Posted: 2/8/2012 4:31:04 AM EDT
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Please school me on Generators or Gen/Inverters
Whats the difference?? Im looking for a generator or inverter that would power a fridge, TV and 1 furnace. I would setup a manual transfer switch and would like something quite. i would also rotate if the power needs was to high. any deals out there on something like this? |
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Are you talking about inverter generators that are supposed to produce cleaner power, run quieter, and be slightly more fuel efficient that a traditional generator? Or, are you talking about a DC to AC inverter?
There's not much to an inverter generator. They're just said to produce cleaner power. The disadvantage is that they don't tend to come in large power units. The most you'll get is ~3k watts but you can parallel two units together to make 6k watts. You could buy a 6k watt non inverter generator but then there isn't a back-up; however, now there's just one unit to maintain. A DC-AC inverter will be silent power but without a recharging system for the battery bank you're done when the batteries run out of juice. Unless you're getting solar panel and batteries for free a sizable system is going to cost way more than a generator. A 3k watt sine wave inverter (just one component of the system) is going to cost as much if not more than a 3k watt gasoline generator. I guess you need to consider how much silence is worth to you. We'll have to know the HP rating of your furnace blower motor, that will probably be the item with the biggest power demands. |
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If you had a big bank of batteries and a big invertor you could power that stuff for a little while. Depending on the size of the battery bank the time would vary and you would still need a way to charge up the battery bank. Since you want to power a tv I would research what it really needs for power. A plain old generator supplies somewhat dirty power. Some stuff runs fine on this. An invertor generator is rather expensive compared to a regular generator but the invertor generator supplies nice clean power that anything can run on. You need to figure out your loads to size your generator. The honda stuff is very well thought of but it is also expensive. There are some other brands out there and you just need to do some reading and figure out what fits your wants/needs/wallet. If you run stuff seperately a smaller generator will run everything one at a time. If you want to run everything at once you need a larger generator. |
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You want a generator, period.
What you wanting to power with an inverter would be inverters and a battery bank for the cost you could have two generators and a large external tank of gas, diesel, or propane. Not to be blunt, because solar, batteries, and inverters have their place, to run anything for any length of real time, you pretty much have to think downsize everything, small fridge, etc. That furnace alone is one heck of a lot of wattage. I'll give you an idea of what I'm talking here. I run an inverter on my boat. Two 1,000 amp deep cycle batteries batteries will run one small DC bulb and small camper type fridge on all the time with a couple hours of a 9" color TV and about four hours of a stereo one night. I use my microwave, its like 20 minutes. It takes me about four hours to charge those batteries with my engine which has a 120 amp alternator. On the other hand, at my house I use a generator and can power TV, 2 fridges, a freezer, a few lights, microwave, fans, for a week on 20 gallons of gas with some alternation of what I use when. I wish this stuff wasn't at trade but it is. Yes, I have three inverters at home too and batteries plus my vehicles. They however are short term options for limited use. Trying to use them for any long term solution is having to rethink what I have or on what like run a radio a few hours or TV a few hours fine, but nowhere near house comfort level. Inverter generators simply work best on delicate electronics like computers or some TVs although most TVs work on regular generators. Most laptops work on regular generators due to the transformers. Now the downside is they too cost way more. That's why I have two generators as small one for electronics and a big one for the house. Tj |
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The inverter generators provide more fuel efficient power, they are quiter, and the power sine wave is good and clean. They are more exspensive.
The regular generators are cheap, and not as fuel effieicnt, they are louder, and the sine wave is not as clean. I have regular gennys and a Honda EU3000IS, the EU is a great mqchine, I wish I could afford another. I would buy a Champion because of the reviews and the research here and RV.net. I have a large regular Honda powered 6500 wattt to run whole house, and the EU3000 for quiet, low load times. I have large inverters for back up as well. |
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The inverter generators provide more fuel efficient power, they are quiter, and the power sine wave is good and clean. They are more exspensive. The regular generators are cheap, and not as fuel effieicnt, they are louder, and the sine wave is not as clean. I have regular gennys and a Honda EU3000IS, the EU is a great mqchine, I wish I could afford another. I would buy a Champion because of the reviews and the research here and RV.net. I have a large regular Honda powered 6500 wattt to run whole house, and the EU3000 for quiet, low load times. I have large inverters for back up as well. You know that's not quite true anymore though a good generality in the past. Many new generators not inverter style have throttle control for fuel efficiency and below 70 db sound suppression for quietness. You just have to buy the features. Champion, for example, has both. Tj |
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From the comment so far i guess i would want a quite generator... something like this
Generator Would something like this with a manual transfer switch be good to go? is there something else you would recommend? |
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From the comment so far i guess i would want a quite generator... something like this Generator Would something like this with a manual transfer switch be good to go? is there something else you would recommend? Most likely. I don't know anything about that brand. You'll have to figure out which circuits you want to run. Then you have to balance the load so that one leg of the generator doesn't have a big draw while the other has nothing. You'll want a 20-30ft 10ga cord. The shorter the better. Then you'll want to pick up a couple gallons of oil, some carb cleaner, gasket making kit, and spare spark plugs. |
