FINAL UPDATED 08/11 - WE GOT SLAMMED BY THE STORM TODAY!

[Ivan the Butcher]

I have a Made in the USA Coleman Powermate about 20/25 years old. I had a 5kw with a 7/8 gallon tank that would go 4 hours before refueling, this one is 4kw and has a 5 gallon tank. It will run in the 26-28 hour area depending on what all is hooked up.

I do like being able to take it other places, I don't like the noise (looking at other muffler systems!)

The first generator anyone in our family bought was a 3500watt import from a "Discounter" in 1975. Service was not available, and it became junk in about 10 years of little use. Then I bought the 5 KW Coleman, it suffers from typical nonuse issues, but I could get worked on just about any small engine shop or dynamo repair. The small gas tank was an issue , so I bought my brothers 4 KW for $25. For a long time I had the two, and everyone called me in their time of need. Idiots, in fact double idiots! They mow their own grass, but put the wrong fuel in a plainly marked GAS tank, never checked the oil even though I provided it. They destroyed my 5KW! My 4KW is still going strong and has never been and will never be loaned out!

I have a 110v gas furnace. I have installed a plug and socket on the power line to it, so in time of need, I can plug it in to a cord and it will fire up!

When ever we went without power for a long time (11.5 days 12/25 to 1-4/2004; 4 days 9/2008; 6 days 10/2010) we did our cooking a Coleman camp stove that I set up for propane and Colman fuel (or grilled outside with propane.) In that time frame we belonged to a gym with many locations, we did our showering there, and my apartment complex had a Laundry Mat (free to me!)

Ivan

 

[ladder13]

Soooooo dirty pool and the Generac kicked in....sounds like rich folks problems
Seriously though, looks like you dodged a bullet as far as you are concerned. Loves me some Generac!!! What snapped those trees off like that?? never seen that before.
Worst part about the hurricane aftermath when power is out is the oppressive heat, humidity and skeeters.....while you are outside with the chainsaw clearing stuff cause if you want for the city you'll be there next year
Oh and DO NOT FORGET the two stroke oil along with the gas stockpiles.
COme to think of it, I just might stop off at the tractor dealership this afternoon and replace my Stihl 170-I got a feeling that we are due for one this year that will necessitate clearing some tree limbs from the old Pecan tree along the back fence. Over the years it has broken off enough pieces that it isn't tall enough to reach the house which is the only reason I have left it standing (that and because I'm a cheap ******* )

I was working a side gig for an electrician doing a job in Bedford NY many years back. Now, that's where the rich folk live, think Soros, Nelson Peltz, Martha Stewart, Ralph Lauren, etc. Billionaireland. Helipads on their property.

The crew put in a generator run by a 427 Chevy V8 engine. The house belonged to some muckity muck from Deutche Bank.

 

[TTSH]

I like the way you think

Whole house on wheels!!

Yikes!!!!!!

"The most powerful portable generator on the market is an exceptional value. Powerful enough to start many 5-ton air conditioning units and can provide power for up to 16 circuits."

Looks like that monster would even run my 5-ton heat pump!

 

[snubbyfan]

Always seems to work for me.....

 

[islamoradamark]

WE have our generator on wheels does the whole house. After storm we wheel it out and away we go. The reason why we wheel ours out of the garage if it was mounted outside we always worried that flying debris would damage unit.

 

[Dave_n]

Back in April of 2014, a sudden ice storm knocked out all power for 5 days in our wooded area just West of Philly. Now I was in Eilat for Uncle Sam when I received an email from a "mad and cold wife". Well our temperature was >35 C, blue skies and sun; wife -5 C and cold. When I made it home with a suntan, SWMBO had already contacted the Kohler dealer and the generator was being installed in a week. Glad I "trained her" to look for the best one mechanically!! So now any time the power goes out (as happened earlier in the week) we are the ones with full freezers from our neighbors "stashes" Amazing how ice cream seems to be the major consumable brought over by my wife's friends!! Dave_n

 

[flagman1776]

Being disabled sorks on a good day. I'm glad I taught my wife how to hook up our now old HONDA 6500 out in the shop. Fortunate to have power restored in a little more than 24 hours. A lot of others will be days getting restored.
We have to alternate certain loads but can even run the heat pump AC.

 

[ditrina]

How much gas does that burn a day?

FROM THE SPECS.
"With a run time of around 11 hours at 50% load, the GP17500E has one of the highest run times, compared to its similarly powerful peers." With an estimated gasoline consumption of 1.6 GPH (gallon per hour) at 50% load, this generator is among the most fuel efficient of the products in the above-mentioned wattage range.

It has an 18 gallon tank

 

[flagman1776]

My ancient Honda 6500 Generator, Model EB6500SXA.
Fuel Capacity: 6.2 gallons Fuel consumption up to 10 hours.
Our experience .9-1 gal per hour.
Wife runs it monthly to keep the fuel from glogging the carburetor.
It came with a huge battery on it. My last replacement was a generic lawn tractor battery, plenty for a 1 cylinder Honda.

