jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

If you are going to buy a portable gas/propane generator, be sure you know what you are buying. You probably want one that provides both 110 and 220 volts, but many provide only 110v. When I bought mine over ten years ago, I didn't give a thought to 220v, assuming it provided that. And it does.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Ours does also.

Mark Sturtevant Loc: Grand Blanc, MI

I have one that has 110 and 220, and I'm glad we got it. Just a few weeks ago we lost power, and it once again that was only a minor inconvenience.

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

I thought the entire USA was on 110v? Obviously not.
NZ is all 240v, although at peak times the voltage drops and the microwave won't start.
Used to be happening more often around dinner cooking time but now it can be earlier, maybe 5pm even.
I reckon its all the EV's getting home from work and going on charge.

Texas George Loc: Stamford, Texas

While there are some industrial applications that use 240v the average house in the USA uses 110 volts. The term 220 refers to having two 110 line inputs used by air conditioners, dryers and other high usage home equipment.

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

Cheers. Thanks for that.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

We are 120v, as is Canada and Mexico.

Basically only consumer things that are 240V are clothes dryers, electric ovens, house air conditioners, electric heating systems, and maybe a few other large power things.
TVs, radios, computers, coffee grinders, electric frying pans, window air conditioners, drills, circular saws, hair dryers, and all the other small daily stuff is 120V.

But the houses (buildings) have two legs of 120V AC, 180° out of phase with each other. Either leg (A or B) to Neutral is 120V.
Leg A to leg B is 240V. For even power loading (distribution), half of the house wiring (outlets, lights) is on one leg, the other half on the other leg. (Circuit breaker panel rows are wired A-B-A-B-A-B-A... that way it's easy for a double breaker to supply the 240 when needed.)

Better generators will have the two phase outputs instead of single phase (one leg).

BebuLamar

Uhm they are 180° out of phase of each other. It's the 3 phase power that each leg is 120° out of phase of the others. If they are 120° out of phase with each other than it's only 208V. And yes we used to call it 110V but most home would measure about 120V. My home is 123V about that.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Haha, they sure are!.!
Freudian (old age?) slip? Had "120" on my mind...
Thanks, I corrected it in time.
(And I had three courses in AC power systems (including 3-phase) in college, but that was 50 years ago. Oie.)
Years ago everything was marked 117V, go figure.... (110, 115, 117, 120 and 115-120 )

TonyP Loc: New Zealand

Got it. Makes sense now. Thanks for the explanation.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

For the generator, you don't really want to supply power to just one leg in the house, only half of the stuff will work. The other half will not have any power.

tramsey Loc: Texas

I had the Generic Home Generator guy out to take a look at what I would need. He asked me what I want to run if the power went out. I said everything. I added that I wanted it to come on automatically. After he got done writing figures and adding he said what I wanted would cost about five thousand, hooked up and ready to go. I don't need one that much, We'll just go to a motel and let the insurance take care of refilling the freezer.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

They are expensive (I’ve been considering one), but given the power grid in Texas, maybe something to consider (the motel may be down too)

Harvey Loc: Pioneer, CA

Many years ago when we bought our first generator it was a small 110 from Harbor Freight for our tent Traylor it worked just fine for our small first house when we moved here in the mountains - the we had a big power outage after moving into a large house - Rushed down to Sacramento H.F. and bought my first 110-220 generator with electric start- have never regrated the up grade we have had the larger one hardwired into our house for 7 yrs. We get a lot of bower outages here year around- they cut the power most any time during storms - high winds in summer and heavy snows in winter.

Dean37 Loc: Fresno, CA

[quote=TonyP]I thought the entire USA was on 110v? Obviously not.
NZ is all 240v, although at peak times the voltage drops and the microwave won't start.

TonyP, most homes built since about 1960, in the US, maybe just in some states, have 220/240 at their electrical service. Not all houses will then have the 220/240 routed into the house, it is just available. Other houses that have electric stoves and/or A/C will have the 220/240 wired to those units. Most other than those use 110/120.

We don't need to add in EV's,we have enough brownouts and blackouts without them.

I bought a gasoline powered 10kw generator about 11years ago, because at the time we were renting a house that didn't have 220/240 and I needed 220/240 to run some welding machines. (I welded outside, never inside, with at least 2 fire extinguishers one by my feet and the other about 10 feet from where I was welding). It was single fuel, but I got an adapter to be able to run it on 3 fuels. Gasoline, propane and natural gas. It is 10 kw on gasoline, about 8 kw on propane and somewhere around 7 to 7 1/2 kw on natural gas. Never the less I run it occasionally and while I have never had to use it for a power outage, I would run an outdoor extension cord into the house to power the freezer, refrigerator and other things as we need, for a few hours every day.