EB3000 Honda Portable Generators are among the Most Popular

Honda eb3000 Portable Generators are among the most popular generators available on the market today. This bodes well for you if you are in need of a new generator, or need another one to accompany your needs. There are several places that you can purchase Honda generators, meaning that you will definitely be able to find what you are looking for.

The first place to check if you are searching for Honda eb3000 Portable Generators is at your local Honda power equipment dealer. These dealers are not available in every city, but more than likely you will be able to find one that is located near you.

New Honda eb3000 Portable Generators make for great buys, but at the same time there is nothing wrong with purchasing a used unit. They also offer a great value to the buyer. You can search for used generators at a power equipment store near you. Many times you can also find them by searching your local classified ads.

The best thing about Honda generators are that they offer a high level of sophistication and durability for an affordable price. Even though you may be able to find a cheaper generator elsewhere, Honda is at the top of the industry.

Overall, Honda generators are great buys for anybody in the market. The eb3000 is one of the best portable generators available. Regardless of if you buy this unit new or used, you will definitely be getting a deal that you will be able to live with.

7+ Keys To Connecting a Portable Power Generator

Connecting a portable power generator to your home's main wiring panel can be very dangerous if you don't follow available neutral ground diagrams and instructions. The only danger-free way to connect a portable power generator to your main panel is to have a transfer switch installed by an electrical contractor that is licensed to do so. This transfer switch moves the power from the power lines of the utility company to the power from your portable generator.

When you're connecting your generator you must never plug it directly into any standard household outlet. This could bring utility power lines back to life and cause injury or death to utility personnel or neighbors. Each individual appliance should be connected directly to the generator, although you must be careful not to overload the generator. You can seriously harm your appliances doing so. What you'll want to do is prioritize the equipment and appliances you want to run and only hook up to the portable generator those you think you have to have during a power outage.

Your generator should never run indoors or in any enclosed area. The carbon dioxide build up can be deadly and unnoticeable until it's too late. It should operate out of doors in an area that is dry and well ventilated, where it won't be directly exposed to any precipitation, and where it has no danger of sending fumes back into the house through any air intake. Look carefully at any diagram of your home to assure this is the case.

Make sure your connections to your portable power generator are safe. The cords must be rated for outdoor use and heavy duty. They must have a wire gauge that can handle the load from the appliances. Neutral ground is crucial.

Generac Portable Generator Troubleshooting Tips

A Generac portable generator, with super quiet parts and performance, needs little maintenance and troubleshooting. Each Generac portable generator comes with a minimum two-year warranty and some with a five-year warranty. If you need to do some troubleshooting for your Generac portable generator, however, there are several sites that offer this help including the manufacturer's own Web site.

Generac generators offer as little as 3 1/2 kilowatts of power or as much as 150 kilowatts, so you can choose both the size and the power you need for your home or commercial enterprise. With one of the best warranties in the generator industry, your troubleshooting of your Generac portable generator should be at a minimum and with the ongoing support of the Generac professionals. To assist with this troubleshooting is the Generac's automatic exercise system, that keeps your portable generator and its part in super quiet and top-notch performance mode.

Every seven days this exerciser tests the power generation of your generator. You can determine the day and the time of day when this should happen, and let the generator do its own troubleshooting.

The super quiet Generac portable generator uses LP or natural gas, and runs as long as you need it to during any power failure by your utility company. It has a number of system problem indicators, such as shutdown for high temperature in its engine, oil pressure that is too low and high speed or over cranking.

These systems will help any technician that might have to come to your home for troubleshooting your Generac portable generator, thus reducing your cost for service.

7+ Tips For Hooking Up Your Portable Generator

Hooking up a portable generator in your home requires you to have a transfer switch that is suitable for disconnecting your electric loads from the utility grid of your electric power supplier for your house. For hook up of home single phase 120 or 240 volts of power you'll need a double throw and double pole type.

Double throw means that you can move the switch into two positions. One of these positions feeds the power to the load from your house utility system. The other feeds the power to the load from the portable generator.

Hooking up a three phase portable generator would require you to have a double throw switch that is three poled. This means that you'll have added a lever for manual switching that is extended, so that you can turn the switch on or off from the ground.

If you're hooking up a portable generator at your home that is small and only used to run a few things such as a well pump, or a single large appliance that will be plugged directly into your house's generator, you won't need a transfer switch. It's just when your portable generator has to have a hook into your wiring at your home that you'll need the transfer switch. Put your home transfer switch between the loads you need to serve and your utility meter no farther than 25 feet from the generator.

