Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
3. What is the size of the power loads that you wish to run with your generator (see
table 4-1
for a
listing of typical electrical power loads for common appliances)?
Small, relatively lightweight portable generators, like the Honda EU2000i and the equival-
ent Generac IX 2000 two-kilowatt (kW) generators, commonly found in use on travel trailers
and by car-campers across America, are powerful enough to operate a few lights, a refrigerator,
and a computer, but do not provide enough power and/or voltage to operate electric hot-water
heaters, electric stoves, or most air-conditioning units (see
fig. 4-7
).
Figure 4-7. Generac IX 2000, a popular lightweight portable generator.
Photo courtesy of Generac Power Systems
The plus about having a small portable generator, either instead of, or in addition to, a lar-
ger generator is twofold. First, the 2 kW Honda and Generac units are very quiet, and they can
run continuously in the background with little irritation to yourself and your neighbors. Se-
condly, they are quite economical to operate the low-power appliances that people tend to find
most important during a blackout. My 2 kW Honda EU2000i can run at ΒΌ of its rated continu-
ous capacity (400 watts) for about nine hours on a single gallon of gas. My 4 kW jobsite gener-
ator is about ten times as loud, and will consume about 4 gallons of gas over the same period
when run at 50 percent load (2 kW), and the Honeywell HW7500E generator will consume
about 8.5 gallons of gas at 50 percent load (3.75 kW). A quick calculation shows that in order
to run this 7.5 kW backup generator for ten hours a day for a period of two weeks, you would
need to store 130 gallons of gasoline, and fill its tank at least twenty times! However, if I ran
fewer appliances and circuits, I could provide the same ten hours a day of backup power to my
