Marry Christmas and Happy New Year to all. May the woodgas be with you. 
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Well we did have a great Christmas Day . . . inside. Warmed and dry by the wood stove.
Sleep-in morning with homemade raspberry scones for breakfast.
Then the family company arrived and it was open childrenās presents time. Fun. Fun.
An early evening Christmas Day roast ham dinner. With sides dishes. Excellent.
Now Outside the whole time, it rained and rained all 24 hours. And then the wind storm fronts swept through. Power outages twice. Me setting up battery lanterns for the middle-of-the-night, have to go to the toilet folks.
The National Weather people are saying we had the wettest Christmas Day on record.
It took me an hour to clear the winds brought down tree splits and limbs from our access lane.
And the creek is in angery brown water flood:
Contrast to a lowest water in late summer with at these spots at most only 18 inches deep and only 4 feet across. A babbling brook.
The 100 to 1 seasonal ratios of damaging; or power starve lack in small streams and winds power why I became 100% convinced that solar-to-wood; then wood-to-shaft-made-electricity, was the way to go.
āEventsā and āOccurrencesā then putting wood down on the ground for fuel use.
Efficiency is letting MaāNature do most of the work.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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Good to hear from you Wes! Thanks for checking in. Merry Christmas and happy New year to all.
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Same case in our area, wet wet wet, rain rain rain, gusting and sustained winds. Very lucky to not lose power, having 50+ quail chicks in the brooder needing heat lamp and another batch in the incubator. Me panicky checking the battery bank for back up, had forgotten to rotate fuel cans for the generators.
Black Friday was trying to convince a friend to swoop up the big harbor freight inverter generator on sale and he didnāt, then discussing hey here is a coupon to still lower the price āya I should get thatā
He came home to power out, and his house is forced heat only. Unhappy wife bundled up with the baby in wool blankets.
Think he is getting the generator fairly soon.
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Somebody mentioned the wisdom of just getting smaller gen sets and coupling them. May have been SteveU. A 2000 watt generator will give you lights, fridge and power to your furnace if you have forced air. Anything beyond that is probably wasting gasoline. Of course if you are running on wood gas that becomes much less important. Iāve got no bitch about HF generators but I have a Wen, A Champion and a 4500 W Duromax that is not inverter but will run on propane, gasoline, natural gas or wood gas. All of them cost at least a hundred and fifty bucks less that the 2000 W Preditor. If I were Matt, running a business on generators Iād probably go with the Preditors.
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I have seen several sources predict a coming polar vortex. This video predicts the most extreme. Mostly US but I think Europe is getting some extreme temps as well. Good to make sure you have your pipes protected and a source of heat if normal systems go down. Better prepared than sorry. We have been through these before in the north but this one supposedly hits way south. Better to store a supply of water and drain your pipes. I have replaced many copper pipes that froze and split. No fun. You may have to make and adapter back to where your well or city water lines come into your house and blow the water out of the pipes with compressed air. Not saying you need to pre-emptively clear your lines but you should have everything in place to do so if you lose your heat.
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Ha! Ha! Aināt but seen the sun hardly now in the last 10-15 days but for 30-45 minutes, peek-a-booās.
My wife cheers herself that now past solstice the days will trend faster.
And that she received her first gardening mail order catalog!
Me? Now that weāve moved into a somewhat properties households moving in&out HOAās area . . . looking forwards to upcoming Spring yard sales. But especially still, even mid-winter here, can find true whole households Estate sales.
The click bait in this video is a Club Car for lead acid batteries charger. 44 volt, 13 amp output. Look at 4:20 and 9:35 minutes in the video:
A charger like this is heavy, robust, old transformer, low frequency type. Finite efficiency be-damned. Go for robust.
Yeah. Yeah. This couple are obviously make-money-on E-Bay flippers. Not me.
I do run into a lot of older 2500-3500 watts synchronous 3600 RPM gasoline engine generators. I pass. Canāt stand anymore the constant 3600 RPM screaming. Instead, I spend my money as has been said, on newer capable engine driven Inverter-generators.
