Powering my gear with a generator.

J

Jimmy Hardin

Junior
Jan 29, 2013
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Hey guys haven’t been on here in a long time. I am thinking about getting a generator to power all of my gear. I got to a event yesterday and there was very low voltage coming out of the power outlet where I plugged in at. I looked in my power conditioner and it was at about 90 volts and decided to not chance messing up my gear. I counted up my watts from my setup and with everything setup I am running 7,610watts. This is just pa no lighting or guitar amps or nothing . In order to run everything including lights and guitar amps what size should I get ? I was thinking about a 10,000 watt generator but could be wrong. What are the best ones out there to get? And what size do I actually need to look into. I don’t know anything about generators or how to decide what size to get.


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Caleb Dick said:
Tow behind style, Whisperwatt. They don't cost much to rent if you only need them occasionally.

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I would like to have a quiet one if I could get one at a pretty decent price. I just need one on occasion. I don’t need one to tow I need a small portable one.


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Jimmy Hardin said:
Hey guys haven’t been on here in a long time. I am thinking about getting a generator to power all of my gear. I got to a event yesterday and there was very low voltage coming out of the power outlet where I plugged in at. I looked in my power conditioner and it was at about 90 volts and decided to not chance messing up my gear. I counted up my watts from my setup and with everything setup I am running 7,610watts. This is just pa no lighting or guitar amps or nothing . In order to run everything including lights and guitar amps what size should I get ? I was thinking about a 10,000 watt generator but could be wrong. What are the best ones out there to get? And what size do I actually need to look into. I don’t know anything about generators or how to decide what size to get.


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Click to expand...
Thinking out loud here....
Just over 7K for your gear.
What does the stage do ?
Future growth ?
Lampies ?
If power is low for you, it's likely low for everyone.
What good is a "working PA" if nothing else can run ?
Rent a 25K WhisperWatt, and be the hero that saves the show.
Music is dynamic, not static. You have to build in that extra capacity to the GenSet size required.
And of course, charge accordingly.
Chris.
 
Chris Hindle said:
Jimmy Hardin said:
Hey guys haven’t been on here in a long time. I am thinking about getting a generator to power all of my gear. I got to a event yesterday and there was very low voltage coming out of the power outlet where I plugged in at. I looked in my power conditioner and it was at about 90 volts and decided to not chance messing up my gear. I counted up my watts from my setup and with everything setup I am running 7,610watts. This is just pa no lighting or guitar amps or nothing . In order to run everything including lights and guitar amps what size should I get ? I was thinking about a 10,000 watt generator but could be wrong. What are the best ones out there to get? And what size do I actually need to look into. I don’t know anything about generators or how to decide what size to get.


Sent from my iPhone
Click to expand...
Thinking out loud here....
Just over 7K for your gear.
What does the stage do ?
Future growth ?
Lampies ?
If power is low for you, it's likely low for everyone.
What good is a "working PA" if nothing else can run ?
Rent a 25K WhisperWatt, and be the hero that saves the show.
Music is dynamic, not static. You have to build in that extra capacity to the GenSet size required.
And of course, charge accordingly.
Chris.
Click to expand...

That’s a great idea and all but a lot of events that I do are more spread out than others. My only concern is for the stage and sound. The bands on stage usually bring about 4 to 5 amps and effects pedals and a keyboard sometimes (every band is different). And then there is the 12 par 56 cans I have. They aren’t all on at the same time just maybe 2 each tree. And some times I only use 8 instead of 12. That’s about it for me .


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10k is a decent amount of power. Im with the rest of the commenters in suggesting renting a generator when you need it. Honda makes a 7000w unit not that it helps as it looks like your draw is higher even without considering for surges. Either way you gotta go led on those lights :unsure:
 
Ben Lawrence said:
10k is a decent amount of power. Im with the rest of the commenters in suggesting renting a generator when you need it. Honda makes a 7000w unit not that it helps as it looks like your draw is higher even without considering for surges. Either way you gotta go led on those lights :unsure:
Click to expand...

Yeah I have been considering going to led lighting. Tired of waging this old par cans around . Lol


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I own/use a Honda eu3000is generator for my outdoor shows. The last remote gig I used my generator on had: a 3-way FOH rig, four monitors, digital board, guitar and bass amp on stage, three drum mics, three vocal mics...no lights. There were about 500 attendees at this 5k race. The generator handled it well as it supplies 23 amps.
If the event required lights my 16 can par 38 (old school) lights could be powered by my Predator 2500 inverter generator.

I also have the parallel kit for the eu3000is if I need more electricity. My local Home Depot rents Honda eu3000is generators at $50.00 per day. With the parallel kit I can "join" two eu3000is' to use for PA/stage power.

A bonus to owning my particular generator: I have a switching panel in my house with an outside wall inlet. I can power my home with the generator when we experience major storms... (I've used it to power my home three times in the past six years.)
 
You can also now get a parallel kit for the Honda EU7000...if you had two of them paralleled, it would be in the neighborhood of 12-14k watts peak available. It would be an expensive proposition to own two of these, unless you were using them regularly and able to charge your clients accordingly.
 
What gear are you using? did you add up actual power usage or the rated numbers of each device? A 1500 watt powered speaker is never going to use 1500 watts, probably closer to 500. With today's electronics, I always use inverter generators. I own two 3500 watt models and will rent out a Honda EU7000 for bigger shows, often used in conjunction with the smaller generators. I'd also recommend switching to LED for lighting, you will save a lot of power draw switching to LEDs. This weekend I ran the following off of one 3500 watt generator and one 2000 watt for 24 hrs straight:
4 Yorkville LS801s
2 Yamaha DSR112s
2 Denon Delta 10s
2 DJ decks & mixer
4 Chauvet Intimidator 255s
2 Chauvet Lightbars
2 Chauvet Shadow UV panels
2 3 watt lasers
1 video projector
1 Chamsys MQ40 lighting console
2 computers
 
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