Advice on reliable portable generator?

[Crossbreed]

Question: to calculate how many watts I need, do I add the wattage of each item I want to run for a total, or is there a formula I need to apply?

The salesman did all of the math for us. He told us what we would have to sacrifice for the smaller one and the higher installation & operational costs for the next size up.

Has your [Generac] been reliable?

Yes. It had a glitch when it was first installed. It did not keep the furnace going, but they corrected it.

 

[Crossbreed]

People that wish to live in the tropics long term don't use airconditioners, get too used to that cool dry air and you start to find the climate outside unbearable. Best to just get used to it.

I grew up in the dry heat of Southern California; same thing. It is better for electronics in humid Northern Wisconsin. (It is not as humid as Memphis, Tennessee, though. )

 

[Outdated]

The only compressor is on the fridge. No heat pump, etc. Now you've made the thinking much easier .

Just suddenly remembered something important - computers and devices with computer chips in them require Pure Sinewave power. I imagine these days that the great majority of generators would be pure sinewave because of how commonly computers are used in everything now, but best to be sure.

What they call Digital Sinewave wrecks computers, destroys them. That was a fashion for a while, it was cheaper to manufacture generators that way, but I think these days they're all pure sinewave again.

 

[Outdated]

I grew up in the dry heat of Southern California; same thing. It is better for electronics in humid Northern Wisconsin. (It is not as humid as Memphis, Tennessee, though. )

Something to ponder for you - Florida is Sub Tropical. It's not as humid as in the full tropics, they still get a sort of winter.

 

[velociraptor]

These devices need 10 X their stated wattage to kick over and start.

You need to run these devices off of Lithium batteries with "lifting mode" that can sustain a very brief, high draw without damage and allow the generator to replenish them. My trick I use when I camp is to get the 15A sites that are cheaper and plug the trailer into the 30A outlet on the power bank. It only very briefly needs to draw that much and the mains can replenish at leisure. I do the same with the genset.

 

[Mary Terry]

Something to ponder for you - Florida is Sub Tropical. It's not as humid as in the full tropics, they still get a sorts of winter.

I disagree. 100% humidity is 100% humidity, regardless of whether you're in Miami or sitting on the equator!

 

[Outdated]

I disagree. 100% humidity is 100% humidity, regardless of whether you're in Miami or sitting on the equator!

You get the high humidity but you also get a break from the heat every year. In climate and in distance from the equator Miami is very similar to Brisbane. Get close to the equator and it really is more intense.

 

[Mary Terry]

You get the high humidity but you also get a break from the heat every year. In climate and in distance from the equator Miami is very similar to Brisbane. Get close to the equator and it really is more intense.

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I thought we were talking about humidity, not temperatures. Humidity can be and often is very high in "winter" weather in both the tropics and the subtropics.

 

[Outdated]

I thought we were talking about humidity, not temperatures. Humidity can be and often is very high in "winter" weather in both the tropics and the subtropics.

Humidity doesn't have much impact when the weather is pleasant though. Melbourne is also a very humid city and when you get a hot day there it's really hot, but they don't get all that many hot days. On the flip side of that though the cold winds they get in winter feel like they're stripping the meat from your bones, but for most of the year there it's quite pleasant and you don't really notice the humidity.

I grew up in Adelaide which mostly has dry desert air so moving to these other parts of the country the changes had a lot of impact on me.

 

[Mary Terry]

Humidity doesn't have much impact when the weather is pleasant though. Melbourne is also a very humid city and when you get a hot day there it's really hot, but they don't get all that many hot days. On the flip side of that though the cold winds they get in winter feel like they're stripping the meat from your bones, but for most of the year there it's quite pleasant and you don't really notice the humidity.

I grew up in Adelaide which mostly has dry desert air so moving to these other parts of the country the changes had a lot of impact on me.

Humidity is everything when it comes to how we experience ambient temperatures. Both the heat index and the windchill factor use relative humidity in the calculations. We rarely get dry desert air in the southeast and southern USA, and the humidity is almost always high here when compared to the rest of the country. That's why most of us in those regions use air conditioning. Americans on the west coast and in the intermountain region rarely have air conditioning installed in their houses because they don't need it. That, of course, is changing as the climate heats up and heat waves become more common.

 

[Outdated]

That's why most of us in those regions use air conditioning.

That's the way it seems to be here these days too, and a lot of people complain about the way our older houses were built because in general they were all designed before anyone had air conditioning. We have decent insulation in the rooves to protect us from summer heat but the windows are only single plane glass and the homes generally aren't all that well insulated.

That's because before we had air conditioners we used to manage the heat with blinds on windows and opening specific windows to create a draft through the house from the cooler side. Opening every window will heat the place up, you want just two windows open at either end of the house and a pedestal fan to shift the air in the right direction.

 

[Mary Terry]

That's the way it seems to be here these days too, and a lot of people complain about the way our older houses were built because in general they were all designed before anyone had air conditioning. We have decent insulation in the rooves to protect us from summer heat but the windows are only single plane glass and the homes generally aren't all that well insulated.

That's because before we had air conditioners we used to manage the heat with blinds on windows and opening specific windows to create a draft through the house from the cooler side. Opening every window will heat the place up, you want just two windows open at either end of the house and a pedestal fan to shift the air in the right direction.

