talk to me about generators

[patandchickens]

We can do ok as long as power is not out in the middle of winter, but seeing coverage of the ice storms lately reminds me that you never know when a big one could hit.

In principle, probably the best situation for our house would be to have a woodburning fireplace insert, plus a modest-sized photovoltaic solar system w/batteries, that ran the well pump, sump pump, and possibly furnace blower. Barring finding a winning lottery ticket in the street, however, that is not going to happen

So I've been thinking about generators again. What do y'all have, and how do you like it?

I am thinking we'd need something sized to run just the furnace blower, well pump and sump pump. No need for lights or fridge or freezer (big problematic outages would be wintertime anyhow, so we could just put things in the garage ). So it would need to be wired in (by an electrician).

Anyone have a sense of what price range this might be in? And how much more it costs to have a system that switches over by itself, e.g. if you're absent?

Any suggestions of what to look for, avoid, etc etc?


Pat, undecided which is a higher priority - generator, fireplace insert or snowblower but we might be able to afford one of them in the next year or two

 

[Wifezilla]

Hummm....

If I had to choose the order....

1. Fireplace insert
2. Generator
3. Snow Blower

My logic being, you can live in the winter without a snow blower or electricity as long as you have heat.

 

[patandchickens]

yeah but if we had a generator we would have not *only* heat but also water (e.g for the horses, without having to melt tons and tons of snow) and also a nonflooded basement (the battery backup on the sump pump is good for a coupla days but then we're stuck unless we can charge car batteries for it, and we *really* need the sump pump... it runs every 10 minutes or so, this time of year)

The snowblower is on the list because realistically one of us keeling over from a heart attach or ruptured disk from shovelling the driveway is probably much likelier than a weeklong ice storm

So I really dunno. Need to learn more about generators, the care and choosing thereof, though

Pat

 

[SKR8PN]

We have a 15,000 watt, propane fired generator with a 200 amp automatic transfer switch. The transfer switch is the key to any generator setup. You CAN backfeed your panel thru your dryer plug IF you remember to shut off BOTH MAIN CIRCUIT BREAKERS. Failure to turn off those main breakers can cause serious harm to the lineman trying to repair your outage, because the power from your generator will go out to the lines and energize the transformers. There is a lot of paperwork involved if you fry the lineman with your generator.

You can save a lot of money by using a manual transfer switch, an automatic one is only needed if you have an automatic start on your generator. You can also get by with just running extension cords to whatever you need to power off your generator. My last generator was a 6700 watt Mitsubishi. Quiet and large enough to run the basic essentials,like the freezer, the fridge, the well and the sump pumps.

 

[enjoy the ride]

The first thing is to determine the amount of power needed to start all your pumps. Pumps don't need a lot of power to run but do draw a lot to start.
I have an 8000 kw standby generator that runs on propane- it is really useful as I rarely have enough cold in my weather that I could do what you want to do- put frozen stuff outside.
When I need to run the pump to the septic system, I turn off the circuit breakers to the other pumps. If I had a larger generator, then I wouldn't have to do that.
I don't know- you would need to get an estimate from an electrician about cost of wiring individual items versus wiring a whole house generator to the house.
I bought my generator for about $4000 6 years ago but I don't know how much to install becasue it was part of the cost of building the house.

BTW the generator can be costly to run on propane, which is now about $2.40 a gallon here. When my power was out for a couple of weeks, it cost me about $500 to run it and that was no where near all the time. I don't know if the newer ones are more efficient.

 

[patandchickens]

The first thing is to determine the amount of power needed to start all your pumps.

OK, so, not to be too stupid here, but, how do I determine that

I haven't gotten a flashlight out to look at the well pump but the sump pump says nothing bout watts on its housing nor in the manual, nor does the furnace blower. Can I calculate it from other numbers like horsepower or amps or whatever? Or what do I do?

BTW the generator can be costly to run on propane, which is now about $2.40 a gallon here. When my power was out for a couple of weeks, it cost me about $500 to run it and that was no where near all the time. I don't know if the newer ones are more efficient.

Zowie, that's a fair bit. Actually I didn't realize there were generators could run on propane, I'm only familiar with the gas (diesel) ones? For occasional use, which would one want?

Pat

 

[k0xxx]

The first thing is to determine the amount of power needed to start all your pumps.

OK, so, not to be too stupid here, but, how do I determine that

I haven't gotten a flashlight out to look at the well pump but the sump pump says nothing bout watts on its housing nor in the manual, nor does the furnace blower. Can I calculate it from other numbers like horsepower or amps or whatever? Or what do I do?

BTW the generator can be costly to run on propane, which is now about $2.40 a gallon here. When my power was out for a couple of weeks, it cost me about $500 to run it and that was no where near all the time. I don't know if the newer ones are more efficient.

Zowie, that's a fair bit. Actually I didn't realize there were generators could run on propane, I'm only familiar with the gas (diesel) ones? For occasional use, which would one want?

Pat

For things that are 110v and are not hard wired to your home (ie., have plugs), I would invest in a "Kill A Watt" meter. They will tell you the power usage of appliances. There are two different models and you can find them on eBay for about $20 and $35.

At least in my opinion, propane would seem to be better for one that gets limited use. Propane will not go bad, as will gasoline, and even diesel can have problems if stored too long. On a watt for watt basis though, gasoline generators can be had cheaper.

We have a 250 gallon propane tank for our home, but we are hoping to replace it with a 500 gallon, and leave the 250 for only fueling a generator.

 

[patandchickens]

Unfortunately the wellpump and furnace blower are hard-wired in. I wonder if there's a way to calculate their wattage. Any suggestions? Maybe DH can figure it out.

Thanks very much for all the info,

Pat

 

[keljonma]

Unfortunately the wellpump and furnace blower are hard-wired in. I wonder if there's a way to calculate their wattage. Any suggestions? Maybe DH can figure it out.

Thanks very much for all the info,

Pat

Pat, Here are some links that might help you.

http://www.articlesbase.com/diy-articles/what-size-generator-should-i-get-471863.html

http://www.zendine.com/FAQ/whatsizegen.htm

http://www.generatorjoe.net/html/generatorsizing.html

 

[enjoy the ride]

I am no help there- I looked in the instruction manual.
But with the serial number and brand name of the pump, you probably can find it online at a company or supplier website. A lot of manufacturers have manuals online too.
Propane is convenient because it doesn't need so many refills as a small gas tank. But I must say at the end of 2 weeks, I was pretty low on propane. And the truck couldn't get up the road to deliver.