Why smaller generators are better for power outages.

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Use what you actually need Cut off unnecessary power consumption is the key for emergency

I have chosen it go with a small inverter generator and two 1000 watt solar battery power banks. Honda 2000 will run 4 hours at 50% load on a half gallon on gas. I use generator to charge battery power stations when solar is unable to keep up. I do not plan to power the whole house, only furnace fan, chest freezer, recharge phones/tablets, & recharge portable lights. Excellent advice in this video!

I agree totally that you need various sizes to fit the load. I have a dozen generators from a Yamaha EF-1000 all the way up to a 30,000 watt diesel generator set. The same goes for tractors. So many people try to do everything with a tractor that is too small. I have a 25 HP, 43 HP and a 110 HP loader to fit the need. It was difficult to convince my wife that I needed all these but both of my girlfriends agreed that they were good ideas.

I wrote an article for a power company many years ago about using smaller generators. Since then there are a number of cheaper inverters and solar systems which are available. I would like to add some advice to this article. First, get two heavy gauge 50 foot extension cords to cut power loss. Since the generator must be outdoors, it will allow you to power two indoor appliances at once or if connected together they will reach farther to one item. Second, get a couple indoor/outdoor wireless thermometers for your refrigerator and freezer so you only run the generator when needed. For long term outages conservation is critical. Get two or three oil lamps and a few quarts of lamp oil for lighting instead of expensive battery power lights. (an exception would be several solar yard lights that will charge up during the day and provide several hours of light for $3 or less a piece.) Next record how much power each item will use so that you can efficiently connect several items at once without overloading the generator or running it unnecessarily. Some people may require a dual voltage generator if they have 220 volt items like well pumps. Have an alternate propane appliance to replace a power hungry electric stove or water heater. A small generator will power a 10,000 btu or less window air conditioner or microwave but not at the same time. You can buy a small generator, two heavy extension cords, a couple indoor/outdoor thermometers and four 5 gallon gas cans with stabilized gas for $600 or less. Or you can buy a large automatic system for $10-12,000 that will drain a 500 gallon propane tank in a week. Whatever your needs, remember that in an emergency, conserving fuel is always the wisest choice.

Good video and I totally agree. We lost power here in KY last year for 5 days. I ran a small inverter generator for 5 days straight and burned less than 20 gallons of gas. You would have needed a 55 gallon drum (or more) of gas to run a larger generator.

Great video! Your video is very informational for folks who are just starting to get into back up generator power. However I’m in a different league almost onto itself. I’m a power lineman for a living so I’m very aware of back up generators. I have the best of the best because I don’t want my neighbors to know we have power. My neighbors are very close by & to have an obnoxious generator running all the time will make quick enemies of my neighbors. I have the flag ship model of the Honda inverter line. The EU 7000is. It’s fuel injected & burns way less fuel than even your smaller generator at half load. It’s comparable in size to your larger Champion. When the Honda is on it is super quiet at 58 decibels on regular & 54 decibels on economy mode. It’s rated at 5500 watts with a surge to 7000 watts. I have personally tested mine to 9200 watts surge & it runs fine. With everything on including the 2-1/2 ton central air I’m using 3750 watts. I have a soft start kit for my A/C. I keep 111 gallons of gasoline at my house incase of a power outage. That’s enough gasoline for twenty days. The Honda burns 11 gallons in 42 hours at half load. That’s almost two full days between fill ups. I bought an auxiliary fuel tank that holds 6 gallons. I refill my auxiliary without shutting my generator off. I have 15 of the 5 gallon No Spill fuel jugs. Not 4 or 5. The longest I’ve been out of power was after storm Isais a few years ago. I was busy working storm work getting everyone else’s power back on. I knew my family was safe at home. Maybe you can do a review on inverter generators? Most people are unaware. You almost need an inverter to power your home. Every appliance today has a micro-processor in it. Without clean 60 cycle power they may not power up? Or if they do? They might damage it with dirty power off a conventional generator. The same adage exists. Save money on a generator & replace all your appliances after a long duration outage. OR buy an inverter generator & keep your appliances. The choice is yours?

