Generator Sizing

[Spurlington]

If a vacuum motor advertises 710 air watts .. how many watts will that draw on a generator? In other words .. if I had a machine with dual vac "only" - at 710 watts each .. what size generator would I need to run just that one machine?

 

[Nomad74]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airwatt

You should be fine with 1000 Watt gen. But I would be more concerned about the surge pull on startup.

 

[Spurlington]

Im seeing recommedations of getting a 10k watt (8k running) generator for guys that want to run a porty and booster from the van .. seems like overkill.

Im guessing under a 100 amp total draw for some of these guys ..

 

[J Scott W]

If a vacuum motor advertises 710 air watts .. how many watts will that draw on a generator? In other words .. if I had a machine with dual vac "only" - at 710 watts each .. what size generator would I need to run just that one machine?

There is no direct relationship between air watts and the watts of power drawn by a vac motor. To make the calculation, one would need to know the efficiency of the vac motor. The power drawn would always be more than the maximum air watts (710 in this case). If the efficiency was 90%, it would be drawing 789 watts.

 

[Bob Savage]

Im seeing recommedations of getting a 10k watt (8k running) generator for guys that want to run a porty and booster from the van .. seems like overkill.

Im guessing under a 100 amp total draw for some of these guys ..

That is a good size for a generator to run an ETM from the van. That's what I have for my ETM (A 10K surge, 8.5k running), and it will run it all day long ( 12 years old). It will power these units at the same time - 4 HO vac motors (dual wands), a 600 PSI or 1200 PSI pressure pump, and 2 APO's (dual wands). 240,000 BTU LP heater for heat!

I use a fuel tap for mine so it draws from the van gas tank.

A large cooling fan is directed across the generator to help dissipate heat.

Overkill is justified in this case. It's hot inside a van on a hot day, so a beefy unit will work for a long time. Mine is a Northstar/Honda.

 

[clean image]

Save your hearing and get a newer style inverter generator

Electric vacuum motors are different than most in that the harder you work them, increase lift, the less amps they draw.

You also need to consider starting amps required..

HD sell a 1800/2300 ryobi inverter gen for 599.