Can you hook two different kinds of generators together?

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Where in the world did you get the idea I took offense?

I just find it difficult for my fingers to connect wires together with no clue as to the possible outcome. PS: The most challenging of all my curriculum was Celestial Mechanics. The dullest was forensic auditing. The most tedious was chemistry.

Then I found chemistry and electrical melded perfectly with lead acid batteries the MBA reined in a proclivity to expend tempting over-budget dollars for even more test equipment and Celestial Mechanics piped in when I peered outside and found the stars in the wrong place (spending all night on a stool crunching numbers).

My economics exposure led me by my nose on a trail to the Skunkworks auction buried deep in a technical magazine -- .50 pound for brand new space shuttle wire (Just a guess but 5-7 tons total wire purchase would be a fair estimate*) and of course the 15Kw PW+Analog generator waveform generator. The penalty for nerdiness was 100% devotion to educating myself with full-time work and no play except for horsepack trips.

*I sold perhaps 1-1/2 tons of brand new Teflon FAA/PMA certified wire at $4.00/lb. 800% markup. And a job with Lockheed unsnarling a bogus maintenance battery charger for their lab power supply.

The net sum total? Caution. Not some gyro gearloose attitude.

Kelley's Law

Murphy Was An Optimist

As I read your experience, we may have a few friends in common. And I do love Kelley's Law!

Then there are people who race express freight trains to a crossing swearing up and down those who criticize the practice as being somehow defective.
I readily admit to being "defective".

Perhaps one cannot just parallel generators willy-nilly.

From Honda:

EU2200i and EU2000i Parallel Operation

The EU2200i are only compatible with EU2000i or EU2000i Companion models within a specific serial number range:

EAAJ-2017305 through EAAJ-9999999
EACT-1000001 through EACT-9999999

Connecting an EU2200i with an EU2000i or EU2000i Companion that is not within the compatible serial range above may cause a low voltage output, which can damage tools and appliances powered by the generators. Units outside the compatible serial number range should only be paralleled with another EU2000i.

Where in the world did you get the idea I took offense?

I just find it difficult for my fingers to connect wires together with no clue as to the possible outcome. PS: The most challenging of all my curriculum was Celestial Mechanics. The dullest was forensic auditing. The most tedious was chemistry.

Then I found chemistry and electrical melded perfectly with lead acid batteries the MBA reined in a proclivity to expend tempting over-budget dollars for even more test equipment and Celestial Mechanics piped in when I peered outside and found the stars in the wrong place (spending all night on a stool crunching numbers).

My economics exposure led me by my nose on a trail to the Skunkworks auction buried deep in a technical magazine -- .50 pound for brand new space shuttle wire (Just a guess but 5-7 tons total wire purchase would be a fair estimate*) and of course the 15Kw PW+Analog generator waveform generator. The penalty for nerdiness was 100% devotion to educating myself with full-time work and no play except for horsepack trips.

*I sold perhaps 1-1/2 tons of brand new Teflon FAA/PMA certified wire at $4.00/lb. 800% markup. And a job with Lockheed unsnarling a bogus maintenance battery charger for their lab power supply.

The net sum total? Caution. Not some gyro gearloose attitude.

Kelley's Law

Murphy Was An Optimist

burningman wrote:
What has mechanically syncing large generators got to do with the price of tea in China? I don’t think that was the question.

These small inverter generators are self-syncing.
I’ve connected Yamahas and Hondas. I’ve also connected various different size units.
There’s no different-brand issue.
Do you worry about plugging your equipment into different brand generator’s power?
Do you think your microwave or computer operate differently on Honda 60Hz 120VAC than they do on Yamaha 60Hz 120VAC?
No!
It works fine. The generators don’t know or care where the other source of 60Hz 120VAC is coming from, it is what it is.

Don’t waste an extra $100 on a Honda “Companion”. That’s marketing BS. It’s zero different other than having a 30A twist-lock outlet on its panel, which doesn’t help you anyway because it’s not an RV-30, so you’ll be using an adapter anyway.
You gain absolutely nothing.

