REWahoo
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give
We're in Virginia, and the summer heat here scares me more than the cold.
Funny. A few weeks ago I would have said exactly the same thing about our location here in S Central TX.
We're in Virginia, and the summer heat here scares me more than the cold.
We're in Virginia, and the summer heat here scares me more than the cold.
Out of curiosity from this thread, I looked up the Cummins generator. If I was in the market, I'd look at them closely. The claim that they run at 1800rpm is interesting. If true, that should make them more quiet and require less maintenance and it should generate less stress on the motor. I have a Generac and I think it runs closer to 3000rpm. The noise on mine isn't bad, but I'm sure that rpm creates more wear.
We were at Colonial Williamsburg two weeks ago, and my wife said that her memories of the place were just about all of oppressive heat.Oh, yes! I still recall the oppressive heat in Northern Virginia when we visited Colonial Williamsburg and Mount Vernon. I was gasping just walking around in the July heat and humidity.
Weather has gone wild over the past 30 years.Funny. A few weeks ago I would have said exactly the same thing about our location here in S Central TX.
It’s a common misconception that Cummins only makes diesel. Not true. They make propane and NG fired engines for back up power. I have one and it’s great.
We were at Colonial Williamsburg two weeks ago, and my wife said that her memories of the place were just about all of oppressive heat.
The Cummins RS25, RS30 and larger units are some of the best on the market. Liquid cooled, 1800 RPM, quiet, natural gas or propane fueled, excellent build quality, easy to service. You will spend more, but you get what you pay for.
Here is an install the guy did by himself:
I just looked out of curiosity. The RS25 is around $11K. The just-a-tad smaller RS20 is only $5K, but runs at 3600 rpm instead of 1800 rpm. Huge difference in price for the lower speed and less noise.
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Based on the discussion, I just bought a 1,000 watt pure sine wave inverter I can hook up to my car battery, just to power the fridge, freezer, and gas furnace water circulator (70 watts). Since the freezer will keep stuff frozen for 24 hours if kept closed, that doesn't need to be powered continuously. I can also cycle the fridge and furnace circulator, so I can turn off the car engine periodically. The inverter and wires cost around $200.
That eliminates the hassles of a small generator - periodic maintenance, storage, and stockpiling separate gas.
Using the car battery as a power source means you will have to run the car engine to keep the battery charged when powering the inverter, correct?
I noticed that Costco has the Firman 2000 watt inverter generator on sale for $350. Given Costco's generous return policy, I think that 's a steal.
$350 isn't a bad price for this inverter generator.
FWIW this generator is only rated at 1,600 continuous watts and isn't large enough to meet my needs during an outage. Be sure to determine your total wattage requirements before blowing your dough.
This might be the easiest/cheapest for what I want: run the the gas furnace.Definitely yes, if you're powering stuff like a fridge or freezer for any length of time.
It looks like an idling engine will use about .5 gals per hour, or less for a 4 cylinder.
This might be the easiest/cheapest for what I want: run the the gas furnace.
The plate on the furnace says "Max Amps: 8.4", so on the hairy edge of the 1000 watt models. There's a pretty cheap one on Amazon I just found. Any reason why this wouldn't work?
https://www.amazon.com/AIMS-Power-1250-Value-Inverter/dp/B000KK295Y/ref=sr_1_2
Right, this is not whole house generator, but it would put out enough power to run a fridge or a furnace or a lot of LED lights. I use a Honda 2000 surge / 1600 continuous watt generator to run the rooftop AC on my camper trailer$350 isn't a bad price for this inverter generator.
FWIW this generator is only rated at 1,600 continuous watts and isn't large enough to meet my needs during an outage. Be sure to determine your total wattage requirements before blowing your dough.
It is true that electric motors have a large surge current but I think you'd be surprised at what one of these inverter generators can power, one appliance at a time. The real appeal of this type of generator is that it is very quiet and fuel efficient because the engine only runs as fast as needed to power the load. The frequency output is independent of the engine speed.No idea what I'm talking about, but sometimes a fridge (or anything with a motor) needs a LOT of juice to get started. Be certain to read the specs on fridge or other items with a motor to be certain your generator can handle it. YMMV
This might be the easiest/cheapest for what I want: run the the gas furnace.
The plate on the furnace says "Max Amps: 8.4", so on the hairy edge of the 1000 watt models. There's a pretty cheap one on Amazon I just found. Any reason why this wouldn't work?
https://www.amazon.com/AIMS-Power-1250-Value-Inverter/dp/B000KK295Y/ref=sr_1_2
Thanks for putting together that research and posting it.The description claims it will handle devices up to 10 amps, so in theory it should.
I didn't notice any mention of cables in the product pages, so that would probably be something else you'd need to buy. ...
I use a Honda 2000 surge / 1600 continuous watt generator to run the rooftop AC on my camper trailer.
This might be the easiest/cheapest for what I want: run the the gas furnace.
The plate on the furnace says "Max Amps: 8.4", so on the hairy edge of the 1000 watt models. There's a pretty cheap one on Amazon I just found. Any reason why this wouldn't work?
https://www.amazon.com/AIMS-Power-1250-Value-Inverter/dp/B000KK295Y/ref=sr_1_2
Out of curiosity from this thread, I looked up the Cummins generator. If I was in the market, I'd look at them closely. The claim that they run at 1800rpm is interesting. If true, that should make them more quiet and require less maintenance and it should generate less stress on the motor. I have a Generac and I think it runs closer to 3000rpm. The noise on mine isn't bad, but I'm sure that rpm creates more wear.