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I picked one up a few years ago from HD. It is a Coleman ( I think). I liked it as it has a Briggs and Straton engine. 6000 watts starting, 5500 running. The reason for the difference is that you need more power to start than keep stuff running. My main concern was running a fridge and possibly a small A/C. A fridge takes about 1800 watts to run, leaving the rest for other stuff.
The tank is 5 gallons and I've run it for 12 - 15 hours straight. On 5 gallons, I think it can go for 30 hours, but I am not sure. I usually keep 15 gallons of fuel around during the season. I also have a small pump that I can stick into my car's tank which will give me an extra 15 gallons if necessary.
We are wondering what size are most people going with and what brand.
I have not noticed any homes for sale or rent that advertise they have a generator included with the home.
Get a "load survey" on your house. Meaning how much current are you drawing if everything in your house was running simultaneously. Then buy a stand-by generator that could handle that load at approximately 85% full load. Buy a 'whole house' transfer switch, such as the type GE sells for between $800.00 and $1200.00 dollars. This type not only protects you against outages, it also senses system frequency unbalances, and low voltage situations, both of which could cost you a lot of money. Especially today, since de-regulation, utility companies can only earn money on 'generation', meaning preventative maintenance is very low on the list and outages will be come more regular than in years past.
As for the type, Honda is excellent as are several other companies. Check with your dealer.
If you want to power your entire house this post is NOT for you. If you want to run your refrigerator, have one air conditioned room and some lights, read on.
Most of the generators you see in Home Depot, Lowes, etc are traditional noisy generators selling for $400 to $700+. They'll burn through 3 or 4 gallons of gasoline in a few hours regardless of what their rated power is and what your are trying to power. Consider how much gasoline you want to have on hand and how long that will keep your (traditional) generator going. You want to add the cost of gasoline to your decision making process. A single 5 gallon container of gasoline is now worth $15+, and that will keep your traditional generator running for about 15 hours (maybe), depending on the size (watts) of your generator. Compare that with 13+ hours on 1 gallon.
Yes, 24 hours continously on less than two gallons of gasoline. That five gallon container can now keep your refrigerator running continuously 24 hours a day for almost 4 days. How is that possible? It's possible with an INVERTER type generator. It uses only the fuel it needs to power your refrigerator, air conditioner and lights, and not much more.
Here are the specifics:
Honda EU2000 generator less than $900 wisesales.com
Extended run 6 gallon tank for the EU2000 about $100 wisesales.com
Fedders 5000 BTU air conditioner about $100 Walmart
4 Five gallon gasoline containers about $20 Home Depot, Walmart, etc.
Total out of pocket $1,120.00
The Honda generators uses 1.1 gallons every 4 hours when running at maximum capacity of 1600 watts, and 15 hours when running at 25% of capacity.
What you do:
Run your refrigerator 24 x 7 throught the outage, run air conditioner as needed preferable nights only. For purposes of this model consider running your air about 14 hours a day, from 4 PM until 6 AM daily. At this rate you will consume approximately 3.5 gallons of fuel per 24 hour period. You started out with 21.1 gallons, this rate of fuel consumption will keep fairly comfortable for about 6 days.
Why the extended run tank?
The Honda EU2000 holds 1.1 gallons of gasoline. Do want it running out of fuel at 3:30AM? No. The extended run tank holds 6 gallons so you can refuel at a time when it suits you and know that it will keep running for about two days (3.5 gallons p/day) before you have refuel. ...and if you fill this tank also, you get a total of 8 days run time.
A traditional generator at about 3 hours per gallons will consume about $200 or 64 gallons of gasoline in 8 days of continuous running. With the EU2000 you bought less that $80 (26 gallons) worth of gasoline, had to refuel 4 times over 8 days and did I mention that it's so quiet you can stand next to while holding a normal conversation.
Why the Honda EU2000?
There are several inverter type generators in the market. The most popular ones are from Honda and Yamaha, and there are others of lesser known brands.
The EU2000 is made by a reputable manufacturer. If you need service a Honda dealer is not too far away.
The EU2000 offers the minimum power required to run both your refrigerator and air conditioner simultaneously which will happen while your are sleeping. The EU2000 is NOT so big that it will waste fuel when it's not need, it's just the right size for 1 refrigerator, and 1 small window air conditioner OR 1 microwave oven so you can cook.
So there you are refrigeration, air conditioning and cooking all for $1,120 (Approx) and very little fuel consumption because FUEL IS THE ONE THING YOU CAN'T GET once a hurricane knock out power. As a friend of mine likes to say "It sips gas".
This is only an opinion. I'm sure millions of you have different one. I was without utility power for 5 days after Wilma and got by very nicely on 15 gallons. Didn't need the air conditioning but we ran our microwave when ever we wanted to boil water for coffee and had plenty of ice cold water.
Be safe and hope you never need this advise.
Disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the vendors I mentioned, it's just so happens that's where I got my generator, extended run tank, air conditioner, fuel containers, etc. I'm sure there are others.
A couple of things to note. This I learned from a Guardian Generator Representative who use to be a neighbor. Florida gets really hot ( duh ) and if you get an air cooled generator which is your typical Home Depot unit, it's not going to function as well as a liquid cooled generator like Guardian makes.
Honda makes some really quiet portable generators. I've seen them at street fairs being used by the vendors and I was amazed at how quiet they were.
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Last edited by sunrico90; 04-23-2008 at 06:40 PM..
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