Paulywood Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 OK guys, after 2 power outages the boss finally gave me permission to pull the trigger on a generator. I know that everyone is going to suggest an LP standby unit but that isn't going to happen. We don't plan on staying in our house for that long and don't want to spend that kind of money on something we will barely get the chance to use. I have been looking at portable units in the 7000-8500 watt range with electric start. I would like to have an invertor as the boss works from home when the weather is bad and I think that would help make the power "cleaner" for running computers. Any advice on specific units or what I should be looking for would be great.
Ashman Posted February 2, 2011 Posted February 2, 2011 I've bought around 4 generators in the last 20 years. I use them in my construction business. I had the best luck with a Onan.The one I have now is pure junk....got it on sale at Lowes a few years back. I need to buy another one for this upcoming building year, not sure what I'll buy. I'll be watching this thread for peoples opinions.
1mainiac Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 Onan is about the best however very few people use them enough to take advantage of the the quality. I could go on but better if you called me Nick. since you are on.
sjk984 Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 Onan's aand thenHonda Brand (notjust the engine).STay away from Generac. They run ok if you use them all the time but they don'tstore very well. And the wait time on service sucks.I have aNew honda on my truck only because it was 600 less than the onan I wanted.
1mainiac Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 Anyhow I will add a few things while I wait for Nick to call me there are now multiple options in Generators starting with basic 2 pole 110v generators which are your basic cheap 110 generator and they have to run at 3600 rpm to produce 60 cycle A/C most 4 pole generators are 220v and also run 3600 rpm this is in direct drive setups there are several that use belts or gear drives to alter the engine rpm. Onan and a couple others created a 4 pole 110v generator that runs at 1800 rpm and created the Quiet Power series of generators they also make 8 pole generators for 220v applications again running at 1800 rpm. That was the basic selection for many years Honda and others came up with inverter generators years ago and the difference is huge these units use a DC generator for power and a inverter to convert to 110v AC this is cool in the fact that now 60 cycle AC is no longer dependent on maintaining correct engine rpm and they will produce power at a idle and simply increase rpm as needed to make max power. Since you usually only need full power for short periods this give you much longer run time per gallon of fuel than just having the motor blaze away not matter if your using power or not.
1mainiac Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 Personally my choice would be a Lincoln welder generator or a Miller but then I would use the welder.
adrenalin Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 I work construction and we use one everyday building houses. The best we found are hondas, but a 7500 watt will easily be a couple grand.
Paulywood Posted February 3, 2011 Author Posted February 3, 2011 After reading your replies I went and checked on the Onan and Honda generators. The largest Onan I have found is 5 kw and the largest Honda is 6.5 kw. From talking to an electrical engineer it doesn't seem that these will be large enough to run the whole house. We live in the country so it has to run a well pump as well as the furnace and regular household electronics. Oh, and the Honda was about $4500, which is out of my budget range. Any other ideas guys?
Rascal Trophy Fishing Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 I've had Onan's, on land and the boat, and they are the best, and most expensive for purchase and parts, $12 for spark plugs, get it? I've had friends with great experience with Honda's products too, but I like their bikes better. I'd try online and ebay to shop for a few months to get the best deal. Many of the used units may be just like new, and the owner wants to ditch it for financial reasons right now. There's a lot of good deals on almost anything right now, if you have the moolah, and wait for your right deal.
1mainiac Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 Nick I can get you any size generator you want however they are not cheap if you want to be able to run the entire house you are probably looking at 12 to 15kw. I don't know what your budget is but there are some decent options out there. This is what I am looking at once I showed my wife what it would cost to put in a 10kw standby generator she agreed that when we have the extra money this is at the top of the list gets me a much better welder and her a backup generator in one package.http://www.millerwelds.com/products/enginedriven/product.php?model=M90334this was my first choice under 10 ghttp://www.millerwelds.com/products/enginedriven/product.php?model=M00182
Paulywood Posted February 3, 2011 Author Posted February 3, 2011 Well I don't need a welder and I don't need to run the entire house. I already have a transfer switch so I just need a generator that is large enough to run everything on the switch.
sjk984 Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 My dad has a 4.5KW honda. It won't run the whole house but he runs the well and sump of the 220 with a 110 converter. and 2 power bars( off the gen. 110 plugs that run his entertainment center (tv, vcr, wii, And desk top) and the fridge. It will also run the furnace but not at the same time as the pumps. He also runs a few lamps.
GLF Posted February 3, 2011 Posted February 3, 2011 This is what we have. Its 6800 running watts with a 8500 starting watts. It ran our entire house with the A/C on this past summer when we lost electric. We live in the country and have a 200 amp service. Our hot water heater is LP, and we have a 240v well.
Paulywood Posted February 3, 2011 Author Posted February 3, 2011 Thanks Mike! I went out and looked at my transfer switch and decided to call the company that installed it. I'm not sure what exactly is hooked up to it and I put our fridge on a seperate circuit so I doubt that is on there. The shop is just a mile down the road so I think I'll give them a call and check again on what I need.
