Home Repair (alt.home.repair) For all homeowners and DIYers with many experienced tradesmen. Solve your toughest home fix-it problems.

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,399
Default Generac Generator Experience?

Anyone here have experience with Generac generators in terms of
reliability, problems, etc? Most interested in the Guardian whole
house
standby type that run on nat gas.

A friend has a 12KW one that is about 5 years old. It apparently has
a bad rotor, possibly more wrong with it. Trying to figure out if
it's worth
fixing or if they are inherently cheap crap.

TIA
  #2   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 625
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On 11/7/2012 9:57 AM, wrote:
Anyone here have experience with Generac generators in terms of
reliability, problems, etc? Most interested in the Guardian whole
house
standby type that run on nat gas.

A friend has a 12KW one that is about 5 years old. It apparently has
a bad rotor, possibly more wrong with it. Trying to figure out if
it's worth
fixing or if they are inherently cheap crap.

TIA

I installed and have a 6 year old Generac natural gas 7KW model, and
have been directly involved in selecting and assisting in the
installation of quite a few other Generac units up to 16KW size. They
were all installed directly as a result of a freak October ice storm
which took nearly 2 weeks to restore power.

All of the Generacs I follow are all working properly and each does a
weekly exercise of approx 12 minutes to confirm that the unit is working
properly. There have been no outages in the ensuing 6 years since they
were installed, so I cannot confidently claim that they will do the job
when actually called upon. Any simulated outages I have deliberately
created have immediately switched the generator on and transferred power
correctly so I do have some confidence that the Generac will do the job
when actually needed.

Sort of ironic that in the 3 years preceding my installation, there were
4 outages including the extremely long one I mentioned above of nearly 2
weeks duration.

Since the Generac was installed, I have never had an outage and thus
feel like somebody who has purchased insurance but never had a claim.

Smarty

  #3   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 3,236
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On Nov 7, 9:27*am, Smarty wrote:
On 11/7/2012 9:57 AM, wrote: Anyone here have experience with Generac generators in terms of
reliability, problems, etc? * Most interested in the Guardian whole
house
standby type that run on nat gas.


A friend has a 12KW one that is about 5 years old. *It apparently has
a bad rotor, possibly more wrong with it. *Trying to figure out if
it's worth
fixing or if they are inherently cheap crap.


TIA


I installed and have a 6 year old Generac natural gas 7KW model, and
have been directly involved in selecting and assisting in the
installation of quite a few other Generac units up to 16KW size. They
were all installed directly as a result of a freak October ice storm
which took nearly 2 weeks to restore power.

All of the Generacs I follow are all working properly and each does a
weekly exercise of approx 12 minutes to confirm that the unit is working
properly. There have been no outages in the ensuing 6 years since they
were installed, so I cannot confidently claim that they will do the job
when actually called upon. Any simulated outages I have deliberately
created have immediately switched the generator on and transferred power
correctly so I do have some confidence that the Generac will do the job
when actually needed.

Sort of ironic that in the 3 years preceding my installation, there were
4 outages including the extremely long one I mentioned above of nearly 2
weeks duration.

Since the Generac was installed, I have never had an outage and thus
feel like somebody who has purchased *insurance but never had a claim.

Smarty


On a yearly basis, what is that "insurance" costing?
  #5   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 625
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On 11/7/2012 10:46 AM, hr(bob) wrote:
On Nov 7, 9:27 am, Smarty wrote:
On 11/7/2012 9:57 AM, wrote: Anyone here have experience with Generac generators in terms of
reliability, problems, etc? Most interested in the Guardian whole
house
standby type that run on nat gas.
A friend has a 12KW one that is about 5 years old. It apparently has
a bad rotor, possibly more wrong with it. Trying to figure out if
it's worth
fixing or if they are inherently cheap crap.
TIA

I installed and have a 6 year old Generac natural gas 7KW model, and
have been directly involved in selecting and assisting in the
installation of quite a few other Generac units up to 16KW size. They
were all installed directly as a result of a freak October ice storm
which took nearly 2 weeks to restore power.

All of the Generacs I follow are all working properly and each does a
weekly exercise of approx 12 minutes to confirm that the unit is working
properly. There have been no outages in the ensuing 6 years since they
were installed, so I cannot confidently claim that they will do the job
when actually called upon. Any simulated outages I have deliberately
created have immediately switched the generator on and transferred power
correctly so I do have some confidence that the Generac will do the job
when actually needed.

