I’ve owned a Honda generator for 25 years and knew the THD levels were pretty low (<5%, I think), so hadn’t really thought about it as I began looking at new generators. This Honda still runs fine, it’s just lost enough output over the years that it will no longer handle the whole house.

As I started looking at the best rated tri-fuel generators (10-13K watts) I noted they were rated upwards of 18-26% THD. Don’t computers and TV’s, along with AC and frig’ motors need to stay under 5-10 THD, or less, to avoid damage? Yes, the obvious answer is to go with an Inverter generator, but the max size there is about 8509-9500 max watts, and natural gas is maybe 15-20% below that.

So for those of you using standard portable generators, are you seeing any issues, or aren’t you running the electronics on them, etc? Are you using inverters for your protected gear?