Paulywood Posted February 3, 2011 Author Posted February 3, 2011 Here are a few that I am looking at:http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Outdoor-Power-Equipment-Generators-Portable-Generators/Generac/h_d1/N-5yc1vZar7kZ4ph/R-202048575/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053http://www.cumminsonanstore.com/store/search.asp?F_DEPARTMENT_ID=34http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Outdoor-Power-Equipment-Generators-Portable-Generators/h_d1/N-5yc1vZar7k/R-202196137/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053http://www.amazon.com/TG72K12-4-Cycle-Portable-Generator-Electric/dp/B0016L35F4/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
1mainiac Posted February 4, 2011 Posted February 4, 2011 Nick of those choices I would pick the Generac it might still have a couple of American parts and is not a inverter generator. Since it is a direct drive many of the things complain about them will not be a issue. Not sure what transfer switch you have but most electricians tend to go with over kill on them so you should be fine. I will be honest I am not a big fan of Generac but as long as you maintain it and run it several times a year you should get lots of good use out of it. I mentioned the welders because they are overbuilt and tuff and price compared against the whole house systems are a good deal.
MY2SONS Posted February 4, 2011 Posted February 4, 2011 Nick of those choices I would pick the Generac it might still have a couple of American parts and is not a inverter generator. Since it is a direct drive many of the things complain about them will not be a issue. Not sure what transfer switch you have but most electricians tend to go with over kill on them so you should be fine. I will be honest I am not a big fan of Generac but as long as you maintain it and run it several times a year you should get lots of good use out of it. I mentioned the welders because they are overbuilt and tuff and price compared against the whole house systems are a good deal. My father-in-law bought my wife and I a natural gas powered Generac generator that has an automatic transfer switch about 10 years ago. It runs the whole house witout issues. :thumb:I haven't had any problems with it whatsoever with the exception of the housing rusting some. It has an exercise timer on it where it runs for 10 minutes once a week. I really like it since we live in the country. I see no reason to switch brands when it comes time to replace this unit. There may be better units in some peoples minds, but I can't bitch about this units performance.
Josey_Wales Posted February 4, 2011 Posted February 4, 2011 Well I wouldnt say all electricians go over board with the transfer switches... Lots of times we are just installing what was sold to the customer at lowes or home depot.... at least for the generacs... auto transfers are nice due to the cycle period for the generator Manual ones are fine too.. Best advice to avoid the over spending would be to tell them how many circuits you want to protect and so forth...
1mainiac Posted February 4, 2011 Posted February 4, 2011 I have worked on generators in the RV business for the last 13 plus years and most of the issues with Generac have been that they fall apart and the belt drive they used on many units to save money and slow the motors down sucked. When Onan came out with the quiet series with 4 and 8 pole gensets generac went to a belt drive to reduce engine rpm and noise. it also allowed them to use vertical shaft engines which can be cheaper because they are mass produced for lawn tractors and other stuff and the blocks don't have to have the genset mounts cast in them. The reduced cost put them in a lot of RV's the problems and poor results removed many of them for Onan units. We had skids full of take out units at a dealership I was at down south. I gave away 3 of them before I moved back here. That said of the choices Nick offered I would choose the Generac nothing wrong with the Onan but it is kinda light on power to try and run a house. I guess it would come down to what is on the circuits my well uses close to 3000w while it does not run all the time I would hate to brown out other circuits because someone flushed the toilet. As a reference 200 amp service is 44kw so the 8000 watt Generac would handle 20% of that versus 10% with the Onan. One thing to consider is if you have a amp clamp meter put it on the neutral line turn on the things you want to have run and see what the amperage actually is then multiply amps time volts to see how many watts that is.
1mainiac Posted February 4, 2011 Posted February 4, 2011 Well I wouldnt say all electricians go over board with the transfer switches... Lots of times we are just installing what was sold to the customer at lowes or home depot.... at least for the generacs... auto transfers are nice due to the cycle period for the generator Manual ones are fine too.. Best advice to avoid the over spending would be to tell them how many circuits you want to protect and so forth...Well I did not say all I said most I helped a friend of my FIL a few years back he had 3 electricians give him est to hook up his 4000w gen all of them demanded he buy a 200 amp transfer switch. I suggested he could use a sub box and a 50 amp switch which the inspector said was fine. Funny thing to me was he lived in a mobile home with a 100 amp service yet none of the guys he got est from would even consider a 100 amp switch we moved his well, furnace and 2 light and outlet circuits to a 50 amp sub box and used a 50 amp switch which works great and saved him a bunch since I gave him the switch for free. By the way I have several 50 amp transfer switches if anyone needs or wants one let me know before they go in the trash. I might even have a couple of inverters as well.
Josey_Wales Posted February 5, 2011 Posted February 5, 2011 all of them demanded he buy a 200 amp transfer switchI see your point there.. Ridiculous. especially for a mobile home.
sherman51 Posted May 8, 2011 Posted May 8, 2011 if i was just looking for one for standby power on my house i would check out onan on ebay. they have just about anything you want. just be sure to check it out good first thing. ebay stands behind what you get on there now. if its not what they say it is, they will force them to give you a refund or they will give your money back. i have a 7000 in my rv and they make a great standby for your house. i dont know if it would run everything in your house at the same time tho. but they have bigger ones on ebay. some of the ones they have on there are already set up as stand by for your home. i know the ones they put in rv,s are good. they set for months at a time and start right up. last year i bought a 6500 for my old rv for 650.00 and it was and still is a great generator. i sold the rv to some friends in tenn last fall. they went to bristal to a nascar race. it started right up and ran all weekend. it dont hurt to atleast look at what they have.sherman
phishtix Posted May 8, 2011 Posted May 8, 2011 If you have a decent tractor that has PTO you can buy a PTO operated generator/alternator for quite a bit less than a complete standby unit. A good PTO operated generator 15000 watts that will run your entire house start out at about $1500.00 new. You can find them at farm auctions sometimes for real cheap. My friend got a 17000 watt for a $150.00 at a farm auction. It works fine.
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