Smaller Generator Paying For Itself

[BrotherBart]

I said in an earlier thread that I had paid two hundred bucks for a 3250 surge, 2500 continuous little generator a couple of months ago to supplement my 5,000 watt genny. Well, we have been out of power for exactly twenty four hours now and the little sucker is handling all of the basics but of course not the well pump or water heater but the other wouldn't either. The bigger one eats five or six gallons every seven or eight hours. I know. Done it for a week. Twice. The little guy used about 3 gallons for the last ten hours. At $3.19 a gallon I am liking this little dude.

Hope it doesn't fly apart. :coolsmirk:

 

[bogydave]

I said in an earlier thread that I had paid two hundred bucks for a 3250 surge, 2500 continuous little generator a couple of months ago to supplement my 5,000 watt genny. Well, we have been out of power for exactly twenty four hours now and the little sucker is handling all of the basics but of course not the well pump or water heater but the other wouldn't either. The bigger one eats five or six gallons every seven or eight hours. I know. Done it for a week. Twice. The little guy used about 3 gallons for the last ten hours. At $3.19 a gallon I am liking this little dude.

Hope it doesn't fly apart. :coolsmirk:

You get 220V on the little one?, My 5K does burn quit a bit of gasoline but runs the whole house.
I'm gonna start looking for smaller, but would like 220vs.
The small solid state Honda is nice & quiet, & varies RPM with load output. Don't know if it has 220.

 

[Highbeam]

The nice and quiet inverter gensets from Honda do not make 220. Even if they did, the 3000 watt model is thousands of dollars. I need 220 to backfeed my house panel and the smallest genset I could find to do this was the very popular and liked Champion 3500/4000 watt model using a 6HP engine that just sips fuel. I bet it's the same engine on BB's.

 

[velvetfoot]

Here's hoping you get your power back soon.
What are you doing for water? Last time I remembered to run some water in the tub, but they were predicting an ice storm.

I have a real small 2 stroke 800 watt continuous generator that only does 120v.
I made up a plug to attach it to the 240 inlet receptacle on the house. That worked out well.
800 watts doesn't go too far though, but it can run some stuff.

I also have a 5kw gen, which doesn't run the well pump, and a 7.5 kw unit that ran the well pump the last time.
Last time I only ran the 7.5 unit for about 45 minutes a day to take showers and warm up the house. We gave up on the food.
Next time the 800 watter ought to help out.

 

[BrotherBart]

I bet it's the same engine on BB's.

Yep. GX200 clone.

 

[BrotherBart]

Here's hoping you get your power back soon.
What are you doing for water? Last time I remembered to run some water in the tub, but they were predicting an ice storm.

Ten one gallon jugs are filled with filtered water early every December. As is the nine gallon tank in the basement that provides water for flushing duty. If my head is on straight the tubs get filled. This time they didn't. :red:

 

[wetwood]

BrotherBart, Hope you get power back soon but I'm curious, if your out of power how do you have internet?

 

[BrotherBart]

Got it back at 11:30 last night. Still impressed with that little genset. It ran 13 hours yesterday on four gallons of gas. A lot better than its big brother.

 

[Hardrockmaple]

I've had the Yamaha 3000iSE for 4-5 years now. Great little unit. Quiet, reliable and very economical to run. 5 gals. per 24 hr. run.

We lost power a few years ago for 4 days. With the two wood stoves and this little guy there was very little inconvenience. Heat, power and lotsa snow to melt for flushing.

http://www.yamahagenerators.com/yamaha_generator_ef3000ise_pr_17.html#detailed-specifications

 

[Hogwildz]

Got it back at 11:30 last night. Still impressed with that little genset. It ran 13 hours yesterday on four gallons of gas. A lot better than its big brother.

Congrats BB. Welcome back to civilization

 

[LLigetfa]

You get 220V on the little one?, My 5K does burn quit a bit of gasoline but runs the whole house.

I had been holding out for 220V whole house model for years but the fact they are so thirsty kept me from pulling the trigger. I've been hoping for the natural gas models to become more reasonably priced but the CFO (wife) would never approve one.

I finally decided to at least get a small cheap unit despite it not being able to run the 220V pump. A genset is something you'd rather have and not need rather than need and not have. So far, I haven't needed to use it so I don't know how well it will do. It's purported to be 2850W continuous, 3KW peak but I've only tested it to 1KW.

http://www.championpowerequipment.com/46551.php

Anyway, it's good to hear that BB is getting good gas consumption. I usually have between 5 and 10 gallons of gas on hand (plus the 4 gallons in the tank).

 

[BrotherBart]

I get 20 gallons every year in five gallon cans and then come spring start burning them off in the garden tractor, saws and mowers. During lasts years seven day outage with the bigger generator I went trough a bunch of gasoline.

The funny thing is that I paid more for the little genny than the big one. Got the 5,000 watt one at a contractor bankruptcy auction for $165. Everybody was scared to bid on a used one. Right off the bat we had a long outage and I was very happy to have it. My old Tecumseh iron block generator has to be thirty or 40 years old.

 

[seige101]

You get 220V on the little one?, My 5K does burn quit a bit of gasoline but runs the whole house.

I had been holding out for 220V whole house model for years but the fact they are so thirsty kept me from pulling the trigger. I've been hoping for the natural gas models to become more reasonably priced but the CFO (wife) would never approve one.

Whole house natural gas/ propane models are roughly $2000 for a 10,000 watt one add another grand for gas pipe, concrete pad and electrician to hook it up. Not that much IMHO.

 

[wahoowad]

Champion 3500/4000 watt model

+1. It made enduring two 24"+ snowstorms quite easy. Well, that and plenty of dry wood.

 

[velvetfoot]

I am attaching a pic of the plug I made up to plug the 125v generator into the 240v power inlet.

With the weatherman breathing the phrase, "freezing rain", I just ran both the little one and the larger one. The larger one really chugged down, but started the water pump twice, so I figure it's good to go, just in case.