expiredNavy-Wife | Staff posted Jul 10, 2024 07:04 AM
Item 1 of 4
Item 1 of 4
expiredNavy-Wife | Staff posted Jul 10, 2024 07:04 AM
Prime Members: Champion TRI Fuel Portable Natural Gas Generator: 5k/4k Generator
& More + Free Shipping$592
$699
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Generator construction
Inverter- this type uses power electronics to produce a 60hz pure sinusoidal wave form at the cost of increased price. Pros: more fuel efficient and quieter since it can produce power at any RPM of engine speed. Slower engine speed is less power thus it can vary engine speed based on power needs. Price is increasingly prohibitive as you increase the generator size and so you typically use this for smaller power needs. Pure sin waves are best for sensitive electronics.
Traditional generator- this type relies on engine speed (typically 3600rpm) to produce a 60hz waveform. Furthermore, the physical design and construction varies with cheaper design/construction having higher THD total harmonic distortion. Better design and construction costing more money lowers THD with some advertising a THD of less than 5% which is best for sensitive electronics. This means the THD number can indirectly tell you the quality of the design and build. These Generators are used throughout the range of sizes with lower THD designs costing more money. Generally loud. My cost per performance sweet spot is 5 to 10% THD.
With this said, champion seems to be good quality among the cheaper gens. THD can be high so look for THD numbers in a Q&A section
Side note- unfortunately, you will need these more often going forward. There is absolutely no reason why black outs or energy emergencies should exist. This is purely political.
Another side note- do your break in oil changes on every generator and always use ethanol free gas with fuel stabilizer.
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Our house was somewhat unlucky. A limb fell on the power line coming into the house and damaged it, but it didn't fall. So not an emergence repair like a down line would be, and we need to wait for most of the area repairs are complete before they get to us.
Without the inverter to provide clean constant power, your variable gas valves will not ignite properly, the ECU will stop the unit from running completely and error out. The reasoning for this is that the ECU can't determine properly if the gas valve is open or closed, so for safety reasons the system won't run at all.
The discussion related to sensitive electronics and THD is mostly moot at this point as you noted, most modern electronics are able to handle significant variations in the load. For example look at the input voltage on the back of your laptop charger, modern electronics are much less sensitive than older models.
So yes, an inverter (or a massively oversized generator output, i.e. a generac) is needed to be able to run things like your fridge, furnace, and AC.
I personally have the champion inverter trifuel mentioned in the comments. I run it solely on NG, it is able to easily power everything in my house outside of the double oven, with many things running concurrently. If i ran it on gas itd probably power everything. This is accomplished by a generator disconnect in the main panel, and a 50amp hookup outside. Set up is extremely easy and it's almost silent in the house when set the correct 20ft away from the house.
The fact, not theory, is that you cannot run modern variable heating and cooling units on unclean power. This is a fact, and if you need something else showing it take the time to read up on the installation manual that comes with your HVAC or instant hot water heater. I'd tell you as well to do a simple Google search to find this but I can tell by your comments here that you don't care what some dumb engineer has to say; so why would you believe any of the first hand accounts of people asking for forum help when they can't get their heat to work in a snow storm.
The fact, not theory, is that you cannot run modern variable heating and cooling units on unclean power. This is a fact, and if you need something else showing it take the time to read up on the installation manual that comes with your HVAC or instant hot water heater. I'd tell you as well to do a simple Google search to find this but I can tell by your comments here that you don't care what some dumb engineer has to say; so why would you believe any of the first hand accounts of people asking for forum help when they can't get their heat to work in a snow storm.
Theory meaning this.
The theory is that excess THD eventually generates heat, which can cause components to fail prematurely. Great. How long a period of time and how high a THD does this require? What if, at some "high THD", it takes 20 years of continuous operation for that excess heat to cause failure? Well then it might as well be never. You're then scaring people into obsessing over THD and spending more money for no reason at all. That combination of "high" THD and time is what I am looking for a definition of. The vast majority of generators like this are emergency backups, someone might use for a week rarely. In that, I think THD is much an argument about nothing.
And btw I am an engineer. In fact I have 5 degrees including a doctorate in chemical engineering. A *good* engineer would easily be able to give at least a rough idea of risk, not just vaguely defining it. If the practical risk is essentially zero, there isn't much point in bringing it up.
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https://www.costco.com/firman-750...40185.htm
If you use gasoline or propane I could get even higher output, but connecting it into a natural gas connection is just far too convenient. So instead I just temporarily shut off the AC anytime I want to run something else for a bit.
https://www.amazon.com/Champion-P...14_1f&th=1
If you have an older HVAC, you probably also need a "soft start" kit for it. Mine is a newer variable-speed HVAC, so it already starts softly on its own.
You can be all-in for a few thousand dollars, which is substantially less cost and time than having a permanent full standby generator.
When power goes down, you use the interlock to safely disconnect the mains supply. Then turn off the rest of the panel completely. Attach and start the generator. Then start flipping on the breakers you want to use, one by one.
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https://www.amazon.com/Champion-P...14_1f&th=1 [amazon.com]
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