EMERGENCY GENERATORS

[bob vawter]

how many of you kiddies got one....im bettin' A LOT...!
ever have to use it.....
extension cords all over...?
do you power the whole house or jus the furnace and fridge?
how big?

 

[Steve Lawrence]

WHole house here. Not sure the specs but I can run my house lights, TV, oven, clothes dryer, sauna, etc. and still let my neighbors plug in to keep their fridges and freezers going, too. But, since I got it we've had far fewer power outages--which is okay with me.

 

[Billy]

We have two with one being a small Whole House w/manual Transfer Switch. I keep saying Im going to get a bigger one but the one we have does all we need so far. We are the only house in our subdivision on the top of a hill that has lights on when electricity is out. We installed it after a 4 day power outage back in 1994. We also have Propane heat available in an emergency. In extreme emergency we could move to our Travel Trailer which can be run allot cheaper for many days.

We can run most anything we want just not all at one time. We always run our Freezer, Two large Refrigerators, two small Refrigerators, all TVs, Sat etc........

I believe ours is a 7 kw & Our house is only 1600 sq' with a 1200 sq' basement. Since our Heat & Air is a Heat Pump it just isn't practical to try to run it on a generator which is why we have alternate sources of heat.

 

[Desk Jockey]

Had the house wired up for it when we built it, so it would make for an easy hook up. Have never had an outage yet but we do live out in the boonies so there is a possibility.

 

[Dolly Llama]

how many of you kiddies got one....im bettin' A LOT...!
ever have to use it.....
extension cords all over...?
do you power the whole house or jus the furnace and fridge?
how big?

got a small one, but a good one, big heavy duty generator American made Porter Cable
(not some Chinese Home Depot CRAP)
...5200 continuous/6200(?) surge

used it several times in the past 6-8 years


I "McPherson'd" a 220 hook-up to the breaker box
flip the main breaker off, fire up the gen and plug into the 220 outlet

*BAM*..got juice for the essentials .... well pump (can't "flush" without water) lights, fridge, TV/internet
Not enough juice to run heat (I'm all electric), nor the water heater.
I have kero convection heaters for cold weather emergency outages

given thought about buying a big whole house unit, but don't want to drop the dough on something that would be used so little when the little one gets me by



longest we've personally ever been without power was 18 hours (ice storm) while some homes just a few miles away were out for three days due to the same ice storm



..L.T.A.

 

[bob vawter]

Dang you LarrEE you stol my thunder........i got a 6500/7200??...
back wired that sucker right into the panel in the shop which goes straight to the house 200 amp panel..

fire up the gen and plug into the 220 outlet

if you plug it in while running.....won't you get an arch....how the hell you spell arch????

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Dang you LarrEE you stol my thunder........i got a 6500/7200??...
back wired that sucker right into the panel in the shop which goes straight to the house 200 amp panel..


if you plug it in while running.....won't you get an arch....how the hell you spell arch????

arc

You were so close.

 

[Dr Vapeur]

5500-6000 diesel, setup to be plugged into my shop then in the the house.
I have used it a couple of times, funny to see my house all lit up in the middle of a dark area.
Diesel is nice, I can use my furnace oil and the fuel consumption is very low.
I usually run everything except electronics and water heater.
To keep things safe I turn off the main breaker of the house.

 

[Buck1955]

I've got a 3500. Usually wont start when you need it. Like to get a Honda, they're quiet. I never thought about backwiring it at the shop, that's a great idea.

 

[Billy]

I've got a 3500. Usually wont start when you need it. Like to get a Honda, they're quiet. I never thought about backwiring it at the shop, that's a great idea.

Just be careful & remember transformers can work in both directions so if you back feed the power lines you could hurt or worse some unsuspecting lineman which is why a transfer switch is safest approach. You can also have a very bad day if power is restored & you forgot to turn main breaker off.

 

[bob vawter]

yep you gotta turn main breaker off.......fo sure!

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Coincidentally storms have knocked our power off as we speak. Be safe everyone.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

 

[dgardner]

Our worst outage was 4 days (neighborhood transformer blew up), but the problem was heat, not cold. It was 120+ days, and 104ish nights. A few folks around Phoenix died that summer from the heat, mostly homeless.

Our genny at the time (6kw) wasn't big enough to run the house AC, so we lived in the shop (enclosed carport) that had a window AC unit. I now have a 17kw unit that will take care of things if it happens again.

Winters here are not an issue, I feel for the folks dealing with subzero temps right now. Forecast for tomorrow is 37 low/ 60 high.....

 

[Brian H]

Just finished installing a natural gas line for a converted generator. My dad has a whole house generator and he gave me an older generator that was converted from gasoline to natural gas. Now when the power goes out and I have to run the generator, I won't have to fill it every few hours.

The whole house generator with auto cut off is the way to go though. When my dad loses power, the only way he knows is he can hear the generator.

 

[bob vawter]

i almost went that way......
only thing that stopped me was the extra
$4000.00

 

[Buck1955]

I've done a water damage for a couple that had a $10,000 back up system that failed. I don't need to run everything just the furnace and a few lights. I can get a 5 gallon bucket of water from the van to flush a toilet, and ice for the beer.