Profitable generator help

[matt62950]

Matt, you live in Houston so the heaters would not be running much. I would be more concerned about cooling during a summer outage, and do you need to power a fridge and a couple of lights in your house? Harbor freight has a 5KW dual fuel inverter and Honda also makes a 5.5KW inverter ($) that might work but you really need to calculate the load. Mine is gas powered so I never turn it off and fill it while running (not recommended) and ran for 3 days during our last outage so I would have lost everything in my tank. Also, a 5K portable is a heavy beast.

I actually live in Pennsylvania lol, gets pretty cold here sometimes, I’m just wondering if 13,000 watt generator would work for around 3000 total watts from all my aquariums(11 in all) to last for a few days

 

[ThisIsTheWay]

I feel like there's a slight disconnect between the questions and answers here.

@matt62950, yes 13kw (13000 watts) is plenty to run 3kw. Generators aren't like batteries where they use up their watts over time (I can't tell but I think this is the disconnect). The wattage rating is simply their max power output. How long they can run is simply determined by how long you can keep it fueled.
For example, you are trying to run 3kw worth of equipment so you'd need a gen that's rated for 3kw or more. The 5kw size suggested earlier should be plenty to run your tank with a 2kw margin that would be available if you needed to run other equipment as well.

EDIT: Went back to your first post, and to answer the runtime question for how long you can run the gen before refueling - that will depend on the fuel consumption rate of the generator and how large of a fuel tank it has. If there are specific generator's you're interested in I'd look to see if you can get those specifications and from there you can estimate how long you could run on a single tank of fuel.
As others have mentioned too, natural gas or plumbing in a much larger external tank are also options that would greatly extend the time between re-fills or even eliminate that need entirely.

 

[W31Olds]

Matt, during our last outage here in Maryland, my gen would run about approx. 8 hours before needing another 4 gallons of gas so I could go all night and fill it up in the morning. I have gas fired heat and have the furnace powered by the generator in my house though, so the house stays at 68 degrees during an outage. My total load would run about 2-3KW powering the furnace, my 180 gallon system, a couple of QT tanks, 2 refrigerators , TV's, Cable box and routers, and some interior lights and a microwave to heat a snack.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I have around 11 tanks, most are non reef so lighting isn’t something I’d be worried about during a normal length outage? But I want to be able to keep running all the filters on all my tanks(all 11) and intermittently power all the heaters(2,400 watts in all(6 300 watt heaters, 6 100 watt heaters) so it’d be around 3000 total watts of power needed and I want a generator capable of powering all of that for as long as possible(I’m perfectly okay with refilling gas and propane but was wondering how long it has to be off to do so) so basically I just need some advice on a portable generator capable of keeping 11 aquariums live(heat and filters are my highest priority) thank you

In general figure about 1 gallon of gasoline per hour of runtime. That is very ballpark.

Generators with a fuel pump can use fuel cells. The one shown below is 6 gallons and will work for the smaller EU series. If I were you I would use two EU generators.

But you can get the 7kW and a larger external tank as well.

 

[KStatefan]

In general figure about 1 gallon of gasoline per hour of runtime. That is very ballpark.

Generators with a fuel pump can use fuel cells. The one shown below is 6 gallons and will work for the smaller EU series. If I were you I would use two EU generators.

But you can get the 7kW and a larger external tank as well.

I did not know they were making a bigger fuel injected model. I had been looking at the EU3200 fuel injected model and running in parallel when needed.

 

[BeanAnimal]

I did not know they were making a bigger fuel injected model. I had been looking at the EU3200 fuel injected model and running in parallel when needed.

I think parallel (or stand alone pairs) makes more sense. You have redundancy and lower fuel consumption when lower output is needed. If I had not gone with a 22kW standby, I would have done two larger hondas. Cost about the same as the standby (I did the install myself) but are portable. I decided that I did not need portable that large. I do keep two smaller EUs... as such, we had a larger storm last week, and my neighbors have no power (6 day estimate) so they are borrowing a Honda :)

 

[W31Olds]

I would have probably done a large Standby also if I knew I was getting back in the Hobby and did not already have 2 nice portables. If Matt goes with a couple of portables with 11 tanks he's going to have a real mess of extension cords unless he has an electrician install a transfer switch. We can make all sorts of recommendations here, but budget is a big consideration. Say $1500 with 1 cheaper portable and a whole lotta extension cords to $20K for a nice whole house.

 

[Kooma]

Are you sure you are pulling 3000 watts? 9 tanks, even at 200 watts each is only 1800 watts if every heater is on at the same time. Pumps use little to no power.

I’d buy a Honda 2000 portable. We use a Honda EU3000-is and it will run for about 20 hours on a tank, with another few gallons I have days of runtime. Buying a cheap genny will mean more fuel consumption and noise. Get an inverter generator for tank equipment. The dirty power coming off cheap generators will burn your stuff out.

 

[Jeremy165]

No way you need a 13k watt furnace. Thats giant. I have a Champion 3500 watt and it can run a portable table and chopsaw at the same time, while you have batteries charging, and with room to spare. Saws would have a lot higher wattage than water pumps. I only even use that Champion once a year nowadays, and it must be 10 years old now. But it still sometimes start on the first pull!

Any gas generator running all day is going to need to be refilled a few times.

 

[Maize & Blue]

I live in Florida and we dealt with two hurricanes last year and we were without power for a solid week. This generator when hooked up straight to the house run everything I need to survive a week long power outage. It also has a feature that allows you to run straight propane.