Best Bang For The Buck Home Generator.

AC Man

This is a no brainer unless you don't know any better or don't care about fuel consumption. Honda EU 7000 on gas. I have a dedicated trailer with a hundred gallon gas transfer tank. They burn a fraction of the gas a conventional generator burns. Or on LP running 3600 RPM all the time. I have pure power for electronics. At the end of hurricane season you pump the gas in your car. Ezpzee. No you can't sit back and live like a king running everything at the same time, but it will do everything in a pinch at the fraction of a price. PS I sell whole house generators with 500 gallon LP tanks.

Tarpon65

AC, are you talking about the fuel injected model? I am strongly considering one of those, but the $4000 price tag is a bit steep. I am concerned with getting as quiet a unit as possible as I live in a neighborhood with houses fairly close to each other. I am also looking to put in a transfer switch in the near future.

Resinhead

I bought a Honda EG3500 back in 2001 when living in FTL. It runs 2 fridges, 2 high velocity fans and my DirectTV at the same time. At night, we shut down the fans and DirectTV and plug in the window banger for ac. 1.5 gallon tank runs for 4 hours no matter the load. I built a pressure treated plywood box on a dolly with a metal roof and stick it on the back patio by the pool and run cords. Rain proof and can hardly hear the thing running. Cranks up in 2 pulls when cold and runs like Honda to this day.

Mango Man

Generac 5550 Wheelhorse.
2 fridges
Lights
12000 A/C
Accessories.




Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

AC Man

Tarpon65 wrote: »

AC, are you talking about the fuel injected model? I am strongly considering one of those, but the $4000 price tag is a bit steep. I am concerned with getting as quiet a unit as possible as I live in a neighborhood with houses fairly close to each other. I am also looking to put in a transfer switch in the near future.

Correct. However the money they save you in fuel and quiet clean power is worth it. You can't run every thing at the same time but can run a Two ton A C a well pump, a water heater and all lights and refrigerators. Just not all at the same time. Again it is all about fuel. The L.P. tanks will cost a fortune on whole house generators. I also have a Honda 3000 eu. Yes $2000 on my camper but sips a fraction of the gas and quiet as a mouse. They only run the speed of the demand unlike the others running wide open all the time. Yep, got one of those too. 5000 watt for 500 bucks. POS.

stc1993

You can't beat the Honda eu generators they're quieter & got the Honda reputation for easy starting.

AC Man

I brought this up because everyone is now in line for a whole house generator with a 500 gallon buried tank. Be prepared for hundreds of dollars in fuel cost a week. I can get by on a fraction of that my way.

hotrails

I have same unit as MangoMan, you did not say the generator it self does not give a rats **** what motor spins it all your selling is Honda, good motor how ever not going to be used daily or even yearly, I start and run my unit once a month with small load,keep fresh fuel and use Non ethanol have extra fuel when hurricane season rolls around.Had an Electrical company come in and install a sperate electrucal panel ($400.00) also a de humidifier works well ,take water add few drops of Chlorine and good to use in emergency as pure water ,I also keep a coleman propane stove on Hand, so name of game is Not brand name it is called being prepared.

CatBox

My house already has Natural Gas run from the City. Will the NG still work during a wide spread power outage?

Thanks

Flats2blue

Just sharing a lesson I learned this past go round. The rubber grommet that holds the fuel shutoff into the bottom of many of the 'cheaper' generators doesn't like the ethanol. I had one that I hadn't run since last year and must have left a bit of gas in the tank (not the carb). This time the grommet had deteriorated and I couldn't use the tank for gas. Some 'rigging' and I just fed gas from a 5 gallon can through a longer hose to the generator. It worked, but wasn't pretty.

So if you have one of these with that type of grommet fit fuel line, do yourself a favor and go on Amazon or Ebay and order a couple spares now. Wire tie them to the generator and you will always have the 50 cent part you need when you need it.

Flash

AC Man wrote: »

I brought this up because everyone is now in line for a whole house generator with a 500 gallon buried tank. Be prepared for hundreds of dollars in fuel cost a week. I can get by on a fraction of that my way.

Of course gas goes bad, Propane does not. At least you can continue to use the propane for other items in the house as you can with the gas for the car, boat, etc. I sure wouldn't want to foot the bill for a 400 gallon refill in that 500 gallon tank though. Are you doing the Generacs?? Wife wants me to look into them.

Flash

AC Man wrote: »

I brought this up because everyone is now in line for a whole house generator with a 500 gallon buried tank. Be prepared for hundreds of dollars in fuel cost a week. I can get by on a fraction of that my way.

Wouldn't it depend on what all you are trying to run though? I can always shut off the 4 ton and hook a wall unit AC up if it looks like we will be out of power for some time.

