Costco Members: Firman 7500W Running / 9400W Peak Tri Fuel Generator

jasonvr

Jun 18, 2023

698 Posts

Joined Jan 2014

Jun 18, 2023

698 Posts

Great generator. Good price. Same as I bought it for last year about this time. Can run my entire house including central AC (with a soft start) on natural gas. Did have to remove the bonding on the chassis to be safe. UPS that runs the network closer wasn't particularly happy with the power for some reason though. Never got around to figuring that one out

4

robluft

Jun 18, 2023

79 Posts

Joined Nov 2015

Jun 18, 2023

robluft

Jun 18, 2023

79 Posts

Quote from jasonvr

:

Great generator. Good price. Same as I bought it for last year about this time. Can run my entire house including central AC (with a soft start) on natural gas. Did have to remove the bonding on the chassis to be safe. UPS that runs the network closer wasn't particularly happy with the power for some reason though. Never got around to figuring that one out

Depending on what's causing your UPS to have a fit, and what's UPS you've got, adjusting the UPS settings may help. I've know some that did this because the gen output voltage was going slightly out of UPS's default alarm range.

1

jasonvr

Jun 18, 2023

698 Posts

Joined Jan 2014

Jun 18, 2023

jasonvr

Jun 18, 2023

698 Posts

Quote from robluft

:

Depending on what's causing your UPS to have a fit, and what's UPS you've got, adjusting the UPS settings may help. I've know some that did this because the gen output voltage was going slightly out of UPS's default alarm range.

It's unfortunately a pretty cheap cyberpower and I don't think it has any adjustments. I saw others messing with the frequency on the generator itself to clear up some issues. I just never got to it.

sdkjr

Jun 19, 2023

269 Posts

Joined Jun 2005

Jun 19, 2023

sdkjr

Jun 19, 2023

269 Posts

Quote from jasonvr

:

Great generator. Good price. Same as I bought it for last year about this time. Can run my entire house including central AC (with a soft start) on natural gas. Did have to remove the bonding on the chassis to be safe. UPS that runs the network closer wasn't particularly happy with the power for some reason though. Never got around to figuring that one out

Are you using the 50amp out of the generator to an inlet for an interlock switch on the panel? I'm looking to add a soft start to my AC and would be curious if the 50 amp out is enough (the manual says it would be outputting 33amp only).

And can you elaborate more on the chassis bonding you are referring to?

pingb

Jun 19, 2023

2,937 Posts

Joined Dec 2012

Jun 19, 2023

pingb

Jun 19, 2023

2,937 Posts

Quote from Be_Kind

:

Would it be safe without CO hazard if I run it inside the closed door garage using natural gas? After all my natural gas heater is inside a closed door garage.

Most likely not, it would need to be vented. Not that hard of your a little handy or some imagination. Does your heater have a vent?

4

jasonvr

Jun 19, 2023

698 Posts

Joined Jan 2014

Jun 19, 2023

jasonvr

Jun 19, 2023

698 Posts

Quote from sdkjr

:

Are you using the 50amp out of the generator to an inlet for an interlock switch on the panel? I'm looking to add a soft start to my AC and would be curious if the 50 amp out is enough (the manual says it would be outputting 33amp only).

And can you elaborate more on the chassis bonding you are referring to?

Yes, 50 amp out to an inlet on the house tied to a breaker with an interlock to the main breaker

Ground and neutral are bonded on the generator which you don't want if you are plugging it into a house. Ground and neutral should only be tied at the main panel. There's a little disassembly to do to unhook one wire. I found the info online

2

jasonvr

Jun 19, 2023

698 Posts

Joined Jan 2014

Jun 19, 2023

jasonvr

Jun 19, 2023

698 Posts

Quote from sdkjr

:

Are you using the 50amp out of the generator to an inlet for an interlock switch on the panel? I'm looking to add a soft start to my AC and would be curious if the 50 amp out is enough (the manual says it would be outputting 33amp only).

And can you elaborate more on the chassis bonding you are referring to?

