Invertor and Tru-Fuel?

I store Tru-Fuel or VP Racing in my gensets too. My 5 gal reserve tanks are full of reg unleaded E10 that I try to cycle through the cars every 6 months. Home Depot is the lowest cost place for a gal. I don't know why but the 1 gal steel cans are always dented; check for leaks before you leave the store.
I had to laugh. I do exactly what you do.
 
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Forgot to get a pic of the wire nut that had some bare wire sticking out--wire stripped a bit too much, not a real hazard, but looked a bit amateurish. Grab that nut just right and you'll know it.

This might be kosher, the tiebar between two switches. Well pump is 240 so it does need dual breakers. Have not gone looking for the transfer switch paperwork so maybe that's legit. [Screws on top are from the breaker panel, I had it open. But one of the smaller screws is from the switch, why it doesn't have all installed, and why it was pulled apart, I have no idea. Probably someone wanted to rewire but since none of the wires are labeled, had to open it up I guess.]
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Stranded wire in the breaker. Maybe it's allowed, but I thought stranded wire had to use a clamp, one of those "cage" setups, not a screw. It looks like a clamp here, but that's just the angle. More fun: the radon guys double tapped a breaker for their install (bottom breaker).
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Lastly: transfer switch uses 15A breakers, the breaker box uses 20. Ok, 15 in series with 20 gives you 15. 20 when on real power, 15 when on generator. Still. Just seems off.

Did find out that the outlets on the counter are on one of these 20 now 15A circuits. The one with the two coffee pots and the toaster oven. Guess we'll take turns.

Again, probably all legit.
Stranded wire is OK on a breaker. It's even OK on a receptacle with a screw terminal.

The radon guys should have used a wirenut and a pigtail instead of double tapping a breaker.


Fixed the double tap, actually for once not sure I like using Wago's in the breaker panel, they just feel "loose".
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Always wondered why I had a GFCI outlet next to the panel...? turns out, I'm guessing in order to comply with code for getting ready to sell (maybe?) they cut the wiring to the bathroom outlets here, and installed. I'm not sure why they ran new wire (why not just chop and insert GFCI?), but the date on the cable matches the year I bought, and when I killed this line, no bath outlets. One more mystery down.
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Notes added to panel, using handwriting that nobody but me will ever figure out.
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I might make up a 14-30 "cheater cable" to use with the invertor. Tie the legs together so I can run just 120V. The 240V well pump won't work, obviously. I don't see any MWBC's on the wiring inside the breaker panel that the generator is wired to--but I did find that I do have an MWBC, out in the garage and/or outside lighting. Note added, although I think that means I need to get a tiebar to tie the breakers together (they are in adjacent breakers) (didn't know what MWBC was until today, I should go take a class on residential wiring).

[The transfer switch is wired to an external power entry on the house, so I would not be using the plug that you see on the transfer switch.]
 
I might make up a 14-30 "cheater cable" to use with the invertor. Tie the legs together so I can run just 120V.
Finding some options on amazon but haven't priced out making on my own.
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I have a B&S 5,000 watt Gen set that I use with a transfer switch when the power goes out. It’s been used in a couple of big outages (Sandy, 2 weeks, another tropical storm a couple of years ago, 4-5 days) and a number of smaller ones. Have always run it on 89 octane E10 pump gas & Stabil. Never refuse to start & has run more or less the way it always has, it is now 11 years old. I don’t let it sit more than a month without running so gas doesn’t evaporate in the bowl. If you want to run regular E10 gas (all we can get unless you want to pay a crazy price for it) just turn off the shut off on the fuel line & drain the fuel bowl on the carb. Problem solved!
 
That stuff is $20.00 a gallon! I think I'll stick with non ethanol gasoline and Stabil.

If there was an airport around here I would use AV gas. It is supposed to be very slow to degrade.
Yes avgas can sit a long time. That's what several automotive museums use in the tanks of classic vehicles. The Martin Auto museum in Phoenix told me that's all they use as ethonol separates and the carbs gum up.
 
