Backup generators for the home

“Anyone have any experience with electric generators? The house I just bought is wired for one - bare minimum like a few lights, well pump, blower for propane furnace, fridge and freezer. Since the house has propane (LP) I'm thinking of buying an LP generator, why bother with gasoline when I have 500 gallons of LP right there? Also thinking about moving up from the 6K watts he had to 10K watts so I can run a few more things like the ceiling fans (the A/C unit would take up way too much power) and the microwave.

So, anyone with thoughts on generators? Any models that obviously do not output what they are rated for? Gasoline vs. LP? Wattage thoughts?”

“My wife's brother installs them for a living. He personally has a LP model and loves it. I think they're a great idea if you live in the boonies and have periodic blackouts when bad weather hits.

I live in the mountains of north AL and have a generator. When we have snow or ice the electricity often goes out. A generator is a great investment if you're in that situation. I've been stuck at home without power for a week at a time in the past and was glad I had the generator. I mean come on...you gotta have power for the satellite dish right??”

“Just make sure you have enough pressure from the LP tank to run one. I know that with natural gas, customers now have to upgrade to a larger meter because the natural gas generator needs 14"WC and we only provide 7"WC to run a whole house. I am not too familiar with LP gas.”

“Should be Ok with pressure, according to this site.

The power does go out occasionally. Hooking up the satellite dish will be one of the must-adds! ;-)”

“My parents live in Western NY and just had one installed. They can lose power for a week or more during ice storms. They have a nice unit. Its fired by natural gas and comes on automatically on power failures lasting more than a few seconds. It powers everything in the house except the 220 V lines to the drier, over, and heat pump. My parents plan to use the 110 V gas furnace, their propane grill, and electric fry pans should they lose power. I have not felt any strong urge for one in Houston. We can lose power for a couple of hours after a thunderstorm, but long term loss is usually only with a tropical storm or hurricane, which are fairly rare events. It just depends on how much you are willing to pay for the back-up system. I think my parents paid several thousand dollars plus there is continuing maintenance.”

“my dad hooked our house up, has a big enough connection and a pull behind genny to even run the 2 story house's dual A/C's, 2 freezers and some lights..i think everything is wired...you just can't run them all at once or it'll trip”

“Long term plans include a generator for the home. In the short term, we can still have heat in the winter with two wood stoves and light with oil lamps, candles or propane lanterns.

I like the LP idea, techntrek. I had no idea they existed.”

“skiracer - me too. Until the prior owner mentioned that he wished he had gone that route. No mass quantities of gasoline sitting around. Looks like there are some conversion kits on the net if you want to convert a gas gen to LP. I might as well go LP from the start since I have the choice.

I'm gonna have them run an LP line to my deck so I can hook up my grill - no more tanks to refill for that thing, yay! And I'm also going to buy an on-demand gas water heater to replace the electric one that is there now. I'll keep the electric one hooked up (buy dry/off) for backup, but an on-demand heater will save me 30% a year and I'll get the same nice hot shower that a normal gas heater would give me. Electric water heater, hate 'em. Had that in our last house and never had enough hot water.

Going to use that propane for all its worth!”

“Micros pull one he11 of a load.

I like the LP gas idea.”

“Even if you don't have a large LP tank, you can get a smaller (around 2500 watt) generator that will run on the smaller 5 gallon LP tanks (like a grill). Still stores better, starts better in cold weather, and is less messy than gas. I'm sold.”

“I had gas utilities, so that took quite a load off the generator. It was a gas 5K unit.

Typically, we could run our well, 280'deep, do the laundry (gas drier), take showers, cook (gas stove), rune the freezer and refrigerator, keep the house heated, and watch VCRs on Tv with a few lights on. The gas appliances still required elctricity, except for the hot water, but the draw on them was small. What was really amazing was the toaster. That was the one appliance that would cause a brown out.

Now my generator had a tecumsuh engine, which is not a long lived engine. Briggs and Stratton, or Honda would have served me better. The Tecumsuh burned out in the middle of a 2 week ice storm power outage. So basically, I'm recommending against Tecumsuh.

The unit I had set up was a portable unit. Hwen power went out, I had to fire it up and plug it in and throw the transfer switch. I was home enough that was not a problem. Now we are often gone weekends and sometimes whole weeks.

What are my plans for a future generator, given my experience?

