Posted: 5/22/2012 3:57:27 AM EDT
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I don't know much about generators. Will one of those military 3KW generators run a house? If so, would it just run the minimums? Lights, fridge, additional freeezer, sump and septic pumps and A/C?
School me please. Thanks guys! ETA: Also, what would be better for SHTF? Diesel or regular gas? |
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I don't know much about generators. Will one of those military 3KW generators run a house? If so, would it just run the minimums? Lights, fridge, additional freeezer, sump and septic pumps and A/C? School me please. Thanks guys! You're overly optimistic. You'll need to add up your loads: Here's a load calculator. You'll also need to consider the generator's surge rating, which is the maximum output it can handle for the brief period that a motor powered by the generator is first starting up. This is particularly important for loads with big motors like AC units, large power tools, etc. (edited to add the blue) |
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Water heater 4500 watt electric heat 10-20 or more kw you would have about 25 amps at 120 you could run 2 hair dryers Well, I don't have enough hair to worry about running those. 
SO from your two posts, a 3KW generator is pretty small then? good for moving between your freezer , fridge and fans During huricane alica in 83 ones that size saved a lot of food |
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Water heater 4500 watt electric heat 10-20 or more kw you would have about 25 amps at 120 you could run 2 hair dryers Well, I don't have enough hair to worry about running those.
SO from your two posts, a 3KW generator is pretty small then? Correct. It's what I use, though, and it has worked out ok for us. Our power was knocked-out for a week after last year's April tornado swarms. We used the generator a couple of times a day for 1-2 hrs to run a tankless NG water heater (which uses very little power), cool-down our refrigerator, and top-off a small auto jump pack we used to run an inverter when the generator was off. We used the inverter to keep cell phones and laptops charged. Since then I've added a window AC unit to my office. The generator will easily run it and it can make my office pretty darn cold. Our intent is to be able to cool-down one room for sleeping in the event of another outage. To determine how many amps of 120V AC a generator can output, divide the power rating (the lower continuous rating) by 120. (This is according to Watt's Law, Power = Volts x Current, which rearranges to Current (Amps) = Power/Volts.) |
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Water heater 4500 watt electric heat 10-20 or more kw you would have about 25 amps at 120 you could run 2 hair dryers Well, I don't have enough hair to worry about running those.
SO from your two posts, a 3KW generator is pretty small then? good for moving between your freezer , fridge and fans During huricane alica in 83 ones that size saved a lot of food This. You would need to practice power management and switch between your various appliances because you won't have the capacity to run everything at the same time. |
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I have a 6500W Honda generator (which I guess can surge to 7500W temporarily), and it can run the downstairs furnace, well pump, refrigerator/freezer, as well as a bunch of outlets and lights - so pretty much everything we need (other than AC). When we were testing loads and running the generator, we were able to turn on two electric space heaters (which really use a lot of power) - in addition to the well pump running, the furnace being on, the fridge running at full power and a bunch of lights and appliances being on, including a big-screen plasma TV, internet router, computers, etc.
That's enough for us, since my primary concern is power loss during the winter and the house freezing up (we've had several winter storms over the past few years in which friends of ours have lost power for a week). If we lose power in the summer, the outage is usually pretty short, and even if it isn't we can sleep downstairs (where it is much cooler), and set up some electric fans. But to run the WHOLE house, including both AC units, we'd need at least 20,000 Watts - and that requires a big water-cooled generator and expensive switches and gas lines, etc - so that's too rich for us. |
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I've got a 3kw chinese generator. As was said, it's ok for swapping around to keep the absolute essentials running, but a water heater or furnace or a/c is gonna bottom it out and suck at life. I got a great deal on mine, but I've definitely never wished it was smaller.
ETA- my genny is gas, but I've been looking at a diesel generator as we have a 200gal tank of fuel oil sitting there not twenty feet from where I set the thing up. |
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We have a 5500w gen right now, I was just looking at the Gov liq site to see what they had. It would be nice to be able to just run the whole house and not worry about anything. With the 5500 I am just running what we need if and when the power goes out. If you're barely running what you need with a 5500, the 3k is gonna leave you in worse shape. I did a lot of research into the MEP's for sale on the GovLiq site. The 3k (MEP701 or 016) is pretty small, runs at 3600 rpm (which makes it much louder...even with the acoustic kit), and some replacement/maintenance parts can be very hard to source. The MEP002 is going to be similar to what you have (output wise). Kind of a wash if your 5500 generator isn't enough. That leaves a MEP003. 10K watt output and runs at a nice, slow 1800 rpm. Downsides: parts and maintenance items can be very hard to source. Also, I believe it will burn around 1gph, so you'll have to have a decent supply of diesel on hand (or home heating oil). Biggest downside (i think)...these weigh around 1,200 lbs, so you won't be moving them around much. In all the MEP units that you buy from GovLiq, it looks like condition is going to be hit-and-miss. There's a website called steelsoldiers which has a forum dedicated to these units. I've read through it, and it seems like if you get one and it's running well, you're golden. If something outside the norm goes on it (voltage regulator, governors, etc), you're gonna be hosed. Some parts were specifically fabricated for the military, so you simply cannot buy them new. You gotta hope to find someone parting their genset out. After all was said and done, I opted for a higher-end conventional generator (generac XG7000). The availability of parts and overall portability were worth more to me (in a generator that I may need to use once every few years) than the durability of a MEP. Just my $0.02. |