HJL:
I hope this finds you well.
I had an interesting event last week. Some critter chewed through one of my home power leads. (We have underground cable.) This caused half the house to go dark. Mostly, the part that was out was the part that runs my refrigeration. I hooked up one Honda EU2000 to the transfer switch. Two refrigerators only drew 400 watts. Nothing thawed, which was very good news. The power company was out that evening with a temporary fix and had a new cable run by noon the next day. Easy.
I also rolled my Whynter 95 qt freezer out onto the patio and plugged that into a second EU 2000. It pulls 70 watts and runs on 120 vac, 12vdc or 24vdc. No, I have not built the gizmo that allows two generators to run in tandem synchronized. Turns out I did not need it anyway, based on 400 watts of draw plus this 70. I find this particular freezer economical with a low power draw and a price that is a good $500 below the price of other dc powered units. And, yes, I have a couple solar panels that would take care of the freezer plus some light.
My interesting observation is that the exhaust was a problem. My house is 40 feet from my neighbor. Both of us have two stories. The zone between them was pretty unbearable due to the exhaust. I must run some sort of pipe up the side of the house, if I am going to run both. – R.V.
Find another spot to run your generator besides between the houses. Generators are not made to run with the added restriction of a long, vertical exhaust stack. Knowing the wattage of the appliances you MUST run would have cut the exhaust, and sound volume, in half. Do you have a solid fence in your back yard that separates you from an alley? Maybe a strategically positioned hole in the fence that aligns with your EU2000i exhaust port? If you’re concerned with burning or melting your fence you could line it with a 6 oz. tomato paste can, that should be close enough to the right size.
i bet it was a mosquito free zone 🙂
Interesting situation. The weather conditions – presume very still winds, perhaps an inversion (cold air covering warm pocket of air created by generator) that trapped the exhaust between the house – in low spot? Perhaps the engine is not tuned and combustion is incomplete?
I have a Genarac whole house unit – runs on natural gas and it’s sitting next to house. During its weekly test runs, the exhaust isn’t an issue (but scares the poop out of me when I forget and it self test starts each week and runs for 5-7 minutes) unless it’s really still. Have it tucked away behind the house in a niche in the exterior wall.
Recently purchased a cheap knock off to the Honda EU2200 – the Pulsar PG2000iS. After some feedback from this audience, broke it in and put new synthetic oil in it. Ran it with an without load, ran it to trigger overload – all worked well. Don’t have a oscilloscope but ran a few different items and all worked well, including a couple of battery charges, and plugged in a laptop and 12V power supply for the HF/UHF-VHF gear.
This little generator is my secondary backup if there’s a major CME or EMP event – and fitting given the last article published. Much to the chagrin of my wife, took the box that it was shipped in and [Faraday] lined it on the inside rather than outside with heavy aluminum foil – used spray adhesive, double layered the foil. Used the thin foam packing material to cover the foil. For closing the top of the box, had to be creative to get a good seal, wrapped the box with two 2” wen strapping.
I’m more worried about a CME event than a nuclear EMP. Therefore, will ultimately store this generator (stored dry after I ran a little Sea Foam through it) in a galvanized footlocker (actually a decorative item you can sometimes find at the bedding and linen stores).
My thinking is that if there’s an EMP is the first event of a protracted and ugly conflict, a rogue event is possible but the retaliation, once the culprits are identified will be swift and complete.
The CME event is a “when it happens” and “not if it happens”, and it will be a risk as long as the sun shines, and this event will create a range of devastation. Could be an inconvenience for 3 days or something much worse – imagine a CME in the middle of winter, with the big highly populated cities without electricity for 72 hours, and everything frozen solid! If you are stuck working in these places, on business travel or it’s your job, getting back home is going to be really hard – the 30-45 minute commute is going to be a hellish 2-4 day walk home.
I travel a lot for business – almost always via airlines and 500-1500 miles from home – given my age and unlikely to have many GHB items (compliments of TSA) in my bags, it will be a miracle to get home but the family is well stocked and prepared, but have concerned about their skills and mental preparedness. Will soon hang it up and spend time on my own interests, with more time focused on faith, family and friends.
Kudos to JT. One thought for the secondary (primary) protection for the small generator, use a metal trash can with tight fitting lie (available at most large hardware stores), and put the box in standing on end. No fluids means no this side up storage concerns. Also, the can can sit in the back of your garage and thieves won’t give it a second thought.
Thanks for the mention of synthetic oil. That would be a wise choice. Yes, my solution for the generator is a longer extension cord. The closeness of the air is because of trees not temperature. There is an enormous (by modern standards) poplar tree. Bought one of those job boxes for a Faraday but have been so busy with it as a job box and have not had the chance to convert. Still have a third EU2000 dry in the box so I like the foil lining idea. I tested the battery charging capability of the DC connections on the EU2000. I was not terribly impressed. Better have some lanterns and candles around. I think I also opted to get a battery charger that plugged into the 120 outlet to get my 12vdc batts a boost. You just have to have the charge controller and there is not one on the EU2000.
Just get a quality smart 3 stage 12v car battery charger and plug into a Genny to charge your battery bank. Works great. Also, the best backup electrical plan is to plan on needing as little electricity as possible.
Thanks for the mention of synthetic oil. That would be a wise choice. Yes, my solution for the generator is a longer extension cord. The closeness of the air is because of trees not temperature. There is an enormous (by modern standards) poplar tree. Bought one of those job boxes for a Faraday but have been so busy with it as a job box and have not had the chance to convert. Still have a third EU2000 dry in the box so I like the foil lining idea. I tested the battery charging capability of the DC connections on the EU2000. I was not terribly impressed. Better have some lanterns and candles around. I think I also opted to get a battery charger that plugged into the 120 outlet to get my 12vdc batts a boost. You just have to have the charge controller and there is not one on the EU2000.
Lastly, I somehow thought two EU2000 synchronized would some how provide 240. Call it something between hastiness, excessive optimism and stupidity. So even though you have opposite sides of your reliance transfer switch wire to opposite sides of your panel, if you are using EU2000 you just have 120. So, the pig tail (Short extension cord) has to be wired and labeled accordingly. So mine says “2 X 120”. If you connect the wire in the plug of the pig tail to join the leads you can still connect a generator to the house that provides 240 and not cause a problem. Obviously, you do not use the pig tail and only use the extension cord. Crossing the leads in the connection point on the house will cause a short if a 240 generator is connected.
Great information for generator owners regarding exhaust build up outdoors.
I had a similar power issue two years ago and ran a 6500/7500 Powermate genny for 2 days (NO nights) when my mobile home lost half the power. The area between trailers sounds about the same and there is a large tree between them on my power pole side.
Now, here in Iowa the wind blows constantly at a minimum of 5 – 10 mph it seems.
This being the first time I used the genny for actual long term power, I constantly checked it.
I also replaced batteries in the CO detector and noticed it had aged out. I replaced it.
My suggestion to RV and others; IF moving the genny is not an option (and while I assume it was the smell of exhaust that was offending…but remember CO was building up) maybe a CO detector outside near the home to alert if the build up gets to the point the ‘bubble’ of exhaust really envelops that side of the home?