1)Well, our next house will also have gas appliances. So an LP fired unit would seem a natural. But.... that feature can easily add $1000.00 to the cost over a gasoline fired unit. That's quite alot to pay for the convenience.

2)I have priced out Honda generators (basically the benchmark in generators), and welders. Here's what I found: A Honda 5K gasoline fired unit would cost $2,600.00. A welder, with electric start, expected to run all day day in day out, with an 8K generator is $2,700.00. Let's see now 3 extra K's for only $100.00 and a push button start and a welder also..... Pretty simple equation.

3)Home depot has some pretty interesting models of generator I just saw. They are only in the 3K range yet, I think. But they take 2 40 lb. propane tanks, and are hooked up by you, the owner to run when power is lost, automatically. If they ever get over 5K, I'll bet I can hook up my LP tank to it. I don't really need the welder, but if they get the K's up, I'm gonna look seriously at them.”

“Oh yeah, just for the record, I did hook my grill up to my LP tank. It was basically an inexhaustable supply for the grill that saw daily use!”

“techntrek, 10k is a ton of power for a home. Thats nearly 100amps of power (at 120v, I doubt youd try to run much 240v on a standby system). Last year for 30hours I ran my entire house (minus laundry and A/C) including fridge freezer and fans plus lights etc..., plus the frdges at two neighbors homes and a couple lights each on a 5.5kw generator. It never bogged or labored. I would do some calculations before you shell out big bucks for an extra (possibly un-needed 4kw). Its just a thought.

We are redoing a big standby setup at work. We have a 60kw natural gas generator system that is single phase currently, we are having the stator redone and some guts swapped out and it'll be 3 phase. Its a bohemoth.”

“Thanks for the input, everyone. Anybody else have any real-world experiences?”

“Well, its almost a done deal. I have my generator supplier/installer lined up and the contract will be signed by next week. Have a gas contractor, too. I had an adaptor made for my gas grill which I installed yesterday, and part of the gas line work will be done on Monday (to the generator pad). The other half, the part that will run to my grill, will be done when he comes back to do the final hook-up on the generator. I should get the generator within 3 weeks, and they'll hook it up in one day on a Saturday when I'm home.

Decided on the 12kw model as I was exactly 4 months ago. I'll have enough juice to run almost everything in the house, including the heat or A/C for the first floor, well, lights, fridge, freezer. A few rooms on the 2nd floor and some of the 240v appliances (ovens, stove) won't have juice, but those rooms aren't used every day and I can cook on my grill or backpacking stove. The most important 240v appliances will be hooked up. I don't plan to use the full 12kw capacity all the time - it sucks 2.5 gallons of LP a day at full capacity - but its there if we have guests over on a 90* day so I can keep the A/C and lights on. I had a party in August and the power went out for 2 hours right in the middle, LOL!

Costing me a chunk, but we plan on being in this house for 30 years so its an investment in our future.”

“now thats the way to do it!”

“Change that...it burns 2.5 gallons per hour at full load. Also its one of the automatic ones that will come on and transfer the load w/o me lifting a finger. What a dichomomy - gotta have the full power at home, but love getting into the backcountry where there's none!”

“WOW! Thats a LOT of gas!
last edited: 10/08/04 12:41:15 PM”

“If you look at gas consumption rates for generators, they frequently list the half capacity consumption rate. We're looking for a backup generator too, but only to run the fridge, a fan, a light and a small t.v. or something like that.”

“LOL, I was about to bust you on the gas gallon claim! ;-)
Kewl Beans!
You can't buy a generator in FL to LA right now, due to all the hurricanes.
SOLD OUT!!!!!!!!”

“I think the 1/2 load rate was 1.83 or something very close to that. To run the loads you are talking about treebait, if you want to stick with propane and don't already have a large tank, I did see one that is completely do-it-yourself for installation and runs off of 2 20lb. propane tanks. 3kw. I wouldn't go with anything but propane since it stores indefinitely and gasoline doesn't.

Link for the generator I mentioned, scroll to the bottom: http://www.marsonenergy.com/generators/aircooled.html”

“treebait - a little 2KW gen will work for those loads. A one KW will run a fridge and maybe a fan or tv, but don't put a fridge AND deep freeze if you have one on it.

