Back up genny set

[John M]

Finally after 10 months of repair and clean up from Helene, things are pretty much back to normal at my home, and the Maine state flag is folded up and in the building. Now, on to preventative/safety measures. Helene was a once in a lifetime hurricane for my area of SC. Ive had people in their 90s tell me there has never been an event like this. Heck we dont see tornados that often. The last one I actually saw was back in the late 70s. After being without power for 7 days, and having health conditons, I have decided that I will be getting a a generator of some sort to power the house "just in case". Now, Im not asking what brand, or how big, and dont want to start any wars over which unit is better and which is junk. I am simply looking for ideas. For those of you with back ups, what type of set up do you use, and why?

 

[Bob NY]

Finally after 10 months of repair and clean up from Helene, things are pretty much back to normal at my home, and the Maine state flag is folded up and in the building. Now, on to preventative/safety measures. Helene was a once in a lifetime hurricane for my area of SC. Ive had people in their 90s tell me there has never been an event like this. Heck we dont see tornados that often. The last one I actually saw was back in the late 70s. After being without power for 7 days, and having health conditons, I have decided that I will be getting a a generator of some sort to power the house "just in case". Now, Im not asking what brand, or how big, and dont want to start any wars over which unit is better and which is junk. I am simply looking for ideas. For those of you with back ups, what type of set up do you use, and why?

I have had a 13 KW Generec for 5 years and have NO regrets. We had a storm related power outage recently that lasted almost 37 hours. It sure is nice to go about "life as usual" when things like that happen.

 

[moresmoke]

I have a Miller welder that is dual purpose. Welds when I need it, and can be a 9500w generator. Can’t quite run the whole house, but with a little sense, can run A/C, or hot water, or oven, along with everything else.

I have it set up to run on gas or propane, and the propane is plumbed off a 500 to where the welder sits by the door of my shop. Recently had a wind storm that took out our power. 78 hours of run time and 40% of the propane tank, but it worked flawlessly.

 

[WNYBill]

We are in WNY and have few power outages. Many of my neighbors have put in Generec. The only time they have run is the monthly check! Absolutely no return on the $3-5 K investment. I bought a 10K, duel fuel generator and wired it myself, <$1K. With a little common sense, I can run my whole house or put it in my FEL and run my welder or have remote electricity. Have had it for 3 years and no power outages. Best insurance I ever bought!

 

[Russ from MN]

We bought a 2000-watt generator before Y2K, remember that? We used it to do some building on a property without power, and we had a couple of outages at our former home, 3 weeks ago we were out of power for 88 hours, and we ran the generator about half the time. About 4 hours steady each morning to get the fridge and freezer cooled off, make a pot of coffee, and then as needed after that. I just run a heavy flat cord under the door, and then smaller cords to the appliances. keeping the generator at least 50 feet away, downwind. I have a Kill-o-watt, so I know what each appliance draws, the fridge, freezer, and coffee pot all together only use about 1100 watts. We have a 400-watt inverter and the battery from the boat, so we use that to run the TV and a lamp in the evening, much quieter! Our well has about 12 foot + head, so we can get a quart a minute out of any faucet without the pump running, as it's 240 volt. A friend of mine wants to give us a bigger generator that isn't running quite right, I have been pretty lucky working on generators, so I intend to take him up on that. It only seems to happen once every 10 years, so I can handle that.

 

[Fawteen]

14KW auto-start/auto-transfer, running on propane. Runs the whole house, two pigs worth of propane will run it for a couple of weeks from full. Painless, transparent. Battery backup on TV and computer so if power goes out during the day, I often don't know until I hear the "KLUNK!" of the transfer switch kicking in.

Best money I ever spent, hands down. Used to deal with a 4KW gas powered portable unit. Better than no power, but a pain to drag out, set up, start and keep fueled. Noisy too. The big unit is behind the garage about 50 feet from the house and while I can hear it if I listen, it's much quieter.

 

[Richard G.]

14KW auto-start/auto-transfer, running on propane. Runs the whole house, two pigs worth of propane will run it for a couple of weeks from full. Painless, transparent. Battery backup on TV and computer so if power goes out during the day, I often don't know until I hear the "KLUNK!" of the transfer switch kicking in.

Best money I ever spent, hands down. Used to deal with a 4KW gas powered portable unit. Better than no power, but a pain to drag out, set up, start and keep fueled. Noisy too. The big unit is behind the garage about 50 feet from the house and while I can hear it if I listen, it's much quieter.

Fawteen, 2 pigs worth of propane.
Clear that up for my old brain please.

 

[Fawteen]

Fawteen, 2 pigs worth of propane.
Clear that up for my old brain please.

Local (?) name for this size propane tank. 200 or 250 gallons, not sure.

 

[NoDakInMN]

To answer your question in the manner you posed it, the best type of system depends on your situation. So you need to ask yourself some questions first.

The first question will be, how much capacity do I want and how much can I afford? Depending on how much of your energy use you want to provide during an outage may vary your options and the more you do, the more it will cost. Is your water heater gas or electric? Is your heat electric? Do you need to run your AC on your generator? Do you want to operate an electric oven or stovetop? Those items add lots of watts to your generating capacity.

Do you want automatic power transfer during an outage? This is a big convenience, but if you don't want to buy a generator large enough to power everything in the house, you will have to like do some rearranging of your electrical panels. Conversely, if you go with a manually transfered system, you can simply turn off the breakers to those things you don't want to power.

So, essentially, the "best system" is the one you pick that meets your individual needs and not what is the best one for someone else.

 

[Richard G.]

View attachment 121173

Local (?) name for this size propane tank. 200 or 250 gallons, not sure.