If you're hooking up a portable generator that is driven by an engine and has an automatic start up you'll generally find the transfer switch already built into the generator's automatic controls. Make sure you ground the portable generator as you hook it up in your home. Use solid wire made of copper and a ground rod that is 8 foot.

New diesel driven welder/generator from Lincoln - Lincoln Electric Co.'s Commander 500

The Lincoln Electric Co., Cleveland, Ohio, has unveiled its latest multipurpose, engine driven welder/generator, the Commander 500. The welder features Lincoln's newly developed Chopper Technology, which is designed to control the d.c. welding output to create an arc with increased welding performance. In addition, the Commander 500 welder/generator is engineered to deliver exceptional stick, TIG, cored wire, MIG, and arc gouging performance, the company said.

"What our engineers did was basically take a typical chopper circuit and adapt it to specific welding applications," said Eric Snyder, product manager for engine driven welders at Lincoln Electric. "The Chopper Technology works like a simplified inverter, which are starting to become very popular within the welding industry.

"We're taking three-phase power and putting it through our specially designed chopper module. At the heart of this module lies an integrated gate bipolar transistor or IGBT, which takes this three-phase a.c. and rectifies it to d.c."

At this point, Snyder explained, the chopper module operates like a high-speed switch by turning on and off 20,000 times per second. "So it's basically turning your output on and off, let's say between zero and 100 amps. That is so fast, that as far as the welding arc is concerned, it just looks like a solid d.c. line - just a straight line right at the 100 amp level."

"The high-speed switch circuit provides a great deal of flexibility to address all the welding processes. The result is easy starts, smooth arc, good bead appearance and lower splatter levels on the welded piece."

The Commander 500 welder/generator provides 500 amps of welding power at 100 percent duty cycle, and is suited to the construction, maintenance, repair, rental and pipe industries. Besides being a d.c. multi-purpose welding machine, it is also designed to generate 12 kW of a.c. power from the 120 V/240 V full-kVA receptacle or 4.8 kW of a.c. power from two 120 V duplex receptacles.

A single, full-range control dial for stick and CV-wire applications is equipped to control general welding output. The unit features five ranges with full overlap for stick pipe welding and other processes where slope control is required.

The unit is powered by a 2.8 L Deutz F3L912 industrial diesel engine rated 44 hp at 1800 rpm. This three-cylinder, four-cycle, air-cooled diesel features 12 V electric start, a Donaldson two-stage dry-type air cleaner, Stanadyne fuel filter with water separator and a custom-designed Lincoln muffler.

Indicator lights displaying low oil pressure, high oil temperature, broken cooling blower belt and low engine alternator voltage are supplied by Faria and Prime. An engine protection system is designed to automatically shut down in the event of a broken blower belt, low oil pressure or high engine temperature. A 25 gal. fuel tank minimizes the need for frequent refueling, Lincoln said.

The Commander 500 welder/generator series includes the standard Lincoln K1639-1 and deluxe K1639-2 model alternators, both driven directly off the engine. The deluxe model includes dual digital output meters for presetting weld amps or voltage and the display of actual outputs during the welding process.

The deluxe model also has Prime and Faria engine gauges for fuel, temperature, oil pressure, broken coolant blower belt, and low engine alternator voltage. Both units have a six-pin connector for remote output and a 14-pin connector for use with other Lincoln wire feeders. The deluxe model also incorporates a 30-minute delay low-fuel shutdown.

Generator system backs up 1500-mile submarine fiber optics cable network - Pacific Detroit Diesel Allison

Communications technology such as telephone cable and microwave channels has brought Alaska seconds away from the lower 48. More recently, that's been pared to milliseconds thanks to fiber optic cables that now snake along the North Pacific seafloor from Whittier, Alaska, to the Pacific Northwest.

With service over several cables begun in the spring of 1999, Pacific Detroit-Allison's branch in Anchorage, Alaska, was called on to install a modem and highly automated standby generator plant in the fiber optic transmission station being completed in Whittier by Alaska Northstar Communications, a subsidiary of WCI Cable, Inc.

The facility draws 208 V, three-phase power from the Chugach Electrical Association powerplant in Whittier. But any interruption to the supply will automatically trigger two Kohler model 80ROZJ 100 kVA generator sets that also can be monitored and controlled over telephone lines from Anchorage.

