To Honda 2200i, or Stick with Honda 2000i?

ktmrfs wrote:
A bit more info on the micro air easy start. I spoke with a tech resource at micro air about the fact that on my honda 2000 that the easy start detects overload before the honda actually goes into overload.

Paraphrasing micro air here is a summary.

his answer is yes, it most likely will. the easy start monitors not just voltage but also the motor running rpm and detects the rpm dropping. (now adding my EE background to this, when an inductive motor drops RPM, input current goes UP, NOT DOWN. it is an inductive load and the motor also produces what is refered to as back emf) when it detects motor rpm drop over some limit it will turn off the AC for 5 minutes then start up again.

He also mentioned one advantage to this scheme. Since the generator does not go into overload itself, no need to restart or reset the generator. He also mentioned that suppose the AC is running fine, and DW decides to turn on the microwave or plug in a hair dryer. the easy start detects the overload fast enough to shut the AC off before the generator overload, microwave comes on, or DW gets her hair dry, 5 minutes later the easy start tries to start up, if the load is gone, it's on it's happy way AC is running again.

IMHO they have done a great job designing this system.

BTW they are updating the manuals and site data to highlight more of how it operates.

And as another side note, monitoring the honda (and likely other inverter generators) the voltage and current waveforms become not very sinusoidal with inductive loads. that means a voltage reading with a non RMS voltmeter is not very accurate, and the drive to the inductive load is much different than what they are designed for, a 60 HZ sine wave, not a distorted waveform with harmonics.

Thanks for your sage input !...Though the Hyper Engineering’s Sure-Start and the Micro-air’s Easy-Start are of different manufacture, the Sure-Start also times-out the air cond if the campers load increases - sounds like the are very similar devices...I previously had tried to find out what is behind their ‘black box’ technology, but they wouldn’t budge an inch - strictly proprietary I was told - lol !!

Thanks too for the follow-up on inductive type loads - !...FWIW, my (supposed) high-end, pure sine-wave inverter displays the same output waveform affect you’ve mentioned - not exactly as sinusoidal as one might expect, eh!!

I will be getting the Honda 2200i on Wednesday and will report back the results!

3 tons