Generators

[Culvercreek hunt club]

2 hours ago, Belo said:

 

basically it makes it impossible to backfeed the grid (and harm a utility worker) by turning off your main feed in order to allow your generator to feed in. 

 

manually you can just flip your main breaker as well. 

[Jeremy K]

17 minutes ago, johnplav said:

It's not a difficult job... just be sure to give him the beer AFTER.

If it's anything like the one I had put in I wouldn't trust my neighbor to do it ,theres was wires everywhere . The guy actually told me when he sees a panel like mine he refuses the job because its so small for all those wires but he made an exception because he's a friend of the family.

Edited February 16, 2021 by Jeremy K

[onlybrowning]

I have a whole house system that runs on its own propane supply. I wanted diesel, but they are hard to come by for smaller kW needs. It’s real nice not worrying about it when you’re not home. The mistake most people make is buying a really oversized unit for their home. My whole house is on a 12kW and we can use our electric range, electric dryer, pool pump, etc. without skipping a beat. It is much more fuel efficient than the bigger units, which for me was the main focus. With the two tanks I have, it can run for about 6-7 days straight. That, of course is straight run time. In a real long term scenario, I’d ideally be shutting it down frequently and using it as needed.


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[Buckmaster7600]

I have a whole house system that runs on its own propane supply. I wanted diesel, but they are hard to come by for smaller kW needs. It’s real nice not worrying about it when you’re not home. The mistake most people make is buying a really oversized unit for their home. My whole house is on a 12kW and we can use our electric range, electric dryer, pool pump, etc. without skipping a beat. It is much more fuel efficient than the bigger units, which for me was the main focus. With the two tanks I have, it can run for about 6-7 days straight. That, of course is straight run time. In a real long term scenario, I’d ideally be shutting it down frequently and using it as needed.


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How big are your tanks?


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[The_Real_TCIII]

1 hour ago, Buckmaster7600 said:

8000watt Honda in a small shed beside my telephone pole with a switch wired in. Hit start and flip a switch and my house has power to almost everything.

The automatic setups are nice but not worth the money in my scenario. My neighbors know if I’m not around what to do as I do with there’s.


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I agree. My moms house has one and it requires constant maintenance, seems like more trouble than its worth

[The_Real_TCIII]

My coworker in San Antonio is literally burning his landscaping to try and keep his house warm. Out of firewood, no generator. Hes got a two year old and one week old twins, they went an hour away to his in laws but now they just lost power

[The_Real_TCIII]

1 hour ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

manually you can just flip your main breaker as well. 

Thats what I always did

[Fat Dan]

If I had a lot of money, I might do this.  It sounds like a good idea.  I know a guy who had a diesel generator installed at his house.  It was pretty costly, I think.  For me, I can live without electricity if need be.  My cabin in the woods has no electricity and I have grown to like it that way.

[Moho81]

The house I'm currently in came with a generac generator. It runs almost the entire house except the 2 bedrooms upstairs for some reason. It's been pretty maintenance free in the 6 years I have lived there. I have only changed the oil, replaced the battery and just this fall replaced the starter solenoid. I did it all myself so the cost was very minimum. 

Of course we hardly ever lose power and when we do it's only been for a short period of time like 1-2 hours max but I like the peace of mind knowing that if I'm not home I have nothing to worry about. 

The first house my wife and I purchased did not have a back up generator and I did not have a portable one either. We where young and had no kids so losing power was not a big deal. When the October snow storm hit and we lost power for a few days I kept the food good by putting it in coolers packed with snow, stayed warm during the day by staying by the wood burning fireplace and cooked dinner with flashlights. It was something to remember. 

[onlybrowning]

How big are your tanks?


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Two of the “standard sized” 420lb tanks. I also do not have mine set to “exercise” weekly. I run it for a few minutes once in a while on a warm winter day. With today’s synthetic oils I don’t think it’s necessary to “exercise” a lawn mower engine weekly.


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[Buckmaster7600]

Two of the “standard sized” 420lb tanks. I also do not have mine set to “exercise” weekly. I run it for a few minutes once in a while on a warm winter day. With today’s synthetic oils I don’t think it’s necessary to “exercise” a lawn mower engine weekly.


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So it burns about 20gallons a day, seems about right. At today’s price of 3$ a gallon that’s 60$ a day for electricity. That’s not factoring initial cost or maintenance. For that price I can go without power for a long time.