Sort of ironic that in the 3 years preceding my installation, there were
4 outages including the extremely long one I mentioned above of nearly 2
weeks duration.

Since the Generac was installed, I have never had an outage and thus
feel like somebody who has purchased insurance but never had a claim.

Smarty

On a yearly basis, what is that "insurance" costing?

This is a very good question and one which I had not previously
considered. The depreciation of the equipment per year I would guess is
roughly $200 per year based on my installation cost of $2000 and a
guesstimate of 10 years life expectancy.

Add to that the maintenance cost of $30 per year for the recommended oil
change (synthetic), oil and air filters, spark plug, etc. Add another
$10 per year to allow for a battery replacement once every 5 years.
Finally add maybe $60 per year fir the natural gas used in the weekly
exercise program.


Totals up to $300 per year for my do-it-all-yourself approach.

If I had to pay for professional maintenance, and had to pay originally
for a professional installation, my initial cost would have been $1800
higher and my annual maintenance cost would increase to $150 per year.
Thus my total annual cost would rise from $300 per year to $590 per
year. The additional annual cost of $290 would come from $180 additional
of depreciation and $110 of additional maintenance cost.

Bottom line is that this "insurance" costs me $300 per year but would be
as high as $590 if I had it all done by others.

Is it worth it to me? Absolutely!

Smarty





  #6   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 6,399
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On Nov 7, 11:22*am, The Daring Dufas the-daring-du...@stinky-
finger.net wrote:
On 11/7/2012 8:57 AM, wrote:

Anyone here have experience with Generac generators in terms of
reliability, problems, etc? * Most interested in the Guardian whole
house
standby type that run on nat gas.


A friend has a 12KW one that is about 5 years old. *It apparently has
a bad rotor, possibly more wrong with it. *Trying to figure out if
it's worth
fixing or if they are inherently cheap crap.


TIA


Do you know which engine it has? I think Generac has been using their
own V twin air cooled in that size in that time period but the older
gensets in that size had liquid cooled 4cyl engines. O_o

TDD


It's air cooled. Here is what concerns me. I did a bit of googling
on reviews of Generac Guardian whole house units and there
sure are one hell of a lot of people with major complaints about
the high failure rates and the way that Guardian has responded
to them. This includes some from places like Amazon as well
as some I've seen from pros that say they are junk and they
won't have anything to do with them. Some of the stories appear
similar to what's gone wrong with this one, ie, it's relatively new,
well maintained, worked fine for weekly scheduled test runs,
then died in the middle of a power outage after a few hours.
Others are reporting new unit with major problems upon
installation and Generac refusing to do a replacement of a
new unit, only fix it, etc.

Here are the Amazon revies.. Of 20, 8 are big negatives. I
know you can't necessarily rely on these, but if you read them,
there is a lot of detail and specifics, not just "They suck..."

http://www.amazon.com/Generac-5873-A...owViewpoints=1


The other aspect of this is that these 12KW go for about $3K.
You could spend more than that on a top of the line portable,
eg Honda?, that's only 4KW. It leaves you wondering....

Position we're in is it looks like at least the rotor is shot.
Would do the work ourselves, but the parts are still min
$350. And I can't fully test the stator either. If that is shot,
it's another $450. Voltage regulator module is $100, etc.

Another data point is that the company that sold it, installed
and maintained it diagnosed it as a bad generator section
and with that told them that it was not worth fixing, just buy
a new one, despite the fact that it's not that old. Neighbor
then gave it to my friend, and here
we are. So, deciding whether to fix it and use it or part
it out. Leaning toward the latter....
  #7   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,463
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On 11/8/2012 7:08 AM, wrote:
On Nov 7, 11:22 am, The Daring Dufas the-daring-du...@stinky-
finger.net wrote:
On 11/7/2012 8:57 AM, wrote:

Anyone here have experience with Generac generators in terms of
reliability, problems, etc? Most interested in the Guardian whole
house
standby type that run on nat gas.


A friend has a 12KW one that is about 5 years old. It apparently has
a bad rotor, possibly more wrong with it. Trying to figure out if
it's worth
fixing or if they are inherently cheap crap.