Yep. Yep. It is true I have used and recommend pairing up lower wattage modern inverter generators. I now have 7 of these. Only one is an actual Harbor Freight Predator. Itās a larger 9500/8600 watt with 240VAC output. A specialty, will use ~1/3 gallon gasoline an hour unit for powering the deep well pump if ever come the needs. The only one with a for the wife, battery electric starting.
My favorite is a made-in-China HEOMAITO branded 145-9?cc unit that is auto swtiching from gasoline to LPG/Propane and back again. A 3500/2700 watt unit. No need then to pair up as in the smaller 2000/1600, or 2500/2000 watt units:
Just too many frequency and voltage sensitive consumer-users in the household anymore to dink around with direct powering generator induced problems.
With a setup battery bank a generator with voltage and frequency too highs and lows will be smoothed out. AC to DC. Then DC to AC.
Steve Unruh
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Thanks Mr Steve. How does that pair up work? Sounds like they are capable to grid tie/ peak shave?
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This has been resounding in my head for some months. The techumseh I have is just a screamer, and do I ever as I get older appreciate my peace and quiet. Brain thinks a spare geo motor and transmission coupled to spin the needed 3600rpm of a generator head thru the transmission would be a nice quite idler, hidden away not seen or heard. Sip the fuel, but also large enough to be woodgassed.
Ah. Dreams. One day.
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If you do the inverter generator thing, the metro wouldnāt have to spin at 3600 all the time and it would save fuel.
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Exactly, and if I ran it through the transmission the engine would be fine at idle with its measly sub 50hp to run a decent sized generator head
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JoepK. the first setup up running, and suppling Inverter-Generator sets the supply frequency. The 2nd; or 3rd; or 4th units then started supplying sences the system frequency waves then synchronizes its AC output to that.
Yes. Feeding into an existing AC Grid would work the same way.
Those of us with the new smart meters should never try this. The meter will sence the back feeding and internet scream out a problem. Some I am sure with remote shut down will disconnect you from the Grid AND report you.
Here for me; for registered approved Grid I am told they make us put in and install; and pay a monthly service for a second meter head. Private residences, only home PV will ever get approved. Never a generators output. You are required to island isolate when another source generating.
Steve Unruh
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Thanks. Another path to follow. Those generators are not very common overhere, I think. Interesting enough to dive into. My Victron or SunDeye will take care of island mode in the rare case of gridfailure.
And just got the Deutz grid connected .
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Has anyone run an inverter generator on char gas? Iāve run a Honda synchronous 3600 rpm gasoline engine generator on char gas. The engine is easy to work on and parts are cheap and plentiful. Donāt know if the same can be said for these inverter generators. They look like they could be a pain to work on?
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Gary Gilmore @glgilmore was the first I know of to fuel a small inverter generator on charges. What? 10-12 years ago?
The one nearly daily doing this is Dave of Dave&Brian @d100f
Ask him directly or look up his topics under his profile activities.
And ask Matt Ryder too.
Some of the suitcase models are very, very hard to work on like our Honda EU2000.
Some inverter units easy to work on like our open framed Yamaha EF2800.
The Bill Hard TGA-0251ās I bought as loaner units are actually very easy to work on as the side halves, fuel tank and all, lift off as one piece off once the front cover grill and six lower perimeter screws are removed:
These and the Heomaito overhead you can do valves lash inspections and adjustments just by removing a single cover. The Honda OHC it is a three layers down many screws and bolts; split and remove the side halves, tear into.
I do not know about servicabilty on the small Predators inverter untits. Our big 9500 is again relatively easy. Except for the g-d-fur-ass-is air cleaner cover!! Wedged-in too close to a cast aluminum frame upright corner.
I paid $303. to $307. each for the Bilt Hards 2500ās.
Just checked today and still can be had for $360. basic; with and additional first time buyers additional spin-a-wheel discount. Less $$$'s than a Predator. And I think it is as least as good as the Predators 2000ās. Actually better. Quieter. More capable at electric motors starting.