What I’d do it if were you is get another Honda, a new EU2200.
It’ll cost less than the 2400, it weighs a lot less, and when you parallel it with your existing EU2000 you’ll have plenty of power.

Harbor freight sells a rather nice parallel box. I’ve always made my own but at their price if I needed one today I’d just buy theirs.

Parallel kit

Agree. At their price, is easier to buy their and reconfigure to your liking.

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I learned early on that sending smoke signals to my bank balance is bad juju.

They do not moniker "engineering" as a "discipline" for nothing. When data is insufficient, I balk.

I do not know how to diagnose a DC motor inverter, but sure as shooting the cost of a couple of repair items would equal the cost of a new complete generator.

I defer to someone else :R

Lol. You take my comment as an offense, it was not meant like that. I’m not and EE, but I hold 2 different Es, 2 masters and a doctorate. Just none of them in electrical. So far, electrical is not that difficult compared to quemical, mechanical or aeronautical, and some of the skills are transferables. The only smokes signals where when I did my first run of a modular 4.6l ford on hydrogen, but by the 3rd generation worked like a charm. The electrical generators sync was a walk in tha park compared to that. But I’ll keep trying until I get some smoke, I sometimes do. ??

I learned early on that sending smoke signals to my bank balance is bad juju.

They do not moniker "engineering" as a "discipline" for nothing. When data is insufficient, I balk.

I do not know how to diagnose a DC motor inverter, but sure as shooting the cost of a couple of repair items would equal the cost of a new complete generator.

I defer to someone else :R

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
All wise words. Maybe all the ones I used shared the same cheap chinese inverter chipset. As I said, I don’t know how or why, I simply started with "what would happen if we...". A few week later I was connecting 4 of them.
What I did find amazing it that they will level load to capacity. A 3500 and a 2200 won’t share equally, but proportionally. A higher load would go to the 3500.



Interesting.

Being an EE I am far too timid to undertake a "Shake the jar Dewey and see if they fight" approach to investigating compatibility of electrical events.

And that's the beauty of not being an EE. Enough knowledge to connect, enough equipment to try, stupid enough to make it happen!
Still, it has helped me several times. The ability of providing uninterrupted power for as long as is needed is not easy to achieve.
You have to love the simplicity of the approach...

What has mechanically syncing large generators got to do with the price of tea in China? I don’t think that was the question.

These small inverter generators are self-syncing.
I’ve connected Yamahas and Hondas. I’ve also connected various different size units.
There’s no different-brand issue.
Do you worry about plugging your equipment into different brand generator’s power?
Do you think your microwave or computer operate differently on Honda 60Hz 120VAC than they do on Yamaha 60Hz 120VAC?
No!
It works fine. The generators don’t know or care where the other source of 60Hz 120VAC is coming from, it is what it is.

Don’t waste an extra $100 on a Honda “Companion”. That’s marketing BS. It’s zero different other than having a 30A twist-lock outlet on its panel, which doesn’t help you anyway because it’s not an RV-30, so you’ll be using an adapter anyway.
You gain absolutely nothing.

What I’d do it if were you is get another Honda, a new EU2200.
It’ll cost less than the 2400, it weighs a lot less, and when you parallel it with your existing EU2000 you’ll have plenty of power.

Harbor freight sells a rather nice parallel box. I’ve always made my own but at their price if I needed one today I’d just buy theirs.

Parallel kit

All wise words. Maybe all the ones I used shared the same cheap chinese inverter chipset. As I said, I don’t know how or why, I simply started with "what would happen if we...". A few week later I was connecting 4 of them.
What I did find amazing it that they will level load to capacity. A 3500 and a 2200 won’t share equally, but proportionally. A higher load would go to the 3500.



Interesting.

Being an EE I am far too timid to undertake a "Shake the jar Dewey and see if they fight" approach to investigating compatibility of electrical events.