Either AC is "primary". DC is converted.

The AC likes to be balanced. I.e. A 240V motor will pull the same amps from each 120V leg, good. Plug one 120V cord into the gen and load everything on it, bad. Spread the 120V loads evenly between all the receptacles, good.

Available DC is only 8.3 amps. That's only 100 watts.

This post was edited by glennsparky on Wed, Mar 13, 13 at 5:40

The DC is very limited. They put it there primarily for ancillary purposes like charging the batteries to start the thing.

If you want to get the rated power out of that thing you're going to need to plug your loads into the L14-30R (round four pin thing) on the generator. The regular 110 outlets are both connected to the same leg and are limited to 20A.
(total).

The DC is derived from the AC just like a car battery charger derives DC from the AC input. There is basically a half-wave or full-wave rectifier in there. Which means there is a lot of ripple on that DC. It's only good for charging batteries. But it is not a smart charger by any means.

Hi, Before you decide on AC or DC you better check the voltage.
Woodbutcher

doofus, other than charging a battery, what would you possibly use the DC for in a home???

The regular 110 outlets are both connected to the same leg and are limited to 20A (total).

Thank you, ronnatalie, for this particular bit. But how do you know about this? Is this just how generators normally are, or do you have one like this? I could not find much information about the layout in the manual...

It would've certainly made more sense to me, if the two outlets were each attached to a separate "leg" âÂ" to allow better load-balancing with fewer wires...

Thanks again!

Here is a link that might be useful: User manual for Powerland's PDU6500E generator