With almost 1' of snow since I woke up this morning we lost power about 45 minutes ago and it was time to test out my new Honda EU2000.

- Started on the first pull.
- My APC UPS says it's clean power. (My other generator it would not accept the power.)
- My computers and devices are running great!

So far so good.

Only negative is that I got my generator outdoor outlet yesterday and haven't had time to wire up anything, so I had to run extension cord through my basement and under the fireplace again. Oh-well, after I get it wired it'll be less cords, but for now this is working great

I've had a Honda since 1999, and that's ALL we use in the fire company. They start when you need them to start. Good machines.

5 hours run time, then power came back on.

Congratulations on the gen set. That Honda has a fine reputation.

I also think it was wise you went with a smaller, both in size and capacity, unit. Larger units consume large amounts of fuel while lightly loaded and can be grossly inefficient as a result. A smaller unit also reinforces the idea that when your using the generator it is a special time. A time to conserve, limit power use to critical needs.

People who get larger units are often tempted to use more power than they really need. Units with automatic starting and power transfer invites people to ignore any wider emergency and use electrical power with abandon. Wasting what could be very valuable resources at a very critical time.

A smaller unit that has to be manually started forces a very useful change in mindset. An attitude shift toward making resources last, adapting to adversity gracefully.

I will warn you that that unit is so nice, and so portable, that you need to invest in a good cable and a lock if you don't want it to wander.

Thanks Art.

You nailed it, I got the power to consumption ratio I needed. I was looking at the 1000 but the fuel consumption did not warrant it and neither did the cost. The whole purpose of the EU2000 for me is to simply power my business when the power is out. I have nothing else in my house that requires power when the power is out except my fridge, which runs off the EU20000 too. My office will consume 250-400 watts depending what's on and what I`m doing. I actually heard the generator speed up when printing today, interesting!

Not sure if I mentioned in my other generator posts but I do have a plan to add the Honda EU6500 for my entire house sometime in the future when it's 'affordable'. Then I can safely run the well, and the wife can get ready for work w/out swapping plugs or running out of water. This will be in the future since my other generator will soon be in the pump house, and we can get water that way it will just require a trip out there to start the generator and swap plugs on the well pump.

Like you said, consumption, and size this lil-guy will run every single thing in my house except my 220 appliances which are my well and my dryer.

I`ll have to post my generator-house build up when I get started

-Todd

I wouldn't be surprised to find that your little EU2000 wouldn't run your 240v well pump if you rigged its 120v through a small step-up transformer. Simple engineering suggests that your generator should easily handle a one horsepower well pump. I have little idea of how large a pump you have but around here a 3/4HP unit feeds a whole cluster of houses.

The limitation is not power output but voltage. And a small transformer handles that. Being able to run your well pump would mean that if the mains went down you could spend an hour and fill the bathtubs, a kiddie pool or two, and/or a scad of five gallon buckets so the family has enough on hand to get them through a week. After a week you do it again.

It is also possible to keep the contents of freezers and refrigerators safe by running the units a few times a day. The better the unit is insulated, and the few times it is opened, the less often you need to run it.

Another thing to consider is that if you have something that needs to run that doesn't use much power you can use a good part of the excess capacity to run a battery charger to charge a battery bank. This battery bank can then be used to run light loads using an inverter. Running a few efficient lights, a laptop, even a small battery bank will suffice for many hours. The advantage is that your using capacity that would be lost running a tiny load on the generator. That and the battery bank and inverter is almost silent. Silence is very much appreciated if you have lived with a generator, even a quiet one like you have, for long.

Art - You are correct again! The step-up-transformer would run around $600, I investigated that a month ago. I figure for $600 it would be more of a "backup" thing, especially since where my generator runs (and the house will be), and where the well pump is would NOT be a fun walk in the snow it's up hill and over 100' away. I also have the non-inverter generator that will run my well, that cost me $0 other than about $50 in cable/plugs/outlets to make it all safe So, I`ll have that.

Then, one day, the EU6500 for whole house power

I originally planned to do the inverter thing but a 2k pure sine wave long-term use inverter is about $1800 (outback brand or xantrex), battery bank for any real time usage at least $1000.

Some day, I plan to have the inverter, solar panels, etc, but for now the Honda Generators will work for me when power is out.

We just don't consume much electricity to warrant going solar. Our bill was the highest ever last month at $68. Normally it's $58 or less.

We could cut it by 15-25/month if I swapped to a propane dryer too... but that would just increase my consumption and require a fill-up sooner. We like the idea of using electric dryer so we don't drain a resource that we are limited to on hand.

-Todd

$600 for a 2KVA transformer sounds mighty high. Grainger sells one retail for less than $500.

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/items/1H723

Which confirms my initial estimate that your should be able to find one for $200 to $300. Dig around through e-bay and used electrical equipment houses and you might find one for $100. But then again you seemed to have found a cheaper solution.

I used to heartily recommend a sine-wave inverter but increasingly I have found that modified, stepped, wave inverters to run just about everything pretty well. A few hurricanes back I ran my PC off of a fairly cheap 700w modified sine wave unit inverter drawing off my vehicle.

The key IMO was that I built the PC with a good quality and over-sized power supply. The PC draws a small fraction of what the power supply is rated for. Watch the ratings because many are listed as being far more capable than they actually are.

Generally consumer electronics are going to be the most sensitive to fluctuations in power quality and waveform. Your best bet may be to set yourself up with a small, but still fairly expensive, true-sine-wave inverter to run those few bits of delicate consumer electronics you really need during an emergency. But to run everything else on a much less expensive stepped wave inverter.

I have run pumps, portable power tools, small appliances, and a variety of lights off of the my little inverter. I had a small fluorescent light flicker and hum to the point I wondered about its safety but other, larger, fluorescent lights handled it well enough. They hummed a bit more than normal but started and ran well enough and the ballasts didn't heat up. A few degrees above normal, showing they were working harder to use the squared-off waveform, but not enough to worry about.

I have found precious few devices that require a true-sine wave to operate well enough. Of those that wouldn't work well using a modified sine wave inverter only a very slim fraction were devices that are vital during an emergency.

I have run quite a few devices using a modified sine wave inverter. Some like it fine, and some don't like it at all.

Laptop power supplies seem to handle this "garbage power" without a murmur. Most battery chargers put up with it and don't seem to suffer adverse effects over time.

But note that some chargers do not respond well. One of my power tool chargers overheats and shuts down. Others buzz so violently that you are likely shortening their life. Some won't stop charging; perhaps they compare against the accurate line voltage to determine when the job is done. So you have to watch it.

I wouldn't even try to run a desktop PC using an MSW. Macs are said to be particularly averse. And last I checked, some laser printers rely on the accurate timing of grid-based power (60Hz) in their operation.

I haven't tried to run my natural gas furnace using MSW power, even though I can theoretically do so. The control board in these units is worth half the price of the furnace. It's a tricky proposition at best.

Art the one I was looking at was a Trace Step up transformer made for off-grid homes to step-up there small generators to run their well. I`m guessing it was more since it was designed for a specific purpose, more profit, and more $ since I would hope it was designed better for non-commercial applications where sensitivity could be more important.

doug - My computer UPS units would not take my other generator powe at all