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hogone 
Senior Member 
Joined: 09 Apr 2013 Location: St. Louis Online Status: Offline Posts: 1049 |
 Calendar Event: GENERATORPosted: 02 Mar 2014 at 7:54pm |
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ok, lay it on the line all (and trust me, i won't take it personnally); did i make an irrational purchase? i can paddle thru a mean rapids, hike a rugid trail, shovel a storm, change oil!!!; but not electrically savvy; what does this all mean?
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Jon & Pam
2013 RP177 2010 F150 2017 HD Streetglide 2009 HD Lowrider CHEESEHEAD |
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techntrek
Admin Group - pHp 
Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Location: MD Online Status: Offline Posts: 9062 |
Posted: 02 Mar 2014 at 8:42pm |
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A larger generator which will produce 120/240 is a good choice - if you have the loads that need it. Specifically a well pump and/or electric hot water heater, possibly a 2 ton A/C although 8000 watts may not be enough to get it started. The biggest reason I bought a 12 kw generator was to run one of my 2 ton A/Cs, however in 10 years I've never had an outage while it is hot. I now have a 5000 btu window A/C which I can run with either the Prius or Yamaha if we get a long outage from a hurricane, or we'll plug in the pod. If you want to hook up to a transfer switch to feed a subpanel in your house (subpanel with just the circuits you will power in an outage) then the 120/240 output is necessary. You won't want to run that big genset for long periods of time - lots of gas and loud - which is why I mentioned earlier that it is a good strategy to also have a small inverter genset for long-term use. |
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furpod
Moderator Group - pHp 
Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Location: Central KY Online Status: Offline Posts: 6128 |
Posted: 02 Mar 2014 at 9:47pm |
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Nope, you bought a fine piece of equipment. It may be a bit oversized for what you need to run, or what you need to run all the time.. but bigger is always better.  Like has been posted, it will be to much for some loads, maybe not enough for others, but in ANY situation where you need it, there is no substitute. Generators, like many things, are hard to have in a "one size fits all" size. That is why we are going to get a Yamaha EF2400iSHC.. depending on weather conditions, most of the time, we probably won't need the big genny, so a small one that gets better "mileage" will be good, because we don't need to run the water heater all the time, and the EF2400iSHC is small enough to be truly portable and big enough to run the pod a/c.. Kind of like our vehicles.. depending on what I need them to do, I drive a bigger one or smaller one, with the tradeoff being mileage vs capability/capacity. |
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Sleepless
Senior Member
Joined: 07 Jun 2013 Location: Titusville, FL Online Status: Offline Posts: 556 |
Posted: 02 Mar 2014 at 10:36pm |
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hogone, you have purchased one genset that should handle any and all of your essential needs. I started out with a 5500 watt unit that I brought to Florida from the Midwest. It handles all of my needs here during power outages, but as others have said, under some circumstances, a large unit might be over-kill and uneconomical to run for prolonged periods. My solution was to buy a very small quiet Chinese 1000 watt genset that will run our lights and TV for hours on a tank of gas, and a Dometic 3000 (electric start) should we decide to hunker down in our pod. But, am I really saving money by owning 3 generators? Perhaps having a single larger unit like yours is actually more cost effective.
1000 |
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2014 R-Pod 178 (OUR POD)
2009 Chevrolet Avalanche |
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techntrek
Admin Group - pHp
Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Location: MD Online Status: Offline Posts: 9062 |
Posted: 02 Mar 2014 at 10:56pm |
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If you often have long outages you'll break even fairly quickly. Our two longest outages add up to 95 hours. I didn't use our big genset for about 80 of the 95 hours. Using the smaller/cheaper option saved me about $384. |
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Sleepless
Senior Member
Joined: 07 Jun 2013 Location: Titusville, FL Online Status: Offline Posts: 556 |
Posted: 02 Mar 2014 at 11:10pm |
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My large genset is primarily for prolonged outages due to hurricanes. After living here in Florida for 12 years, we have seldom had a need to run the large unit for a prolonged period, and then we were letting a few of our older neighbors tap into our power. Now it seems like most of our neighbors have bought their own large gensets. Most of the time, my little 1000 watt unit keeps us up and running during the daytime hours. By the way, I brought my Northern mentality with me when we built our home in Florida. We have a gas hot water heater, gas clothes dryer and gas range, which reduce our need for electricity during power outages. |
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2014 R-Pod 178 (OUR POD)
2009 Chevrolet Avalanche |
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HuronSailor
podders Helping podders - pHp
Joined: 10 Jun 2009 Location: Owosso MI Online Status: Offline Posts: 704 |
Posted: 03 Mar 2014 at 7:23am |
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Sounds like you made a good choice for home backup use, which was the subject of your original post. Way overkill for the rPod, though. As far as a generator for the rPod, I'd probably spend another $50 for that 220/110 adapter and try it before I bought another generator. But that's just me. I've actually accumulated 3 generators over the years - 7500, 5500, and 1000 watts - they take up a lot of space and are just more crap you have to maintain.
Even if you have a "multiple generator strategy" during a power outage like myself and others, it's always going to be more expensive to run the generators than it is to buy your power from the grid. It's just a matter of how MUCH more expensive.
If you need that 220V power during an outage, your next step should probably be to figure out how to get it into the house safely. And not to beat a dead horse, but if you have a fancy furnace with high falutin' circuit boards, and no other heat source, make sure it likes your generator's power before the next outage or you could still get real cold. |
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.: Mark & Beth :: Silverado 5.3L :: 2018 rPod 180 :.
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hogone
Senior Member
Joined: 09 Apr 2013 Location: St. Louis Online Status: Offline Posts: 1049 |
Posted: 03 Mar 2014 at 8:51am |
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Thanks for all the info. One last question for all. So I should get an adaptor for the 120/240 socket for the pod, or use just the standard plug ins? The 120/240 does come with a cord that splits into 4. Again, I am really green on this subject (however I didn't think this bad until this all started!!!!!), but should that only be used for specific things or anything? I think I have alot to learn here, which I guess is good stuff to know. I didn't buy this for the pod, but for home use, but may need pod air in a summer meltdown! hogone
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Jon & Pam
2013 RP177 2010 F150 2017 HD Streetglide 2009 HD Lowrider CHEESEHEAD |
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HuronSailor
podders Helping podders - pHp
Joined: 10 Jun 2009 Location: Owosso MI Online Status: Offline Posts: 704 |
Posted: 03 Mar 2014 at 9:00am |
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If you get the adapter I linked to earlier and use the 220V outlet on the generator, you can use the 30A power cord that came with the pod. One cord. Done.
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.: Mark & Beth :: Silverado 5.3L :: 2018 rPod 180 :.
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hogone
Senior Member
Joined: 09 Apr 2013 Location: St. Louis Online Status: Offline Posts: 1049 |
Posted: 03 Mar 2014 at 9:06am |
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oops, sorry missed that huron!
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Jon & Pam
2013 RP177 2010 F150 2017 HD Streetglide 2009 HD Lowrider CHEESEHEAD |
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GENERATOR - Event Date: 27 Feb 2014 - 27 Apr 2014