I have been doing home backup power since the 1980's when it occurred to me that most everything is dependent upon electricity. Portable and the low cost Generac whole house standby generators use a lawn mower engine. These need an oil change every 50 - 100 hours (1 hour for the first oil change). You absolutely can't use ethanol blended fuels, these breakdown very quickly and start damaging the carburetor in as little as 2 weeks. I only use non-ethanol fuel with Sta-Bil and 1 oz of Marvel Mystery Oil per gallon, which I have tested out to 4 years so far in gas tanks, gas cans, and carburetors, without any problems. Your standard kitchen refrigerator uses a surprisingly high amount of starting power. You need a generator with 2,500 watts minimum of continuous output (not surge power) to cleanly start a kitchen refrigerator. Note that generators have wattage listed in surge power, the actual output power is only about 75% of the surge rating (multiply the surge rating by 0.75 to obtain the continuous rating). If you can only afford 1 generator, buy an inverter type enclosed in the plastic case, with a surge wattage of 3,000 watts or more. These cost more than the basic open frame 3,600 rpm generator but, are quieter, generate clean power, lighter weight, and get better gas mileage. Ideally, you should have at least 2 sources of backup power for long term power outages. A gas generator and a rechargeable 2,000 watt power station.

I have a kind of unusual situation and this was very helpful to me. I’m an American living in Ecuador and we are having droughts and are in a state of emergency now so we have mandatory rolling blackouts everyday for 4 hours a day. I’ve never owned a generator and although I speak Spanish, I’m susceptible to being “gringo’d” by salespeople as an American and sold more than I need. It’s just me and my dogs and for 4 hours a day, I realized from your video that I don’t need a huge high-wattage generator. Just enough to run a TV or a coffee maker, a couple lamps or the water heater but not all at once. The fridge is fine for that short duration. I’m really grateful for this information. I’m collecting the wattage information from the appliances I will need to use. Thank you, thank you, thank you! You have saved me a lot of money and confusion in a foreign country!!

I have two generators as well.... a big 9000 and a small 3500. I am installing a transfer switch for the 9000 to run almost everything except for the central AC and water heater. At night I can power that down and run the small generator to only run a portable window unit and refrigerator and save a bunch of gas. You are dead on with this video!

Excellent presentation. Extremely important information for many people who THINK they need a big, honking generator for emergencies. During emergencies, using a larger generator can be problematic for several reasons, as you discuss.

Inverter generators are quieter because they throttle down when loads decrease (also saving fuel), while standard generators run at a constant 3600 RPM. But inverter generators are usually smaller, and rarely output 240 volts.

Be sure to change oil frequently. These have very minimal oil capacity, and no oil filter. I recommend changing the oil once every 10 gallons of fuel consumed, per quart of crankcase capacity. Because the smaller one at best , holds ~20 Oz of oil, 7 1/2 gallons is probably about right for that one, The bigger one probably holds closer to 1 1/2 quarts, so, 2 full tanks of gas is probably about right for that one. You said it right at the very end, Never turn off the generator by the ignition switch. Its better to remove all loads, and turn off the fuel valve. Stay there with it, and when the engine starts to sputter, ride the choke, to maintain mixture. That extra vacuum helps clear the emulsion tube as well as the idle circuit, as well as the float bowl. That will ensure that no liquid is left behind, that can leave behind varnish, from fuel evaporation. There's nothing more satisfying, than having a generator start on the first pull, when you really need it!

You’re the best guy at welcoming questions and explaining your ideas.

Great video. We have the 9000/7250 watts Predator generator. It has an 8-gallon tank. At 50% load, 3,625 continuous running watts, it can run for 13 hrs. I installed a Tri-fuel kit to run it off of our Natural Gas line in our house. NG is the primary fuel source and with gasoline as a backup. (I store 35 gallons in Jerry cans) We have a Delta Pro Power Station that is always ready in case of a power outage. It's all set up and connected to a six and ten circuit manual transfer switch. We can get four to six hrs. of use, depending on the power load. We use our generator to recharge the Power Station, then switch to the Power Station while the generator rest. This saves on fuel and keeping things quite at night. Both can run our entire house. The power station can't run our Central Air though.

Excellent video. You are SO correct on fuel burn being a big issue during a long duration event. Nicely done.

Great information you give. If I may add from personal experience, we were out of power and water for 10 days during the freeze we had in Texas. I own 2 Honda generators with one being the companion having the 30amp plug. I converted both of them to propane because I had experienced where one of them would not turn on even after frequent maintenance and using non-ethanol gas. When I could not start it I just switched to propane and it ran flawlessly. I also bought a couple of solar generators (power banks)that would run my essentials like fridge and freezer for about 13 to 16 hours. Great thing about this is that I only ran the generator to charge them for a couple of hours when we had no sun for several days. Other wise a couple of 200W solar panels would keep them charged while running my essential items. Redundancy is key. Thank you for sharing your video.

Dual fuel generator with a few propane tanks. Propane burns cleaner(extends generator life) and is able to be stored much longer than gasoline. You can also cook on a gas grill with it.

This is very true!! It’s cheaper and more reliable to run Multiple smaller generators ,the efficiency is 5x better and you always always have spare parts

Nice video and goes to my point, bigger is not better in an emergency.