overwhelmed

[grateful]

Hi. I have wanted to purchase a generator for a couple of years now. I have researched a few times and the options are overwhelming! I would like something that isn't too heavy and easy to use. I just realized that I missed something in my home that has an electrical component.... our sump grinder pump!! Oh no! Is my idea of wanting something portable a bust now? It looks like I need something that can power around 6500 W. I wonder if I should have something just for the sump grinder and then another one for the rest of the house?! I like the idea of something portable too so that we could potentially use it if we are required to leave our home or for camping. Cost is not as much of an issue as something that has a proven track record and is easy to use. I am concerned about the number of overcast days we get here and the trees also block some of the sun. I appreciate in advance any suggestions/input.

 

[Supervstech]

You are going to need more than the raw peak wattage.

you need an average watt hours figure per day to know how much battery storage you need.

 

[chrisski]

I'm a little unclear about what you want. I'm assuming you're asking about a gas powered generator and not a solar generator.

Either way, where I am in AZ, I can't wire in to the house system because in a power outage, the power company does not want their lineman electrocuted. Where my father lives, he has had a couple of generators. The first, an electrician installed a generator plug by the Main Circuit Breaker box with a switch to isolate it from the grid. He's since upgraded to one that will power on automatically with a power outage, which happen several times a year, and can last a couple of days.

I have a couple of gas power generators I would string appliances to with extension chords I would power up if we lost power in AZ, which in the five years I've lived here we haven't, not even a flicker.

 

[boondox]

I didn't realize you meant solar generator until near the end of your post. While I object personally to the term 'solar generator" shortening it to "generator" is very confusing. That is not even getting into the fact the the definition of generator is "a device that converts kinetic energy to electrical energy".

As noted, you need to know the power consumption of all the devices you want to power and how long they need to run. Then you can figure out the watt/hours you need and then the size of battery you need. Then you can size the solar array you need to recharge the battery bank. another consideration is your solar exposure, how many hours of sunlight you get on a sunny day in summer and in winter.

6500 watts is a pretty beefy sump pump. Is that for the pump alone or cominded loads?

 

[grateful]

I didn't realize you meant solar generator until near the end of your post. While I object personally to the term 'solar generator" shortening it to "generator" is very confusing. That is not even getting into the fact the the definition of generator is "a device that converts kinetic energy to electrical energy".

As noted, you need to know the power consumption of all the devices you want to power and how long they need to run. Then you can figure out the watt/hours you need and then the size of battery you need. Then you can size the solar array you need to recharge the battery bank. another consideration is your solar exposure, how many hours of sunlight you get on a sunny day in summer and in winter.

6500 watts is a pretty beefy sump pump. Is that for the pump alone or cominded loads?

Yikes....I am a newbie and I certainly didn't realize that saying "generator" instead of "solar generator" would be "objectionable." I won't post anymore on this forum. I thought this was a friendly platform but apparently I am wrong. I am confused and I don't know which type of generator...call it "solar" or "gas" is better. I would like solar but I don't want to put solar panels on my roof. I am concerned about overcast days as well as trees in my yard as I mentioned. Moving on....

 

[Supervstech]

Yikes....I am a newbie and I certainly didn't realize that saying "generator" instead of "solar generator" would be "objectionable." I won't post anymore on this forum. I thought this was a friendly platform but apparently I am wrong. I am confused and I don't know which type of generator...call it "solar" or "gas" is better. I would like solar but I don't want to put solar panels on my roof. I am concerned about overcast days as well as trees in my yard as I mentioned. Moving on....

Nah, EVERY site where someone uses the term generator or solar generator brings out the grumpy term nazis...

Post your questions, enjoy the knowledge of our masses, and ignore the detractors.

 

[Supervstech]

I didn't realize you meant solar generator until near the end of your post. While I object personally to the term 'solar generator" shortening it to "generator" is very confusing. That is not even getting into the fact the the definition of generator is "a device that converts kinetic energy to electrical energy".

As noted, you need to know the power consumption of all the devices you want to power and how long they need to run. Then you can figure out the watt/hours you need and then the size of battery you need. Then you can size the solar array you need to recharge the battery bank. another consideration is your solar exposure, how many hours of sunlight you get on a sunny day in summer and in winter.