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[onlybrowning]

So it burns about 20gallons a day, seems about right. At today’s price of 3$ a gallon that’s 60$ a day for electricity. That’s not factoring initial cost or maintenance. For that price I can go without power for a long time.


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Totally agree! Like I said, if it was a “big event” I’d be planning to run it only as needed. That said, with two little ones at home and often times my mom or mother in law watching them, it’s really nice not to worry about it for the much more common outages than last hours not days. I had an opportunity to put the setup in alongside some extensive electrical work so it made sense to do it financially then.


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[sbuff]

Generac whole house generator the only way to go when your a lineman with wife and two kids .

And a portable inverter honda for neighbors in a jam 

Edited February 16, 2021 by sbuff

[Tughill Tamer]

I've got a portable Generac 5500 with a transfer switch that I've had great luck with. It has never failed to start on the first pull even though I only run it like once every 4 months.

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[Jeremy K]

Heres the deal I went with ,pretty simple and completely error proof.

[SportsmanNH]

I live in a spot where we are the 1st to lose power and the last ones to get it back . In 1994 we lost power for 14 days right around New Years from an ice storm . You could drive around and watch the transformers blow up on the poles . I'm a builder so I had a generator with extension cords running everywhere for lamps , fridge , gas range , and of course , the coffee pot . The gas range was our heat on 500 with the door open. It was freakin 0-3 degrees for days . I ended up on the 4th day pulling the wire out of the furnace switch and hooked a romex wire to the furnace and a plug on the other end and plugged into the generator. After that 14 day episode I had my electrician come over and change my electric panel to the kind with the generator breaker bult in . Now I just switch the breaker to the generator and everything works in my house. My generator is a DeWalt 11hp 6000 watt that powers everything in the house. I dont have to shut anything off . I have a gas range and gas dryer that are just plugged into a 110 outlet . Im also on town water , so I dont have a well pump.  I probably would need at least an 8000 watt generator to run all those 220 plugs if I had an electric dryer and electric range and a drilled well . My generator uses about 10 gal of gas when running 24/7

I built 36 of the 55 houses in my neighborhood . The very next winter in January the same thing happened with another ice storm and temps -15 to 0 for days with the wind chill . We lost power for another 13 days this time . My house looked like the Christmas Castle all lit up amongst the darkness in my neighborhood. I sent out a notice to my neighbors BYOPB .    " Bring Your Own Pillows and Blankets " LOL  I had 26 people staying over . The inside of my house looked like the neighborhood barracks . The little kids had a blast thinking they were on camping trip. 

 

[Will_C]

I am planning to have a house built next year and a transfer system is in the plans. My contractor tells me he hasn't built a house in the last 15 years without one.

I kept my refrigerator, freezer, computer, TV, and a couple of lamps going during the 5 days we were without power due to flood of 2011 with a 2000 watt Honda generator. As I have electric thermal storage unit heat in this house, I haven't bothered with a larger generator as it wouldn't help me with heat in the winter-I'd need a 30,000 watt generator to charge them.

[Five Seasons]

5 hours ago, Culvercreek hunt club said:

manually you can just flip your main breaker as well. 

I don't know all the rules and codes, but I do know the interlock is NRTL approved and for $40 is good piece of mind you don't accidently do something stupid and backfeed to the grid, potentially injuring or killing a lineman or feeding your neighbors house. I audited a line company down south once and they explained they have all sorts of protective measures in place to prevent them from the idiot who leaves their main on and backfeeds, but I still feel good about having the interlock for what little it costs. I'm not sure what's legal either, so why risk it?

[Five Seasons]

4 hours ago, Fat Dan said:

If I had a lot of money, I might do this.  It sounds like a good idea.  I know a guy who had a diesel generator installed at his house.  It was pretty costly, I think.  For me, I can live without electricity if need be.  My cabin in the woods has no electricity and I have grown to like it that way.

everyone's "a lot of money" is relative. I put this off for a long time because $1300 was a lot of money. It still is, but it's not putting me in debt. And for $1300 including generator, parts and labor to keep my meat frozen and my family warm, there's something else I can skip on.

just my .02.

 

PS dont buy the generator now or during disasters. They go on sale. 

[GreeneHunter]

1 hour ago, Belo said:

PS dont buy the generator now or during disasters. They go on sale. 

