A Portable Home Generator Set

Hi, I'm looking around for your suggestion regarding a portable home gen set. This is to meet the power we need at home. Please let us know your views.

gruntscoreboard said:

Hi, I'm looking around for your suggestion regarding a portable home gen set. This is to meet the power we need at home. Please let us know your views.

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I don't associate portable and a homes needs. Portable is in the 5 to 6KW range and a home will need much more then that. So it depends on what you want to run during what times. When an ice storm hit we were without power for over a week. I used a 5KW gen and ran extension cord's to gas furnace, Frig, couple lights and a TV.

This setup would not be enough if it was summer time and needed A/C. What do you want/need to run and when?

I have a old Thermalarc Predator welder 10kw generator that does as I need in a pinch. Any decent engine powered welder/generator of that size can supply enough power to run a few lights and TV with a heat pump along with cycling refrigerators and freezers. My own example was two winters ago lost power due to ice, ran our well, limited lighting, would cycle breakers for refrigerators/freezer off when turned the heat on for awhile then rotate back, did leave shop heat on as does not take large demand. No laundry for awhile but that was small sacrifice and acceptable, power back on in four days, 12 gallon gas.

Have to careful, need a meter base disconnect or a generator supply panel with auto disconnect for most electrical providers acceptance, chance to injure employees with backfeed, then need to limit usage voluntarily as many heating systems can use up to 8kw on its own, AC is as bad.

DMiller, Is that predator purple with a Honda engine?

During Hurricane Harvey We used A Kubota 15 kw and had to shed some loads at times and could have used a 20-25. Over a week I burnt a fair amount of Diesel. Water well, septic, refrigerator, microwave, two central HVAC units, lights, washer, dryer, propane stove. Everyone came to my place.

Me, if we lose power for an extended period, we just move into the motorhome. 6.5 KW genset, propane heat, stove and fridge. Also has 4 group 24 deep cycle batteries and an invertor. In freezing weather if I cant drain the house lines I would use the trailblazer on the service truck to run the furnace periodically to prevent freezing.

DMiller, Is that predator purple with a Honda engine?

Yes it is
Had it since 2000 been a decent welder and gen set. Have had to replace fuel pump(alcohol damage) and all the fuel lines but runs great. This was taken early in life.

Buddy of mine went with a propane Generac .

Has the automatic transfer switch that's wired in to power essential circuits on the home . I think it even fires up once a week & runs for a short time .

He likes it !

http://www.generac.com/all-products/generators/home-backup-generators#?cat=6&cat=214&cat=217&cat=249


We still back a truck up to the home & power off the welder .

https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/coolers-what-is-everybody-using.71906/#post-750225

We are in a moderate climate but have lost power for up to two weeks. Got a 5KW gen set for that reason. The big load for us is the water heater. Not hot enough for AC here and we heat the house with a pellet stove. We use a camp stove for cooking and only run what we need to get by. Fridge, freezer, lights, computer and Wi Fi network. Gas is expensive and that little Honda motor likes drinking it. It will run about three hours on just shy of two gallons in the tank.

I've been seeing some of the high end homes with ten and fifteen KW Generac natural gas units. You don't have to worry about liquid fuels going bad or having to keep that fluid stored on site. I have a manual disconnect on the panel. The switch can only have one input on at a time.

Need to be careful some new appliances TV, Furnace and such will not work with most portable Genset because of electronics in them. If getting portable get one with an inverter basically produces cleaner sinewave AC that simulates the AC power from utility companies. The Generac or other permeant connected to house are great and can be found for about $3k and if you have natural gas usually never is interrupted with most storms. Portable gas are thirsty and many times is an issue getting more gas during extended outage. Best portables are Honda but you will pay the price for them they are quiet.

I've been looking at PTO generators .

Mount it on the Minneapolis - Moline with the 1,000 RPM PTO . Run the tractor around 850 RPM to make the juice come alive .

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_36914_36914

DMiller said:

DMiller, Is that predator purple with a Honda engine?

Yes it is
Had it since 2000 been a decent welder and gen set. Have had to replace fuel pump(alcohol damage) and all the fuel lines but runs great. This was taken early in life.





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I had 2 of those Predators in the late 90's early 2000's. One was the earlier AC/DC machine, the later one was DC only. Both had the 480 3ph tap... used that a couple of times to run irrigation pivots to get them off trenches and that sort of thing.
They were great welders, it's too bad they didn't stick with it.

Bought a Generac 4 kw 20 years ago. Still have it, since the Honda 3 kw inverter doesn't have 220 for the well pump. The Honda powers the TV, computer, and electronics. If the Honda did 220, I'd let the Generac go.

Legdoc said:

During Hurricane Harvey We used A Kubota 15 kw and had to shed some loads at times and could have used a 20-25. Over a week I burnt a fair amount of Diesel. Water well, septic, refrigerator, microwave, two central HVAC units, lights, washer, dryer, propane stove. Everyone came to my place.

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Thanks for sharing your idea. That could be better to consider.

I had 2 of those Predators in the late 90's early 2000's. One was the earlier AC/DC machine, the later one was DC only. Both had the 480 3ph tap... used that a couple of times to run irrigation pivots to get them off trenches and that sort of thing.
They were great welders, it's too bad they didn't stick with it.

Mine is an early AC/DC, there are times I have used AC but most often use it in DC. Thermalarc ran into financial difficulties pretty early on, the suitcase 480 welders were used a lot in the nuke I worked but as were no longer serviced ended up junked out.