6500 watts is a pretty beefy sump pump. Is that for the pump alone or cominded loads?

Ok, this forum endorses the term generator, or solar generator...
a generator is simply a device for providing electricity to use, in a form needed.

the device “generator” is a dc output device... most people expect a “generator” to provide AC voltage, so even the typical gasoline “generators” are not true generators... they are alternators tied to a gasoline, or otherwise fueled reciprocating engine.

please don’t argue accepted terms on this forum.

 

[boondox]

Well, that is why I was telling you. I also said "personally" as there are many out there using the term solar generator. So relax and do be so touchy.

If you don't want solar panels on the roof, are you meaning just a battery? Or a gas/propane/diesel powered generator?

As we can see, using the same term for multiple things can get confusing. I guess that makes me a "grumpy term nazi".

 

[chrisski]

S! This is the 2nd thread I have seen this morning where someone got upset because the help someone asked for was not provided in a way that appeased their delicate sensibilities.

I wonder if this second one comes from the same IP.

 

[Hedges]

How about I object to "sump grinder pump"?

I still don't know what OP is trying to power.
There are sump pumps. Some are just 1/6 or 1/3 hp.
There are stump grinders. Never seen an electric one.
There are macerator pumps for toilets.

If your gizmo needs 6500W - is that what the nameplate says? What voltage and current?
I showed another guy how he could power his 15 kW 3-phase 380V farm equipment with available PV & battery inverters.
Probably this sump pump or whatever could be powered from batteries and/or PV, but you could also consider a smaller pump if it'll do the job and be easier to power.

 

[Deleted member 9967]

Yikes....I am a newbie and I certainly didn't realize that saying "generator" instead of "solar generator" would be "objectionable." I won't post anymore on this forum. I thought this was a friendly platform but apparently I am wrong. I am confused and I don't know which type of generator...call it "solar" or "gas" is better. I would like solar but I don't want to put solar panels on my roof. I am concerned about overcast days as well as trees in my yard as I mentioned. Moving on....

Well snowflake, sometimes it helps to know what you are talking about. So if you say something that is not understood then some people will want to understand you in order to give you a proper answer which is of course [supposedly] the reason you even bothered to sign up and then come here. So excuse us for wanting to try to understand you. I think the internet is not for you because it contains people that speak a language tat has words that are ambiguous and need proper clarification.

Maybe it would also help to wait until you get through your teens before coming back as well.
Have a nice day now, and grow up.

 

[ianganderton]

The term 'solar generator' is definitely in my room 101 along with a whole raft of other pet hates.

 

[Deleted member 9967]

Ummm, what does "solar Generator" mean and what's Room 101?
This thread is getting really confusing!

A lot of tongue in cheek things being said here.
No worries. Most of the rest of us are confused as well.
We just speak fast and talk big so as to disguise it is all LOL.

 

[Deleted member 9967]

Oh My Lord......

Aha, NOW you are getting it LOL.
Honestly. I went car camping once with some people and this one guy insisted we go to a certain spot to camp.
We agreed as it was basically within the area we wanted to go anyhow.
Once we got there we found out he wanted THAT spot because he could get reception for his small TV that he brought with him.
This was decades ago when we still had over the air TV.
Anyhow, he spent most of his time watching TV. That was his idea of camping.

There are lots of nutty people out there and yes, those ads will work on many of them.

 

[Supervstech]

Oh My Lord......


I looked up what these things were and watched some YT promo videos.
The companies selling them must think their Customers are brainless morons with too much Money.

Several Vids showed someone humping one of these things up a mountain or into the bush to charge their phone. Why the hell would I want to hump one of these things around when I have something that will fit in my shirt pocket and run my phone for 2 days and cost $30.
Of course where they showed these things being used would be highly questionable if a phone would work anyway.

There was another Vid showing people in a camper van Driving up and getting the thing out to plug in a laptop, some little LED lights and a camping fridge. Ummm, why the hell wouldn't you just use the house batteries which would inevitably in a camper like that be isolated from the start battery and have an inverter built in or just plug one in be done with it? That's of course in the almost impossible situation none of these things would run off 12V which they all will.

Next was several clips of people using these things in the back yard to charge phones, power lights or a blender. Like you don't have a $10 extension cord to run the 12 ft back to the house? If I brought one of these things out and put it on a table my friends would laugh at me and ask why the hell I didn't just get an extension lead instead of stuffing round with another toy?

