Q:I am buying a portable generator in order to power up to six, 500 watt halogen work lights to light up my horse arena at night. what are some things I should consider in terms of features that are needed in this application. Also, I don't want alot of bells and whistles, I need to keep as low cost as possible but still safe and quiet.

To the past comment regarding fuel consumption - You sated: For some reason, a big generator- say 6000 watts will go through twice as much gas as two 3000 watt generators! No idea why. Look it up if ya want. Totally true. Anyways, that ratio is far from accurate. Don t be misconstrued by not taking into account the fact that the listed specs for any unit describes fuel consumption based on load. All the listed specs show consumption-over-time, indicating that that consumption is during operation of the unit while at only 1/2 of the maximum rated load capacity. For your perusal, some generator specs taken from authorized Honda dealer web sites. Honda ~3500 (max watt) series Tank Size:6.2 Gallons Run Time (50% Load):16 Hours And the Honda ~6500 (max watt) series 6.2 Gallons Run Time (50% Load):10.4 Hours Anyways, if one were to crank up the Honda3500 from its 1/2 load of say 1750watts, to say about 3200watts, I would gamble the fuel consumption rate would spike significantly, and to the point where heat and exhaust would factor in largely; the 1/2 load operation for the 6500 series would yield 3250watts, incidentally. Even if there were so be some kind of (likely negligible if any) savings by having and utilizing 2 of the 3500 units at the same time, would it make up for the additional money spent on the cost of ownership of the 2 units, versus the single expense of the more powerful unit? (one of the 3500w units $1,600 while the 6500w costs about $2700+/-) Also, would someone want to occupy space with 2 units at once, either while in use or in storage? What about the chance of more things going wrong while running 2 units, let alone the increase in noise (et al) pollution. I would fathom the 6500w engine, and all moving components, would be much less taxed over time with respect to the similar output of the 2-unit scenariowhich sounds chaotic and in illogical, and was not even thought out.

Q:hi i am looking for a generator to provide roughly 25kv for home use. roughly the need is4-5 1.5 ton ac3 fridge3 lcd 32-60 inch6 fansa15-20 lights2-3 computer/laptopmultimedia system2 water pumpssome additional usual house requirementswhat option do have on the basis of following:initial costdiesel / petrol / natural gassizenoise leveloperating costoverall efficiencyi personally like HONDA, but they have only 6.5kv available in pertol/gasi want to avoid diesel due to cost and bad fumesin petrol i can make it convertable to gas as wellbut people guide me that if i go in 25kv than the option is only for diesel.pls guide me.imran.

One other consideration for your generator is the natural gas has less power in the range of 25% If you need 7.5 KW and it is natural gas then the generator needs to be a 10KW unit. Diesel is quite reliable but storage of fuel is a concern, for petrol also. I suggest you contact a local electrical contractor who specializes in home generator installations. 25 KW is about the smallest for your needs. 40 is probably a better choice. All in all they are not cheap.

Q:I work at a high rise building as security and was interested to know why smoke would come out of a generator? What would be the main reason? Engine too hot? A snapped wire?

What kind of generator and how is it fueled? A diesel generator will smoke at start-up, and if it is an older unit burning old fuel, it will smoke in operation as well. That would be smoke from the exhaust. If you are writing about smoke from the windings - that is the generator itself - that would be due to an overload and/or winding failure, and caused by the system overheating. If you are writing about smoke coming off the engine - that could be from an oil leak, or debris falling onto the engine and being combusted by heat. Only the first of these is 'normal'.

Q:What are the faults of diesel generator

Electrical energy belongs to the two level of energy alternating current can be converted from mechanical energy to DC power conversion from chemical energy

Q:how does a generator work powerlessly. i mean like if there is a black out people cna generate energy from like a generator. well then how come a generator work without the help of anything? (NOT TALKInG About the hydropower generator, the one that spins.

