Whole House Generator ?
- Thread starter Gebo
- Start date
Your post has nothing to do with the discussion.Give me your Social Security payout- take the kids out of Public School, and - you get NO unemployment insurance or medicare or medicaid.
See, there is rampant Socialism in America.
It's pretty funny; I am половина Россия, even though your note wasn't addressed to Me
You guys cool it. Are you trying to shut down the thread??
Make sure you do the math as far as gasoline is concerned. These things suck gas. At just 1 KW you need 4 gallons over a 24 hour period.
I would not go higher than 3KW. Smaller units deliver better fuel efficiency.
Correct. In short outages not a big deal. But a major long outage, you could have issues getting fuel.
I ran about 2 days solid with a predator 4375( 3500 running watts)
Fuel consumption was just slightly under 4 hours on a gallon. A five gallon can will give you about 20hrs.
I toggle the larger draw devices so they don't pull at once. The well pump, the gas furnace are alternated.
If I want to use the oven/cook top, I turn the furnace and well pump off while I cook. It's easy. With the furnace running I can still watch tv and have the house lights on.
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Diesel downside is that it degrades in storage. Unless you have it for Home Heating Fuel Oil not the best thing for homeowner to worry about turning fuel etc.
I agree 20 or 24kw nuts but imagine AC is involved? I have a 6800W Nominal generator that backfields thru a panel to entire home and rarely trip a circuit unless I try to use toaster oven and coffee pot and well pump kicks at right time.
gathermewool
Site Donor 2023
Auto corrected from nasty grams, ie, hate letters. Sorry about that
I've burned large amounts of 40 year old diesel in my truck and tractor at the farm (from an old fuel shed) with no problems whatsoever. If diesel is contaminated by microbial growth, that can cause problems but (in my experience) an anti-microbial additive such as "Biobor" can eliminate those worries. Otherwise, diesel does not degrade in any noticeable fashion. I use it prophylactically in both my generator and sailboat (both of which may go years without fill-ups) and have never had any problems with "old fuel". I have also had home heating oil (diesel equivalent) in former houses sit for years without any additives while we were wood-burners. When we stopped burning wood, the HHO burned perfectly.
Just getting back to fuel and the 600 gallon propane tank. My propane driver, Dwayne, gets paid by the liter of propane he delivers. His normal plan is to get you refilled when you are close to 10%. There is no advantage to him to fill you up when you are at 50%. He would ultimately dilute his earnings because he would be spending almost twice as much time to get the same earnings. I have his cell number and I’ll call him if I’d like to get a fill a bit early, say if Christmas is approaching and we’re expecting the kids to come and stay. He doesn’t mind. Dwayne drives that propane truck on snow and ice all the time, but most the folks up here know how to do that and M&S tires are mandatory, and full on snow tires are recommended.
However, surprisingly enough, most of our outages are not in the winter. They are during the summer when we get wicked dry, hot south winds coming up the Rocky Mountain trench. The winds will topple pine trees onto the lines. The worst one was 3 days long because our rural community is on the bottom of the list compared to the two towns that are each 20 miles away from us. Whether summer or winter, I am at the mercy of luck regarding whether or not I have a full load of propane on board. Once an outage occurs I would imagine it would be hard enough to get a load of propane delivered so the moral of the story is to go with a smaller genset and prepare to make due with what is most important to your situation, and get a full load prior to the risky season, be it hurricanes, tornados, wind storm season, or blizzard season. Unfortunately, it seems Texas now has all those things, which reinforces the reason to go with the smaller genset. As for those expecting to tote gasoline from their local gas station, check if the gas station has a generator as well. Good luck all.
However, surprisingly enough, most of our outages are not in the winter. They are during the summer when we get wicked dry, hot south winds coming up the Rocky Mountain trench. The winds will topple pine trees onto the lines. The worst one was 3 days long because our rural community is on the bottom of the list compared to the two towns that are each 20 miles away from us. Whether summer or winter, I am at the mercy of luck regarding whether or not I have a full load of propane on board. Once an outage occurs I would imagine it would be hard enough to get a load of propane delivered so the moral of the story is to go with a smaller genset and prepare to make due with what is most important to your situation, and get a full load prior to the risky season, be it hurricanes, tornados, wind storm season, or blizzard season. Unfortunately, it seems Texas now has all those things, which reinforces the reason to go with the smaller genset. As for those expecting to tote gasoline from their local gas station, check if the gas station has a generator as well. Good luck all.
It was a reply to your snarky "Comrad " comments directed at dadto2; You put that in the discussion.
AFA the guy leaving tens of lights on in and around his house. It's just wasteful.
Waste is a SIN.
When we leave our home for a full day trip, We have one led lamp on near the front door in the living room.
Of course you would leave the heat on if its cold out, maybe at a lower level, say 63 deg F.
We ALL share resources. Conserve them.
