Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

For the last few weeks, I've been using the 2000 watt, Hyundai inverter generator at camp to provide electricity in light load applications.  Basically a 42" LED LCD TV, a Bell Receiver and a couple compact flourescent lights.   Less than 300 watts in total.   Initially I had just back fed the generator into the camp using a 12 ga. 50' extension cord.   After discovering that supplying that outlet also supplied limited power to the garage, I decided to try relocating the generator the 110 ft. or so from the camp to the garage.  I back fed the extension cord into an outlet at the garage and it powers all of the same circuits as the outlet on the camp did. 

The main power line from the garage to the camp is large diameter Tek cable (00 or 2/0) and is rated for around 195 amps so resistance should be minimal.   There is a very short eight feet of 14 ga. wire from the outlet to the main fuse box which controls the power from the large diesel generator to the main power line.  Now that I've explained the physical set up, my question is whether or not the additional distance of 120 feet or so of heavy wire transmission would put more demand on the small generator? 

The reason I ask is that I noticed what seemed to be a slight increase in fuel consumption with the exact same load.  Can't say for sure because I've only taken one fuel consumption reading from the new location. The fuel consumpiton variance was minimal.  I was getting a spectacular consistent 3 hrs./litre of fuel with the generator feeding directly into the camp.  The new location gave me a measurement of 2.79 hrs./litre.  

I know the numbers are insignificant and might just be a measurement variance, however, I'm still curious.  Does increasing the distance from the generator, despite the line having minimal resistance, increase demand on the generator?     

snowmachine wrote:
I should wire up an electronic tach to see how the Hyundai behaves.  

I've got around 90 hours on it now and it's been flawless.   That's hardly an endorsement for longetivity, however, if something was amiss when it was built, it likely would have let go by now.   For such an inexpensive little machine, other than the weight factor, I'm very happy with it's overall performance.   If I get 1000 hrs. out of it, the machine will have paid for itself many times over just in fuel and oil change savings.  

If for some reason it doesn't last, I'll definitely look at a Yamaha or Honda inverter generator.   Small inverter gensets are just so quiet and easy on fuel compared to my big Kubota diesel powered machine.   If I do get an new machine, it will likely be a bit larger and with electric start to make it easy for the wife to use. 

Took an electronic tach out to camp to measure rpm vs. load.  I discovered that the change in rpm seem to be incremental.   Low speed is around 3150 rpm, bump up the load and the revs jump to around 4500 which is still 1000 rpm lower than max.   Rpm change doesn't appear to be very linear.  It just seems to have low speed in eco mode of 3150, medium-high speed 4500, hight speed of 5000 then full out high speed for surge load of 5500 rpm. 

In eco mode, fuel consumption has been consistently in the 2.5 hrs./litre range.  Very impressive.  Performance has been flawless.  Starts easily, doesn't use any oil, and from where it's located, virtually silent. 

What I did discover however is that the fuel capacity of 7 litres quoted in the manual is dead wrong.   After ten hours of operation, the machine stopped running due to being out of fuel.  At 2.5 litres/hr in eco mode, the machine should have run for 17.5 hrs.  I refilled the machine to capacity then drained the fuel tank into a precise measuring container.  The tanks hold 4.3 litres.   Considering that it's in a static location, I could easily attach an auxilliary fuel tank if I wanted.  However, we only average about 4 to 5 hours of run time a day and it's no big deal to refill it.   Other than that little surprise, I have to say that for the money, this is an excellent little generator.