New 9500W Inverter Generator

[Jkoht]

If you need 50amp service I'd just buy two Predator 3500's and the firman parallel kit. From what I've read that's what most people who need 50 amps run. I have the 3500 myself but only need 30 amps. So far it's been an awesome generator, and I hope to keep it running for a long time.

 

[Rob&Deryl]

I could not lift a 3500 watt unit and even the wife & I would have trouble getting it in the truck bed.
We chose a pair of Champion 2500/1800 dual fuel units with the parallel kit with 50a connector. For a single AC we can run one and if we need 2 ACs, use the parallel kit. At 38lbs we can both carry them. Running on Propane is less mess too.

 

[DonTom]

in power inverters and chargers and none of my textbooks refer to "Starting Wattage". It's not a technical term and doesn't really exist.

But I think it is obvious what they mean. Say it's connected to a very large AC motor. It could draw that 9,500VA for a second or so and then the motor could be drawing 7500VA from then on after. If the genny can run that motor that will draw 9,600VA for the second required and keep it running it is meeting the spec they claim of "starting wattage", IMO, regardless of it is an accepted term or not.

If the genny was not capable of that one second above the 7500VA, the genny would be severely overloaded even with the 7500VA load. The 7500 VA motor would not even run, because of the lack of power to get it started for that one second.

But if they wanted to be honest, they would say it's a 7500VA genny with a starting capacity of 9500VA.

They really shouldn't even use the term "watts" at all with AC. It is possible to overload that generator with 0 watts of power load. But perhaps most non-technical people don't know about "apparent power".

I try to listen to what they mean, not what they say.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[JayArr]

Correct, when a motor or converter or battery charger starts and the amperage is over limit it is a volt amp, not a watt, It's considered apparant power because there is a "reactive power" component due to the skewing of the power factor.

That's why I say there is no such thing as "Starting watts" It's a bullshit term the marketing department made up to fool non technical people into thinking the genny is better than it actually is.

Watts are only equal to volt amps when the power factor is zero and there is no reactive component. This is likely only to occur if the load is purely resistive.

 

[DonTom]

to fool non technical people into thinking the genny is better than it actually is.

They do that BS everywhere. Take EV batteries on Zero motorcycles, for an example. Right on the battery in large letters it says "14.4 KWH". But less than 12KWH is useable.

But FWIW, they also sell electric motorcycles with the same battery to the military. With the same battery, it can really do the full 14.4KWH. Just press a switch to activate the last 2.4 KWH. Will ruin the battery, but could save a life. They do not offer the switch to the civilian market for obvious reasons. This little battery costs more than 10K$.

I really don't think "starting wattage" is such a bad term, as even more people will understand that it means the power to start something.

Besides that, the term is not that uncommon, especially if we use the variants of the term, such as "start up wattage". See here for an example.

"Because these AC units need a lot of power, the safe choice is to get a generator that can handle at least 7,000 W start-up wattage."

-Don- Reno, NV