This is the setup I’ve had for 20 years in my 3,000 sq ft house. I had a licensed electrician hard wire my Troy Bilt 8500/5500 generator at my back deck. I double check the main box to make sure all is well with the transfer switch as far as back feeding goes, wheel the generator to the connection box, hook up the 5 foot power cord the electrician made up for me to the genny and wall mounted box, fire up the generator and I’m good to go. NG furnace and water heater, fridge, upright freezer, 2 tv’s lighting etc. I can use one small burner on the electric stove without taxing the generator. It will not run my 4 ton ac unit but I rarely lose power during summer. The most I have used it was 4 days in 2014 during a big ice storm and the system worked perfectly, though I did throw an extra blanket on the bed at night when I shut the generator off. I would restart the generator first thing in the mornings. My total cost back then was roughly $1,200.
Not snarky at all. Your reply was very out of touch. That said, still not seeing your point. Who are you to say how someone should spend their money be it power from the grid or fuel to feed their generator? If I was to look your lifestyle over, I’m sure I’d find what I consider waste. That is my point.
He was judging somebody because they were simply prepared... If you don’t see anything wrong with that, I have nothing more to say to you.
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No its not. With a whole house generator, you will not conserve anything cutting the lights off. A generator big enough to run an entire house will consume a minimum about of fuel. An led lighting circuit will not save fuel turned off on a large genset.
Heck i can run most of the lights in my house , and not even notice it on the 3500 watt generator.
20 lights at 8 watts each is not big deal( and many are 4 watts). No savings there.
I am considering a whole house setup, because 20 or 24 KV generator allows my SO, or child, to simply live the way the normally do throughout the outage.
While most of the members on this forum can shift and manage total electric loads by switching breakers, or appliances, I would not want that responsibility to fall to a family member for whom that isn’t a reasonable expectation during an outage.
When large appliances, like the HVAC/heat pump, are involved, and the fridge is going to cycle on and off, along with an unknown number of lights, sizing the generator to handle the whole house avoids placing the management of appliance and electric loads on the family member when I am not home.
Alternatively, a Gen transfer panel that selects only particular circuits avoids having to size the Gen for the whole house.
When I lived in Vermont, the Gen transfer panel powered well pump, septic transfer pump, refrigerator, furnace, and hallway and bathroom lights. That limited load to about 7K and the Gen was sized appropriately.
Off the transfer were the electric range, washer, dryer, kitchen GFCI, majority of household outlets, my shop sub panel, garage and exterior lights... essential systems only to keep our load within the size of the generator we already owned. Cost was an issue for us.
While most of the members on this forum can shift and manage total electric loads by switching breakers, or appliances, I would not want that responsibility to fall to a family member for whom that isn’t a reasonable expectation during an outage.
When large appliances, like the HVAC/heat pump, are involved, and the fridge is going to cycle on and off, along with an unknown number of lights, sizing the generator to handle the whole house avoids placing the management of appliance and electric loads on the family member when I am not home.
Alternatively, a Gen transfer panel that selects only particular circuits avoids having to size the Gen for the whole house.
When I lived in Vermont, the Gen transfer panel powered well pump, septic transfer pump, refrigerator, furnace, and hallway and bathroom lights. That limited load to about 7K and the Gen was sized appropriately.
Off the transfer were the electric range, washer, dryer, kitchen GFCI, majority of household outlets, my shop sub panel, garage and exterior lights... essential systems only to keep our load within the size of the generator we already owned. Cost was an issue for us.
Excellent points
I will do the same. I'm going to use the roll out for now. When i'm ready to retire , i will have a whole house installed. I don't want to do it now. If i wait till i'm 70 or so, i will never have to replace it in our lifetime.
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I think you may have misunderstood his post. But without a live conversation we may not know.
He was criticising the owner for leaving many power sapping items on whilst they were NOT home.
I'm sure he would have not mentioned this behavior if there was but the porch light and the heat on.
Or maybe you are right, he would. If so, your Point and criticism is validated. But you shut this conversation down
with your sarcasm which is an insult. That's no way to make a point.
As far as running stuff when you are away:
Heat is of course required to run, that must be on in cold weather.
Tens of lights around the home do NOT need to be on unless you ARE home and doing
some outdoor activity that requires lighting. Other wise it's environmental "visual pollution"
This is why I don't like the urban "morons" moving in to woods near me, bringing all their
"City" attitude to Back Country. I say to them, Take you "peacock" displays to the edge of the dirty city.
This is always a problem, what you dont have on hand or in tank you probably won't be able to get. Unless near a truck stop on a major freeway in a state that mandates it, and if and then you better have some time and be prepared to wait in line. Im about 20 miles from the only gas station with genset and last year they ran out of fuel.
This comes up over and over in the electric vehicle discussion with some one inevitably spewing out a " HAW HAW whtachoo gunna do bout a power outage with yer tesla yuck yuck..."
The families inability to manage loads, hook up, and fuel even after training (they failed) was a big driver for me going whole house with an automatic transfer switch.
This kohler setup is about 9 seconds to re- power and the switchback is seamless.
Our current home has a septic transfer pump which was a new concept for me to deal with and is often an additional load concurrent to the well pump load, especially when the family next door shows up to shower and use the bathrooms during power outages.
One extra feature we have is that a provincial campground is down the road where back-up pit toilets are located. Ah, the good old days!
