Generator vs Inverter Generator

[Donald]

Interesting thread. Power outages are pretty common where I live. Last power outage I ran 2 fridges, lights and some electronics off the 120v, 1500 watt outlet in my Prius Prime. Fully charged battery will provide power for a very long time and then the gas engine will cycle to keep the power going. I tried this for fun for a couple hours just to see if it would work.

I do have a 5500 watt (7500 peak) Champion generator with electric start wired into my panel with a lockout plate so that the main breaker must be off before turning on the generator breaker. This provides 240v to run the well pump. And I just isolate the other big loads such as the hot water tank. It also works great and I have had no issues with the power quality - everything works as normal including electronics. We have a wood stove for heat.

Everything is fine unless you need your generator to supply electricity for electric heat or electric heat pump.

Then the large generator comes into play. It's not only physically large but the connection and transfer of power becomes complicated and expensive. And then a large generator will be sucking down lots of fuel.

 

[Donald]

So I went round and round in circles as to the best way forward. And how much money I want to spend when we have highly reliable power (it's a Coop, maybe that's the reason). And wife did not want a huge generator in the back yard.

So as an interim solution I bought a used Pulsar generator that is dual fuel and listed at 12,000 watts. It's even electric start. It's only 9,000 running watts on propane.

It can certainly run refrigerator, micro and lights a fireplace fan all via extension cords. Could get more creative if I need to run more things in the house.

I need to figure out the best way to get the generator propane from my 500 gallon underground tank.

And get out some meters and see running and peak loads for heat pumps. I am not expecting this generator to be able to power the heat pump. But we will see.