[MRCA] Generator Set Information Requested

[Paul Beckwith]

Robert,

Thank you very much for the response and information!!  We presently 
have a 3500 watt generator as backup to our 120/240 system and it 
does an adequate job of handling the bare essentials.  My interest in 
this generator is more for hobby use and having a stand-alone 
military radio system.  With your thoughts, I could pull the 
refrigerators and freezer of the house circuitry and run them off the 
MIL generator and run the other items off the 3500 watt generator on 
the house circuit.  Food for thought.

Thanks again, Robert.

73's de Paul K2LMQ



At 10:33 PM 7/27/2009, WA5CAB at cs.com wrote:
>Paul,
>
>As a practical fact, unless you can come up with a PE- or PU- 
>nomenclature for it, you aren't likely to come up with anything.  In 
>the under 20 -50 KW range, about the only contractor that that isn't 
>true of would be Onan.
>
>To answer your other question, probably the only 24 VDC it outputs 
>would be for battery charging.
>
>If you are considering it as a backup generator for your house, 
>unless your house was built in the 30's or earlier and never 
>rewired, forget it.  Living where I do and where I used to 
>(Louisiana), and having gone through what I have (several hurricanes 
>and ice storms), I'm qualified to say that.  5KW at 120/240 is the 
>absolute minimum, and will run one refrigerator, one deep freeze, a 
>few lights and one large TV.  That's what got us thorugh the 
>aftermath of Hurrican Rita (actually a 4400 watt Homelite).  As a 
>practical matter, most houses today are wired for 120/240 and you'll 
>have trouble running much of the house off of a 120 volt unit.  My 
>opinion is that the minimum anyone should consider spending more 
>than pocket change for in a backup generator is 15 KW.  With this 
>and careful load management, you can run the heating or cooling 
>system and enough of the rest of the house to be relatively 
>confortable during an extended power outage (subject to fuel 
>availability, of course).  Our current backup generator since 
>(literally) the night before Hurricane Ike, is rated 45 KW.   With 
>it we ran our house and parts of three neighbors houses for about a 
>week after Ike.  The average house today needs about 15-20 KW with 
>electric cool and gas heat and electric oven and cook top.  I don't 
>have any experience with electric heat.  After Alicia 26 years ago 
>we ran pretty much everything (except we couldn't run my shop) off 
>of a 17.5 KW Onan diesel.  Including part of a neighbor's house.
>
>But 5 KW at 120 VAC only will be a problem pretty much wherever you 
>live today.
>
>In a message dated 7/27/2009 10:37:52 PM Central Daylight Time, 
>beckrep at citlink.net writes:
>>Folks,
>>
>>A friend has located a GENERATOR SET, MODEL JHGWJ7 (?) manufactured
>>by John R. Hollingsworth in 1958.  It usesd a 24 volt battery and
>>outputs 120 v, 60 cycles with a 5KW rating.  It's Army green.   This
>>one looks like it was well taken care of, comes with a NIB 24 volt
>>battery and has logged 908 hours.  They want $500 for it.  Does it
>>put out 24 volts, as well, and if so, at what current?  I can think
>>of some good uses for it.  Any experiences or comments would be
>>sincerely appreciated.  Thanks.
>>
>>73's de Paul K2LMQ    Kingman, AZ
>
>
>Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
>wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
>MVPA 9480