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Thanks for typing that up, Chris. I didn't realize the ratings were intermittent duty. I've only purchased one generator ever, a 15 KW Kohler, for an off-grid application. I didn't know what I was doing, I just figured the loads (including battery charging) and doubled it, luckily there are no motors to start and it's been doing OK.
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Few people do. The Generac, Briggs & Stratton and Kohler residential standys are tuned to produce 120/240 @ 50% rated load and 100% duty cycle. They have a design life of 500 hours. The LPG wrecks the valve guides, valve seats and valve faces, causes accelerated wear to the top piston ring and ring land, they lose compression and won't start anymore. I got 8 or 10 pallets in my shed with about 30 junk Generac OHVI, Briggs & Stratton I/C, and Kohler Command generator engines stacked on them. When I get a full load for my flatbed, I scrap them out at the junk yard.
Generac and Kohler especially fight back and forth like cats and dogs, but basically both of them build total junk in their residential generators.
They are what I call "price point" Box Store Junk. They build them to a price point with the idea that they will only ever get exercised, and used for an actual power outage once in a blue moon. And that the power outage won't last more than 2-3 hours once or twice a year. They are probably OK for what most people use them for. But I'm used to working with real generators that run 20,000 hours, and where the entry price for a residential unit is about $15,000. So I tend to have a very low opinion of the Box Store Junk.
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Oh, I also got a junk Generac 6kW EcoGen laying on its side in back of my shop in the weeds. It has a seized engine with only 200 hours on it. Never did get a replacement engine from Generac for it. Their excuse was that all available engines were going to hurricane sandy. The dealer in Forest Lake had the same problem - he had two of 'em sitting in his shop with seized engines and couldn't get a replacement. I dumped that heap of s^&t in back of the shop with my skid steer loader and that's where it still is today - with its "unprecedented 3 year/2000 hour limited warranty" long expired and Generac still don't give a s^&t about replacing the engine in it.
Then I went and bought a real generator.off-grid in Northern Wisconsin for 14 yearsComment
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This one might be different, it has a little Ford or maybe a Mitsubishi engine running at 1800 rpm. I'm hoping it lasts a while.Comment
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Chris this is BS and you know it. You cannot buy a whole house generator that runs on Gasoline. Unless you have more than 5 ton Air Conditioning you have no need for anything more than 10 Kw. I had a 3500 /Ft2 home with 5 tone Ac running on a 10 Kw genny for I thought you were a pro.
200 Amp service does not mean you can pull 200 amps. All that means is the size of the breaker panel with 42 breaker positions. Yes the buss in the main panel can handle 200 amps, but your service transformer cannot. . A residential 200 amp service transformer is 17 KVA so ROFL yourself dude, you are full of crap. Do the math dude. 200 amps x 240 volts = 48Kva.MSEE, PEComment
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You should be because Chris is full of it. Run the calculators on Kohler, Briggs, Generac, and Cummins. You are going to have a monster size full electric home to warrant anything larger than 10 Kva. Folks who use a whole house generator don't use electric heat, hot water, or cooking when they have LPG, at least not the smart ones.
On a whole house generator running Emergency a person does not turn on everything you usually would run under normal circumstances. Just try to find an emergency pad mount generator that runs on Gasoline. They don't make them for a reason which has escaped Chris. Gasoline modles are are for portable temporary use, and by code no way to use in your house wiring unless modified with an umbilical cord and Generator Snout to plug into a Generator receptacle below your electric meter with a means of Lockout.MSEE, PEComment
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You know what? I don't know why I even bother responding to your comments. And, in fact, this is probably the last time - from now on you'll just be ignored and you can blather all you want. Everybody here pretty much has your program figured out and most already ignore you anyway. So why don't you just go argue with somebody else on one of other 8 or 10 forums that you're on?
FYI, Cummins/Onan has built a full line of residential, RV, commercial, mobile and stationary gasoline-fueled gensets for years:
And just to correct your point on utility transformers vs generators - utility transformers have a huge derate factor and the fusing on the primary does indeed provide a full 200A to a service panel with a 17 or 25 kVA pole pig. A generator cannot unless it has a 50 kVA rating. And if you want to try to argue with me I will go to our sawmill with my Fluke meter and camera and make a video of a 25 kVA utility transformer powering a continuous 165A 240V load with spikes over 200A. And then I will show in the video what kind of a generator it takes to power that same load.
I am warning you - do not make one more snide comment about being a "pro". This is NOT your personal superiority complex forum. You never provide any useful information to people here. You bash anything anybody does. And all the time you have never shown us your personal solar power system for your home. So if you don't have one to show how well your system works, and only want to bash everybody that does have one and is actually here for a reason - I suggest you pack up and go someplace else.off-grid in Northern Wisconsin for 14 yearsComment
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Pissing contest finished. Both have some good points and some BS.[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]Comment
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