The PF ICE (gas engine) generator thread

[dmiculek]

I was talking to my neighbor the other day as our roof's were getting repaired and the topic of gen sets came up and I thought this might interest some here.
My neighbor's whole house generator is a natural gas fueled air-cooled unit (twin cyl 30-35 hp Briggs Vanguard engine or a copy of that engine) his gen set ran exactly the same amount as my water cooled unit. His fuel consumption was $105 more than mine.
The air-cooled units run 3500-3600 RPM constantly compared to 1800 rpm of the water cooled units. I didn't realize those air-cooled units were that thirsty.

[Welder]

I was talking to my neighbor the other day as our roof's were getting repaired and the topic of gen sets came up and I thought this might interest some here.
My neighbor's whole house generator is a natural gas fueled air-cooled unit (twin cyl 30-35 hp Briggs Vanguard engine or a copy of that engine) his gen set ran exactly the same amount as my water cooled unit. His fuel consumption was $105 more than mine.
The air-cooled units run 3500-3600 RPM constantly compared to 1800 rpm of the water cooled units. I didn't realize those air-cooled units were that thirsty.

It's true that air-cooled engines aren't nearly as efficient as liquid-cooled; however, another factor would be the amount of load you were each putting on your generators during the runtime. For example, one of my welders (25 hp air-cooled fuel-injected gas engines) will idle and run power tools off it's inverter at 0.5 gph, but under full load it'll use 2 gph.

[gringop]

...at the pawn shop.

A second used Honda EU2000I added to my stable.



The new one is on the left, it's very clean and has some kind of quick disconnect on the exhaust. There was also a EU2000I Companion at the pawn shop configured the same way, I'm guessing they were mounted in an RV or other confined place. The Companion only has 1 120v socket and one 30 amp socket and was more expensive, hence my choice of the normal one.

I can always get a paralleling cord that has a 30 amp socket if needed.

After changing the oil, cleaning the plug, air filter and spark arrestor, I ran it for 30 min and tested it with my worm gear saw a few times.

The new one's gas cap shape shows that it is a "California" model, whatever that means. Once I get a parallel cable, I can test if they can run the furnace blower and see how much is left for everything else.

Texas Snowmageddon version 2, bring it.

Gringop

[Spartan1980]

...at the pawn shop.

A second used Honda EU2000I added to my stable.



The new one is on the left, it's very clean and has some kind of quick disconnect on the exhaust. There was also a EU2000I Companion at the pawn shop configured the same way, I'm guessing they were mounted in an RV or other confined place. The Companion only has 1 120v socket and one 30 amp socket and was more expensive, hence my choice of the normal one.

I can always get a paralleling cord that has a 30 amp socket if needed.

After changing the oil, cleaning the plug, air filter and spark arrestor, I ran it for 30 min and tested it with my worm gear saw a few times.

The new one's gas cap shape shows that it is a "California" model, whatever that means. Once I get a parallel cable, I can test if they can run the furnace blower and see how much is left for everything else.

Texas Snowmageddon version 2, bring it.

Gringop

Unless you have a huge heating system it won’t have any issue with your blower. I ran mine for over a week in last year’s icemagedden on a 1000i.

I did have a high efficiency unit with soft start. I checked the specs beforehand and almost didn’t believe them but they were legit. It didn’t even throttle up off the eco mode. I wanted it on the inverter vs my big one due to all the electronics boards in it and it wouldn’t bother the neighbors at night. It’s a 105k btu central system.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HeavyDuty]

...at the pawn shop.

A second used Honda EU2000I added to my stable.



The new one is on the left, it's very clean and has some kind of quick disconnect on the exhaust. There was also a EU2000I Companion at the pawn shop configured the same way, I'm guessing they were mounted in an RV or other confined place. The Companion only has 1 120v socket and one 30 amp socket and was more expensive, hence my choice of the normal one.

I can always get a paralleling cord that has a 30 amp socket if needed.

After changing the oil, cleaning the plug, air filter and spark arrestor, I ran it for 30 min and tested it with my worm gear saw a few times.

The new one's gas cap shape shows that it is a "California" model, whatever that means. Once I get a parallel cable, I can test if they can run the furnace blower and see how much is left for everything else.

Texas Snowmageddon version 2, bring it.