My favorite was the family happily picnicking by the river with the kids gleefully running to a domestic bar fridge sitting there on the riverbank full of drinks running off the battery contraption. Like seriously? Dad is going lift a bar fridge in the car and hump it down a trail in the middle of no where to put it on the river bank and hump it back and load it up again instead of just using an esky full of ice or a regular 12V camping fridge. Are they trying to insult my intelligence? Forget the fact the kids then set up the fold out solar panel completely verticle and in the shade then jump for joy at their achievement.

Someone pass the Barf bag, I'm going to hurl!

No, wait, my most cringe worthy favorite was the scene where they show people camping, go on about the natural surrounds and the benefits of quiet and no emissions over a petrol generator and then show the thing being plugged into a petrol generator and extolling the virtues of it's quick charging. I had to play that bit twice to make sure I wasn't imagining something. Call me cynical but if you had a camping generator to charge this thing, WTF would you need it at all? And they just basically admitted it isn't as good as a small genny and shot themselves in the foot with all the virtues they just extolled. AGGGHHH!

I got a couple of car Jumper packs that will power my phone for about a week and run my laptop for about 8 Hours with it's internal battery as well. They cost Like $100. Can charge camera batteries and everything with them and they are a fraction of the size of these things.

I'm not sure whom would be more stupid, the advertising departments and agency's of these companies or the people buying them thinking they would be good for charging phones or running a blender 12 ft from an outlet at home.

The real irony of learning about these things was realiseing I made several about 20 years ago. I just called them batteries with an inverter hooked to them. Mine were a bit more practical if not as shiny and polished and aimed at trendy virtue signaling Yuppies with more Dollars than Sense.

I got one of those 2 wheeled hand trolleys. I made a cradle that extended out a bit and allowed the 2 batteries in the cradle to swing level when I wheeled it. I had the inverter on it and also a floodlight, a fold out table on the back for my laptop and a WiFi setup with an antenna on an extendable pole with a directional antenna for sending info back to the main trailer I was working from.

I could also run computers and printers from this in the middle of no where which was often where we worked. It usualy lasted all day but later on I was working from a gazebo with several staff , computers and other equipment. You can get it all Battery powered now but back then wasn't available and I could not have affored eveything I needed if it was. Would go till lunchtime then during the break would charge it up for the afternoon run.
It was a trolley with some batteries and an inverter. It was reffered to as " The Battery Cart" .
If I was doing the same thing today, I'd just buy another Honda inverter generator and be done with it.

Solar Generator...... Because you can plug in some feeble little panel that will take all day to charge the thing back up...... ?
It's not a generator, it's a battery pack with an inverter.... and $2 worth of electronic boards from fleaby with pretty coloured lights.....and a ridiculous price tag.

And people want to run their homes off these things??
I think I need a little Lie down.......

Wow.
Everybody has... opinions don’t they.
My thinking on solar generators is they are a simple way to quickly setup a solar system. Most are easily portable... many are heavy luggable, but they include an mppt charge controller, and a quality pure sine wave inverter along with a useful sized battery.
the jump starter packs are most often SLA batteries. Have no charge controller, and a modified sine wave inverter. Don’t run too much on that power.
Most fossil fuel (stored solar energy) mechanical generators output dirty, and widely varied AC power... unless they are the expensive inverter type generators... which add in another step to clean the output.

While you are lying down, think on that a bit.

 

[Hedges]

Solar generator to power a blender?

Here's how REAL men make a daiquiri in the bush:

www.gasblender.com - Web Site Information

www.gasblender.com

Ahh, the smell of 2-stroke oil in the morning!

 

[ianganderton]

Oh My Lord......


I looked up what these things were and watched some YT promo videos.
The companies selling them must think their Customers are brainless morons with too much Money.

Several Vids showed someone humping one of these things up a mountain or into the bush to charge their phone. Why the hell would I want to hump one of these things around when I have something that will fit in my shirt pocket and run my phone for 2 days and cost $30.
Of course where they showed these things being used would be highly questionable if a phone would work anyway.