Rated at 120/208 V, three-phase, and 60 Hz, the Kohler equipment incorporates John Deere 6059T four-cycle turbocharged diesel engines with six in-line cylinders. The 5.9 L engines displacement engines deliver 150 hp maximum power at the rated speed of 1800 rpm. The engines utilize a manually operated priming pump and incorporate both primary and secondary fuel filters. The engines were built at Deere's Saran, France, facility and combined with the Kohler generators in the U.S. PDDA represents Kohler in Alaska and the Russian Far East.

The gateway to the village of Whittier is vintage Alaska - an ancient string of railroad flat cars haul autos, trucks and busses through two, long, lightless tunnels and by the massive Portage Glacier from Alaska's Seward Highway to the village that straggles along a bay off Prince William Sound.

Whittier was founded during World War II to receive and dispense fuel. The rusting hulks in an extensive tank farm still stand near the foot of the mountains in Chugach National Park. The most prominent structure in town, however, is an anachronistic and towering apartment building - reported to hold the entire population of the village when winter descends.

However, among first sights when one emerges from the final tunnel are two buildings that represent modern technology - fiber optics cable terminals being completed to service cables that run to Juneau, Valdez, and 2000 miles to Oregon and Washington.

Fiber optics involves the transmission of laser signals along glass fibers at the speed of light. In the case of the ANC/WCIC cables from Whittier, communications equipment connected to the fibers enables signals to be transmitted at 10 billion bits per second. These 10 billion bits per second will encompass voice, data, and Internet traffic, at a rate equivalent to 128,000 simultaneous telephone calls.

In some respects, the companies putting up the facilities are competitors. On one side of the railroad tracks on the upper side of town, a facility is being installed by General Communications, Inc. (GCI). GCI will service submarine cables laid to Valdez, Juneau and Seattle. WCI Cable, Inc. (WCICI), will operate submarine cables laid to Valdez, Juneau and 2000 miles on the North Pacific sea bottom to Portland and Seattle via a "landing site" at Tillamook, Oregon.

Worldnet Communications, Inc. Alaska Fiber Star (AFS), WCI Cable, Inc., and Alaska Northstar Communications (ANC) are companion units in a family of communications companies that are owned by an Australian insurance and investment company, AMP Ltd.

An existing AFS "backbone" - terminology for the routing of a fiber optics system - emanates from Anchorage and runs to Fairbanks with ADMs (add/drop multiplexers) at Wasilla, Talkeetna, Cantwell, Healey, Clear, Nenana and Fairbanks. At these sites, traffic can be added to or dropped from the backbone system to provide communications access to local carriers. The fiber optic signals are also regenerated and passed on to the next site. Presently these stations are sited about every 60 miles.

From the Anchorage NOCC, the backbone runs south along the Alaska Railroad route to Whittier. A 100-mile submarine cable runs to Valdez.

Primary user terminals for the systems are termed "point of presences" (POP), such as units at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks where fiber optics carry supercomputer data. Jim Cole, a project engineer for WCICI in Anchorage, pointed out that only fiber optics systems are fast enough to service such superfast computing systems as Cray Computers like the one at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks.

Construction of the concrete block building which houses the WCICI Whittier station was virtually complete fall. It was designed with environmental realities of Alaska in mind. The building was designed for Seismic Zone 4. Cole said that Whittier experiences "8 to 10 perceptible earthquakes a year." Keeping the often frozen soil stabilized beneath the structure, even this far south, requires exhaust vents to be mounted high on the structure.

Diesel back-up generator PM ~80% less than EPA thought; new technologies make difference

Newport, R.I. -- A pioneering research project discovered that in the real world, diesel emergency-electric back-up generator ("bug") particulate matter (P[M.sub.2.5]) emissions are about 80% lower than the emissions rates assumed under U.S. EPA's admittedly shaky "AP-42" standard factor.

EPA has long known that its standard PM emissions factor assumption on diesel "bugs"--1.34 grams/kilowatt-hour--is out-of-date, sketchy and dubious. On a scale from "A" (high confidence) to "E" (poor), EPA gives its "bug" emissions confidence factor only a "D."

But it wasn't until this year--when California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded $1.5 million to University of California, Riverside (UCR) for a joint CEC/California Air Resources Board (CARB) study on "bugs"--that the extent of EPA's AP-42 error became clear.

Also sponsoring the UCR studies are EPA, South Coast Air Quality Management District and six diesel gen-set makers.

As UCR researcher Wayne Miller explained to Diesel Engine Emissions Reduction (DEER) conference here (sponsored by U.S. Department of Energy), real-world measurements from a wide variety of older and newer "bugs" (between 300-600 kilowatts) show P[M.sub.2.5], emissions in a range from about 0.1 g/kW-hr to about 0.3 g/kW-hr, not even close to the 1.34 g/kW-hr assumed in EPA "AP-42."

