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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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C9KZCXBL
And the CCC price tracker on it:
Well, forget that--seems like CCC price tracker links are blocked, unfortunately.
I am thinking of a whole house solution, but the need for just a plain generator vs. inverter generator has got me going in circles as some suggest the inverter generator type is necessary while others no. Folks have been using just regular generators for years so that suggests just a generator might be fine. But yeah, everything has more and more built-in electronics nowadays for better efficiency and such. So the inverter generator style may become ever more important.
For the folks still without power from Beryl, I'd bet they'd be willing to take either...
I have two central A/C units at home so I am thinking I need a bigger capacity, as least for surge capacity when the units start up. But those Micro Air EasyStart devices that convert a traditional hard start AC unit to a soft start version seem almost miraculous because they can reduce needed start up surge wattage by like 75%. So all the apparent need to purchase units with 10K, 12K, 13K, 15K surge wattage is possibly moot. Yeah, the Micro Air EasyStart modules are pricey at about $400 each, but if that let's one cut down to an 8K surge wattage inverter generator, gosh, it seems worth it.
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I am thinking of a whole house solution, but the need for just a plain generator vs. inverter generator has got me going in circles as some suggest the inverter generator type is necessary while others no. Folks have been using just regular generators for years so that suggests just a generator might be fine. But yeah, everything has more and more built-in electronics nowadays for better efficiency and such. So the inverter generator style may become ever more important.
For the folks still without power from Beryl, I'd bet they'd be willing to take either...
I have two central A/C units at home so I am thinking I need a bigger capacity, as least for surge capacity when the units start up. But those Micro Air EasyStart devices that convert a traditional hard start AC unit to a soft start version seem almost miraculous because they can reduce needed start up surge wattage by like 75%. So all the apparent need to purchase units with 10K, 12K, 13K, 15K surge wattage is possibly moot. Yeah, the Micro Air EasyStart modules are pricey at about $400 each, but if that let's one cut down to an 8K surge wattage inverter generator, gosh, it seems worth it.
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.
its running right now as a type this on my desktop pc. I have all my sensitive electronics on surge protectors and battery UPS backups.
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.
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