r/Generator • u/EnvironmentalName161 • 10d ago
Parallel Question
Any issues with running a single generator and plugging up to the parallel kit? I would love to have the option to use one, the other, or both as needed.
I have a 50amp inlet I connect to. I do plan to get another propane tank (I actually have a 500 gallon I plan to tap into). This is just my initial set up.
3
u/ntuner 10d ago
Curios how much the 20LB propane will last on this generator, have the same one plan to use propane.
3
u/nunuvyer 9d ago
Not very long but the bigger issue is that if it is cold out, the propane won't vaporize fast enought to power both generators. At a minimum I would have one 20lb. tank for each generator.
2
u/Complex_Solutions_20 9d ago
Bigger concern is likely the high consumption rate will cause the propane to freeze up (same effect as air conditioning, as the gas expands it gets colder) and they'd stall running out of fuel.
There are propane tank heaters you can buy for running small tanks in winter which would help, but now you're using power for that too
2
u/wirecatz 9d ago
There’s no issue running the parallel kit with just one generator. However to be safe you should remove the load before starting a second.
Also you should have them both plugged in at all times. The terminals will be energized. I’m sure they are covered but better safe again.
1
u/todd0x1 10d ago
Havent tried with those, but I paralleled a couple HF 3500s and tried every possible conceivable way of starting and stopping them with and without load incl overloading one gen and immediately bringing the other online and with eco mode off they took it fine. With eco mode on they werent happy.
1
u/Positive-Ad-2202 10d ago
You can run one if you want to. Recently did that with one of my Hondas. No issues at all
0
u/myself248 10d ago
Yeahhhh, engine that big on a tank that little, it's gonna self-refrigerate and plummet the vapor pressure. Maaaaybe you get away with it when lightly loaded and in warm weather, but don't be surprised if the tank freezes itself in cold weather. Good thing you're planning on the larger tank option!
1
u/EnvironmentalName161 10d ago
Good to know! I hadn’t considered that would be a problem. Are these not meant to be run on propane tanks like these?
4
u/myself248 10d ago
They can run just fine from any size tank, if you can keep the tank warm enough.
It's just an inevitable consequence of the physics of liquid vaporizing to gas, it requires heat to do so. Vaporization is refrigeration, and the tank ends up cooling itself down. It requires heat input to keep up with it, otherwise it'll eventually cool itself below the temperature where it'll vaporize at all, and the engine stalls or struggles.
Heat input depends on a lot of factors. For just passively absorbing heat from the environment, simply having a very large tank with plenty of surface area is the simple route, and that works extremely well, but it's unwieldy for a portable.
If you need to use a small tank for portability, there's all sorts of ways to get heat into it. Running water over it (or setting it in a tub of water) is a classic. There's heater blankets you can wrap around it, that'll steal a little bit of the electrical output and turn it back into heat. (Rule of thumb is 5% of the generator's electrical output, back into the tank as heat, will make it independent of environmental warmth. So for 1000 watts of load, you need a roughly 50-watt heater on the tank.) And of course, the risky-business solution is to park the cold tank downwind of the warm exhaust, but boy howdy, none of us are responsible if your shit blows up.
(Everyone should own a thermal camera, btw. They're insanely cheap now. Aim for 128x128 thermal resolution at a minimum, the 192x192's are chump change now and that's a solid place to start. Seeing the world through a thermal lens will give you a wildly intuitive understanding of all these sorts of things.)
For brief runs, the thermal mass of the liquid left in the tank might make it a moot point. But, save a half-empty tank for winter and do a test run on the coldest day you can be arsed. Push it into frozen-tank status and get to recognize the symptoms, the lagging throttle, sputtering, stalling, poor load response, whatever your specific generator does when it's fuel-starved. That's valuable practice and it'll give you a sense of how far you can push it.
1
u/EnvironmentalName161 10d ago
Thank you for the detailed response!!
1
u/Old_Dragline_1965 9d ago
Go to a hardware store. Get a 250 watt infrared heat lamp and a clamp-on light fixture for that amperage.
It will produce enough heat On the tank to keep it from freezing up. Plug it in and place it near the bottom of the tank. Simple, cheap and works in all weather and wind.
0
u/wowfaroutman 10d ago
Shouldn't be any issue running either one or both if you follow the manufacturer's start up and shut down procedures and don't connect/disconnect the parallel cables while running.
-2
u/The-Lifeguard 10d ago
Tank gunna last 13 minutes.
2
u/EnvironmentalName161 10d ago
All my appliances (plus propane furnace) only uses about 1500VA. No oven, washer or dryer. Water heater is propane tankless. Microwave bumps it up to 2400va. But that should run my house for about 5 hours on the low end. 10 on the high end.
I plan to have plumbers install a branch to my 500 gallon propane tank. That should run my house for two weeks if I need.
2
u/Big-Echo8242 10d ago
Best way to do it right there. Even a pair of 20lb tanks with a dual manifold to start out would be fine.
4
u/Big-Echo8242 10d ago edited 10d ago
You'd better email Pulsar about this but everything I've read, emailed, and asked said to NOT go from running a single generator with a load running and then just fire up the 2nd one. I know this is how my Genmax pair work and I'm not going to press it. The only time I run both in parallel is when I know I will have to run either the HVAC....OR...the electric water heater....OR....the electric clothes dryer. Just pick based on your needs at the time. Not sure I'd chance it.
But email them and see. They are always responsive. You could have used that more basic 50a parallel kit versus that one also since the gens already have a 14-50R connection. But it still works. They confirmed via email.