[CTSARA] My Two Cents on Generators

[Jon Perelstein]

Well, $0.0153 after inflation.
 
Everything I've read suggests that a 2000 watt generator is not adequate for
a house with a refrigerator and also an oil or gas furnace/hot water heater.
That's especially true of Honda's own web site, which suggests a minimum of
3000 watts*
(http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/products/generators/content.aspx?asset=g
g_powermanagement).  Note that the situation is much worse if you have
electric heat or want to use space heaters or Mr. Coffee (no joke -- Mr.
Coffee uses 1500 watts).  
 
Honda web site is very specific in recommending against using the EU2000
with refrigerators and oil furnace/hot water heaters because the peak power
draw on those devices is usually significantly higher than the EU2000's peak
power rating.  According to Honda, you can and eventually will damage the
EU2000 using it for purposes that overload the generator on a regular basis.
I know that at least a couple of our members have been using the EU2000s
with their refrigerators and don't seem to have suffered for it, but do note
that Honda suggests against the practice**.
 
Based on my research, I decided to go with something at least 3000 watts.  I
looked at the EU3000 (Honda's 3000 watt inverter), but the lowest price I
found was about $2000 and that was just more than I wanted to spend.  Honda
also has a "deluxe" and an "economy" line -- both of which are lower priced
than the EU (inverter) line.  However, the "deluxe" and "economy" lines are
not inverters and have high THD (Total Harmonic Distortion -- the higher the
number the worse the generator for delicate electronics such as radios) --
they're really made to power tools, refrigerators, air conditioners and the
like.
 
That led me to look at other brands.  I found that the ETQ generators
generally got good ratings.  Not necessarily great, but not bad.  Where they
got bad ratings, it was because of damage in shipment -- and then how
well/quickly the vendor made good determined the quality of the rating.  The
ETQ 2800 (3500 peak) and 3500 (4000 peak) both have conditioned output with
only 5% THD (the Honda EU2000s are 3% THD).  The ETQs run about 3/10ths of a
gallon per hour at 50% load (versus about 1/10th gallon on the EU2000).  And
the price is pretty good -- $379 for the 3500 (4000 peak) via Home Depot
on-line.  
 
I bought from Home Depot on-line rather than Amazon since Amazon is just
fronting for smaller retail outlets that may or may not provide good
customer service.  By the way, I found that the Generacs also got good
ratings as did the Honeywells, but that most of the other names did not get
good ratings (especially the Magna brand which apparently is a piece of dog
Icom from China that uses plastic parts in its engine).  The brands/models
that Home Depot and Costco usually carry in their stores generally guzzle
about 5/10ths of a gallon per hour, or more.  They'll advertise that they
can run 10 or 12 hours on a tank of gas, but that tank is oftentimes more
than double the size of the tanks on the Hondas, ETQs, etc.
 
A couple of other things I found that may be of interest:
 
1.  There is general agreement that you want to run your generator at least
once a month.  Start it up and let it run for at least 10 minutes.  
 
2.  You do NOT want to connect the generator to the house's electrical grid
without a transfer switch.  In other words, you do not want to plug the
output of the generator into one of your wall outlets unless you have a
transfer switch.  A transfer switch isolates your house from the electric
supply lines coming into the house so that the power you are generating from
your generator does not flow out of your house on the lines that usually
bring power into the house.  There are a couple of reasons for this:  

(a) Your power will flow out of the house and into your neighbor's houses.
They will be very happy since you will be providing them with power, but you
will be very sad because you won't have much power in your house.
(b) You will wind up killing your generator.
(b) When the electric company goes to work on the local lines, the linemen
will almost undoubtedly get zapped by the power you are generating, and that
will make them most unhappy -- unhappy enough that they will disconnect your
house from the electric company grid -- permanently.

Transfer switches are fairly expensive (a couple of hundred $00s) and have
to be installed by a licensed electrician authorized to work on incoming
power.  Failure to use an appropriate transfer switch may void your
homeowners insurance when (not if) your house catches fire from having the
wrong connection.  In addition, a proper transfer switch is needed to make
sure that you don't blow all your circuits and electronics and appliances
when you re-connect back to the electric company grid after power is
restored.
 
3.  You'll probably need that licensed electrician to hook up your furnace
to the transfer switch since furnaces are usually connected directly to your
circuit breaker box and don't have a plug that can be plugged into your
generator.
 
Jon
KB1QBZ
 
*Note that Honda's site also suggests that you can get away with as little
as 1600 watts if you're willing to carefully manage what's connected at any
given time.  For example, if you're willing to rotate through running the
refrigerator one hour out of every four and keeping the furnace off during
that time, then unplugging the refrigerator and starting up the furnace
while also making sure everything else in the house is turned off, then
turning everything back on while turning off the furnace, etc., etc.  I'm
pretty sure that I can do that, but I have my doubts about the other people
who inhabit my house.  
 
**There is a real conflict on the Honda site regarding the 12V DC output of
the EU2000.  At some places the Honda site says that the 12V DC output can
be used to run delicate electronics.  However, at other places on the site
-- AND ON THE GENERATORS THEMSELVES -- there are substantial placards
warning that the 12V DC output should only be used for charging batteries
and that they should not be used for powering delicate electronics directly.
Note that for Field Day use we have the generators powering the radios via
West Mountain Radio PWRgates that provide power conditioning (admittedly not
their primary purpose, but they do provide power conditioning).