UCR employs a sophisticated, truck-trailer-mounted portable emissions laboratory to determine emissions on a wide variety of stationary and mobile engines. This system makes it possible to check real-world engines under actual operating conditions, without removing the engine from a vehicle or from a power-generation site.

--CARB Verifies Accuracy

CARB has verified the portable lab's measurement accuracy, giving air regulators more confidence in the significance of its findings.

For the field-test program, investigators initially chose 15 engines of 300-750 kW, plus three engines of 1,000 to 2,000-kW. Age ranges include pre-1987, 1987-1996 and post-1996 engines. Test results so far include engines of 300-600 kW, with future tests planned for uncontrolled, >1,000 kW engines, plus tests on older two-strokes using a fuel-borne catalyst/oxidation-catalyst combo, and a fuel-borne catalyst/bare filter combo. Another test will demonstrate the impact of a diesel particulate filter (DPF) combined with selective catalytic reduction (SCR).

Besides measuring engine-out emissions, the UCR investigators also measured the impact of engines running on water-emulsion fuel (Lubrizol "PuriNOx,") diesel oxidation catalysts, passive diesel particulate filters (DPFs) and an "active" DPF using supplemental electric heat for soot oxidation.

Even without exhaust aftertreatment, the newer diesel "bugs" have much lower PM emissions than the older engines, especially at lower loads. It's apparent that today's cleaner highway diesel engines are migrating to generator applications, even without specific regulatory mandates.

Surprisingly, tests of water-emulsion fuel showed a much bigger PM reduction benefit (over 70%) on the newer engines, compared to the older "bugs" (17% PM reduction). While investigators aren't exactly sure why, it's thought that since older "bugs" produce a relatively "wetter" soot (higher in organic carbon, OC) than newer diesels, the "wetter" soot may respond less to emulsions than "dryer" elemental carbon (EC).

Emulsion fuels also did better on PM reduction at the mid-to-high-load points rather than low-load/idle, researchers found. These higher loads are where EC predominates over OC.

This also could explain why diesel oxidation catalysts (DOCs) did far better in engines operated at low load and also in older, two-stroke "bugs" (42% PM reduction). By contrast, a newer "bug" with DOC got only 17% PM reduction benefit--probably not surprising, since newer engines produce less OC, the portion of PM oxidized by a DOC.

Meanwhile, "bugs" with "passive" DPFs achieved 91% PM reduction, while an "active" DPF got 99% PM reduction, researchers found. (Cleaire/Engine Control System's "BUGtrap"--see Diesel Fuel News 7/21/03, p9--is one such system employing electric heat for "off-line" soot oxidation.)

Following the research work on the larger "bugs," the UCR researchers are about to investigate <300-kw>

Ultimately, all the data generated by the research project will be analyzed and reformatted with the help of various state and regional air-quality organizations including NESCAUM, MAP-AMA, NYSERDA and CARB, Miller said. Finally, EPA will help the researchers "shape it into AP-42 format" prior to EPA putting it out for public comment and eventual adoption, he said.

Automated diesel condition monitoring for generator sets

The Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) operates 36 Short Range Radar sites in Canada's far north. Each unmanned site is powered by three Lister-Petter HL-6 diesel engines coupled to Kato Engineering 30 kW brushless generators. Many of these engines have accumulated in excess of 30,000 hours of operation. DND required some means to remotely diagnose/assess the health of these engines in order to determine which gen-set should operate. In addition, there is a need to determine potential maintenance requirements and associated timing of maintenance site visits.

The power contribution of each cylinder of a diesel engine can be used to assess engine condition and assist in locating faults (i.e., fuel rack adjustment, injector fouling, valve seating, ring breakage, etc). In larger diesel engines, cylinder condition is usually assessed by measuring cylinder pressure during operation using permanently installed cylinder pressure access ports. Smaller high-speed diesel engines, such as the Lister-Petter HL-6, are not normally equipped with combustion pressure access ports and the cost of modifying cylinder heads made this approach unattractive to DND.

Advanced Engine Technology Ltd. (AET), has developed an engine condition monitoring system for this application under contract with the North Warning System Office of DND. AET is a research, development and manufacturing company with diesel engine/fuels laboratory facilities located in Nepean, a neighboring city to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

The AET Engine Condition Monitor (ECM) can detect any combination of cylinder faults in six-cylinder high-speed diesel generator sets under continually varying loads. The power balance of each cylinder can be predicted to within [+ or -]2 percent RMS and cylinder pressure measurements are not required. Operation of the ECM is fully automated, and engine data can be downloaded from the remote radar sites to a centrally located monitoring station.

