Hi all,
First, background. My family does a lot of outdoor decorating for haloween and christmas, a lot. We are trying to determine if it would be more financially responsible to buy a generator to run these lights then normal electricity. We run them for about 4-5 hours a night.
Also, what are the basics for actually buying a generator. Any recommended name brands? Certain specs i should pay special attention to? Any help would be appreciated.
2006-08-22 08:25:51 · 5 answers · asked by firefrons 2 in Home & Garden ➔ Other - Home & Garden
Financially speaking, unless you have a free source of fuel, buying electricity from the power company is always less expensive than making your own. between the cost of the unit, fuel and maintenance, let alone the noise and the hassle of buying and transporting fuel, the local electric company is a better deal.
If you want to save some money on your electric bill, you may be better off signing up for a "time of use" plan with the power company. The plan will give you a huge discount on electricity consumed at night and weekends. The down fall is there is a premium for power consumed during the day. If you are gone during the day, chances are it will pay off.
As for good quality generators, Generac (not the one with the Briggs and Stratton engine) makes a great unit, some Honda's are very quiet, but rather expensive. Stay away from the cheap Chinese units, and anything powered by a Briggs engine. Also, be ware of the rating game. Only compare the rated watts, pay no attention to the "surge" watts. This is a rating based on a very low power factor test. Plan on any given unit actually delivering about 80% to 90% of it's rated power.
2006-08-23 07:54:55 · answer #1 · answered by shfincter S 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you can deal with the noise or have a small cave or undergrond place to put it to lesson the noise, I think Honda makes a nice gas powered one. The authorities will probably think you are growing weed when you buy 20 gallons of gas that doesn't go into your car. Its probably cheaper to use the house electricity unless you live in a really remote area. And I suspect that you don't cuz nobody would be there to see all the lovely decorations.
2006-08-22 08:37:46 · answer #2 · answered by kurticus1024 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Greetings!
I guess I Can help you out with this one because I myself into generators business. First of all you need to check the power needed to run all your equipment. When you know what are your power requirements you are ready to buy a generator. Now you got 4 main options to buy a generator. 1 option is desiel generator which is for high power needs like running Air Conditionor sort of machinery. The others are gasoline, kerosine and Natural gas*Metyhane powered generators. They serve the normal power loads. So just visit a store and demand a generator for you power requirements
2006-08-22 08:41:16 · answer #3 · answered by Rohan David 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
YOu will most likely only need a generator rated at 3000 watts which is big enough to run decorations. dewalt is best Sears makes good generators and so is Troy built
2006-08-22 08:36:32 · answer #4 · answered by aussie 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
one time buy Electrical Generator at around 700.00 compare to the elec. bill say a round 400.00 long run you save by it
2006-08-22 08:35:14 · answer #5 · answered by Heart 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