AC Man

Flash wrote: »

Wouldn't it depend on what all you are trying to run though? I can always shut off the 4 ton and hook a wall unit AC up if it looks like we will be out of power for some time.

Yes, but they still run wide open 3600 RPM. The invertor generators will run at idle and speed speed up on demand. And you can't hear it in your house. Get a 50 to 100 gallon gas transfer tank and if you don't use it pump in your car every six months. Of course it will only run a two ton A.C. but that is fine with me as I have portable and window units in an a emergency.

Gary S

If your burning $150 a day for fuel to power your generator it's still cheaper than going to a motel. I run a 15 kw and it does the house. It doesn't like the A/C (4 ton) and water heater on at the same time. So I will only run one or the other the rest of the house is powered up and I sleep as well as can be expected. And I am at home.

Flash

Gary S wrote: »

If your burning $150 a day for fuel to power your generator it's still cheaper than going to a motel. I run a 15 kw and it does the house. It doesn't like the A/C (4 ton) and water heater on at the same time. So I will only run one or the other the rest of the house is powered up and I sleep as well as can be expected. And I am at home.

Plus your water heater only needs to be on 30 minutes or so, or at least ours does.

conchydong

Mango Man wrote: »

Generac 5550 Wheelhorse.
2 fridges
Lights
12000 A/C
Accessories.




Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

I also have that exact same generator but it is labeled under the Briggs and Stratton name instead of Generac. Works great. Just a bit loud.

KeysNole

Gary S wrote: »

If your burning $150 a day for fuel to power your generator it's still cheaper than going to a motel. I run a 15 kw and it does the house. It doesn't like the A/C (4 ton) and water heater on at the same time. So I will only run one or the other the rest of the house is powered up and I sleep as well as can be expected. And I am at home.

Guys on THT as well as a neighbor of mine have the Generac 17,500W portable. Louder than hell, inefficient, and will run the AC for less than $4000. I will be picking one up before next season. It seems like $4000 and stored in my garage vs $10000+++ for the standby is a no brainer.

Gary S

KeysNole wrote: »

Guys on THT as well as a neighbor of mine have the Generac 17,500W portable. Louder than hell, inefficient, and will run the AC for less than $4000. I will be picking one up before next season. It seems like $4000 and stored in my garage vs $10000+++ for the standby is a no brainer.

Make sure you have a way to hook it up. A manual transfer switch and a plug is what I want.

Angler719

KeysNole wrote: »

Guys on THT as well as a neighbor of mine have the Generac 17,500W portable. Louder than hell, inefficient, and will run the AC for less than $4000. I will be picking one up before next season. It seems like $4000 and stored in my garage vs $10000+++ for the standby is a no brainer.

3000$ on amazon prime

Mango Man

conchydong wrote: »

I also have that exact same generator but it is labeled under the Briggs and Stratton name instead of Generac. Works great. Just a bit loud.

Yea a bit loud but there's ways around that. Besides, a cool house with cold beverages makes it worth it.

Flash

22kW Generac would run us $10K all hooked up bar propane set up.

Bimini Twisted

Flash wrote: »

22kW Generac would run us $10K all hooked up bar propane set up.

I have heard that once the propane tanks falls below 20% full it lacks the pressure to continue to power the generator. Does anyone know if that's true?

Gary S

The liquid in the tank has to boil to become gas. Propane boils at -43 degrees. The lower you get in the tank the colder it gets if you are continuously taking gas out. Eventually the outside of the tank is frozen and a ball of ice forms on it and the liquid gets to cold to boil off enough gas to run generator. Not sure about the 20% number. Size of tank plays into it. A small take will freeze pretty fast. A 20 gal tank would run my generator all night and in the morning it would start running rough and 7 or 8 inches of the bottom of the tank would be a ball of ice. I would turn it off and around lunch time I would restart and run the rest of the gas out. Got a 120 gallon tank when it got too cold to run it was only the bottom that was frozen.

Soda Popinski

I'm going to spend 2K on two of those honda suitcase generators. Small enough to stash in the garage, one can run the fridge during the day, then at night one can run a window unit. Really all i needed during the power outage was a fridge and air conditioner. I can get buy without everything else.

Flash

Bimini Twisted wrote: »

I have heard that once the propane tanks falls below 20% full it lacks the pressure to continue to power the generator. Does anyone know if that's true?

Propane tanks will freeze up when the ambient temperature drops below -44°F. This is because propane has a boiling point of -44°F. If the temperature is not greater than -45°F, your propane will not vaporize, and your tank will freeze.

Doubt we will have an issue here in Florida if that is right. I do know those small camping cylinders seem to slow down a good bit if it is very cold outside.