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Off Topic Off Topic - General non-Corvette related discussion. |
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05-18-2024, 8:55pm | #1 | ||||||
Chief Electrician
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I know nothing about generators
Two questions.
Is it normal/ok for lamps to fluctuate brightness? The lamps I light as I enter a room are pulsing. Second, it has been running since 1:00pm. How long can it run without rest or cooling off? I may not have power until Tuesday. I can't imagine an air cooled motor running in 95 degrees and not being damaged. It is a North Star 8000 watt max output. I have roughly a 15 amp load on each phase. Thanks in advance. |
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05-18-2024, 8:58pm | #2 | ||||||
Vette Barn Crew
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The lamps shouldn't pulse. It can run non-stop as long as needed.
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05-18-2024, 9:04pm | #3 | ||||||
Chief Electrician
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05-18-2024, 9:05pm | #4 | ||||||
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05-18-2024, 9:05pm | #5 | ||||||
A Real Barner
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That one has a half load 10 hour run time. And lights can flicker with the l load. Don't fill hot you have enough problems.
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05-18-2024, 9:27pm | #6 | ||||||
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Fluctuating voltage is an indicator you shouldn't be plugging in sensitive electronics like TV's, computers, etc. I personally wouldn't just keep running the thing non stop. You need to think about your essentials, which basically is the refrigerator and all the expensive food in it. Everything else is more or less a luxury. You have natural gas, as I recall, so you've got hot water for showering, sewer service, you can cook on your grill or gas stove, make coffee with a percolator if you have one, or pour boiling water over grounds. battery powered radio and flashlights fill in the gap. If you're a baller, you can run a window AC to at least cool off one room overnight
Having said all that, if you need a place with air conditioning to simply get a good night's sleep, you're welcome to drive to this side of town and I'll put you up. We were without power for 15 days after Ike. After a while, you get used to living a spartan lifestyle. |
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05-18-2024, 9:37pm | #7 | ||||||
Chief Electrician
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I'm running a window AC and TV in my room. The refigerators are running. Everything else is off. TVs are cheap. If it dies, it dies.
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05-18-2024, 9:43pm | #8 | ||||||
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While folks sell generators on wattage, unless it's a camp generator, you should also look at power quality if you plan to run the home. I used to have a portable that would fluctuate at low demand. Once over 2kW demand or so, it would run solid. If you spend money buying Onan portables, or the top end Hondas, then it should not fluctuate at any level you can see in lighting.
My whole house only fluctuates at the wait for turn on. It is solid running, as well as measuring quality of line supply before switching back. I don't even see any variation in my Edison deck lighting. |
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05-18-2024, 9:47pm | #9 | ||||||
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you're probably getting a little flicker with the fridge's cycling (they can draw quite a bit in heat), I wouldn't worry about it. You can shut it off if it cools down, just stay out of the fridges, gotta look at the long game if you only have 1 genny.
That generator is pricy, should be good to go with what you're running |
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05-18-2024, 9:48pm | #10 | ||||||
Chief Electrician
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It's a Honda engine, but who knows what the rest is.
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05-18-2024, 9:50pm | #11 | ||||||
Chief Electrician
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Power return is sonetime between Tuesday and a couple weeks. Nice tight window.
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05-18-2024, 9:50pm | #12 | ||||||
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Sensible. I'm going to pick up a window unit ac for this exact situation during the upcoming Memorial Day tax free weekend. I will say that early on during the Ike outage, I didn't have a generator, so my neighbor was nice enough to let me run about 300' of extension cord to his generator so I could keep the fridge cold every few hours. I used it for a light, fan, and eventually a tube TV even though I knew it might be problematic. The picture tube went out a few weeks later, but the fridge is still going strong all these years later.
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05-18-2024, 9:54pm | #13 | |||||||
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Quote:
We ended up going whole house generator after all the blackouts we had out here, now I have a sweet 9500 4 plugger (with 220) and a 2 plugger honda in the event the shit really hits the fan. Good luck man! |
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05-18-2024, 9:59pm | #14 | |||||||
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Quote:
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05-18-2024, 10:18pm | #15 | |||||||
Chief Electrician
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Quote:
It is wired into the breaker box through the dryer circuit. |
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05-18-2024, 10:34pm | #16 | ||||||
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Is the power cord wrapped and twisted, or laid flat?
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05-18-2024, 10:39pm | #17 | |||||||
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Quote:
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05-18-2024, 10:44pm | #18 | ||||||
Chief Electrician
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It's a bit haphazardly strung from the generator to the box. all directions. No intentional loops.
It "seems" to be RPM related. I know my mower motor has a certain rhythm to it. Kind of a Wahhhhh - Waahhhhh - Wahhhhh sort of thing. I have always chalked it up to the removal of the old Turtle / Rabbit lever. Automatic throttles seem to do this. |
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05-18-2024, 10:48pm | #19 | |||||||
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Anyway, mine has a screw that can shorten the throw of the throttle lever from moving back and forth creating the "Wah, Wah". |
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05-18-2024, 11:34pm | #20 | |||||||
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