I'm embarrassed by my ignorance, but I'm so curious I'm just going to go ahead and ask.

I only a lot of musical equipment, and I'd like to know what kind of portable generator I'd need to operate all of it. Every piece has a plate on the back with information like this:



Here you can see the voltage, hertz, amp and watts. Would it just be as simple as adding all of the wattage of the units?

Watts/Voltage. 45A @ 120v (usually can only get 30A max at 120v) or 22.5 @ 240. That one piece of equip requires a 30A generator or larger depending on the inrush/start-up current. What is it? Is it a piece of refrigeration equipment? If so then it's a motor which has high start up draw.

Adding watts as you suggest is a good start. Some margin is necessary, as there is a spike/surge on starting the unit(load). Safe point might be a 7kw unit to run your particular load. Note too, that if you do use a 7kw generator, there is little room to run much of anything else of any size at the same time by the generator.

Thanks, guys. The picture I displayed is off a reefer unit. None of my gear is anywhere near that load. I'm just trying to figure out how to calculate what I need, and thought I might be able to figure it out from the info on the plates on the backs of my gear.

For example, the specs on my amps read as follows: 120 volts, 60 hertz, 260 watts. So, to run just the 4 amps, would I need a generator rated at 1040 watts running time?

quote:

Originally posted by synthplayer:

For example, the specs on my amps read as follows: 120 volts, 60 hertz, 260 watts. So, to run just the 4 amps, would I need a generator rated at 1040 watts running time?

Yes, 1040 watts continuous.

For musical equipment I would go with a inverter style generator. Much cleaner power.

http://powerequipment.honda.co...ators/models/eu2000i

quote:

Originally posted by bearstarr:
For musical equipment I would go with a inverter style generator. Much cleaner power.

http://powerequipment.honda.co...ators/models/eu2000i

This looks like the ticket!

Many many years ago, I played drums and my brother played guitar. We would take our gear out to the middle of nowhere and play - my brother had two inverters - one for him and one for our bass player. It didn't take long to see that the inverters were doing serious damage to my brother's Marshall head and the bass player's Ampeg amp. Sheesh - that was 42 years ago.

Anyway, that's why I always thought a generator would be better than an inverter. But after reading about the Honda EU2000i, I'm convinced this would probably be just the thing.

quote:

Originally posted by bearstarr:
http://powerequipment.honda.co...ators/models/eu2000i

Excellent little generators. I have had one for the camper now for about eight years and have never had a problem with it.

 
I always factor any electrical device at about 75%-80% of its rated capacity, for safety's sake. This includes outlets (15amp outlet is only good for no more than 12 amps). And a genset that puts out 90 amps @240 volts only gets utilized up to 70 amps, at least at my house. For gensets, the devices you are powering make a difference. As has been noted, certain things, like compressor motors (fridges, AC compressors) have a large start up draw, but then quickly settle in to the normal draw noted on their side plate. So, in my mind, I need to factor in the 80% safety factor for overall load, plus some more for start up draws. It is helpful if all of these high draw start ups don't all start at the same time. This is one reason I run my standby genset, when needed, manually, switching in the high draw circuits one at a time. Once everything is up and on generator power, as long as the total running draw is 80% of the genset rating, it all works well.
 

Does it go to eleven?