There was another Vid showing people in a camper van Driving up and getting the thing out to plug in a laptop, some little LED lights and a camping fridge. Ummm, why the hell wouldn't you just use the house batteries which would inevitably in a camper like that be isolated from the start battery and have an inverter built in or just plug one in be done with it? That's of course in the almost impossible situation none of these things would run off 12V which they all will.

Next was several clips of people using these things in the back yard to charge phones, power lights or a blender. Like you don't have a $10 extension cord to run the 12 ft back to the house? If I brought one of these things out and put it on a table my friends would laugh at me and ask why the hell I didn't just get an extension lead instead of stuffing round with another toy?

My favorite was the family happily picnicking by the river with the kids gleefully running to a domestic bar fridge sitting there on the riverbank full of drinks running off the battery contraption. Like seriously? Dad is going lift a bar fridge in the car and hump it down a trail in the middle of no where to put it on the river bank and hump it back and load it up again instead of just using an esky full of ice or a regular 12V camping fridge. Are they trying to insult my intelligence? Forget the fact the kids then set up the fold out solar panel completely verticle and in the shade then jump for joy at their achievement.

Someone pass the Barf bag, I'm going to hurl!

No, wait, my most cringe worthy favorite was the scene where they show people camping, go on about the natural surrounds and the benefits of quiet and no emissions over a petrol generator and then show the thing being plugged into a petrol generator and extolling the virtues of it's quick charging. I had to play that bit twice to make sure I wasn't imagining something. Call me cynical but if you had a camping generator to charge this thing, WTF would you need it at all? And they just basically admitted it isn't as good as a small genny and shot themselves in the foot with all the virtues they just extolled. AGGGHHH!

I got a couple of car Jumper packs that will power my phone for about a week and run my laptop for about 8 Hours with it's internal battery as well. They cost Like $100. Can charge camera batteries and everything with them and they are a fraction of the size of these things.

I'm not sure whom would be more stupid, the advertising departments and agency's of these companies or the people buying them thinking they would be good for charging phones or running a blender 12 ft from an outlet at home.

The real irony of learning about these things was realiseing I made several about 20 years ago. I just called them batteries with an inverter hooked to them. Mine were a bit more practical if not as shiny and polished and aimed at trendy virtue signaling Yuppies with more Dollars than Sense.

I got one of those 2 wheeled hand trolleys. I made a cradle that extended out a bit and allowed the 2 batteries in the cradle to swing level when I wheeled it. I had the inverter on it and also a floodlight, a fold out table on the back for my laptop and a WiFi setup with an antenna on an extendable pole with a directional antenna for sending info back to the main trailer I was working from.

I could also run computers and printers from this in the middle of no where which was often where we worked. It usualy lasted all day but later on I was working from a gazebo with several staff , computers and other equipment. You can get it all Battery powered now but back then wasn't available and I could not have affored eveything I needed if it was. Would go till lunchtime then during the break would charge it up for the afternoon run.
It was a trolley with some batteries and an inverter. It was reffered to as " The Battery Cart" .
If I was doing the same thing today, I'd just buy another Honda inverter generator and be done with it.

Solar Generator...... Because you can plug in some feeble little panel that will take all day to charge the thing back up...... ?
It's not a generator, it's a battery pack with an inverter.... and $2 worth of electronic boards from fleaby with pretty coloured lights.....and a ridiculous price tag.

And people want to run their homes off these things??
I think I need a little Lie down.......

I’m going to score this a solid 8/10 on the rant scale. It scores highly for length and a solid sense of disbelief.

To score higher more swearinga HD shouting is needed

 

[ianganderton]

Yes. And now we have another one in yours which holds no more or no less weight than anyone elses.

Not wanting to be picky but I think his opinion does actually hold more weight here because he’s and administrator ?

 

[Hedges]

Is that like being Dilbert's pointy-haired boss?

So long as people listen, learn, and adjust when appropriate, all is good.

 

[ianganderton]

I think Plug n Play system is a much better term than ‘solar generator’ but unfortunately the one I don’t like has a big head start out there in the world now

I do think they have their use and will probably grow in popularity

Plenty of people use them in Camper vans or in car camping set ups. While expensive they do save a huge amount of time and require little to zero expertise.

They offer the option to use one unit in a variety of locations from a camper running a fridge and lights, tailgating in a truck or the bottom of the garden running lights, music and phone charging for a bbq where it’s too far for your long extension lead that folks will probably trip over any way.