Question for you electricians

So I'm thinking of picking up a generator and from what i understand, they are not good to run electronics on as they are a 'dirty' source of power. I would be using it to run my 2 Herpstat 6, my small chest freezer, TV and a light if the power goes out in winter. So any thoughts on that and/or any recommendations on a good small generator.

If the one you are getting is not reliable get a line isolation transformer to plug your heat onto and that plugged into the generator.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

So I'm thinking of picking up a generator and from what i understand, they are not good to run electronics on as they are a 'dirty' source of power. I would be using it to run my 2 Herpstat 6, my small chest freezer, TV and a light if the power goes out in winter. So any thoughts on that and/or any recommendations on a good small generator.

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Well I would probably get a Honda one.

Honda makes generators?Make sure you can run a small space heater and charge your phone no raisen your snakes should be the only ones nice and toasty;)

Honda, as you mentioned, make good generators and they sip gas. Generac is also a great line and one of my coworkers has a Champion (they actually have a warehouse near me and he got it discounted there).

I have a 15kW Generac generator I plug into my panel and back-feed the entire house. I also feel obligated to have the neighbor run an extension cord to his place as the thing runs pretty loud and it's outside his bedroom window. I do not have any line conditioners but I do have a ground rod 4' into the earth I clamp it to.

I kinda wish it was a natural gas automatic generator but the price tag was just too high.

I wouldn't worry about the tv. During a short outage you can live without it, and during a several day outage you'll be too busy doing chores that would normally be fast to watch it.

I would get enough generator to handle the freezer and a small space heater that you could use just in the snake room to get the ambient temp to 82-83*F. The heater is a very inefficient use of the generator though, you may find it more cost-effective to get a kerosene heater. If you put your chest freezer in the snake room the exhaust from it will also help keep the room warm.

Also those little "Mr Buddy" style propane heaters are great for small spaces like bathrooms. In the winter we put one under every sink and in the mud/utility room to help keep our copper pipes from freezing if the power is out after an ice storm.

A buddy of mine has one of those Honda 2200 watt generators and its a fantastic device. You can run it at full power and easily have a conversation while standing over it. It's that quiet. He also tells me that it'll run forever on a gallon of gas.

We lose power at my house several times a year and the more snakes I get the more I worry about that. I'd have bought a Honda generator already but I haven't yet decided which is most cost effective for my needs. They can all be run parallel to double the wattage (so long as they are the same model) which gives a lot of flexibility.

Here's an option:

My old man found government surplus auctions for our state (I guarantee your own state has them as well) and purchased a non-running Dayton-Honda 5000 Watt generator for like $400. It was the fire departments and they had simply not used it in three years. He went there, inspected it, and discovered it smelled like old gas......which probably means it had a gummed up carb.

Bought it for $400, paid an engine repair place $90 for a carb/fuel tank cleaning............ended up with a mint $2200 generator with 50 hours on it for $490. Honda engine. Amazing deal.

Firefighters take take of their stuff, just remember that, they have a lot of free time on their hands and it usually gets spent on maintaining equipment.

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Originally Posted by BR8080

Honda, as you mentioned, make good generators and they sip gas. Generac is also a great line and one of my coworkers has a Champion (they actually have a warehouse near me and he got it discounted there).

I have a 15kW Generac generator I plug into my panel and back-feed the entire house. I also feel obligated to have the neighbor run an extension cord to his place as the thing runs pretty loud and it's outside his bedroom window. I do not have any line conditioners but I do have a ground rod 4' into the earth I clamp it to.

I kinda wish it was a natural gas automatic generator but the price tag was just too high.

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This is basically what we have. A generac with an outlet that goes directly to our main panel, and then from there, I can switch individual sections of the house on using the breakers. However, the size of the generac we got cannot run the air conditioner. We basically got this to power the one room in the event of prolonged outage. Being in Florida makes heating a little less dire for us, but better safe than sorry.