but one room is better than nothing. Another thing it could be good to have is a small propane stove (the king used for camping).

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

That's what I did during outages, no need to run the generator all night (although the noise was acceptable then, since many did). About the only thing I had to give up was drinking cold water during the night, but that wasn't a serious loss.

Anything I needed at night (flashlight, fan on hot nights, and cell phone charging) could be handled by batteries, recharged the next day.

[snip]

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

They have something now that's called "motor snorkel". This thing is much thinner making installation a lot easier. There's no stud extenders since the "motor snorkel" is no thicker than the existing carb-air cleaner gasket. The demand regulator is the same, so you still need to find a place to mount it.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I remember something about a 5-gallon external tank for it. Since the tank is external, you could fill it while the generator is running. It connects to the generator through a replacement gas cap.

[snip]

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

It is too expensive to be worth it, but a whole house generator would be nice to have.

[Ralph Mowery]

Harbor Freight has a 3500 watt inverter generator on sale now for $ 700. Says 11 hour run time. Wonder if that means it will be used up after 11 hours andyu have to get another one. They have a regular one on sale for $ 350.

I bought one of the little 750 or so watt ones a while back. Have not used it very much, mostly to run my electric chain pols saw away from the house and an electric drill or impact in my out building. It is very hard to start, but found that if I give it a shot of starting fluid it will crank right up. Then need to let it run for a short time to take the choke off. The voltage varies all over the place so would not want to run anything I really cared about off of it that had any electronics in it.

[Ralph Mowery]

If you cut off the 240 volt breakers and equipment I do not see any problems.

[hubops]

If it's used for an occasional not-too-critical use .. ie trimming trees ; lights in a remote cabin.. etc. ... go for it ! Go cheap. If it's used for survival items - medical machines ; etc do not go cheap. John T .

[gfretwell]

People wax lyrically about how great leaded regular was but it varnished up pretty bad too if you stored it in a vented can, You also were dealing with fouled plugs and the extra pollution the lead brought you. The main problem with E-10 is it absorbs water. If your can is full, you store it in a cool dry place and the cap is snug (vented enough not to build up a lot of pressure but not free breathing) that is not really that big an issue but I still would not store gasoline more than a few months if I could avoid it. Just dump your 2-3 month old gas in your car/truck and buy fresh. I have a boat so gas doesn't hang around here long enough to go bad. Buying LL100 AvGas really does not make a lot of sense unless you are driving a car so old that it doesn't have Stellite valves. Even then you can buy valve lubricant to add to the gas that will work. They have the exception about E-10 for aviation because of legacy engines and the fact that icing up the fuel at 8000 feet is not the same as if you are just sitting in your driveway.

[trader_4]

That would include turning off any Edison circuit breakers, which aren't technically 240V. They are *supposed* to have handles tied together per code. If someone did one without handle ties and/or you didn't turn those off, you could overload the neutral if you put enough load on it.

[trader_4]

I've heard those Honda inverter ones running at food festivals. Huge difference, in fact you notice it because it's so quiet.

You would think someone would come up with a super muffler just for that purpose. Even if it's as big as the generator, as long as you could put it next to it and connect it and it made it much quieter you'd think a lot of people would want it and pay a decent price for it. A $1000 generator and $300 muffler sounds like a good option compared to a $3000 quiet inverter generator.