Gringop

I don’t want to be That Guy, but do pawns in TX have to submit things to local PD to be run through NCIC?

[gringop]

Unless you have a huge heating system it won’t have any issue with your blower. I ran mine for over a week in last year’s icemagedden on a 1000i.

There is not much of anything "High Efficiency" about my heater. It's original to this house that was built in the 50s. I rewired the entire heater (very simple) about 10 years ago and have replaced 2 blower motors and 1 gas valve in the past 25 years. The manufacturer appears to have incorporated in 1949 and dissolved in 1955.




Re, Texas pawn regs, I'm not sure. I do know that years ago when I tried to sell a car audio system for my girlfriend at a pawn shop, they told me that they didn't buy them unless they were still installed in the car. This is after I spent a few hours removing it.

Gringop

[Spartan1980]

There is not much of anything "High Efficiency" about my heater. It's original to this house that was built in the 50s. I rewired the entire heater (very simple) about 10 years ago and have replaced 2 blower motors and 1 gas valve in the past 25 years. The manufacturer appears to have incorporated in 1949 and dissolved in 1955.




Re, Texas pawn regs, I'm not sure. I do know that years ago when I tried to sell a car audio system for my girlfriend at a pawn shop, they told me that they didn't buy them unless they were still installed in the car. This is after I spent a few hours removing it.

Gringop

I get it. Its damned hard to replace something that's easy to service or even "rebuild" yourself. I really wish they built the new stuff to last like that one has.

[Malamute]

Unless you have a huge heating system it won’t have any issue with your blower. I ran mine for over a week in last year’s icemagedden on a 1000i.

I did have a high efficiency unit with soft start. I checked the specs beforehand and almost didn’t believe them but they were legit. It didn’t even throttle up off the eco mode. I wanted it on the inverter vs my big one due to all the electronics boards in it and it wouldn’t bother the neighbors at night. It’s a 105k btu central system.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Keep in mind a hard start (as formerly termed, now called soft start) capacitors can be added pretty economically. In researching how to add a window AC to my 4runner, it seemed to be fairly common, and some in the HVAC biz commented that theyve installed many of them on existing setups of varying types. I added one to the window AC unit I first used, which was perhaps 6 or 8 years old, the one I got this year to replace it seems to already be equipped with one, it runs fine on eco mode on the Honda EU2000I without adding a hard start capacitor. The one I got previously was about $12 at Home Depot, and basically just plugged unto the existing capacitor piggyback style. Youtube has instructional videos on the concept.

[gringop]

...at the pawn shop.

A second used Honda EU2000I added to my stable.



The new one is on the left, it's very clean and has some kind of quick disconnect on the exhaust. There was also a EU2000I Companion at the pawn shop configured the same way, I'm guessing they were mounted in an RV or other confined place. The Companion only has 1 120v socket and one 30 amp socket and was more expensive, hence my choice of the normal one.

I can always get a paralleling cord that has a 30 amp socket if needed.

After changing the oil, cleaning the plug, air filter and spark arrestor, I ran it for 30 min and tested it with my worm gear saw a few times.

The new one's gas cap shape shows that it is a "California" model, whatever that means. Once I get a parallel cable, I can test if they can run the furnace blower and see how much is left for everything else.

Texas Snowmageddon version 2, bring it.

Gringop

I tested the furnace blower with the 2 gennys paired. Pffft, it's only 300 watts at startup. The gennys didn't even throttle up from idle.

Operation "Super Twin Powers of Generation" is proceding ahead at full throt... er, Eco-throttle!

Gringop

[gringop]

While running my 3 generators on their monthly maintenance run, I decided to connect up a 10A heater through my Killawatt power strip. The 2 Honda inverters were fine but my Husky 5000 was putting out 114v at 54hz, even with no load.

I'm surprised that I didn't have more things burn out during the Feb Snomageddon. By adjusting the governor, I was able to get it up to 60hz and 120v at 10A. With newer non-inverter generators there may be some built in voltage regulation but the frequency is still going to be dependent on engine speed.

I also found that the DC 12 volt outlet on the Hondas puts out 17v on Ecothrottle and 19v at normal idle. Perhaps it drops down to 14 when loaded.

Thank goodness that is all fixed, now I can relax, reassured in the purity and essence of our natural fluids...er, clean power supplies.

Gringop