portable generator question (wattage)

 

I have a decent sized "costso" gift certificate for Christmas, which I want
to apply towards a portable generator.... I have 2 basic choices in the
store.

Coleman Powermate 5500 Watt ~ $550
Nikota 3500 Watt ~ $279

My basic questions are;

1. What does 3500 vs. 5500 Watts get me? (generally speaking)
2. If 3500 is enough, is Nikota a brand I should buy?

If it matters,

- This will be a common "emergency" use only application of a typical home.
- I have 2 refridgerators, but I could condense it down to 1 if I had to.
- My stove and oven are gas, so I won't need this for those.

 



The Coleman is known to be a terrible product, not really suitable for home
backup.
About the Nikota, I know nothing, but at least it's less money down the
drain.

 



Whatch what you're slamming there.  Coleman has several grades of
generators available.  They have the small 1k-2k portables suitable
for a campground, etc. for a couple hours of lights and radio a
night; they have the 'emergency' grade generators, usually 3-5k at
the arount $500 price point the OP mentioned that are good for
several hours a day for days at a time; and the 'Contractor" grade,
also in 3-6k, that are designed to run 8-10 hrs a day, every day,
with suitable maint. These will be about double the 'emergency'
grade price.  I had one of these, a 5kw unit, that I ran about 10
hours a day every day for three weeks while local power company and
I 'discussed' whether or not I was stealing power or not until I
convinced them that they were wrong and got my power reconnected.  
Noisy as hell, so out of deference to the neighbors I didn't run it
after 9pm, but it worked like a charm to keep a fridge, a freezer,
an occasional washing machine load, the TV, the computer, several
lights, etc. working great.

 



and none of the above are considered Prime Power Generators.  These,
at best, can be considered "Consumer Grade" gensets, with low MTBF
numbers.  They will work just fine for those folks that need power
for a few hours, each, of a few days duration, and that is assuming
that the operator is doing the Mandated Maintainance. (50 Hour Oil
Change cycle, new plugs every 200 hours, ect)  In this service, just
about any thing will work.  When you start thinking about Katrina type
power outages, you are going to find that "Comsumer Grade Equipment"
isn't going to cut it in extended service.  

Some of the 1800 Rpm Standby Power Gensets (Kohler, Onan, ect) will deal
with this second type of service with much better reliability, and an
order of magnitude better MTBF.  Standby Power Gensets can be
charactorized by having Pressure Lubrication, Oil filters, 4 Pole 1800
Rpm Genends, Safety Shutdown Systems for Low Oil and High HeadTemps,
Real AVR Control Systems, ect, AND 2, to 3, times the cost.  

Prime Power Gensets on the otherhand, are designed to provide power 24/7
for the life of the unit, with the required Maintainance Cycles.  They
are BIG and heavy, usually diesel driven, and never turn higher than
1800 rpm, and more likely are 1200 or even 900 Rpm units.  Usually they
have 200 Hours Oil Change Cycles, 600 Hour Fuel Filter (Primary and
Secondary) Change Cycles, and 1200 Hour Air Filter Cycles. They will
have Low Oil, Oil Temp, Low Water, Water Temp, Overspeed, and Underspeed,
Safety Shutdown Sensers, for unattended operations.  MTBF will be a
Publish documentation and usually be in the 20K hours range, with
EnFrame rebuild in the 40K hour range.  Prime Power Gensets are
expensive, and usually 3, to 5 times that of a Standby Power Genset of
the same capacity, but as in ALL things, "You get what you pay
for"........

Me

 

Me wrote:

Our detroit falls in this third category. We have about 4000 hours on it
ourselves, but we don't know how many hours were on it when we got it,
as the hour meter quit a long time ago ......


--
Steve Spence
Dir., Green Trust, http://www.green-trust.org
Contributing Editor, http://www.off-grid.net
http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html