TIA


Do you know which engine it has? I think Generac has been using their
own V twin air cooled in that size in that time period but the older
gensets in that size had liquid cooled 4cyl engines. O_o

TDD


It's air cooled. Here is what concerns me. I did a bit of googling
on reviews of Generac Guardian whole house units and there
sure are one hell of a lot of people with major complaints about
the high failure rates and the way that Guardian has responded
to them. This includes some from places like Amazon as well
as some I've seen from pros that say they are junk and they
won't have anything to do with them. Some of the stories appear
similar to what's gone wrong with this one, ie, it's relatively new,
well maintained, worked fine for weekly scheduled test runs,
then died in the middle of a power outage after a few hours.
Others are reporting new unit with major problems upon
installation and Generac refusing to do a replacement of a
new unit, only fix it, etc.

Here are the Amazon revies.. Of 20, 8 are big negatives. I
know you can't necessarily rely on these, but if you read them,
there is a lot of detail and specifics, not just "They suck..."

http://www.amazon.com/Generac-5873-A...owViewpoints=1


The other aspect of this is that these 12KW go for about $3K.
You could spend more than that on a top of the line portable,
eg Honda?, that's only 4KW. It leaves you wondering....

Position we're in is it looks like at least the rotor is shot.
Would do the work ourselves, but the parts are still min
$350. And I can't fully test the stator either. If that is shot,
it's another $450. Voltage regulator module is $100, etc.

Another data point is that the company that sold it, installed
and maintained it diagnosed it as a bad generator section
and with that told them that it was not worth fixing, just buy
a new one, despite the fact that it's not that old. Neighbor
then gave it to my friend, and here
we are. So, deciding whether to fix it and use it or part
it out. Leaning toward the latter....


I installed a lot of Generac units back in the 90,s when the 8kw units
used the Brigs & Stratton Vanguard engine and the larger units used a
Turkish manufactured Fiat 4cyl liquid cooled engine and I believe a 4cyl
liquid cooled from Nissan. I've seen other liquid cooled engines in
Generac gensets but I don't recall the OEM manufacturer. I've only
installed one Generac genset with the Generac manufactured air cooled
V twin engine but only serviced it a few times before the owner passed
away and his brother removed it and I lost track of it so I have no long
term experience with the Generac manufactured engine. I'm suspicious of
the air cooled Generac units in the sizes larger than around 8kw because
it seems to me they have to push the limits on that engine for that kind
of power output. My experience with properly maintained Generac 4cyl
liquid cooled 1800rpm gensets was that they were very reliable. The only
air cooled 15kw gensets I found tank like in reliability were the Onan
flat four natural gas gensets. They reminded me of a light aircraft
engine. I don't know what to tell you about the 12kw Generac air cooled
V twin since I prefer a liquid cooled 4cyl genset in that size. I'd love
to have one of the old Onan flat 4 air cooled NG gensets for my home. ^_^

TDD
  #8   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 625
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On 11/8/2012 8:08 AM, wrote:
On Nov 7, 11:22 am, The Daring Dufas the-daring-du...@stinky-
finger.net wrote:
On 11/7/2012 8:57 AM, wrote:

Anyone here have experience with Generac generators in terms of
reliability, problems, etc? Most interested in the Guardian whole
house
standby type that run on nat gas.
A friend has a 12KW one that is about 5 years old. It apparently has
a bad rotor, possibly more wrong with it. Trying to figure out if
it's worth
fixing or if they are inherently cheap crap.
TIA

Do you know which engine it has? I think Generac has been using their
own V twin air cooled in that size in that time period but the older
gensets in that size had liquid cooled 4cyl engines. O_o

TDD

It's air cooled. Here is what concerns me. I did a bit of googling
on reviews of Generac Guardian whole house units and there
sure are one hell of a lot of people with major complaints about
the high failure rates and the way that Guardian has responded
to them. This includes some from places like Amazon as well
as some I've seen from pros that say they are junk and they
won't have anything to do with them. Some of the stories appear
similar to what's gone wrong with this one, ie, it's relatively new,
well maintained, worked fine for weekly scheduled test runs,
then died in the middle of a power outage after a few hours.
Others are reporting new unit with major problems upon
installation and Generac refusing to do a replacement of a
new unit, only fix it, etc.

Here are the Amazon revies.. Of 20, 8 are big negatives. I
know you can't necessarily rely on these, but if you read them,
there is a lot of detail and specifics, not just "They suck..."

http://www.amazon.com/Generac-5873-A...owViewpoints=1


The other aspect of this is that these 12KW go for about $3K.
You could spend more than that on a top of the line portable,
eg Honda?, that's only 4KW. It leaves you wondering....