I bought my Generator from Lowes during a Power Outage about 10-12 years ago  and it was the last one on the shelf , I had my hand on it and another individual said to me " Can I look at that " and I said " Sure , after I buy it " .... didn't make any friends that day !

[mlammerhirt]

Here is my setup....like I thought 6 breakers on the transfer panel. Pretty simple concept and worth the money as many have said for peace of mind. I have a gas fireplace that will work and keep the house warm....but that was just installed in the last year. Previous gas fireplace was a dinosaur and took a few steps to get it going.
I went with the transfer panel when my now 6 year old was born and I was still traveling every weekend refereeing college soccer all over the east coast. Worst case senerario my neighbor or father in law could get the generator going for my wife and her and my son wouldn't have to worry about staying somewhere else if there was a power outage.

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[Jeremy K]

2 hours ago, Belo said:

I don't know all the rules and codes, but I do know the interlock is NRTL approved and for $40 is good piece of mind you don't accidently do something stupid and backfeed to the grid, potentially injuring or killing a lineman or feeding your neighbors house. I audited a line company down south once and they explained they have all sorts of protective measures in place to prevent them from the idiot who leaves their main on and backfeeds, but I still feel good about having the interlock for what little it costs. I'm not sure what's legal either, so why risk it?

My parents house was done that way and my dad had to get rid of it before selling the house because it wasnt up to code.

[Fat Dan]

4 hours ago, Belo said:

everyone's "a lot of money" is relative. I put this off for a long time because $1300 was a lot of money. It still is, but it's not putting me in debt. And for $1300 including generator, parts and labor to keep my meat frozen and my family warm, there's something else I can skip on.

just my .02.

 

PS dont buy the generator now or during disasters. They go on sale. 

$1300 isn’t bad at all. The guy I know had a big Cummins diesel generator and a big fuel tank.  I forget what he said it cost but I remember thinking it was crazy expensive.  (The number sticking in my head is $25k but I may be mistaken).  

Edited February 17, 2021 by Fat Dan

[Five Seasons]

11 hours ago, Fat Dan said:

$1300 isn’t bad at all. The guy I know had a big Cummins diesel generator and a big fuel tank.  I forget what he said it cost but I remember thinking it was crazy expensive.  (The number sticking in my head is $25k but I may be mistaken).  

yeah for a commercial/industrial setup like that you're easily at that price.

[Five Seasons]

13 hours ago, mlammerhirt said:

Here is my setup....like I thought 6 breakers on the transfer panel. Pretty simple concept and worth the money as many have said for peace of mind. I have a gas fireplace that will work and keep the house warm....but that was just installed in the last year. Previous gas fireplace was a dinosaur and took a few steps to get it going.
I went with the transfer panel when my now 6 year old was born and I was still traveling every weekend refereeing college soccer all over the east coast. Worst case senerario my neighbor or father in law could get the generator going for my wife and her and my son wouldn't have to worry about staying somewhere else if there was a power outage.

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For those reading this I want to throw out a few things to consider. 

The dedicated circuit solution above

Pros

It's a lot harder to overstress your generator as you've hopefully spec'd out the size of your generator to power the circuits you've selected, understanding that if they feed rooms you still need to be careful of what's plugged in.

No need for free slots in your panel

Cons

No flexibility to cycle anything else on or off

The units themselves are usually over $300

Can be a little messy with wiring as you have to tie in additional wiring from switch to each breaker

 

Now the interlock kit that I posted above

Pros

Cheaper ~$50 (give or take the added cost of a dual 30 amp breaker)

Flexibility to turn on and off every breaker in your home (see below)

Cons

You need 2 free slots in your panel

You can overstress your generator if you're not careful by turning on and drawing more power than your generator can handle.  The system itself isn't smart, your house acts like it's on the grid and of course running an electric dryer or stove is possible but a bad idea.

The math here isn't super hard, there are many handy calculators out there to determine peak (this part is important) draw for appliances and add it all out to spec the size of your generator or in reverse, understand what your current generator can handle. I like this because in the summer I don't' want my pool turning green so I'd like to be able to cycle it on and off here and there while having to maybe turn off some rooms for a while when doing this (load balanceing). This same thing can be done with a transfer switch above, but for a unit with more circuits (like 7 instead of 5) you're paying more.

Then of course you can get a generac lg or ng system that automatically turns on and runs your whole house even the A/C haha.