On Mar 30, 5:11*pm, "Rich" madeyoulook@localhost wrote:
"ransley" wrote in message

...
On Mar 29, 2:27 pm, "Rich" madeyoulook@localhost wrote:

I'm in the market for a portable generator and just need it to run the
fridge the furnace and just small things after that. I went on a few web
sites and they seem to be geared to running your whole house instead of
just
a few things to get past the storm or what ever. I live SW of Chicago and
the longest I've been without power was 3 days when a tornado came
through.
I would like to buy one that would get me by for a day or two at the most
and only run the basics. What I'm having trouble with is sizing the unit
to
my needs. Sump pump, furnace, fridge and some lighting but I have all
compact fluorescents.

Thanks for any advice, especially from someone that has this basic setup,
Rich

Something else to consider, is how you balance the load so you dont
burn our the unit, its two legs make 220, using only one is not
correct, thats where a transfer panel makes it work safely.

OK I've been looking at more units and switches and I think I'm going to use
my 16HP Briggs engine and get a 5500 watt PTO unit and make the generator
from that. Then use the money I didn't spend on an engine to get a transfer
switch and set this up properly.



Am I the only one that sees problems with this approach? Like
doesn't a normal generator unit have a more precise governor mechanism
to keep the speed/freq constant? And won't a 16HP engine use a hell
of a lot more gas than an engine correctly sized for a 5500 watt
generator?