Position we're in is it looks like at least the rotor is shot.
Would do the work ourselves, but the parts are still min
$350. And I can't fully test the stator either. If that is shot,
it's another $450. Voltage regulator module is $100, etc.

Another data point is that the company that sold it, installed
and maintained it diagnosed it as a bad generator section
and with that told them that it was not worth fixing, just buy
a new one, despite the fact that it's not that old. Neighbor
then gave it to my friend, and here
we are. So, deciding whether to fix it and use it or part
it out. Leaning toward the latter....

This is really very disturbing. I have never needed toi actually rely on
my Generac since it was installed 6 years ago, so my only basis for
recommending it has been the fact that it starts reliably each week.
Apparently the use of the generator to actually provide long term power
is another story based on the horror stories reported on Amazon.

*Based on thesese comments from other users, I would be extremely
reluctant to recommend Generac, and would, in fact, consider replacing
mine with a more dependable brand. I am going to research other vendors.

Consumer Reports did recommend Generac not too long ago for stand-by
generators, but that endorsement isn't neccesarily based in any way on
actual reliability data.
*

  #9   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1
Default Generac Generator Experience?

I am not so familiar with generac generator but I do have a Solar Generator. Looking forward to see what others would recommend.
https://www.portablegenerator.co/best-solar-generator/

  #10   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 57
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On 11/27/2019 5:20 AM, wrote:
I am not so familiar with generac generator but I do have a Solar Generator. Looking forward to see what others would recommend.
https://www.portablegenerator.co/best-solar-generator/

At the present time, solar is too expensive...but it's getting close.



  #11   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15,279
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On Wednesday, November 27, 2019 at 5:20:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I am not so familiar with generac generator but I do have a Solar Generator. Looking forward to see what others would recommend.
https://www.portablegenerator.co/best-solar-generator/


And what good does a portable solar generator do you when it's night,
20F outside and you need to run the furnace, hot water, etc? Or
you need it at a job and it's cloudy? WTF?

  #12   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,760
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On 11/27/2019 9:51 AM, trader_4 wrote:
On Wednesday, November 27, 2019 at 5:20:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I am not so familiar with generac generator but I do have a Solar Generator. Looking forward to see what others would recommend.
https://www.portablegenerator.co/best-solar-generator/


And what good does a portable solar generator do you when it's night,
20F outside and you need to run the furnace, hot water, etc? Or
you need it at a job and it's cloudy? WTF?


Simple. You go into cave man mode. At night you sleep. If cold, build
a fire in the cave/living room.

Seems they would have very limited use. The battery could keep a light
going and could charge a phone or your computer for a while. The puny
output won't run your heating system or refrigerator.

Even camping, do you want to lug that extra weight just for a phone
charge?
  #13   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,377
Default Generac Generator Experience?

trader_4 writes:
On Wednesday, November 27, 2019 at 5:20:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I am not so familiar with generac generator but I do have a Solar Generator. Looking forward to see what others would recommend.
https://www.portablegenerator.co/best-solar-generator/


And what good does a portable solar generator do you when it's night,
20F outside and you need to run the furnace, hot water, etc? Or
you need it at a job and it's cloudy? WTF?


There is a perfectly viable generator in every driveway, sufficient
at least to run a fridge every couple of hours, and you can listen
to the radio as the same time. Might even be sufficient to run the
air handler in a gas furnace, depending on furnace size.

Get a quality 1000W 12 volt inverter and use your car/truck as an emergency
generator. Large, mobile tank of fuel, far more fuel efficient than
typical portable generators. Useful in an emergency, and relatively
inexpensive.

  #14   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 14,141
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On Wed, 27 Nov 2019 17:09:31 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

trader_4 writes:
On Wednesday, November 27, 2019 at 5:20:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I am not so familiar with generac generator but I do have a Solar Generator. Looking forward to see what others would recommend.
https://www.portablegenerator.co/best-solar-generator/

And what good does a portable solar generator do you when it's night,
20F outside and you need to run the furnace, hot water, etc? Or
you need it at a job and it's cloudy? WTF?


There is a perfectly viable generator in every driveway, sufficient
at least to run a fridge every couple of hours, and you can listen
to the radio as the same time. Might even be sufficient to run the
air handler in a gas furnace, depending on furnace size.