I'm looking to get a 5-6 KW one for myself.
last edited: 10/08/04 12:54:21 PM”

“LOL, StoveStomper, I think I was dreaming there. At least with a 1.8 gal/hr draw (1/2 load), my 500 gallon tank should last me about 10-11 days. Maybe a little less if its winter and I'm using the propane furnace. I have a wood stove too so I may not have to use the furnace. I'll need to be sure to call in for a fill-up when they start saying the words "hurricane, direct hit" or "blizzard".”

“We can deal with the heat if power goes and it's not like we will EVER freeze to death. So all we need is a way to keep the food cold and insure a breeze.

Our next house is going to be the thirty+ year house. Thicker walls and systems to help get us off the grid.

I like the earthship concept of minimum impact and self sufficiency but the designs are too radical for my tastes.”

“Honda makes the best small (1-2KW) generators IMHO, but be prepaired to pay a high price for them.”

“I would love to go completely off-grid and am savy enough to deal with the maintenance of solar panels, water circ. systems, battery rooms, etc. I have a life to live, too, and the systems out there right now are just too maintenance-heavy to fit in my life. Way expensive to buy up-front too! I'm sure in the next 20 years they will develop good alternatives and then I can switch over (and won't need that generator I'm about to buy...). Until then I'm on the grid.”

“Honda huh?
I don't know too much about the brands. I'll keep it in mind.

I wonder how long it'll be till a generator can set foot in the coastal SE without being bum-rushed?”

“Tek I agree.”

“"Hey everyone, look, its a generator! < cut to close-ups of people's faces, drool and blank stares, slight dazed smiles on their faces, zombie walking gait > Here, nice generator, that's right, have some gas and a nice piece of oil... NOW GET HIM! < complete chaos >”

“Hey HPM, lets take my pickup and slip up to Maryland. I know where a generator is. ;-)”

“http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/gensup.aspHonda Generators

I like the EU2000i specs.
I'm trying to talk myself out of the 5-6KW 'want' I have and to just get this one.”

“Hey, I don't have that thing yet! Stay away, my cats might lick you if you get too close!

I like the stats on that 2kw genset. 15 hours on one tank is impressive, you can get a full nights sleep, go to work, and refill when you get home. Quiet, too. If you have a well you'll need a larger one with 240v output, though.

Mine will be around 80db, probably about the sound of a garden tractor. Won't bother any neighbors (too far away) and it shouldn't be annoying inside, but I won't be standing next to it if I don't need to be there.”

“Hmmm...”

“Those hinda Whisperquiet generators are nice. I've been eyeing the little 1kw model myself for when we goto car races adn camp out in the infields. As far as heating I have a kerosene heater i can use if we ever lose power in the winter. A little 1kw to power a few lights and such would be nice though.”

“Sigh, apparently high demand at this time of year has delayed my generator installation. The company that makes them (Guardian) has been way slow to deliver to my contractor.

The good news is it should be in next week, and I'll have it installed within a week or two. If time permits. Of all the months - December isn't exactly a slow month in our house. That's why I signed for it 2 months ago, hoping to get it installed in Oct. or Nov. Oh well, better late than never. Just had another long outage yesterday due to high winds in our area. They even closed schools an hour early. Good reminder of why I'm buying it.”

“I would reply to that but my powers out and my backup generator isn't here yet.”

“That's how StoveStomper was 2 months ago on this thread. He's in 'bama and it was just after all the hurricanes.”

“OK i was just joking. If my power was out I wouldn't be posting LOL”

“Here's your sign!”

“IJ cracks himself up! He must think we are stupid.”

“We aren't?”

“Huh?”

“I am stupid”

“Who's on first?”

“Tools”

“I went to Home Depot Monday night and for the first time saw generators on the shelves since before the hurricanes.”

“One of the benefits of being on the same grid as the US Capitol is that I'm never out for long.”

“I had a friend give me his 5KW generator after he had installed a Kohler propane fueled generator for his entire house. I want to install the same sort of thing in time, but for now, the Coleman generator will do. I need to have an electrician come over so I can run things without having to fish a couple of extension cords through the house. There was a time several years ago when an ice storm knocked out power to our area for 11 days. I just want to be able to run the fridge, hot water heater, heaters and maybe a light or two. If worse comes to worse, we have 2 woodstoves in the house for heat, but I don't like leaving them going when we are away from the house. I could also leave food in the garage where it's cold during the winter, but it's a bigger hassle than opening the refridgerator door.

It's nice to know I have something for power backup.”

“ski, how big's your water heater?”