Posted: 6/8/2010 2:06:47 PM EDT
| I have been seriously thinking about getting a generator, I know ultimately I would like a trifuel type setup, but then again I dont have a spare to 2K atm so in the interm I am looking for a regular 4-stroke gas generator. Here is where I get lost becuase either way I dont know how many watts I need. Some things I may not need at the moment I want to grow into in the future for example, ability to run a well off of for short periods of time. At the moment I dont not have the need personally, but my family has property with a well and it would be a family bug out location should the need arise. More practiaclly the power here is flakey and is known to go down for long periods of time. I would like to be able to run a refrigerator and a freezer and some house hold appliances. Ideally my wife would like to be able to watch a small tv dvd player and/or satellite reciever. I would like to keep all our food frozen and possibly run the blower motor to my natral gas furnace. Any input and suggestions would be appreciated |
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Depending on the depth of the well, you might need some serious power. My well pump in my previous house drew 21 amps at start, and 7 running. At 240 volts, that was 5000 watts startup (or surge). I think my well was about 300 feet. My generator has a 10-hp gas engine, 5000 continuous, 6250 surge, and it is enough for the well pump, sump pump, two fridges, family room and bedroom lighting, a tv and the furnace (oil burner with hot water heat), and a few outdoor floodlights. The fridges and well pump draw a lot more at startup, so things would dim for a few seconds when any one of those three would click on. |
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10yr old Honda GX240 motor (8HP) with a 5250 watt Generac, here. Last used it in January. Haven't had to have it worked on, although I have had to clean out the carb a couple of times after leaving gas in it.
Mine is a pull-start. You might find a battery start model handier depending on who will be using it. Ditto for putting it on wheels, if it doesn't come equipped with them. A transfer switch will simplify use of the generator immensely. I had one installed in my last house. Never bothered to have that done in this house though. I hadn't planned on staying here for as long as I ultimately did. |
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Check this out. http://www.powerstream.com/Amps-Watts.htm
Look at the tags on the devices you want to run to find out how much amperage or wattage they use. Anything with an electric motor will draw from 3 to 5 times as much power at startup as it will when running. Add up the requirements of the devices that are absolute "must haves" and size your generator appropriately. You CAN build your own generator. Also remember that you don't have to run everything all at once. You can run the freezer for a little while, then the fridge, then whatever else...in rotation. Doing that may allow you to buy a smaller generator. Here's another pretty decent link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000422531 Also, don't be afraid to go used. There are a lot of good deals out there, if you know what you're looking for. |
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Quoted:
Depending on the depth of the well, you might need some serious power. My well pump in my previous house drew 21 amps at start, and 7 running. At 240 volts, that was 5000 watts startup (or surge). I think my well was about 300 feet. My generator has a 10-hp gas engine, 5000 continuous, 6250 surge, and it is enough for the well pump, sump pump, two fridges, family room and bedroom lighting, a tv and the furnace (oil burner with hot water heat), and a few outdoor floodlights. The fridges and well pump draw a lot more at startup, so things would dim for a few seconds when any one of those three would click on. This is consistent with my experience. My well is about 300' and I use a 5500/8550 generator with no problems. When not powering the well this size generator provides plenty of wattage for all of the things I want to power––2 furnaces, kitchen appliances, lights and TV. |
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Personally, I expect my generator to perform as reliably as my carry guns. While all 3 of my carry guns were purchased used (all Glocks), they are much simpler devices. I would not purchase a used generator, unless it was from a close friend that I know to take good care of his stuff. |
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Personally, I expect my generator to perform as reliably as my carry guns. While all 3 of my carry guns were purchased used (all Glocks), they are much simpler devices. I would not purchase a used generator, unless it was from a close friend that I know to take good care of his stuff. There's not a thing wrong with buying used, if you know what you're looking for. Check the oil and the air filter, at minimum. If the oil is nasty black and the air filter is dirty and plugged up, it probably hasn't been well maintained. Run it and see if it smokes. If it smokes(blue smoke) at startup, it has plenty of wear and will probably need a rebuild before long. If it smokes(blue) while running, it is pretty worn and needs a rebuild asap. Neither would really bother me, since parts would cost me $50 or less for a B&S engine. Black smoke at startup or while running just means that the carb needs to be adjusted. If the engine has a lot of wear, the gen head probably does too. |
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For guys that are handy with small engines and electronics used generators can be a great deal. However, since I only have a basic understanding of those things I would be very careful about buying a used gen. A lot of people in my area have purchased gens in the last few years and it seems very few people take good care of them.
