Portable propane generators

[travelover]

Good timing on this thread as I am looking at backup power for my home ........

Champion also make whole house generators.

 

[G-Man]

Good timing on this thread as I am looking at backup power for my home and just installed a security system for when the power goes out and there is a potential for unwanted intruders in the neighborhood. I originally looked at battery power but have come to the conclusion that it is not enough. I have also come to the conclusion that a whole house generator is what I need even though we currently rarely loose power. I think that power outages will become more common in the future and with power out vulnerability increases in this day and age. Currently looking at Generac and Kohler. My brother has 2 Kohlers and I am leaning that way even though they are a little more expensive and I see many horror stories on line about the Generacs.

I have the Generac 22kw whole house generator running on natural gas. It was installed last year and saved me on 3 power outages so far.

 

[NW-Bound]

This Honda EM500 is not a propane generator, but this thread reminded me that I rescued it from being sent out to the dump a year ago and had not done anything with it.

It did not take much to get it to run, and to power a 400W heater. After reading the manual, I learned that the 500W is surge power with 400W continuous, so that was the max load I tested it with.

After a bit of grooming, its appearance improved significantly. The owner put out the manual on top of the genset at the curb along with other trash. So, the genset was reasonably taken care of, until its forlorn end.

 

[NW-Bound]

And in researching the story behind the above genset (manual printed in 1979), I learned that Honda made a series of small gensets, all with miniature 4-stroke engines.

These were quite advanced mechanically, considering the rest of the world was still making 2-stroke engines, up until now.

And here's the lunch-box size E40 genset, which was designed and sold to provide 40W to power a portable Sony TV (circa 1960). Some of these E40 still survive and are in working condition. They are sought-after collector items.

I have not been able to find out the original prices of these items, to gauge how pricy and state-of-the-art they were at that time.