Way cheaper to just buy a bigger generator in the first place.
Inverters eu2000i/ef
- Thread starter Jimsun
- Start date
So I've had a Honda EZ 2500 generator waiting in the wings for half a dozen yrs. "just in case". Now I find out, because it's not inverter, it will blow my furnace circuit board to smithereens. Great. And a quick googling reveals some people don't think so. Great.
I would go ahead and use it if it was an emergency, Ive used the Honda generator u have on various electronic equipment and never blown anything.However I would give serious thought to plugging anything but lights or power tools into one of those P.O.S "Champion" generators you can buy for next to nothing.You get what you pay for.
Great
Oh puh-leeeeeeeeeze.
I've used a Honda non inverter power generator for years on my houses when I had black outs, and used my tv's, computers and what not and never had a problem.
On jobsites, same thing, we plug in our phones, cordless drill chargers, electronic radios, power tools, etc. Never an issue.
I'm thinking long and hard about buying a generator for strictly home use so I don't have to lug my construction generator home everytime we have a freakin outage.
Without hesitation, My choice will be one of the Honda 5000w+ 220volt gennys so I can run half my house with no worries. And they don't come with inverters.
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Which code requirement does it not meet? Have a rule number?
I was shopping for a stand-by generator (whole home, propane/ng) but am turned off by several things. Unless you go BIG, you can only find 3600rpm units that are loud as hell and will probably self-destruct sooner than later. They're also maintenance intensive. I watched a few youtube videos of these things running (Generac Guardian 8kw, for example) and you can hear it a mile away. I think I'd rather go without power than listen to that thing howl away for several days.. not to mention the impact on neighbours.. or worse, in a dire situation, everyone and their mothers' knowing you have a running generator while they're freezing to death.
The plus is a more stable gas supply. Natural gas rarely stops flowing, and if it does, these gennies easily switch to propane which has an almost indefinite shelf life and is easily stored. So there's that.
Now Im considering something more portable that runs on gasoline. The Honda EU3000isKC seems really quiet, and its portable enough that two people can toss it in a car and head off in case of real emergency. I'm considering building a semi-sealed enclosure for it in the garage, with a venting system to haul away the fumes outside and provide some fresh air and ventilation for the engine. The negative is having to keep/store gasoline. It also has way less power than the standby units, but you get portability in exchange. I also don't expect to live luxuriously in a power outage... just the necessities.
Decisions decisions...
The plus is a more stable gas supply. Natural gas rarely stops flowing, and if it does, these gennies easily switch to propane which has an almost indefinite shelf life and is easily stored. So there's that.
Now Im considering something more portable that runs on gasoline. The Honda EU3000isKC seems really quiet, and its portable enough that two people can toss it in a car and head off in case of real emergency. I'm considering building a semi-sealed enclosure for it in the garage, with a venting system to haul away the fumes outside and provide some fresh air and ventilation for the engine. The negative is having to keep/store gasoline. It also has way less power than the standby units, but you get portability in exchange. I also don't expect to live luxuriously in a power outage... just the necessities.
Decisions decisions...
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Do you care about the noise? How would you integrate it into your home?
The Hondas IMHO are not obnoxiously loud. They come with oversize mufflers. The 5000 or for a couple hundred more 6500w will run your home just fine if you are gentle with power use (ie. Not firing up all your lights and turning on the electric oven).
When I built my house, I ran a dedicated 30a 220v line and it's deliberately placed right beside my big garage door that faces my backyard.
I constructed a special 220v cable that mates from my work generator to my 220 outlet. And I park the generator outside my rear door.
Just shut off the main 200amp breaker feeding the house, and fire up the genny and bob's your uncle.
Like I said, only a matter of time before I pick one up for home use only, and will be buying the optional wheel package Honda offers so I can roll it out when needed.
I've used some of these at various construction sites, and while they don't seem obnoxiously loud out there, it's a massive difference when you're using one in a dead-silent residential area experiencing a blackout. I think noise would become a valid concern in a prolonged outage, so I'm factoring that into my decision.
The star the other day had this article about this guy who used an inverter and his Tacoma hybrid truck battery to power his house. Said he only used half a tank of gas in 3 days or something.
The article said that he disconnected his house from the hydro so if it came back on suddenly it wouldn't blow everything up.
Never mentioned what kind of training he has. Maybe he is a licensed electrician and knows what he is doing?
The idea of an inverter intrigues me. To run stuff without needing yet another motor that would otherwise just be sitting around.
My power lines are overhead. They meet on the side of the house and go to the meter. I have no idea how one would go about safely disconnecting and reconnecting that.
Even people with gas generators, what exactly is it that you're connecting to?
The article said that he disconnected his house from the hydro so if it came back on suddenly it wouldn't blow everything up.
Never mentioned what kind of training he has. Maybe he is a licensed electrician and knows what he is doing?
The idea of an inverter intrigues me. To run stuff without needing yet another motor that would otherwise just be sitting around.
My power lines are overhead. They meet on the side of the house and go to the meter. I have no idea how one would go about safely disconnecting and reconnecting that.
Even people with gas generators, what exactly is it that you're connecting to?
You install a transfer switch in your house, which allows you to choose whether you're getting power from the grid or from a generator. Its a safety thing also, you're not feeding power back into the grid and destroying your generator / killing a serviceman working in the neighbourhood.
If your power were down for a few days the sound of a generator would be the least of your problems.I'm an electrical contractor and have installed a number of the Generac Guardian series generators from 8 to 18kw and can tell you that no one has ever complained about the noise.The upside to the Generac as opposed to a portable unit like theEU3000isk is that it will come on automatically whether you are home or on a beach in Jamaica.Not important to some but if there were a storm and I wasn't home I would want to be damn sure that my sump pump comes on.Your power is most likely to go down during a storm and that usually is when most basements get flooded from sump pumps not working.Again, not important to some but very important to others.If I had a neighbor that camplained about the noise of my generator I would just hand him an extension chord during the next blackout and tell him to feel free to plug into my place, problem solved.
We put em in for anywhere between 5 and 10g's
you can get their base 8kw system with an 8 circuit panel (with integrated transfer switch) for about $2500.Home Depot's prices are very competetive.
I can't find the original page I found when I was shopping for generators, but here's a response from a Honda employee describing the issue:
Just curious - I have a "Champion" generator that I've used to get through many outages. Tuned it to run exactly at 60hz and never had an issue using electronics or the furnace. What's so bad about them?
Poor frequency control,poor sine wave etc.Not saying the honda brush type generators are perfect but I would trust Honda engineering over some of the crap that has been coming from China the last few years any day.I did a lighting retrofit at an Air Canada building a few years ago which involved replacing magnetic lighting ballasts with the electronic type.Every month we would have to go back and replace 5 or 6 ballasts until we realiized that the ballasts burning out coincided with their emergency generator coming on and switching over to emergency power during their monthly test.Just something to think about.