Really old houses in the American South typically had at least 9-foot ceilings so the heat could rise above the living area and a "dog trot" design which is a breezeway down the center of the house to facilitate air movement. Attic fans and ceiling fans were used to "stir" the air and curtains, blinds and window coverings were strategically used to block sun and heat.

I grew up in a big antebellum (pre-1865) home with 12-foot ceilings and a 12 or 15-foot-wide central hallway (dog trot) with an attic fan in the middle of it to suck in cool air at night. Unfortunately, it also sucked in pollen, too. It has a wide, screened porch that runs the length of the house so we kids sometimes slept on the porch at night and played there on rainy days. The four bedrooms are huge by today's standards, and each has a fireplace. My sister lives in the old house and it's expensive to maintain and always cold in winter due to lack of insulation and those high ceilings. Although it is beautiful, none of us other kids wanted that behemoth house!

 

[Judge]

People that wish to live in the tropics long term don't use airconditioners, get too used to that cool dry air and you start to find the climate outside unbearable. Best to just get used to it.

Living in base housing in the late 50s, we didn't even have air conditioning on Guam, beyond the use of electric fans. Even the Navy's BOQ (Bachelor Officers' Quarters) had fans only:

Dad got reassigned to the BOQ when we moved back to the mainland. Having to fulfill the rest of his tour of duty without his family. Rough times for us all. Except for the occasional Martini after a days work at the office...lol.

 

[Outdated]

I grew up in a big antebellum (pre-1865) home with 12-foot ceilings and a 12 or 15-foot-wide central hallway (dog trot) with an attic fan in the middle of it to suck in cool air at night.

Out of curiosity I just had a look at some older Miami homes on the net because in Australia we recognised tall ceilings as a mistake fairly early on, once the air heats up in there it's trapped so the great majority of our homes are only single story with a low pitched roof and no room for an attic. None of us have basements either.

In the pictures I saw on the net too a lot of the older homes in Miami had done the very European thing with very little roof overhanging the walls, here there's at least a 3 foot overhang all the way around on every house to keep the walls shaded during the middle of the day where as in Europe they try to catch as much of that heat as possible.

Big verandas at least on the northern side of the house is a must here, and in Queensland and Darwin many of the houses are elevated up on stilts to try and catch the breeze.

This is the house I grew up in, been a few years (more than 30) since I've seen it, they've replaced all the window frames.

 

[Mary Terry]

Out of curiosity I just had a look at some older Miami homes on the net because in Australia we recognised tall ceilings as a mistake fairly early on, once the air heats up in there it's trapped so the great majority of our homes are only single story with a low pitched roof and no room for an attic. None of us have basements either.

In the pictures I saw on the net too a lot of the older homes in Miami had done the very European thing with very little roof overhanging the walls, here there's at least a 3 foot overhang all the way around on every house to keep the walls shaded during the middle of the day where as in Europe they try to catch as much of that heat as possible.

Big verandas at least on the northern side of the house is a must here, and in Queensland and Darwin many of the houses are elevated up on stilts to try and catch the breeze.

This is the house I grew up in, been a few years (more than 30) since I've seen it, they've replaced all the window frames.

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What you're describing is similar to how homes were and are built in the hot desert areas of the US.

 

[Outdated]

What you're describing is similar to how homes were and are built in the hot desert areas of the US.

I think that's probably where the style started, desert regions, but now that's the way we also build a lot of homes in the tropics, except with much more veranda and an even lower pitch on the roof.

This house is in suburban Darwin, houses tend to be a bit smaller there with much more living space outside:

 

[Judge]

I grew up in a big antebellum (pre-1865) home with 12-foot ceilings and a 12 or 15-foot-wide central hallway (dog trot) with an attic fan in the middle of it to suck in cool air at night. Unfortunately, it also sucked in pollen, too.

Your post deserves a bit of audio. Please indulge me, Ma'am.

@Mary Terry: "Why, Judge, y'all need a hankerchief for all that sneezin' ?"

@Judge: "That's ok, Mary. Frankly I don't give a damn. Achoooooooooo!"

 

[Mary Terry]

Your post deserves a bit of audio. Please indulge me, Ma'am.

@Mary Terry: "Why, Judge, y'all need a hankerchief for all that sneezin' ?"

@Judge: "That's ok, Mary. Frankly I don't give a damn. Achoooooooooo!"

I wish! Our house definitely was not Tara or Twelve Oaks. But I grew up and remain friends with people whose families own large plantation homes befitting of "the Old South" era of romanticism a/k/a slavery.

 

[Judge]

I wish! Our house definitely was not Tara or Twelve Oaks. But I grew up and remain friends with people whose families own large plantation homes befitting of "the Old South" era of romanticism a/k/a slavery.

It did make me wonder if the further South I had lived, the worse my allergies would have been.

It's what made living on Guam eventually intolerable, forcing my brother mother and I to go back to the mainland before my father's tour of duty was up. Though it would have been nice to live somewhere- anywhere with pillars! And the occasional barbecue party...lol.

Texas barbecue, of course. While not actually part of the South, "Texas is Texas".

 

[Crossbreed]

Yeah - I'd need the furnace and waterpump, with (hopefully) the refrigerator.

I could get by with just the furnace. Living rough is a thing I am used to, if I have to...

Our stove is gas. We can light the range manually (if we had to), but its oven has minimal electrical controls. As such, it is not considered a significant load.