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From the comment so far i guess i would want a quite generator... The generator you mentioned has a "Decibel" rating of 69 dBA - which isn't particularly quiet. By comparison, a Honda eu6500is is rated at 60 dBA at full power, or just 52 dBA at 1/4 power. A difference of just 3 dBA is noticeable - and 10 dBA is a HUGE difference in noise. Unfortunately, quiet generators tend to be a lot more expensive than their noisy counterparts - Most of the quiet models use an inverter design, which adds a lot of extra complexity and expense. |
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From the comment so far i guess i would want a quite generator... The generator you mentioned has a "Decibel" rating of 69 dBA - which isn't particularly quiet. By comparison, a Honda eu6500is is rated at 60 dBA at full power, or just 52 dBA at 1/4 power. A difference of just 3 dBA is noticeable - and 10 dBA is a HUGE difference in noise. Unfortunately, quiet generators tend to be a lot more expensive than their noisy counterparts - Most of the quiet models use an inverter design, which adds a lot of extra complexity and expense. yes, that honda is like 4k :) |
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From the comment so far i guess i would want a quite generator... something like this Generator Would something like this with a manual transfer switch be good to go? is there something else you would recommend? Just another Chinese generator by a different name. I have a Chinese special in the garage, I think the voltage regulator has quit working b/c it puts out about 3 volts.Can't find a parts vendor.. Consider this carefully: Machines break, and yo will need parts. I won't buy another Chinese clunker. Ops |
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From the comment so far i guess i would want a quite generator... something like this Generator Would something like this with a manual transfer switch be good to go? is there something else you would recommend? I know the brand. In fact, I have that one. Bought mine through Max Tool, where its less expensive $439 less than your link and you can order parts through Max Tool customer service. The one I ordered is the same model except I did not want the electric start. The way I figured, the battery is just going to be dead when I need it because my application is only a power outage and I've already got two motorcycles and an ATV I have to stay on top of keeping a battery tender on. I had an electrician friend set me up with a long heavy cable with 220 volt plug hooked to a manual transfer switch so all I have to do is roll it outside my garage, fire it up, and switch it on. I put a ground rod off to the side so I can ground it. Yes it has all the features and 69 dbs for a 7 hp motor is awfully quiet. When comparing quietness, it helps to compare apples to apples on horsepower. It ships free from Max Tool, UPS surprisingly, and the only assembly is the wheel kit which is pretty easy. They do expect you to pull it out of the truck a two person job. This is the same brand Pep Boys carries and sometimes this same wattage no meter and no wheel kit sells for $300 (on sale). I did look into that and like Pep Boys Chinese motorbikes, getting parts through Pep Boys is a nightmare. They're just not set up to do it. Max Tool is located in Dallas, if I recall. They are. I don't know about your link. Heck, could be the same company as far as I know selling an orange one, same color as Pep Boys for more that type thing. The Max Tool is blue. I also had one of their tiny gens, the 1,000 watt 2 cycle. I gave that to my brother as a gift and it got them through a ten day outage. I used it for a while to charge batteries. They didn't a lose a thing in their fridges or freezers but had to rotate it around one at a time. 1,000 watts is not much. Probably would not have been my first choice if I was a contractor using one every day but for emergency use once every so many years, its been fine. I can't tell you how durable they are because, I don't use it and probably never will enough to find out. The trick is in storing them until you do need them, remove the gas or run it dry, and drain the oil that type thing. Any small motor will have a problem if you don't do that. $379 for 3,500 watts 4,400 watt surge delivered with meter, well, I couldn't walk away from that price. So far, I can't complain either. Tj |
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Any thoughts on a decent 220v generator? One would be nice to power the well pump in power outages. Or is there a device that would allow the us of a regular 120v generator? 220v is usually on the larger size gen sets, 5-6kVA and up. I suppose you could get a step up transformer for 110 to 220v but for a well pump it would be in the 2kVA size. |
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From the comment so far i guess i would want a quite generator... The generator you mentioned has a "Decibel" rating of 69 dBA - which isn't particularly quiet. By comparison, a Honda eu6500is is rated at 60 dBA at full power, or just 52 dBA at 1/4 power. A difference of just 3 dBA is noticeable - and 10 dBA is a HUGE difference in noise. Unfortunately, quiet generators tend to be a lot more expensive than their noisy counterparts - Most of the quiet models use an inverter design, which adds a lot of extra complexity and expense. yes, that honda is like 4k :) One way to avoid the high expense of a big inverter generator is to buy a small inverter generator instead - and then supplement it with a large, much cheaper non-inverter generator. Basically, you use the small inverter generator to power most of your loads (which tend to be relatively small), and only fire up the large racket-maker when you really need to power something big. So, instead of listening to a loud generator for 5-10 hours a day, you might be able to get by with just an hour or so of noise - and run the small inverter generator the rest of the time. This also has the advantage of giving you some redundancy - If either of your generators fails, you'll still have at least some AC power from the other one. Also, it gives you the ability to loan one generator to friends or relatives without leaving yourself generator-less. For a largish-ish, cheap generator, you might take a look at the Champion 41115. It's rated for 5KW continuous, has 120/240V outputs, and costs around $500. Champion has a good reputation for build quality and customer service. Pair it with a small Honda or Yamaha inverter generator, and you've got a versatile package that can be quiet when you need it to, yet will still run a good-sized 240 volt well pump, air conditioner or clothes dryer. |