TPC
Wrenching Dad
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2007
- Messages
- 31,641
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We’ve had a few blackouts here with the Santa Ana winds, fires and other reasons like just not enough electricity to go around.
One time for a full week. More predicted.
So instead of running extension cords all through the house off the generator and having just a few select electrical things running, we decided to be able to hot up the entire house.
Also the wifi and Direct TV is now dedicated to the standby power too.
Everything you see is hard to get because everyone in the bible belt is doing this with the tropical storms and hurricanes and they get fires too.
Couldn’t find a Honda 7000 inverter generator anyplace. Sold out at about $5000 a unit with tax and delivery. I thought I had one set up but the dealer in Idaho shipped what he had left to Louisiana. We wanted at least 7000 watts and under 55 decibels at low load, and of course inverter.
Commercial electricians told us the Honda is made in China by the same company that makes the Predator. The same company that makes the Powerhorse 7500 at half the price of the Honda and has more power and free delivery.
They like the Powerhorse 7500 says it’s been reliable so far.
Damfino, that's what they tell me - I haven’t researched further.
Doesn’t have the FI Honda twin (also made in China by the same company) but it’s been good goes the tales. What the hey,, I bit.
We opted out of running the central AC but it will run the forced air heating unit and everything else in the house. It'll run the swamp cooler and window units and on a stand by temp basis that's fine.
The starting amperage on the AC is just too much to ask. We'd have to go up to 10.000 watts and those units sound like the sledge hammers of hell. Overkill, we don't need that anyway and they aren't inverter.
Inverter generators are usually much quieter, read that usually. Also have less than a 1.5% sine wave distortion where the non-inverter is usually 5% or more distortion. Ya can't charge a Hybrid or electric vehicle above 5% distortion, not that we're doing that - but jus' sayin'. Electronics like 1.5% or less.
Though the 50 AMP Cable from the generator to the house looks like an RV type, it's slightly different on the house side. A smarter pin-into-slot-then-twist locking style and that's good. 13 foot $89 from Amazon and it was the only cable available for the next 2 months. I'll eventually get a 50 ft when available.
Quieter than our Predator 3500 and brother that's really quiet.
If we lived in an extreme weather area with natural gas we'da gone Generac, but with this occasional use situation here this is the best bang for the buck.
One time for a full week. More predicted.
So instead of running extension cords all through the house off the generator and having just a few select electrical things running, we decided to be able to hot up the entire house.
Also the wifi and Direct TV is now dedicated to the standby power too.
Everything you see is hard to get because everyone in the bible belt is doing this with the tropical storms and hurricanes and they get fires too.
Couldn’t find a Honda 7000 inverter generator anyplace. Sold out at about $5000 a unit with tax and delivery. I thought I had one set up but the dealer in Idaho shipped what he had left to Louisiana. We wanted at least 7000 watts and under 55 decibels at low load, and of course inverter.
Commercial electricians told us the Honda is made in China by the same company that makes the Predator. The same company that makes the Powerhorse 7500 at half the price of the Honda and has more power and free delivery.
They like the Powerhorse 7500 says it’s been reliable so far.
Damfino, that's what they tell me - I haven’t researched further.
Doesn’t have the FI Honda twin (also made in China by the same company) but it’s been good goes the tales. What the hey,, I bit.
We opted out of running the central AC but it will run the forced air heating unit and everything else in the house. It'll run the swamp cooler and window units and on a stand by temp basis that's fine.
The starting amperage on the AC is just too much to ask. We'd have to go up to 10.000 watts and those units sound like the sledge hammers of hell. Overkill, we don't need that anyway and they aren't inverter.
Inverter generators are usually much quieter, read that usually. Also have less than a 1.5% sine wave distortion where the non-inverter is usually 5% or more distortion. Ya can't charge a Hybrid or electric vehicle above 5% distortion, not that we're doing that - but jus' sayin'. Electronics like 1.5% or less.
Though the 50 AMP Cable from the generator to the house looks like an RV type, it's slightly different on the house side. A smarter pin-into-slot-then-twist locking style and that's good. 13 foot $89 from Amazon and it was the only cable available for the next 2 months. I'll eventually get a 50 ft when available.
Quieter than our Predator 3500 and brother that's really quiet.
If we lived in an extreme weather area with natural gas we'da gone Generac, but with this occasional use situation here this is the best bang for the buck.
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