Get a quality 1000W 12 volt inverter and use your car/truck as an emergency
generator. Large, mobile tank of fuel, far more fuel efficient than
typical portable generators. Useful in an emergency, and relatively
inexpensive.


Your car alternator is not enough to run a 1kw inverter (roughly
100a). I have an 1100w in my golf cart and it will kill all 6 deep
cycle batteries pretty fast. (each with much more capacity than a
starting battery in a car).
I am also pretty skeptical of the claims that some car alternators
have since they are connected with 8ga or even 10ga wire. It certainly
is not going to produce 80a, some even say 100a for long without that
wire becoming a toaster.
You start playing with these inverters and you find out 12v needs a
lot more than 10x the 120v output amps. They run hot and heat is watts
wasted.

Oh BTW, isn't your car burning that evil fossil fuel?

  #15   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,564
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On Wed, 27 Nov 2019 17:09:31 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

trader_4 writes:
On Wednesday, November 27, 2019 at 5:20:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I am not so familiar with generac generator but I do have a Solar Generator. Looking forward to see what others would recommend.
https://www.portablegenerator.co/best-solar-generator/

And what good does a portable solar generator do you when it's night,
20F outside and you need to run the furnace, hot water, etc? Or
you need it at a job and it's cloudy? WTF?


There is a perfectly viable generator in every driveway, sufficient
at least to run a fridge every couple of hours, and you can listen
to the radio as the same time. Might even be sufficient to run the
air handler in a gas furnace, depending on furnace size.

Get a quality 1000W 12 volt inverter and use your car/truck as an emergency
generator. Large, mobile tank of fuel, far more fuel efficient than
typical portable generators. Useful in an emergency, and relatively
inexpensive.

Actually you need to check your facts. Running your car is NOT more
fuel efficient than most portable generators. At idle they (most) can
not keep up with a 1500 watt inverter - may keep up with 1000.
Also fuel burn at idle is better than .6 gallons per hour per liter
displacement. That is about 2 GPH for a 3.3 liter car idling with no
load.
A 5kw gasoline portable generator burns about .75 GPH


  #16   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 14,141
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On Wed, 27 Nov 2019 20:11:50 -0500, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Nov 2019 17:09:31 GMT, (Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

trader_4 writes:
On Wednesday, November 27, 2019 at 5:20:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I am not so familiar with generac generator but I do have a Solar Generator. Looking forward to see what others would recommend.
https://www.portablegenerator.co/best-solar-generator/

And what good does a portable solar generator do you when it's night,
20F outside and you need to run the furnace, hot water, etc? Or
you need it at a job and it's cloudy? WTF?


There is a perfectly viable generator in every driveway, sufficient
at least to run a fridge every couple of hours, and you can listen
to the radio as the same time. Might even be sufficient to run the
air handler in a gas furnace, depending on furnace size.

Get a quality 1000W 12 volt inverter and use your car/truck as an emergency
generator. Large, mobile tank of fuel, far more fuel efficient than
typical portable generators. Useful in an emergency, and relatively
inexpensive.

Actually you need to check your facts. Running your car is NOT more
fuel efficient than most portable generators. At idle they (most) can
not keep up with a 1500 watt inverter - may keep up with 1000.
Also fuel burn at idle is better than .6 gallons per hour per liter
displacement. That is about 2 GPH for a 3.3 liter car idling with no
load.
A 5kw gasoline portable generator burns about .75 GPH


Don't let physics or the instructions from inverter manufacturers
influence your thoughts but my 1100 inverter instruction manual says I
should be using 2 ga conductors if it is right there and going up
pretty fast from there.. There is no way an 8 ga conductor from an
alternator is serving this inverter.

  #17   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4,564
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On Thu, 28 Nov 2019 01:15:50 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 27 Nov 2019 20:11:50 -0500, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Nov 2019 17:09:31 GMT,
(Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

trader_4 writes:
On Wednesday, November 27, 2019 at 5:20:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I am not so familiar with generac generator but I do have a Solar Generator. Looking forward to see what others would recommend.
https://www.portablegenerator.co/best-solar-generator/

And what good does a portable solar generator do you when it's night,
20F outside and you need to run the furnace, hot water, etc? Or
you need it at a job and it's cloudy? WTF?


There is a perfectly viable generator in every driveway, sufficient
at least to run a fridge every couple of hours, and you can listen
to the radio as the same time. Might even be sufficient to run the
air handler in a gas furnace, depending on furnace size.

