> What do you all think about this little generator? Will it power a > house in a blackout?
Sort of. You will always be well aware of what you are running, or else you will have problems. Somewhere around 10-12kW you can start to ignore that you are on a generator, assuming all your heating appliances are not electric. You can make do with a 1600W unit, as I did for a week, but you have to be _extremely_ careful what you run simultaneously. You have to make sure both 120V phases are balanced, you can only draw 2.5kW per side off of the usual unit, unless it has a 'full-power' switch, in which case you can't run any 240V appliances. Even a 5-6kW will give you hot water or run a stove element, _if_ you turn off everything else first. Ever see that Green Acres episode where they got 'the electric'? If you're on a well, water is extra. I have a second rope-pull genny for the well house. Full 200A service is a 40-50kW generator. That's what it takes to completely ignore the power outage. That 5kW generator is effectively what my broken one is, but outside of the noise suppression box and with a brushless generator head, and with a rope pull instead of key start. The brushless gens typically are capacitor-regulated, and supposedly will not start bigger electric motors well, or deal with other nasty loads of the heavy sort. Will run incandescent lights just fine. Bigger is better, and the 1800 RPM units will last a lot longer than the little 3600 RPM jobs. They also cost a whole bunch more, unless you go surplus/used. My 40kW Kohler was $400. And countless hours of work restoring it, plus several hundred dollars in repair costs. -- Jim _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new parts see official list sponsor: http://www.buymbparts.com/ For used parts email [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