You buy the Predator for the additional-to-buy, walk-in exchange warranty.
S.U.
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Hi Marty , way back in 2013 i got my hands on my very first inverter generator , that was when the Yahoo group was going ,i remember posting about my attempts to get it running and how well it did run once i had removed the air filter box, for some reason back then i just drilled a hole into the side of the plastic air filter box and blocked off the air holes in the bottom , i could never get it to run good and so ended up removing the box and made a adapter to bolt directly off the carb , seemed to end my problems and not looked back since .
Gary was the first person i saw afterwards that managed to get his suitcase generator to run on charcoal gas from the filter box iām pretty sure ,
Matt runs the Preditor, that are open framed i think and they are pretty easy to work on just like your old Honda3600rpm model .
Dave
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This one runs at 1800rpm, and it is a little big for your engine for max power. The 4-pole ones run at half the speed. It was standard on some brand of generator that I think went out of business but was popular in RVs because 1800rpm is quieter then 3600.
I was looking for a larger inverter generator, and I didnāt find one yet.
I would contact them because they have bell housing that fit various enginesā¦ you may not need the transmission at all.
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With all your quail, you really need one of these simple, cheap units 
Same supplier as Sean suggested . . . about whom I know nothing.
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Hi All
I went back and reviewed the topic Iād started up of āHaving Fun With Small Enginesā as Iād put up most all of my last three years of Inverter-Generators exploring there. 197 posts total there, so too spread out to focus on.
Here are my conclusions summery. The variable engine speed and powering abilty to make/supply a rock solid AC power has been based on both the new micro-wind and PV solar developed technologies.
So if you are an actual PV solar power maker and user: an IC engine inverter-generator should hold no fears. The same electronics uses; just packaged differently.
The actual IC engine is really not much different than a common modern lawn mower or other lawn&garden equipment IC engine.
Most including the brand makers and distributors classify by wattages outputs; and price ranges.
Actual daily using it is much better to classify as:
One-handed portable.
Two handed wheeled moved around (requiring a second person to lift up in/out of transport vehicles).
Those units needing a machine like a tractor to move around, and lift/shift locations of use.
Then dedicated trailer mounted systems.
Then how noise signature announcing, when in usage. Any open frame system will be much more announcing annoying noisy than one of the purpose designed quiet units.
The more watts capable . . . the more longer hours service life; then the more it will cost in purchase $$$$, and fuel use costs.
Iāve been involved; or owed; used; all of these categories.
Iāve made my priorities choice now.
If you are USofA living you should choose now too if you want new and affordable. New is the very best way to buy small air cooled. A tariffs war is about to break out. Be years then ever getting back to new affordable, if ever.
Older techs in one-handed portable IC engine-generators were limited to 300-1000 watts. Kindaā sortaā not-so-noisy. Relatively expensive. Especially by the watt.
You had to up to the size and weights of wheeled units; two man liftable-packable to get 2500-3500+ watts. Aways distance around announcing noisy. Yeah. But relatively cheap to purchase by the watt. The real cost hits home in the ongoing operating fuel use cost.
Embrace 21st Century technology; made in the Orient, and you can have a multi-fueled 4000 users-safe watts ; quiet; and one-handed portable. Sure expect a 2000-3000 hours service life on the engine. Insist on a cast iron bore!! Use a quality high temperature synthetic oil. Change it often. But inexpensive enough now you can buy 2-3 units for the mythical 10,000 hours of use. And then be your own spare parts supplier with the additional units bought.
This guy does the best testing and presentations as he does system tear downs and videoing. He identifies the actual system manufacturers. He does breaking-in oil changing evaluations. He does not seem to be any brand name sponsored beholding.
Open up MR Garages channel and see he is a long trip; remote camping RV guy. Using and depending on what he evaluates.
Regards
Steve Unruh
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Nice wrap up summary Steve. Thanks!
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