6 ms·
I'll note that 40kW is only about 53HP, not a very large engine for a car. It's approximately the power of two commercial lawn mowers.
by matt_attack 4y ago
I'll note that 40kW is only about 53HP, not a very large engine for a car. It's approximately the power of two commercial lawn mowers.
- hadlock 4y agoYes but you can't really buy generators with more than 22kw and even that is plenty to run the AC for a 5500 sq ft home with plenty of breathing room to run the electric washer/dryer
- dijonman2 4y agoYou can buy many, many generators above 22kw. Probably not many gasoline engines but tons of diesel and propane/natural gas fueled gensets.
- hadlock 4y agoOh of course you can buy generators that will run the utility circuit of a nuclear power plant, they need to come from somewhere. Somebody will sell you one. I have not personally seen a residential generator larger than 22.5kw when searching for homes in hurricane country. This is in response to a guy saying he has a giant 30+kw generator for his home, which would be... extremely unusual unless he was also running an off grid welding shop or something equally unlikely
- matt_attack 4y agoThey seem pretty common to me: https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/power/kohler-30-39-kw-standby-generators.html https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/power/kohler-30-39-...
- Salgat 4y ago40KW is a shitload considering a typical central AC system uses around 5KW. Imagine running 8 in parallel.
- elzbardico 4y ago5kw is the normal running consumption. Startup currents are higher than normal operation and so you need to have a beefier generator. But yes, 40kVA is a lot, big houses should do fine even with high transient loads with a 22kVA generator. But let’s not forget this is HN, maybe OPs house is humongous
- askafriend 4y agoYou don't know about dijonman2? He's a legend around here. He has a stupid amount of cash. His house is definitely enormous.
- dijonman2 4y agoMy A/C is 10kw running, with 18kw tankless water heater. You oversize generators when drawing lots of current from switch mode power supplies as harmonics confuse the AVR. Aka tankless water heater. I have a home lab, full rack. Around 4kw including a dedicated A/C. I have excess power and will run an extension cord to neighbors if needed. I’d also want capacity to charge an EV should I get one. Price between 22kw and 40kw was negligible relative to total project cost. The only downside is I have to turn on everything in the house twice a year to exercise it and avoid wet stacking. Final note is that in order to use an automatic transfer switch you must have sufficient capacity for connected loads. A smaller generator would have forced me to install a second sub panel for loads I want to run during an emergency.
- Salgat 4y agoI have no doubt you have those power requirements, I'm just responding to the guy whos acting like "it's not that much power" when it certainly is.