Oh, and I'm NOT using a suicide cord. The cord that comes out of the generator terminates in a female. The house inlet is male

2

Be_Kind

Jun 19, 2023

188 Posts

Joined Mar 2019

Jun 19, 2023

Be_Kind

Jun 19, 2023

188 Posts

Quote from pingb

:

Most likely not, it would need to be vented. Not that hard of your a little handy or some imagination. Does your heater have a vent?

Thanks. Yes my heater has a vent and now it makes sense.

1

sdkjr

Jun 19, 2023

269 Posts

Joined Jun 2005

Jun 19, 2023

sdkjr

Jun 19, 2023

269 Posts

Quote from jasonvr

:

Oh, and I'm NOT using a suicide cord. The cord that comes out of the generator terminates in a female. The house inlet is male

Yep I have the inlet, interlock and real cord meant for this. Just hasn't thought about getting my AC working off the generator via natural gas on the 50amp or even the grounding/neutral item. I will have to look into that

Finheaven3

Jun 19, 2023

502 Posts

Joined Jan 2009

Jun 19, 2023

Finheaven3

Jun 19, 2023

502 Posts

Quote from jasonvr

:

Great generator. Good price. Same as I bought it for last year about this time. Can run my entire house including central AC (with a soft start) on natural gas. Did have to remove the bonding on the chassis to be safe. UPS that runs the network closer wasn't particularly happy with the power for some reason though. Never got around to figuring that one out

How does it run your central AC? Do you need an electrician to install a transfer switch?

1

jasonvr

Jun 19, 2023

698 Posts

Joined Jan 2014

Jun 19, 2023

jasonvr

Jun 19, 2023

698 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank jasonvr

Quote from Finheaven3

:

How does it run your central AC? Do you need an electrician to install a transfer switch?

I was redoing my entire electrical panel at the same time. Generator backfeeds into a breaker on the panel powering the entire house. I have a physical interlock on the panel that allows either the main breaker or the generator breaker to be on, but never both at the same time. No transfer switch needed. Generator only gets hooked up when needed

3

J03

Jun 19, 2023

10,903 Posts

Joined Aug 2010

Jun 19, 2023

J03

Jun 19, 2023

10,903 Posts

Can anyone who lives in a hurricane prone area chime in on what they use? I recently moved to one so this idea of potentially needing backup power for more than several hours is new to me. At $699, this seems like a great deal for what you get but thinking from a practical standpoint. I assume I'm going to need to do some electrical work with a transfer switch and the like to properly backfeed the house. If I want to keep it in the garage then I would need to pop another vent hole in the wall next to the one for my natural gas water heater that would sit right above it. That's got me thinking about if I even need something like this or if I would be better served by a smaller inverter unit that I can just plop outside on my covered patio and run an extension cord to a couple critical appliances and call it a day. Then I go to price those out and see that they're similar to this price on sale and question if that's a dumb thing to do.

1

fourml8r

Jun 19, 2023

9,332 Posts

Joined Jul 2005

Jun 19, 2023

fourml8r

Jun 19, 2023

9,332 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank fourml8r

Quote from J03

:

Can anyone who lives in a hurricane prone area chime in on what they use? I recently moved to one so this idea of potentially needing backup power for more than several hours is new to me. At $699, this seems like a great deal for what you get but thinking from a practical standpoint. I assume I'm going to need to do some electrical work with a transfer switch and the like to properly backfeed the house. If I want to keep it in the garage then I would need to pop another vent hole in the wall next to the one for my natural gas water heater that would sit right above it. That's got me thinking about if I even need something like this or if I would be better served by a smaller inverter unit that I can just plop outside on my covered patio and run an extension cord to a couple critical appliances and call it a day. Then I go to price those out and see that they're similar to this price on sale and question if that's a dumb thing to do.

don't do a transfer switch, use an interlock kit. its cheaper and more flexible since you can run anything tied to your electric panel.

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Costco Members: Firman 7500W Running / 9400W Peak Tri Fuel Generator

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