Putting together an alternative energy system is not as easy as it looks. And it looks hard because it is. And it is expensive. And it can be confusing, too. If there is an ‘operational foundation statement’ it would be this: Don’t believe what you read. Your case will be different. And don’t think that you can ‘do just part of it’. To do it right, the system has to be balanced and the parts have to be sympatico right from the start.

Part of the reason for the difficulty is that much of it is counterintuitive. That which you think you need, you don’t. That which you dismiss as ‘not so important’ is really, really important and much of what you need is never mentioned by the salespeople because few of them actually live off-the-grid. And, even when they do, each system should really be tailored to your needs rather than what they happen to sell.

I know that sounds like a bit of crap. But it isn’t.

For instance, one of the things the experts tell you to do is to ‘add up’ your appliances consumption rates, add in the lights and fridge and all that and then add a percentage for future demands. If you do that, you might find yourself looking at ‘needing’ 10 or more kilowatts of power. Then you look around to find the cheapest 10kw power genset. Generac or Powermate or one of the many wastes-of-money Chinese made ‘cheapies’ thinking that, “I won’t really use the genset that much. I am going to go solar and save the planet!”

The reality is that your solar panels are great in the summer, good enough in the shoulder seasons (if you have enough of them) and simply inadequate (unless you went mad and purchased 6 times what your summer needs require and even then……..) in the winter. In the winter, you will use your genset. Trust me.

“But what about wind power? I am gonna add a wind turbine for winter supplement!”

We did that. And it works. Kinda. Not ‘kinda’ enough, tho. The typical 1kw turbine (or less) just doesn’t make enough juice. Turbines need to really spin before any amount of electricity is made. REALLY spin! Think 20 mph and more. Under 20mph and it is almost useless. And you need bigger-than-normal-budget units on very expensive and very high towers to have the slimmest of chances of making a real difference.

Hydro power is far and away the best but that is a whole other chapter.

But let’s go back to the genset for a minute. You likely don’t need the 10Kw you ‘added up’. In fact, you are likely to only need around 3kw but 5 or 6.5kw is likely good enough to cover everything.

The reason? You are some kind of profligate waster-of-energy if you are running everything at the same time. Who turns all the lights on, washes clothes, dries them electrically and has all the computers and TV on at the same time? That’s crazy.

It’s takes very little in the way of thinking conservation to reduce half of your energy use. Generally speaking, we use 12 amps of power from our Honda Eu 2000 watt generator the most. I’d estimate that we used 4 times that when we lived in the cul de sac and we weren’t very wasteful even then.

For instance: jettison the electric hot water heater. Go demand. Go propane. Save a bundle. Dump incadescent bulbs – go compact flourescent. Put your fridge in the right place and you can halve the energy use. And you can do that kind of thing to almost all uses.

Still, I’d prefer to have double that which I have. I should have 5000 watts. Here’s why: We have an Outback inverter charger. It converts DC to AC power. Juice from the batteries goes to making ‘juice for the house’. But the inverter will only process 2500 watts (which is fine for daily living for us) and it will only charge the batteries at 20 amps AC. To do both at the same time, I need 5500/6500 watts. That gives me all the power that I can use plus a smidge.

In other words: my inverter/battery charger and my generator go hand in hand. In fact, the whole system has to go ‘hand-in-hand’. Sympatico.

Some people will think they need two Outbacks and 5000 watts of power-on-tap and maybe they do. But we don’t. And we have all the modcons. I would advise starting at 2500 watts of inverter power and building your system around that.

And, even before that, build your system to use less electricity.

If you do that, you need less generator. You need less fuel. You have less to worry about.

As for the generator: most of us out here have opted for diesel because the fuel consumption is less and the machine will likely last longer than we will. That part kinda makes sense. But not really. Honda’s Eu series have éco-throttle’. That means that the machine powers up and down as the load changes. I have found that an eco-throttle machine uses much the same fuel as a diesel because the diesels run at a constant rate and consume fuel you don’t use. The eco-throttle goes through more gasoline on a ‘combustion-cycle basis’ but, with the throttle control, it saves more fuel overall.

Plus the damn Hondas seem to go forever, too. My neighbour has had his Honda 5000 for over 20 years. 25, I think. It is just ‘clapping out’ on him now but 25 years is pretty good.
“Wow! Good to know. So, we’ll go get the Honda Eu6500. Thanks!”

Well, I can understand why you might want to do that. I am tempted myself. But I am also considering buying two Eu3000 s instead. “Why?” Well, machines break. Even Hondas. It would be nice to have to repair only one and still have the other working. Plus Honda allows you to ‘pair’ the two up for those larger loads. So, if you are just messin’ about in the summer and the solar panels are doing the bulk of the work, you can just fire up one unit and go about your chore. Plus, a 3000 is easier to lift and carry than a 6500.

This ‘fine-tuning’ is so critical that I may, in fact, get a Honda Eu 3000 and, when it is paired up with my Honda Eu2000, I will have the needed 5000 watts. Plus the Eu2000 is only 50 pounds. I carry it all over the property – no problem. That’s a HUGE deal.

I am not so smart. My first genset was a Coleman that was so tempermental it took a lot to get it to operate near 60 hz. The OutBack is even more tempermental and won’t accept juice that is not delivered right at 60 hz. So, I was always ‘tinkering’ with it to get it to rpm just right. Cheap generators just won’t ‘do the job’ when solid state electronics are on the line. And my inverter was the first thing on the line.

Which reminds me: buy appliances that are basic. Try to avoid the ones with ‘computers’ in them. Lots of folks out here who went for Maytag top-loaders and fancy big screen TVs found that their gensets just would not deliver the ‘smooth’ power that the appliances need. Our washer is the ‘bottom’ of the line. No bells or whistles. And no problems, either.

My second generator was a used 15kw diesel genset that is built like a tank and has to run at the full 1800 rpms to get the ‘juice’ just right. That means that if I want to run a skill saw from it, I have to burn half a gallon of diesel an hour. Plus the start-up is complicated and the damn thing is noisy. It’s like having a Freightliner idling in the garage.

Then I got the Honda Eu2000 for a camping trip and it was perfect. Quiet, too. So perfect, in fact, that it is our main daily genset even tho we run the whole house. To be fair, it is inadequate. I have to kick up the Freightliner for the odd ‘big’ draw. As I said, we need 5000 watts. But the 2000 will give us half what we need which is fine 80% of the time.

Bottom line: really, really think about gensets a lot before buying one. Not only for the reasons stated but because there are other factors at play as well like portability, noise and size of ‘shed’ needed to house it. But, without a doubt, an oil-burning, polluting, noisy machine is gonna be part of your alternative energy, off-the-grid system. Get used to it.

More tomorrow.