The ECM is based on Instantaneous Crankshaft Angular Velocity technology (ICAV), initially developed and patented by the National Research Council of Canada. AET is the worldwide licensee of this technology. Following the initial development of the ICAV technology by NRC, AET has pursued the development and commercialization of this technology for diesel engine applications over the past several years. Current efforts are directed towards engine condition monitoring for generator set applications in both unmanned and manned settings. ICAV measures the periodic variations in crankshaft velocity during each engine cycle. Pattern recognition software compares the crankshaft velocity waveform to a knowledge base for the engine/generator family. AET creates this knowledge base by mapping a typical engine/generator over a range of loads. During mapping, cylinder power balance is perturbed by known amounts. The knowledge base created by mapping one engine/generator can be used on other diesel generator sets of the same family.

Flywheel speed is measured using two rugged, noncontacting Hall-effect sensors mounted on the engine bell housing. Variations in flywheel tooth spacing or tooth wear are taken into account in order to produce accurate results. The ECM can be quickly retrofitted in the field using common tools. Once installed, no further maintenance or periodic calibration is required, according to AET. Flywheel tooth spacing is measured by a custom timer board installed in a personal computer on each site. ICAV software processes this information and calculates the relative power from each cylinder. Data is automatically acquired and stored in a database on the computer at 30 minute intervals. When requested, stored engine data is transferred from each radar site to the central monitoring station via a satellite link.

Figure 2 shows a sample of data downloaded from one radar site. This display format is used to show the current cylinder power balance of all engines running at the radar site. Each bar represents the deviation from nominal power of an individual cylinder: cylinder No. 1 on the left and cylinder No. 6 on the right. An over-balance condition of +20 percent indicates that the cylinder was producing 20 percent more than 1/6th of the total power; no deviation (zero percent) means that the cylinder was producing exactly 1/6th of the total power. As a general rule, it can be assumed that the engine is performing well when the power balance for all cylinders is within [+ or -]10 percent. Both fuel consumption and exhaust emissions are minimized when cylinder balance is optimized.

Tests performed at AET on this engine/generator family showed that at a power setting of 20 kW, a power imbalance of -30 percent in just one cylinder caused an increase in fuel consumption of 2.5 percent, along with significant increases in N[O.sub.x], THC, and particulate emissions. By using the ECM, maintenance staff are now able to balance cylinder power levels during annual maintenance inspections, thereby minimizing fuel consumption and emissions.

Generator Sets are based on 23 L, 6-cylinder diesel engine

Available in 50 and 60 Hz frequencies, Series DQC consists of 600, 750, and 800 kW generator sets intended for standby and prime power use in wide range of applications. Units include PowerCommand[R] digital control system for total system integration, including automatic remote starting/stopping, precise frequency and voltage regulation, alarms and status message display, alternator protection, output metering, and auto-shutdown-at-fault detection.

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MINNEAPOLIS - Cummins Power Generation has introduced a series of 600 kW, 750 kW, and 800 kW generator sets based on a new 23-liter inline 6-cylinder diesel engine that offers low emissions and fast transient response to load changes. The generator sets are available in 50 Hz and 60 Hz frequencies. They are intended for standby and prime power use in a wide range of applications, and are backed by Cummins' global service support.

"The DQC series of generator sets offer low emissions, and 60Hz models are certified to the current U.S. EPA Nonroad Source Emission standards," says Mark Westphal, Product Director, Cummins Power Generation. "In addition, the generator sets are listed to UL2200, which helps expedite the commissioning and inspection process during installation."

he DQC series features PowerCommand[R] digital control system for total system integration, including automatic remote starting/stopping, precise frequency and voltage regulation, alarm and status message display, alternator protection, output metering, and auto-shutdown-at-fault detection. The generator sets are also NFPA 110 compliant for all standby applications.

The DQCA generator set is standby rated at 600 kW (60 Hz) and 545 kW (50 Hz); and prime rated at 545 kW (60 Hz) and 500 kW (50 Hz). The DQCB generator set is standby rated at 750 kW (60 HZ) and 640 kW (50 Hz); and prime rated at 680 kW (60 Hz) and 584 kW (50 Hz). The DQCC is standby rated at 800 kW (60 Hz) and 656 kW (50 Hz); and prime rated at 725 kW (60 Hz) and 656 kW (50 Hz).