Good morning all..Looking for some suggestions.

[SonnyE]

I am rookie here with this kind of thing so bare with me. Is that exactly how you determine size of a generator you need. Just add the Watts for each component and then get one within that range??
Apologize if its a stupid question. I have literally never owned a generator before.

The only stupid question is the one not asked... ;)
Yes. Add up anything you think you might be using that needs electricity.
Heavy hitters are anything that is used to heat with electricity, that was why I mentioned a microwave, or something like a griddle, or a hotplate.
Those are the kind of things that can add up in a hurry as a load on a generator.
The food trucks that show up at our Church for Thursday services always seemed to be running a generator. What they run off of them, I don't know. But you need a quiet generator.
A lot depends on what your equipment will be. But getting a ballpark figure is easy enough.

The restroom trailers my SIL rents to the Studio locations generally have Honda 7000 watt units on them. That runs two AC units and everything else. (These are porcelain bathrooms. Fancy Shmancie).
I highly doubt you would have any need of such power. But I could see you needing 2000-3000 watts.
Point being, I think the Honda line is amoungst the quietest available. And the most reliable. Used for stand alone area lighting (Called Glow Bugs), and up.

But these are things you are thinking about. If you think you might be operating into the dark, also consider your Easy-Ups lighting.
Lighting loads can be made much smaller by using LED type fixtures, too.

As my SIL sez, "It's all in the cost of doing business."

 

[CombatBarbecue]

The only stupid question is the one not asked... ;)
Yes. Add up anything you think you might be using that needs electricity.
Heavy hitters are anything that is used to heat with electricity, that was why I mentioned a microwave, or something like a griddle, or a hotplate.
Those are the kind of things that can add up in a hurry as a load on a generator.
The food trucks that show up at our Church for Thursday services always seemed to be running a generator. What they run off of them, I don't know. But you need a quiet generator.
A lot depends on what your equipment will be. But getting a ballpark figure is easy enough.

The restroom trailers my SIL rents to the Studio locations generally have Honda 7000 watt units on them. That runs two AC units and everything else. (These are porcelain bathrooms. Fancy Shmancie).
I highly doubt you would have any need of such power. But I could see you needing 2000-3000 watts.
Point being, I think the Honda line is amoungst the quietest available. And the most reliable. Used for stand alone area lighting (Called Glow Bugs), and up.

But these are things you are thinking about. If you think you might be operating into the dark, also consider your Easy-Ups lighting.
Lighting loads can be made much smaller by using LED type fixtures, too.

As my SIL sez, "It's all in the cost of doing business."

Awesome!! Thank you for the information. I appreciate your help. Not quite sold on getting one yet, but now I at least have a brand and type to take note of for the future.

 

[TomKnollRFV]

Well this is certainly an interesting thread to be reading!

And for sure Combat, we'll meet up after the holiday madness :)

 

[gmc2003]

Thank you for the suggestion. Looks a bit pricey for me right now. But I am definitely saving this for the future. I was thinking of just getting an 8 pack of Chafers off of Amazon to hold me over right now. Unless anyone on this fine website has experience with these and BBQ and doesn't think its a good idea.





View attachment 382949

We used Chafing dishes for our kids weddings. They worked really well. Unfortunately I can't remember how long they stayed hot.

Chris

 

[fivetricks]

Chafers are ok but will dry meat out after a bit.

Cambros rock. Buy some full svc steel hotel pans and some high quality plastic wrap. Fill your pans as the food comes off and wrap it tight in the plastic wrap. Will hold for hours in the cambros and not dry out.

 

[SonnyE]

It's surely been said, But, adhere to all Local, State, and Federal requirements.
And have some good Insurance.

I would rather doubt Chafing dishes would pass for food safety in a for sale endeavor. I'd be more prone to a steam table for a more consistent, and safer method.
A steam/hot water table could be Propane fired, or electrically heated.

 

[johnmeyer]

The Honda inverter generators are the best. I just bought a 2200i and love it. So I second the several recommendations for this unit (they also make a much larger inverter generator, but it is probably more than you need).

You asked if all you need to do is add up the wattage of everything you want to power, and that will determine what size generator. That is almost true, but not quite. Some appliances momentarily require a huge amount of power to start. This includes refrigerators and microwave ovens. Both momentarily require about 2.5 times their rated power when starting. Some of these inverter generators allow for this, and list a separate specification for how much "surge" power they can deliver. For instance, my 2200i Honda is rated at 1,800 watts, but can deliver 2,200 watts for a moment.

You will find that all inverter generators are tremendously expensive. The 2200i is about $1,000 at Home Depot. You can get a conventional generator with twice that power for half that price. However, the noise will drive everyone deaf, and these traditional generators are not a viable option for what you are planning. However, one way to get around the expense is to consider an alternative: Costco offers a Yamaha inverter here in CA for almost half the price. It only offers about 85% of the power output of the Honda, but will probably work just as well for your application. Yamaha is obviously a very reputable engine company.

BTW, a friend needed some help with his food truck and drove it up here last year so I could work on it. From that brief encounter, I second the great advice already given about having water for hand washing. One other thing I remember from that truck is lighting. I realize you are doing this in a tent, not a truck, but if you are going to do it for evening meals, you might need lights.

I would also put a light on the same circuit with each warming device. One problem we were having with the truck is that breakers were blowing and the warming trays would stop heating. They didn't realize this right away and therefore were having a food safety issue. If you add a light above the warming tray, if it goes out you'll know immediately that your food is no longer being kept hot.

 

[CombatBarbecue]

Chafers are ok but will dry meat out after a bit.

Cambros rock. Buy some full svc steel hotel pans and some high quality plastic wrap. Fill your pans as the food comes off and wrap it tight in the plastic wrap. Will hold for hours in the cambros and not dry out.

Thanks for the suggestion. I could see these being a good storage option, but as far as serving from them not to sure. I could be looking at a different model though.

 

[CombatBarbecue]

We used Chafing dishes for our kids weddings. They worked really well. Unfortunately I can't remember how long they stayed hot.

Chris

From what I could tell the burners burned for 6 hours I believe?? But as fivetricks pointed out seems the potential for the meat drying out is high. But I could use a CAMBRO/Chafer combo action now that I think about it. Store meat in the Cambro/ keep a little serving in the the chafer.

 

[CombatBarbecue]

The Honda inverter generators are the best. I just bought a 2200i and love it. So I second the several recommendations for this unit (they also make a much larger inverter generator, but it is probably more than you need).............................


A lot of great information. I appreciate it tremendously. The putting a light on the circuit as the food warmers is brilliant.

 

[CombatBarbecue]

Not sure why why previous reply was in the "Quote" thing.

 

[fivetricks]

From what I could tell the burners burned for 6 hours I believe?? But as fivetricks pointed out seems the potential for the meat drying out is high. But I could use a CAMBRO/Chafer combo action now that I think about it. Store meat in the Cambro/ keep a little serving in the the chafer.

When I was in the catering business, that's exactly how we did food svc. Store in Cambro, serve in chafers