Get a quality 1000W 12 volt inverter and use your car/truck as an emergency
generator. Large, mobile tank of fuel, far more fuel efficient than
typical portable generators. Useful in an emergency, and relatively
inexpensive.

Actually you need to check your facts. Running your car is NOT more
fuel efficient than most portable generators. At idle they (most) can
not keep up with a 1500 watt inverter - may keep up with 1000.
Also fuel burn at idle is better than .6 gallons per hour per liter
displacement. That is about 2 GPH for a 3.3 liter car idling with no
load.
A 5kw gasoline portable generator burns about .75 GPH


Don't let physics or the instructions from inverter manufacturers
influence your thoughts but my 1100 inverter instruction manual says I
should be using 2 ga conductors if it is right there and going up
pretty fast from there.. There is no way an 8 ga conductor from an
alternator is serving this inverter.

a 130 amp automotive alternator CAN put out 130 amps into a dead
battery and load - for a few minutes. The #4 or #6 cable from the
alternator to the battery can handle it for that short time - being
about 3 feet long and direct air cooled.
There is no way the average vehicle alternator puts out more thanan
average 55-60 amps steady state - and if asked to do so will burn out
relatively quickly - GM had a lot of trouble with their 135 amp units
when batteries failed .
  #18   Report Post  
Posted to alt.home.repair
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 15,279
Default Generac Generator Experience?

On Thursday, November 28, 2019 at 11:22:35 AM UTC-5, Clare Snyder wrote:
On Thu, 28 Nov 2019 01:15:50 -0500, wrote:

On Wed, 27 Nov 2019 20:11:50 -0500, Clare Snyder
wrote:

On Wed, 27 Nov 2019 17:09:31 GMT,
(Scott Lurndal)
wrote:

trader_4 writes:
On Wednesday, November 27, 2019 at 5:20:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I am not so familiar with generac generator but I do have a Solar Generator. Looking forward to see what others would recommend.
https://www.portablegenerator.co/best-solar-generator/

And what good does a portable solar generator do you when it's night,
20F outside and you need to run the furnace, hot water, etc? Or
you need it at a job and it's cloudy? WTF?


There is a perfectly viable generator in every driveway, sufficient
at least to run a fridge every couple of hours, and you can listen
to the radio as the same time. Might even be sufficient to run the
air handler in a gas furnace, depending on furnace size.

Get a quality 1000W 12 volt inverter and use your car/truck as an emergency
generator. Large, mobile tank of fuel, far more fuel efficient than
typical portable generators. Useful in an emergency, and relatively
inexpensive.
Actually you need to check your facts. Running your car is NOT more
fuel efficient than most portable generators. At idle they (most) can
not keep up with a 1500 watt inverter - may keep up with 1000.
Also fuel burn at idle is better than .6 gallons per hour per liter
displacement. That is about 2 GPH for a 3.3 liter car idling with no
load.
A 5kw gasoline portable generator burns about .75 GPH


Don't let physics or the instructions from inverter manufacturers
influence your thoughts but my 1100 inverter instruction manual says I
should be using 2 ga conductors if it is right there and going up
pretty fast from there.. There is no way an 8 ga conductor from an
alternator is serving this inverter.

a 130 amp automotive alternator CAN put out 130 amps into a dead
battery and load - for a few minutes. The #4 or #6 cable from the
alternator to the battery can handle it for that short time - being
about 3 feet long and direct air cooled.


And then what happens? The alternator burns out? I would think they
would be designed so that's impossible and if it was, there would be
a lot of alternators dying when trying to recharge a dead battery.
Instead people have a dead battery, get a jump start, drive away and
no apparent problems.










There is no way the average vehicle alternator puts out more thanan
average 55-60 amps steady state - and if asked to do so will burn out
relatively quickly - GM had a lot of trouble with their 135 amp units
when batteries failed .


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Disconnecting Generac Generator John F. F.[_3_] Home Repair 22 September 24th 12 05:52 PM
Generac Portable Generator HeyBub[_3_] Home Repair 11 June 6th 10 11:33 PM
Portable generator parts Generac Sudy Nim Home Repair 6 September 25th 08 04:40 AM
Generac 7550 Generator The Fisherman Home Repair 16 May 9th 07 08:27 PM
Help needed with Generac Generator Lloyd Cimprich Home Repair 2 April 12th 06 06:10 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 05:13 PM.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 DIYbanter.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about DIY & home improvement"