During our last big ice storm one of my neighbors overloaded his gen to point it shut down 2 or 3 times a day. Another neighbor ran his gen 6 days straight without changing the oil. However, it is not uncommon to find gens on Craigslist that people bought and never took out of the box. Those can be a great deal. Lastly, if you're not in a big rush to get a gen it seems really good deals pop up on new ones from time to time. A bunch of us got Generac gens for 50% at home depot a couple of months ago and a couple of years ago Champions were about 50% off. |
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I bought an older honda 1k watt model at a pawn shop for around half price of new. We fired it up right there and it had been inside so it was dead cold and we took it outside to mess with it. It fired on the 2nd yank, dude did not try hard on the first one. We got a corded drill and played around making sure things were working and let it run for a bit until I was happy with it. While the case is beat up and rusty the thing runs fine and just needs me to have some time to take it apart and paint and clean things up. I would not have bought it if it was not half price though. A guy at work bought a generac I think, around 5500 watt size from what I recall, from another pawnshop. When they fired it up it ran wide open and would not idle down. He paid 135 or so for it I think and when he got home he took some stuff off it so he could see the carb and someone had wired the thing wide open so it would not idle down. It works fine and he found no reason for it to be wired open. I only buy stuff from a pawnshop if I know a little bit about what I am looking at and I can handle being wrong now and then. I had looked at that generac for a few months but it was larger than I wanted to mess with and they would not drop the price for me. The honda is from a shop where the guy backs his stuff up if you have an immediate problem with it. So I had it running there and took it home and played with it for a while and it runs like it should and uses little fuel so I am happy with it. |
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A factory Briggs and Stratton service manual is about $24. You need to get the one appropriate to the engine type. Newer generators will probably have OHV engines, which require a different manual than the older side valve engines. V twin engines need a different manual than single cylinder engines.
I'm sure factory service manuals for other brands are in the same price range, and they'll tell you everything you need to know about servicing/maintaining/rebuilding a small engine of that brand and type. They'll have a list of common problems and the solutions. There are a couple of special tools required for some jobs(which aren't expensive), but in general all you'll need is basic hand tools that you probably already have. Spark plug gap on most small engines will be .025", but new plugs usually have a gap of .035", meaning you need to tap the plug on a hard surface to close up the gap and then reset it with a gage. Keep the oil changed and the air filter clean. Not much else to do other than remove the head and scrape carbon out every few hundred hours, then reinstall with new gasket and torque it per the procedure in the service manual. I'm not much on electrical stuff, but from looking at the inside of a gen head, there isn't much that will be user serviceable in one. Other than maybe fixing a wire with frayed insulation, replacing the brushes(keep spares on hand), or replacing the bearings(again, keep spares, they're cheap), there isn't anything I can see that the average person will be able to fix. Like cars and trucks, small engines can withstand incredible amounts of abuse and keep going. Running one to 1.5x the maximum recommended time for an oil change isn't a good idea, but I doubt it did any damage to the engine. If it had been during 100+ degree heat...I'd be more concerned. Also, if his genset has a pressurized oil system and a filter, I probably wouldn't be worried at all. If he had run it to the point that the low oil sensor was tripping, even though the oil level was fine, I'd be concerned....which reminds me––that is something else to look for on a used genset. People will disconnect the low oil sensor occasionally, either because it went bad, or because they didn't change the oil often enough and the sensor tripped due to the oil being too thin. I posted some info in this thread regarding what I had to do to get a couple of units running. ETA: from some info I found a few days ago, expect a 10-25%(IIRC) power output loss when switching to NG or propane. Also be aware that they will dry out all the fuel system gaskets, leading to potential problems with lean air/fuel mix and poor running or engine damage(extreme) due to excess heat. Learn to work on this stuff NOW, while you have the luxury of time. You will be SOL if it breaks down and you only know that gas goes in here and oil goes in there. 
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Depending on the depth of the well, you might need some serious power. My well pump in my previous house drew 21 amps at start, and 7 running. At 240 volts, that was 5000 watts startup (or surge). I think my well was about 300 feet. My generator has a 10-hp gas engine, 5000 continuous, 6250 surge, and it is enough for the well pump, sump pump, two fridges, family room and bedroom lighting, a tv and the furnace (oil burner with hot water heat), and a few outdoor floodlights. The fridges and well pump draw a lot more at startup, so things would dim for a few seconds when any one of those three would click on. This is consistent with my experience. My well is about 300' and I use a 5500/8550 generator with no problems. When not powering the well this size generator provides plenty of wattage for all of the things I want to power––2 furnaces, kitchen appliances, lights and TV. +1. I have a 5kw Coleman Powermate but I dont have a well pump, other than that my experience has been the same as above. Basically it runs the whole house if you dont go crazy and try to run evey high use item at once. Normal operation is no problem. The caveat is that it is relatively loud and thirsty ~10-12 hours per 6 gals. No big deal in a short term event. I would like to also have a Honda 2k for long term use though. |