Generators *always* take some kind of mechanical energy to operate. In the case of a power blackout, backup generators use large diesel engines rated for hundreds of thousands of Horsepower, to run the electrical backup generators. Those diesel engines (obviously) run on diesel fuel so, there is your 'anything'. .

Q:I live in a location without municipal water supply. I could buy a natural gas generator, and hire an electrician to connect it to my breaker box, but I believe there is a way to connect solar panels to a battery system to provide enough power for my 220 volts submerged pump. I have 2 horses, 24 chickens, 2 dogs, 4 cats, 3 parakeets, and 3 people that need water in the event of a hurricane, national power grid attack,etc. There are solar powered generators advertised, but they are not powerful enough for 220. Also, my whole neighborhood of over 200 homes all lives off their own water wells, and we all suffered during hurricane Ike: 10 days without a water supply.

For solar you would want to have a bank of batteries to store that power. Like the other guy said, you're better off buying a Honda Generator or even just a diesel (not gasoline, DIESEL) powered pump for emergencies.

Q:I am looking to run a 1200watt electrical generator using Hydrogen gas versus using Gasoline, Propane or Diesel. If anyone knows even where I can start looking towards steps or plans for something like this?

Um, can I ask you one question. why? Internal combustion engines can run off of hydrogen, sure, that's a no-brainer. But can I ask where you have an unlimited supply of hydrogen available to you, such that it's so much cheaper to use that it's worth it to make a very complicated expensive modification such as this? And why not just directly convert it into electricity with a fuel cell? It's far more efficient, lower maintenance, and sooooo quiet you could hear a mouse fart right next to it. Nice pie in the sky, but currently quite impractical.

Q:I was thinking of some sort of battery that I could charge at home and take outside but must be able to store a lot of electricity like be able to run 600w for 18 hours. I think a generator will be too expensive.

You can buy battery packs with built-in chargers that you can take around. But you do not mention what voltage you wish to have out of the pack. A 12v pack would put out 50 amps to make 600w. The problem there is that it would disperse 50 amp-hours per hour. You would need a 900 amp-hour capacity unit of many batteries. That would take a pickup truck to move, and quite expensive to buy the 25 batteries. If you wish to make 110vAC at 600w, that would be only 5.8 amps AC current. There are many inverters that can do that, not too expensive. But you would need to hook it to an automobile with the engine running, since the amp-hours or even more would be the same from the 12vDC car battery. Running the car engine for 18 hours would surely ruin something under the hood (engine, voltage regulator, alternator, fuel system, battery?) The amount of energy you require over time is enormous. It would be equal to a tank of gasoline, or about 90 sticks of dynamite. My Nissan LEAF electric car's battery can store 27KW at a time, but takes 10-20 hours to charge, depending on voltage supplied. That would be more than enough for your requirement, but do you have $35,000?

Q:I'm a salesman for a welding supplies company, and a customer is interested in buying a diesel welder/generator for use in the paddock where he can't get electricity. While looking around I've come across a 200amp machine but it says it's a 200amp AC welder. it was my understanding that all welders are DC standard, and the AC current was only on welders to weld aluminum.

DC is desirable, but not necessary for stick welding steels. DC produces deeper penetration in most cases. However AC can be used for stick welding just as well. AC is actually better when welding with E7024 rods. AC welders tend to be very robust because they're incredibly simple, basically just a x-former or alternator, a large rheostat, and an overload protector. DC systems are a bit more complicated. Fortunately, the machine in question seems to have 110V 15A outlets for residential-type power, in addition to the welding outlets, which are 75 volts on open circuit. Machines used for stick welding are of the constant current (CC) type. That means that the applied voltage will vary based on the resistance in the arc. Note that MIG welding uses Constant Voltage (CV.) (The current in MIG welding largely depends on the wire feed rate.) Residential current outlets also need to be constant voltage, not CC. How much welding experience do you have? A year or less? With due respect, perhaps you ought to be asking some of your customers for advice, not GIVING it to them.