In response to my post on crackups/storms, someone
asked about my Honda. Lost the note to too rapid a
delete key!
Anyway, for powering your home and a barefoot rig, a
5 kW Honda is great. Also runs a good deal quieter than
many others that were used around here!
However, to get all 5 kW into the house, you need to have
a 220 volt outlet in the garage. This will allow you to connect
a 220 volt plug/cable configuration between the full windings
of the generator and, phased properly, into your home
wiring. The Honda has a center tapped output, with 110 on
either side (same idea used to wire up most homes) each rated
at about 2.5 kW. This is plenty to
operate the refrigerator several hours a day, 4 at least if
you are careful about not opening either freezer or regular
door too much, and all the lights you may want about the
home at night (well up until you and the neighbors decide
it is time to stop the gererator noise, and shut the thing
down!). It will also run your washing machine motor,
but not an electric dryer. Fortunately, we are on propane
out here for cooking, clothes drying and water heat, so
had that fuel through out the experience of recovery- we
keep a pretty good sized tank of the stuff here. My wife
is very emergency prepardness concious; mostly
because of our California Loma Prieta earthquake
experience. Our home in the Santa Cruz mountains
was already wired up there with a generator installed.
After the quake, all I had to do was throw a big
switch in the garage, which cut us off the PG&E
lines, and connected the generator. Only mistake was
I hadn't kept fresh gasoline in it, and the electric starting
motor battery was dead! So had a little to do before
we got power. Keep the Honda out here ready to go
at any time!
And we have lots of canned food tucked away.
I even used it to run the crack-up motor on the MA-550.
Well enough, you guys on the East Coast, in Florida
and especially California, be good scouts, be prepared!
73, Jim, KH7M
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