hyfire
Minister of Fire
I assume you have this connected to a 100lb tank? Or Bigger? 8kw would be a large fuel demand IMHO.
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I assume you have this connected to a 100lb tank? Or Bigger? 8kw would be a large fuel demand IMHO.
That's a great setup, and my gennie is also an 8KW Generac. I've thought of converting to propane (no nat gas available). How many gallons or lbs does it use per hour under normal "half load"?
The manual says 0.94 gal/hr of propane at 1/2 load. http://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/Generac-Guardian-6237-Standby-Generator/p10669.html
Why I don't have one of those things. Started to get one installed and then checked the web for people that had them and how much fuel they were using.
According to my whole house power monitor I average 1 KWH an hour. Peaking at 5.6 KWH when the water heater kicks. Them suckers be too much power and too expensive firepower for me.
According to my whole house power monitor I average 1 KWH an hour. Peaking at 5.6 KWH when the water heater kicks. Them suckers be too much power and too expensive firepower for me.
Do you run the water heater on that gennie? That alone would be at least 4500 watts and then when a refrigerator starts up, it puts about 3kw startup load until it starts. That's my biggest problem on my solar setup. The startup of the top loading freezers (converted to fridges).
What whole house system do you use? I have the TED system for several years now. I wish I could say I average 1KWH. It gets down to that when everyone is asleep!
Too darn many electronics running all the time. Need to break out the kerosene lanterns and Monopoly!
Just two old people and a wood stove here. I just use the simple BlueLine monitor. But that sucker saved me three years ago when the check valve in the deep well pump failed. The pump was pressurizing the tank and then the water was going right back into the well. And over and over and over. The BlueLine got me on the trail within an hour.
Would love to have a TED but just can't see what it would buy me for the outlay since the other toy has been doing fine.
As to cost cutting I used to have four huge HP servers running in the basement and a T1 com rack before I retired. I have downsized that after retiring to a wireless router, laptops and NAS drives that use 60 watts total. Talk about a drop in an electric bill!
They came out and changed my meter. Thought is must have broken.
Would love to have a TED but just can't see what it would buy me for the outlay since the other toy has been doing fine.
As to cost cutting I used to have four huge HP servers running in the basement and a T1 com rack before I retired. I have downsized that after retiring to a wireless router, laptops and NAS drives that use 60 watts total. Talk about a drop in an electric bill!
They came out and changed my meter. Thought is must have broken.
railfanron
Minister of Fire
You can easily add up to over 5000 watts by the time you add a freezer and fridge plus a high volume well pump. Ya it burns about a gallon an hour but it's totally automatic whether I'm home or not. I ran a 4000 watt Onan gas before this one and it burned about 3/4 of a gallon per hour and I was constantly turning things on and off to distribute the load. No matter what type of generator you use that puts out enough power to run everything important in the house the cost of operation isn't cheap.
Ron
Ron
I've got 2 of the Honda EU2000i's and they each run >quietly< over 8 hours on a gallon. I can tie them together for up to 4,000 watts peak. In power outage I just run one on the deck outside my Harman Advance with an extension to the modem, and wireless router. I have a 2.5 propane Onan parked in the driveway which is much louder than the Hondas.
BTW, no need to have the aux gas tank above the EU2000. The fuel pump sucks my spare 6 gallon tanks easily if your hose is air tight. If I hookup the spare tank I have 7 gallons and and could run several days without refueling. I use a 1/4" fuel line.
On manual the Harman draws 275 watts so the Honda can get over 15 hours/gallon.
Coffee, white gas and Melita filter cone but the grinder is 180 watts so I hook up the Harman first.
BTW, no need to have the aux gas tank above the EU2000. The fuel pump sucks my spare 6 gallon tanks easily if your hose is air tight. If I hookup the spare tank I have 7 gallons and and could run several days without refueling. I use a 1/4" fuel line.
On manual the Harman draws 275 watts so the Honda can get over 15 hours/gallon.
