eu2000i runtime

[meep]

thought I'd offer a little report... I have a honda eu2000i which i primarily bought for music work since it's quiet and packs enuf juice for a small-midsize PA. Anyway, most of it's use is now centered around my house, which has AL wiring... and the garage is tied to the kitchen... so pretty much if I'm running power tools I just roll the genset out and fire it up.

So last night we were sent home due to weather so I started to tackle the toilet leak (from the end you DON'T want to leak) and had to patch the subfloor.

Which meant i had to prime the new subfloor. Knowing this is a damp area, "priming" meant I poured out the paint and used a brush to spread it around.

which meant I had to run a space heater to have any chance of drying (water based, not oil based primer. window open. vent fan on!).

heater made the outlet warm. [censored].

Fired up genset on the back deck and ran the cord in the house.

Heater was switching between 1000 and 1500 watts, but spent most of its time at 1500. I checked the fuel after 3 hours and it had consumed roughly 3/4 of its 1 gallon tank. Shut 'er down, refueled, started and ran a while longer before calling it quits.

I've never used another genset, but this strikes me as pretty efficient. I do wish it had a little more headroom, though. I think it can peak up to 20 amps or so but is rated for slightly below 15 for sustained load.

I'll seal the floor with a moisture-resistant paint tonight before applying vinyl tile tomorrow, so the genset will get another 80% load workout. I've never really stress-tested honda OPE (my mower was flawless but I'm good to it) but this has to be pretty hard on it.

It has Pennzoil Platinum 10w30 in the sump (manual states 5-30).

M

 

[The_Jeff]

So you can get 5 or 6 KwH from a gallon of gas? If it weren't a house and if you could vent the exhaust properly you could have used the heat from the engine as well.

From the utility here that would have cost $.80, from the bowser, $3.

That's not *too* bad for being in charge of your destiny. I assumed it would be more like 10x as expensive to run one's own genset.

 

[JHZR2]

Gasoline is 36.6 kWh/US Gal, and a small generator isnt going to be more than 15-20% efficient... So Id imagine that 5-6kWh from a gallon is about right...

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
So you can get 5 or 6 KwH from a gallon of gas? If it weren't a house and if you could vent the exhaust properly you could have used the heat from the engine as well.

From the utility here that would have cost $.80, from the bowser, $3.

That's not *too* bad for being in charge of your destiny. I assumed it would be more like 10x as expensive to run one's own genset.

I do remember reading an article on gasoline generator based home electricity and heating systems for remote 3rd world locations or areas with unreliable power. It sounded kind of neat but it seemed like it would better for a cottage up here, than for folks with limited means as getting gasoline would be difficult/expensive in most areas with a need for something like this. I think it had batteries in the system as well so you wouldn't be running the motor just for heat.

 

[meep]

I've thought about the heat thing. It throws so much heat that if I could contain it I could heat the whole house off it. It did melt all of the ice on the deck, and then dried the water, which was an added benefit, since the toilet was sitting out there and also froze to the deck.... So the gennie freed it. But anyway the snout off the tailpipe is awfully stubby to weld/clamp/seal a pipe to. And I could see backpressure problems if I didn't do a ground-up exhaust build. And it still gives off a minor odor even shut down in storage, with all ports sealed. Maybe just set it out back next to the heat pump tonight while it runs. keep the warm air "in the family."

Off-grid living would not be an application for unleaded supplementation. In my mind, it'd be diesel for when the wind dont blow and the sun dont shine, or you need to do the laundry without killing battery storage.

I'll spend another $3 tonight to dry the next coat of paint with my 6kw..