Generator Guidance...

[Titanium Hand]

Gennie beginner I am. Used raw,portable, industrial generators on job sites for a number of years. Never really for sound use.

I've a crown XTi2000 Needing power to run a dual T60 and a pair of 2512 Loaded Otops. The Honda eu2000i Inverter is apparently a very handy machine.
The bit of research I've done has shown that it is rated to 1600watts with a max output of 2000watts

Even though I'm limiting one channel of the amp to 50 volts, and I doubt the second channel will get even close to that, I don't feel that I would be requiring a full 2000watts of power.

Has anyone used one? Will it Work? Can I accurately calculate how much power I will require from a gennie?

Its for potential remote outdoor situations. New Years Eve is one. I had planned perhaps to hire two of them for ease of transport, use one for Amp only. The other for Laptop, Controller and a number of L.E.D. effects lights. Keeping them on seperate circuits to prevent possible interference??
If the single eu2000i doesn't cut the mustard I could link two together via factory gear and definitely get the job done, my only concern then is spikes from the lights screwing with the amp power supply as they would be linked.

Obviously the 3kva or even better 6.5kva have more juice on tap, they are just more difficult to transport.

On a parting note I could buy two 5kva inverters (no name cheapies but promising the world) from a number of fleabay stores for a total of about $1200, if one blew the other should have enough juice to continue running the whole rig?

The eu2000i hires for $99 per day
The 6.5 big boy is $170

I could easily lug 2 of the eu2000i's myself, way further than I could ever imagine lugging a dual T60 into the wilderness that's for sure.
The weather is warming up and I've got a few supporters keen for a bit of a Renegade adventure.

Any advice is greatly appreciated

[NukePooch]

...I ran a small outdoor event a couple of weekends ago.
I used two Honda eu2000i generators.

Honda eu2000i #1 ran:
1 Behringer X32 Rack mixer
1 Linksys wireless router
1 laptop computer
1 dbx Driverack PX
1 Crown XLS2500 @8ohms y-split mono into two junk 18" subs (running flat out-but not clipping)
1 Behringer iNuke NU3000 @ 8ohms stereo into 2 Jack 112L's (running about 80%)
1 cell phone/ tablet USB charger
4 wireless microphone transmitters
1 wireless IEM transmitter
1 wired headphone splitter amp
1 squirrel cage fan to keep me cool

Honda eu2000i #2 ran:
2 Behringer B215D active speakers (used as monitors)
3 Kustom KPC15MP active monitors
2 guitar amps plus pedal rigs
1 bass amp
1 keyboard
1 video projector

Both gennies had eco-mode on, and neither got much off of idle the entire day. Super quiet as well. Most people had no idea I was running off of generators, even though the gennies were less than 50 feet behind the stage. I probably could have run the whole thing off of one, but I like to have backups when possible.

In your case, the data sheet for the XTi2000 shows "AC Line Current (120VAC amplifier playing 1/8 power pink noise into 4 ohms per ch):
XTi 2000: 8.3A"

http://www.crownaudio.com/media/storage ... 9472-3.pdf

This is a worse case scenario...your amp will pull less that that most of the time. The Honda will put out 13.3 amps rated long-term. Depending on the LED light's you're running, you might easily run the whole thing off of one, but yes, there might be noise issues. At the very least, the Honda will run your audio gear without even breaking a sweat.

[chrisj360]

I have the Ryobi 1800 watt inverter generator that I picked up from home depot for $599. I ran it all week at Burningman to power my 2 28" tubas and 2 Otop 12's. I was running 2 crown xls2500 amps, dbx pa+, a laptop, and charging a few cell phones or my dslr camera battery with no problems.

The Ryobi may be a little louder than the Honda but not by much and once the music is going it's not even noticeable.

Hope that helps.

Cheers.

[Grant Bunter]

the data sheet for the XTi2000 shows "AC Line Current (120VAC amplifier playing 1/8 power pink noise into 4 ohms per ch):
XTi 2000: 8.3A"

We use 240V models or supply (amps and gennies) here.
So the 120V specs don't help us much.

TH, the Crown importer here is Jands.
Spin em an email: support@jands.com.au
or call them: 9582 0909

To see if you can get relevant info.
Then double that figure to get your genny requirement.

I went with a 7.5Kva dunlite, that has a fuel tank on it that will last for 20hrs. I try and keep a constant load on it with some Par56's.
It's been faultless, running 75% of my gear...

[Titanium Hand]

Yeah true, I'll check out the brochures re 120 or 240 volt. My XTi. is the U.S. model as its switch mode power supply, the inverter however would be an Aussie model, punching 240 volts.

Are the numbers I need to chase up

1) Rated; Watts & Amps output of gennie

2) Max; Watts & Amps drawn from amp or expelled from amp?

Thanks for all your advice guys

[escapemcp]

Yeah true, I'll check out the brochures re 120 or 240 volt. My XTi. is the U.S. model as its switch mode power supply, the inverter however would be an Aussie model, punching 240 volts.

Are the numbers I need to chase up

1) Rated; Watts & Amps output of gennie

It'll probably be rated in kVA. kVA=Watts ONLY WHEN the power factor is 1.0 Very few devices can pull power this cleanly, so the 'normal' thing to do is to multiply the kVA by 0.7 to get the wattage output.

2) Max; Watts & Amps drawn from amp or expelled from amp?

Drawn BY the amp only... it can output fluffy bunnies for all the genny cares.

[Grant Bunter]

Sorry TH,
Should have been clearer.
I put the Jands contact there because nothing I could find gave 240V consumption figures.

I looked at it like this:
Most homes here use 15A wiring for their 10A 2400W 240V outlets.
So the cable itself is capable of 3600W.

If you regularly run everything you have off one power outlet at a home or venue, and have no problem with sagging etc, then you want a 3600W or 3.6kVa genny (with a power factor of 1).

Or if you use Aiden's method, and use a power factor of 0.7, then you want roughly a 5kVa genny or inverter...

[Titanium Hand]

Thanks Gents.

It is making more sense now.... Somewhat

I understand your point Grant regarding the single circuit and not blowing. Thanks for clearing it up. I'll calculate the specs of everything that I have and post up on it.

Cheers

[escapemcp]

Go with Grant's option, it'll be cheaper

It's for nasty amps like my iNuke where you *may* need an oversized genny:

Take a look at this image of iNuke NU6000s output (top traces) and power draw (bottom)



You will notice that the iNuke draws power in sharp spikes, rather than a nice sine wave. Those peaks on the power draw graph are close to 80A The mains power should be able to cope with this short-term (fractions of a cycle) spike, as you're connected to a ruddy big power distro system - a genny might well struggle with this though. I have been running my couple of NU3000s (which is all the 6000 is inside anyway) off my genny without issue, although I'm guessing that the only visible sign would be that it starts clipping too early.

If you are going to be using a genny, and haven't already got the amps, ensure that they have PFC, which should get the power factor close to 1 and allow you to use a smaller genny.

[Keryn O'Shea]

Evening,
I'm looking for guidance on using modern D-Class amplifiers with generators, namely 2x Yamaha PX10s with a 5KVa Honda generator. Content is Metal & Trance. Having thoughts of lightening the load as I'm rarely near 240v mains power, but I'll stick with Class B, if D is problematic.

[Seth]

Keryn, class D works fine on gen. Start a new thread. This one's almost 10 years old.

[Keryn O'Shea]

Keryn, class D works fine on gen. Start a new thread. This one's almost 10 years old.

Ok, thank you