I had one filled, and weighed it. 36.6 pounds - the tare weight (16.6) =
20 pounds of propane. Another tank held only 19 pounds, still a lot more than the 15 you get at exchange places.
I thought I heard something about making standing pilot lights illegal.
It wouldn't surprise me. We're already paying more because they had to make them so they are resistant to blowing up the place if you fill the place up with gasoline or similar fumes. The main advantage to the pilot light and no blower ones is they cost less and you have hot water without power.
I have heard the exchange places like Blue Rhino only put about 15 pounds in the 20 pound tanks. I go to Tractor supply and they claim to weight the propane and charge by the ammount.
My generator is rated for about 3500 watts on gas and 3000 on propane. The 4 gallon tank claims 10 hours on gas and 9 hours on a 20 pound tank of propane at 1/2 load.
I do have a 5 kw gas unit that I have had for about 15 years, but have not used it long enough to know how long it will run. I bought the smaller unit because of dual fuel and a lower power unit will usually run longer on the same ammount of fuel if it is not loaded very heavy. All so with the propane if the power is only out for a couple of hours I do not have to fool with the gasoline and the storage problems.
Is that the "Storm Responder" model B&S generator ? Did you get a snapshot of the waveform at a lower load ? I dunno what you call cheap , mine cost me around 900 bucks several years ago .
Funny you should ask No. it is the same
That is my big beef with this generator. It only puts out 115/230 and I can't find anything to adjust or change to make that 120/240. By the time that gets 100' away to the fridge at the other end of the house that is 109 or so, hence this guy. Next time I will be able to dial that up. That fridge seemed to be the only thing struggling.
I have a 120 gallon tank buried in the yard. That is good for about 6 days. (24/7 at pretty much full load) I do not see any drop in output on propane either. Maybe the engine on mine is just oversized for the generator head or something. The difference shows up in fuel consumption. 0.5 GPH gasoline vs 0.8 GPM on propane. This is based on an 8 day outage where I was running half gasoline and half time on propane so I got a pretty good test.
I am not sure this has a name like that but I got it for $300 second hand, still in the box. A guy bought it after Charley and 10 years later he sold it to me. It sat in my garage for 3 before it ever ran. I had the parts but I put the propane kit on it after Irma, in the blackout. It only took about a half hour tho and I was back up again. I didn't look at it unloaded with the scope but I was watching voltage during the outage and it was steady at 115/230.
I also added these loops after the cleanup was over from Irma so I can check each leg of the 230 to be sure I am balancing the load. I had to open up the panel to do it during the blackout.
No way to find the voltage sensing circuit that controls the voltage. There must be a circuit that drives the current to the rotor. See what it's doing, maybe put a resistor in series to trick it out? Probably no schematics that show what the board or boards do though.
I suppose it's also possible that it's simply maxed out
Mine's routed thru the shop sub panel to the main and we only run minimal loads so I don't worry about balance . Lights , fridge , TV and internet/computer stuff is all we usually run when on emergency power .
Most of the simple generators only have a governed speed control. There is usually a mechanical adjustment for this somewhere in the 'fixed throttle'.
I have not looked over my 5 kw generator in a while, but my little 700 watt Harbor Freight does have an adjustment screw that can set the speed of the engine.
I have not but start up current could be measured. My switched fan a bit more than 300 watts which seems very efficient, and it ramps up in speed slowly. About 3 amps I think on heat speed.
Greg
I don't even see a regulator or a board. It must be inside the generator head. There are just 3 wires coming out that go to the box with the receptacles. You can bring the voltage up by spinning the generator faster but it isn't 60 hz anymore. The voltage is 115/230 no matter what the load is so there is a regulator somewhere. There doesn't seem to be a lot of documentation on this.
This one has a bracket that the governor spring hooks to with about 2 dozen holes and you just pick the one that puts the right tension on the spring.
I lived in a house long ago that had a floor furnace that worked without any external power. It was sure nice because we had a power outage that lasted a week or so and snow on the ground. A late March storm put power lines on the ground in a pretty large area.
That's one way of trying to change the voltage, but I doubt it would work. Absent a voltage regulator, changing the speed would change the voltage, but it will also change the frequency. I would think there must also be some voltage regulating circuit in there that adjusts the rotor field to maintain the proper voltage as the load varies. I know that's how it's done on the home Generac standby generators and it makes sense. And if it has a VR, then changing the speed should not change the voltage.
The older generators do not have an electronic voltage regulator. They rely on the governor of the engine to keep the speed/voltage/frequecny constant.
The newer ones do have an electronic regulator. Here is an example of how to adjust them.
If so, then Fretwell must have one that's screwed by design or somehow faulty, because it's only putting out 230V at 60 hz.
I am going to look for that. It does make more sense than thinking there is no voltage regulator. I knew it had to be inside the generator head somewhere. I wasn't going to take my generator apart during the outage and even after the power came back, I still had far more important things to do. All I did with the generator was change the oil before I put it away. I guess I will put this on my list of things to look at. Thanks.
I think Ralph has the answer. I already said if there is a regulator, and my load tests seem to confirm there is, it must be inside the generator head. Now that I actually see one, I know what to look for. I am also not shocked that they set it for 115/230. That was the convention for years. I still might be tempted to leave it alone since everything but one fridge seems OK where it was. bumping up the voltage will cause some things to use more power and I am right at the tripping point now. If the city is successful in moving us to municipal water I won't need as much capacity tho because I will lose 1.5 HP worth of pump load.
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