Coffee, white gas and Melita filter cone but the grinder is 180 watts so I hook up the Harman first.
For us, we can run an 80 gallon electric HW heater with our 8Kw generator, if we manage loads as we do so (no running a toaster oven or ash vac, for example, while it's heating). We have two refrigerators but both are low energy consumption, and have yet to cause a problem. The well pump is a definite hog when it kicks on, but only for 1-2 seconds. You can hear it in the gennie, but it's rated for 12Kw surge, so it takes it. I suspect that surge is the problem with the inverter on your solar setup. Basically, we turn on the HW heater once coffee is made, and then take showers about 1 hour later (we can hear the generator change pitch when it's done). We then allow the tank to reheat (it's well insulated) and turn off that breaker for the rest of the day.
"BTW, no need to have the aux gas tank above the EU2000. The fuel pump sucks my spare 6 gallon tanks easily if your hose is air tight. If I hookup the spare tank I have 7 gallons and and could run several days without refueling. I use a 1/4" fuel line.
On manual the Harman draws 275 watts so the Honda can get over 15 hours/gallon.[/quote]
Yes the fuel pump on the Honda will lift the fuel up about 10 ft I think....It is on the top shelf because the genny is heavier and so I put it on the on the bottom shelf for balance....just to make a convenient space saving setup to move around!
On manual the Harman draws 275 watts so the Honda can get over 15 hours/gallon.
[/quote]Yes the fuel pump on the Honda will lift the fuel up about 10 ft I think....It is on the top shelf because the genny is heavier and so I put it on the on the bottom shelf for balance....just to make a convenient space saving setup to move around!
Sounds like you are well in command! Yes, the surge on a fridge /freezer can be 10X the running load but only briefly. It plays hell with inverters. Mine's a 2kw pure sine wave with 4k momentary and it will occasionally trip I guess if the compressor is just aligned right before TDC.
Better yet boil some water on the propane stove, use a french press, and have REAL coffee!
Sigh... Oh, ye of little imagination and adventure... It's not that I need to build these things - it's the fun of doing it, and the fact that one can. We boys need our toys, so quit being so practical and help me figure out a way to power the toaster with cold fusion. I need something to go with this coffee...
Lake Girl
Moderator
Nephew had a saying - "Helping never helps" He would always get blamed for anything/everything that went wrong when he would try to help someone outI learned that the only relationship I want with my neighbor is hi and by
We have a 2k inverter that can be wired up to a 120v transfer switch to power the circuit our fridge is on and another circuit the pellet stove is on. I guess we would go without showers as we dont have anything for our hot water heater. I do have a 3500w generator to power the well pump but no dice on the hot water heater. Nothing to power our heat pump it pulls about 120 amps instantaneous when it starts then 2800w when its running.
Have not told my wife about the no hot water thing yet.
Have not told my wife about the no hot water thing yet.
Lake Girl
Moderator
But if you have a tub and a propane burner you can still have a warm bath just a bit more work! Hubby had the separate propane burner and pot for warming/de-icing his diving gloves when he had to dive in the winter. Came in handy for longer power outages in colder weather
Look into the Nyle Geyser water heat pump. It runs on 110v draws 5-7 amps. We use ours connected to a 120 gallon tank during the late spring / summer when we turn off our pellet boiler (which is also 110v). The Geyser supplies all our hot water for a house with 5 adults during those months. The all in one tank / heat pumps are 220v which is why we did not get one of those.
We use a Honda EU2000i and a Honda EU2000 companion connected to our fuse panel safely via an interlock switch. It enables us to power up everything but the 220v appliances in the house. Also bought a gas tank which connects up to both Hondas for extended run times. Works great.
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That's why I installed this baby in the basement!
Plenty of hot water! And bread, eggs, soup, etc.!![[Hearth.com] Power out - stove cranking away](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/126/126998-10a1040459b5f0488b1a14a451880c47.jpg?hash=PzSkhe0MRH "[Hearth.com] Power out - stove cranking away")
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