Home Generator System ???

[RonMar]

The only drawbacks I see with aircooled gensets is that they consume a little oil. The 2 cylinder air cooled gensets I have dealt with are good for about 4 1/2 days of runtime before they shutdown on a low oil level alarm... Not a big issue as long as you know how to check the level and add oil(some don't...

They are also typically a little noisier, but the engine enclosure usually takes care of most of this extra noise.

 

[JB4310]

They are also typically a little noisier, but the engine enclosure usually takes care of most of this extra noise.

I was gonna mention that they are alot louder, I looked at a military gen set a guy was selling, it was an awesome machine in every other regard but was very load with all that air movement, don't know how you could muffle that with an enclosure. That was the reason he was selling it, was to loud for his neighbors.

Don't know why you wouldn't want liquid cooled if your spending that much on a premium quality machine that's designed to run balls out all the time. Can't think of many apps where a multi cylinder engine is running air cooled.

 

[SpringHollow]

Wow, i am surprised by the last two comments. The air cooled engines on our units are Hondas and they never consume oil. The enclosures are quite quiet too. The one installed on my house is about 15-20' from the house and when it is running, we have a hard time telling if it is the generator or the refrigerator and our house is poorly insulated.

The older small generacs were quite loud - i do not know if they have improved those or not. My unit is 62 decibels.

Ken

 

[JB4310]

Wow, i am surprised by the last two comments. The air cooled engines on our units are Hondas and they never consume oil. The enclosures are quite quiet too. The one installed on my house is about 15-20' from the house and when it is running, we have a hard time telling if it is the generator or the refrigerator and our house is poorly insulated.

The older small generacs were quite loud - i do not know if they have improved those or not. My unit is 62 decibels.

Ken

I'm sure the new air-cooled gennys are not as bad as I made that old military set out to be, but we're talking about 20+KW generators, Does Honda even make stand by sets that large?

I was just in NYC last week and all the street vendors have those 1-3 kw Hondas, I was standing right next to one and couldn't even hear it running over the back ground city noise.

.

 

[RonMar]

Wow, i am surprised by the last two comments. The air cooled engines on our units are Hondas and they never consume oil. The enclosures are quite quiet too. The one installed on my house is about 15-20' from the house and when it is running, we have a hard time telling if it is the generator or the refrigerator and our house is poorly insulated.

The older small generacs were quite loud - i do not know if they have improved those or not. My unit is 62 decibels.

Ken

I have worked with Generacs and Onan's(honda and vanguard/briggs powered) and both have issues with oil consumption. All aircooled engines do, lightly loaded ones moreso than heavilly loaded ones IMO.

A few years back, I had a generac service rep out to look at a warranty repair on a 100KW unit we have in service on a mountain top. We had just had a bad winter storm a few months before and areas around Seattle, where this gentelman typically worked, were without power for over a week. We were discussing this and our personal generators, and he even mentioned the oil issues. About 4 days into the power outtages, they started getting a lot of service calls like; "My generator quit and wont restart". To which his reply was, "have you checked the oil". He said they did a lot of talking people thru the oil check and refill process as it was going to be a day or so to get out to them...

I don't think this comes up much, as I am sure, unless you are at the end of a long power line network, being without commercial power for more than 4 days is a fairly rare thing...