If there was an airport around here I would use AV gas. It is supposed to be very slow to degrade.
+3
This is an excellent and very valid recommendation supton. Just take your gas can with you when you go to the airport and fillerup. You can use it in all of your equipment and don't have to worry about it going bad or having to drain the equipment. For many years I was using AVGAS exclusively in my shop for 6 months out of the year. I never had a comeback using it, and I could tell by the color if the customer put something else in it and tried to claim a warranty repair for a run problem. BTW, AVGAS lasts quite a bit longer than TruFuel or the others.
 
Had a power outage that threatened to go multiple days; friend said I could borrow one of his Honda invertors. Cool. Picked it up, and he showed me how to use it. However he said he only used True-Fuel in it. If I had to, I could run regular in it, and just to let him know, he’d run it out and then refill with True-Fuel; I have no issue with buying “the right stuff” for something I‘m borrowing.

Regardless. Don’t think I’ve ever heard here about someone running Tru-Fuel in their invertor? At the very least, run the tank down, fill it up with Tru, then store. Longer time between having to run it. Anyone else do that? I can’t imagine running a long outage on tru-fuel but for quick usage…

Side question, how hard is it to drain the tank on one of these invertors? I’m sure there is a line that could be popped off. As opposed to getting a pump and pulling out of the vent.
On the Hondas, you take the side cover off and there is a carb drain screw with has a tube that drains the fuel out the bottom.
I have a Honda and a Yamaha 2k, I much prefer the Yamaha but the Honda does have that extra couple hundred watts of punch if you to start 1HP electric motors.
 
Personally, the only lead I will be releasing into the air near my house will be into a tree stump or a rodent.
For anyone that is worried about lead, they sell unleaded AVGAS now. It still doesn't have ethanol in it and it still has a very long shelf life.
BTW, there are aircraft flying over your house every day releasing lead into the air.
For over half of my life people were driving vehicles that used leaded gas (I have owned many of them) and I'm still here with no measurable lead in my bloodstream. Furthermore, lead air pollution was not the reason that lead was removed from gasoline to begin with, the reason that it was removed was because lead would destroy the catalyst in a catalytic converter. The reason that they have decided to remove lead from AVGAS is due to political pressure from the environmentalists, not because airborne lead pollution is/was a big problem.
 
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I’m not sure how much of an argument I would wish to mount, using but a link to wikipedia, but I have zero desire to use leaded gasoline. Period. Rational reasons or not, I will not use it.


Pre-industrial human BLL measurements are estimated to have been 0.016 μg/dL, and this level increased markedly in the aftermath of the industrial revolution. At the end of the late 20th century, BLL measurements from remote human populations ranged from 0.8 to 3.2 μg/dL. Children in populations adjacent to industrial centers in developing countries often have average BLL measurements above 25 μg/dL. In the United States, the average blood level for children aged 1–5 years fell from 15.2 μg/dL in 1976–1980 to 0.83 μg/dL in 2011–2016. No level of lead in the blood of children is currently thought to be safe, but in 2021, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified 3.5 μg/dL as the blood lead level of concern in children which should prompt further medical investigation. Approximately 2.5% of American children have at least this much lead in their blood.[4]
 
And wacopedia neglects to mention the leading cause of lead in children in the US is from lead paint and lead water pipes, not from leaded gasoline which has been long gone in widespread use. Lead in paint was banned in 1985 here in the US.
Anything goes in the 3rd world, IE developing countries.
I miss red dye #2, it made my candy taste the best as I prefer the red M&M's.
 
And wacopedia neglects to mention the leading cause of lead in children in the US is from lead paint and lead water pipes, not from leaded gasoline which has been long gone in widespread use.
Except airborne lead slowly falls from the air and lands on the ground. Kids are notorious for putting fingers and anything they touch into their mouths. From which they can then ingest that lead.

I do believe lead pipes were on the lower end of risk, as long as they were undisturbed, as they tended to build up a protective layer of sediment. Lead paint chips though was a known issue, true. And as Flint well knows, change one variable and all bets are off.

Lead belongs in solder and bullets, and little else in my opinion.
 
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