Cheap 2-Stroke Generator For Rare Use?

[mattwithcats]

I installed a natural gas powered standby generator.

Two ways to go, either the entire house, easy, just a transfer relay/switch,
or hard, just a few circuits, those have to be moved to a separate electrical box controlled by the relay/switch, hard.

I had to rewire the entire house, aluminum wiring, but I did the entire house to the backup generator.

I lost power 17 days Floyd, 19 Isabelle...

 

[gathermewool]

Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
Rinse some two liter soda bottles out, fill with water, and put in freezer beforehand...

Move bottles to fridge side as needed to maintain cold.

Use as drinking water when thawed...



Yep. Still a finite time until stuff needs to be tossed or eaten, though.

 

[wag123]

Originally Posted By: Cujet
Originally Posted By: wag123
Have you seen the waveform of the output from one of the cheap Chinese generators? It is very scary looking!


Actually, I checked my 800W HF generator wave form, it's quite satisfactory. The waveform is not exactly perfect, but it's not far off the mark. Certainly not "scary". It does not have any significant distortions, or sawtooth ramps. It's a conventional sine wave.

I did change the bridge rectifier with a higher quality unit.

Not all inverter generators are created equal. You get what you pay for.
Check this out Cujet... http://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/selecting-a-generator
I have an o-scope at home and have checked the output on my cheap 1500/2000 watt Chinese generator. Under a very light load (75 watt light bulb) it looked OK but fuzzy, under a medium to heavy load it looked a lot like the brushless waveform on Honda's website... very fuzzy, noisy, and ugly. The higher the load, the worse it looked. All of the cheap Chinese generators that I have seen are brushless.

 

[Cujet]

Another data point on the 2 stroke generator. 1.3 gallons consumed in 7hrs 56min, at a constant load of 540 watts. From what I'm guessing, 500W is about peak efficiency for the HF 2 stroke unit.

3.6KWH/gallon at 540W.

Next time I use it, I'll post a pic of the sine wave.

 

[Michael_P]

For those that say ride out the power outage. Last two week summer power outage I had, I threw away $600 of food from my refrigerator and freezer.

 

[Cujet]

Originally Posted By: Cujet


I did change the bridge rectifier with a higher quality unit.


Correction!

A Friend asked today how I changed the bridge rectifier. So, I went out and looked at the unit to tell him what I installed. In fact, I did not change a bridge rectifier. I installed a BP5ES NGK spark plug and a new TYGON fuel hose. Unit runs really well.

I installed the new Bridge rectifier on my Homelite generator.