04-16-2006, 01:50 PM
A lot of great information in this string.
No bad information that I see. As you regular readers know I am an Electrician at the Ronald Reagan Missle Defense Test site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
That said let me add my two cents worth to the discussion:
About reliability. Get a Honda if you only need a couple of KW's for emergency or field use. They are what we use here and also what I have bought for personal use. They are: QUIET, EASY STARTING, PURE SINEWAVE OUTPUT, and DEPENDABLE. We use them on boats, remote atolls and other non wired places. They seem to stand up to the saltwater environment well. The only problem we have had with the four we currently use is a failure of the twelve volt dc battery charging feature on one unit (110vac still works).
FOR LARGER OUTPUTS AND LONG RUNNING TIMES GET A WATER COOLED DIESEL UNIT. PERIOD!
As stated by a poster above diesels run forever. They are the most economical. The quietest engines are water cooled. I won't go into the proof, but we have personally used several small diesels; Yanmar (Japanese), Volvo (Swedish), Jimna(chinese).
OUR PLAN: We have bought a 25hp compact NORTRAC, Northern Tool, tractor with a Power Take Off (PTO) and a front loader. This will help us develop our home site. We also have a PTO three point hook-up cement mixer. IF NEEDED we will buy their 7 KW ($769) or 13 KW PTO generator ($1149) for our portable AC power. We will end up with all this equipment for about $13K.
PS - A TRANSFER SWITCH is required for circuits that are hooked to the commercial grid. GET ONE! The electrician's life you save may be mine.
Moving to Puna (Nanawale) from Kwajalien, R.M.I. Will be constructing an owner-built house. Looking forward to arriving there in May 2006.
Edited by - kaptkimo on 04/16/2006 17:56:49
No bad information that I see. As you regular readers know I am an Electrician at the Ronald Reagan Missle Defense Test site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
That said let me add my two cents worth to the discussion:
About reliability. Get a Honda if you only need a couple of KW's for emergency or field use. They are what we use here and also what I have bought for personal use. They are: QUIET, EASY STARTING, PURE SINEWAVE OUTPUT, and DEPENDABLE. We use them on boats, remote atolls and other non wired places. They seem to stand up to the saltwater environment well. The only problem we have had with the four we currently use is a failure of the twelve volt dc battery charging feature on one unit (110vac still works).
FOR LARGER OUTPUTS AND LONG RUNNING TIMES GET A WATER COOLED DIESEL UNIT. PERIOD!
As stated by a poster above diesels run forever. They are the most economical. The quietest engines are water cooled. I won't go into the proof, but we have personally used several small diesels; Yanmar (Japanese), Volvo (Swedish), Jimna(chinese).
OUR PLAN: We have bought a 25hp compact NORTRAC, Northern Tool, tractor with a Power Take Off (PTO) and a front loader. This will help us develop our home site. We also have a PTO three point hook-up cement mixer. IF NEEDED we will buy their 7 KW ($769) or 13 KW PTO generator ($1149) for our portable AC power. We will end up with all this equipment for about $13K.
PS - A TRANSFER SWITCH is required for circuits that are hooked to the commercial grid. GET ONE! The electrician's life you save may be mine.
Moving to Puna (Nanawale) from Kwajalien, R.M.I. Will be constructing an owner-built house. Looking forward to arriving there in May 2006.
Edited by - kaptkimo on 04/16/2006 17:56:49
Home of the "Just for Keiki" Luau show.
See: http://justforkeiki.blogspot.com/
See: http://justforkeiki.blogspot.com/