Thanks, I have one of those and a 330 gallon also.

 

[timcasbolt]

I'm with the general consensus that running on natural gas or propane is the way to go. Best case scenario is with a whole house generator and an automatic transfer switch.

 

[miangus]

I have a 6,000-watt electric start Predator. I use an interlock on the breaker panel which is connected to a panel on the outside of the house. I keep the generator in a small shed I built behind my house and plug it in as needed. I always store the generator with REC fuel.

 

[John M]

To answer your question in the manner you posed it, the best type of system depends on your situation. So you need to ask yourself some questions first.

The first question will be, how much capacity do I want and how much can I afford? Depending on how much of your energy use you want to provide during an outage may vary your options and the more you do, the more it will cost. Is your water heater gas or electric? Is your heat electric? Do you need to run your AC on your generator? Do you want to operate an electric oven or stovetop? Those items add lots of watts to your generating capacity.

Do you want automatic power transfer during an outage? This is a big convenience, but if you don't want to buy a generator large enough to power everything in the house, you will have to like do some rearranging of your electrical panels. Conversely, if you go with a manually transfered system, you can simply turn off the breakers to those things you don't want to power.

So, essentially, the "best system" is the one you pick that meets your individual needs and not what is the best one for someone else.

Im not asking whats best for me. Im fully aware what works for one may not work for others. I just simpy would like to know what others are doing, just for ideas.

 

[John M]

I'm with the general consensus that running on natural gas or propane is the way to go. Best case scenario is with a whole house generator and an automatic transfer switch.

I will most likely be using NG, since I current have gas heat, and can have the gas company hook it up, or run a line for a hook up.

 

[Tx Jim]

I had an electrical receptable added to my main breaker box with safety interlock on home breakers installed in attached storage building by an licensed electrician & purchased a 9500 watt invertor generator so I can operate HVAC heat pump in Winter. I've had to use it once for about 3 hrs during after a lightening strike tripped fuse link breaker on transmission line.

 

[Watthour]

The weak link in the supply system is usually the local branches, serving small subsections of service areas at around 3,900V. Aside from individual service laterals, those are the last ones to get attention in an outage. The area branches, or those that distribute from substations in the 15-45kV range to larger sections of service areas, usually get first priority in an outage since they affect larger numbers of customers.

Depending on your location (in the system) it could be days before individual service laterals are repaired. Being prepared for that situation could be prudent. In a large area outage, it could be days before even the local branches are restored, and then longer for the customer laterals.

I can see a pair of Westinghouse PWR units' cooling towers from my property, and the fission reactors. turbines, generators, and condensers are pretty reliable - Almost as reliable as gravity. It's amazing how my little wires connected to that facility can fail so frequently. Or, perhaps, it's more amazing how they operate without any problems virtually 100% of the time, which is why we've become so reliant upon them.

 

[Willow Lane]

Had a 12 KW Generac for about 15 years, replaced it with a 20 KW Generac about 5 years ago after a house fire (not related to the generator). Both propane powered and wired to the whole house thru an automatic transfer switch. When the power goes out, you have about 30 seconds of darkness, then the lights come back on and its life as usual. The only way you know that power has been restored is you hear the generator stop, lights don't even flicker. Wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Keith True]

I just use a 6500 watt roll around unit.They show up pretty cheap when the owners go to whole house units.I have a plug outside the cellar door,and a main lockout on my panel.I do shut the water heater off,but can use it if I have to.Generator is parked just inside the cellar door,and wheel it out when needed.I run the furnace,(hot water),fridge,water pump,toaster,microwave,TV's,(antenna,no cable)and every light I want in the house.(all LED).Dump the gas in my Model A once a year,and fill the gen with fresh.I do have a couple of those units that sandwich between the meter box and the meter,with the generator plug in the side.Doesn't let the generator juice back out to tick off the line workers.I removed those from a couple of solar installations we did.Solar needs a 2 way meter to measure the extra juice being fed back into the infrastructure.If you want to see a real confusing setup,look at a solar installation with an automatic transfer switch tied in.It's done every day,but i'm no less confused.

 

[John M]

I just use a 6500 watt roll around unit.They show up pretty cheap when the owners go to whole house units.I have a plug outside the cellar door,and a main lockout on my panel.I do shut the water heater off,but can use it if I have to.Generator is parked just inside the cellar door,and wheel it out when needed.I run the furnace,(hot water),fridge,water pump,toaster,microwave,TV's,(antenna,no cable)and every light I want in the house.(all LED).Dump the gas in my Model A once a year,and fill the gen with fresh.I do have a couple of those units that sandwich between the meter box and the meter,with the generator plug in the side.Doesn't let the generator juice back out to tick off the line workers.I removed those from a couple of solar installations we did.Solar needs a 2 way meter to measure the extra juice being fed back into the infrastructure.If you want to see a real confusing setup,look at a solar installation with an automatic transfer switch tied in.It's done every day,but i'm no less confused.

I have a small solar setup at my barn. Wife used it during the power outage after the hurricane to charge her tablet and phone for work and ran a couple of fans until the bugs started getting too bad. I may do something similar in our storage building in the back yard later.

 

[Goose]

A year ago last fall, I sprung for an 18 kw automatic unit. Same reason as you're thinking. We thought at our age you never know when we might need medical equipment that couldn't be interrupted. I've never regretted it. It cost me $9800, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. It runs off of our house propane tank, and consumes 1 1/2 gallons to 2 gallons per hour, depending on the load.

This March when we had a huge spring snow storm that took out 800 power poles in the county some people were without power for over a week. Less than a minute after our power failed, the generator started up and ran nonstop for two and a half days till the power came back on.