"Dottie" wrote in message
...
We bought a Troy-bilt portable generator with Briggs & Stratton
engine. It is 5000 watt with electric start. The book says it will
run 10 hours on 1/2 load - but it doesn't say how to set it on 1/2
load. My neighbor has a different brand of generator and it has a
place to set it on 1/2 load. Anybody here familiar with Troy-bilt?
Does anyone know of a book with "how to" instructions ... the one that
came with this thing assumes the user knows a lot more than we do.


What your neighbor's generator probably has, is an automatic idle control.
This switch allows the generator to run at idle (slow) speed when NO
electric loads are turned on.
Your generator needs to run at a constant RPM (probably 3600) to generate
120/240 volts and can produce a maximum of 5000 watts of electricity. As you
connect more lights, appliances, etc. to the generator, the engine has to
work harder and harder to maintain that 3600 RPM, and of course the harder
it works the more fuel it uses, so if you only connect 2500 watts of load to
it, it will be working at half it's load and using half the fuel