 

[chief38]

08/08 status update on OP #1

I was unaware that they actually make a portable generator that went up to 17,500 watts! That's huge! That is about the size of many Generac Standby Units and if you don't want to incur the expense of having a whole house unit purchased & installed, gas plumbed, wired up, slab poured, inspected and taxed as a permanent structure, that is a very viable alternative!

Yes - you do have to quench its thirst with gasoline but in an emergency (assuming gasoline is available) that's a small price to pay. You could also convert it (with the use of a special conversion kit) to run on natural gas or propane. With Natural Gas more than likely you would need to increase the diameter of the supply pipe to compensate for the very low pressureNG flows at - to adequately supply the generator.

 

[ladder13]

Westchester County still has 94,000 without power including my in-laws in Ardsley. Con Ed is getting scorched.

 

[chief38]

Good thing our Governor fixed the corrupt Lilco/Lipa by bringing in PSE&G! What a joke!

 

[bigwheelzip]

Good thing our Governor fixed the corrupt Lilco/Lipa ....

Corrupt you say! Nah, they just did what state protected monopolies do. I contracted with LILCO's gas division engineering department, and have to say, it was a really sweet gig.

 

[wheelgun28]

Well, its 7PM on Saturday and still no power. The gen is still going strong, even running two window AC units.

The good news is the trees are off the lines and a crew was spotted in the area repairing the primarys, fingers crossed...

The power company has said they think everyone will have power by Tuesday 6pm.

So for you Generac guys, the neighbor unit stopped running. Had the repair man working on it all day and part of the next. Its back up but sounds funny now...

 

[LVSteve]

I read an article written by a Long Island news organization about PSEG, LIPA, Sandy and Isiasas (sp). Two things caught my eye.

1) The idiot power company has no way for even police and fire to report a downed live line. That's flat out stupid.

2) Where PSEG have been changing out old power poles for stronger ones that are more wind resistant, they meet resistance from the residents. What's up with that?

 

[Old 44 Guy]

We had a 16 KW Generac installed last spring. Propane fired, enough to run everything , lights well pump, 2 refers, freezer, etc. Good investment.

 

[TTSH]

So for you Generac guys, the neighbor unit stopped running. Had the repair man working on it all day and part of the next. Its back up but sounds funny now...

We had a 16 KW Generac installed last spring. Propane fired, enough to run everything , lights well pump, 2 refers, freezer, etc. Good investment.

The two things I worry about most in regard to whole house propane-fired generators of any brand are: a) What do you do if it fails to start when needed (or stops running) and, b) the cost of running it on propane for other than brief outages. I'm not advocating against them at all, but those are the two problems my friends with permanent generators complain about most.

If I can get over those two worries and solve the location issue, maybe I can have one too someday.

 

[ladder13]

The two things I worry about most in regard to whole house propane-fired generators of any brand are: a) What do you do if it fails to start when needed (or stops running) and, b) the cost of running it on propane for other than brief outages. I'm not advocating against them at all, but those are the two problems my friends with permanent generators complain about most.

If I can get over those two worries and solve the location issue, maybe I can have one too someday.

Generac has what they call Mobil Link. It is a transmitter/cell phone device that attaches to the generator and allows you to monitor the generator via any wireless device, ie cell or IPad, remotely.
There's a monthly/yearly fee.

I had it on my propane unit and now have it on my natural gas unit. I allowed the service guy I had in NY to monitor it also since I was constantly traveling. One time the generator was not "ready to run", he came by when I was away and took care of it before I was even aware.

The guy I have now in NC never offered that same service but I can always call him from anywhere and I'm sure he will get it up and running.

I never worried about the cost of propane, as Caj says, it be what it be.

Mobil Link
Generac 7169 Mobile Link 4G LTE Remote Monitoring Feature For Standby – FactoryPure

 

[sgt.207]

ConEd

In Yorktown, no power since Tuesday. Reports were Con Ed had ONE truck working the entire town of Yorktown during the first few days. Glad their rates are so high. Hope your in-laws are doing ok.

Westchester County still has 94,000 without power including my in-laws in Ardsley. Con Ed is getting scorched.

 

[TTSH]

Generac has what they call Mobil Link. It is a transmitter/cell phone device that attaches to the generator and allows you to monitor the generator via any wireless device, ie cell or IPad, remotely.
There's a monthly/yearly fee.

I had it on my propane unit and now have it on my natural gas unit. I allowed the service guy I had in NY to monitor it also since I was constantly traveling. One time the generator was not "ready to run", he came by when I was away and took care of it before I was even aware.

The guy I have now in NC never offered that same service but I can always call him from anywhere and I'm sure he will get it up and running.

I never worried about the cost of propane, as Caj says, it be what it be.

A lot of my concern about those issues goes back to our infamous October Snowstorm in 2011, which instantly became my design basis outage. My folks, my kids and a lot of my friends were without power for over a week, some well over a week. I took care of both my folks and their neighbor by sharing one of my fleet of 3,500 watt generators for 8+ days. Obviously, we did a lot of wire switching to be able to cook, heat the houses and keep the lights on. On the positive side, that little generator sipped so little fuel that it truly amazed me.

Some friends with permanent whole house generators did just fine, others not so much... but again, they were not all Generac products so I can't honestly say how the Generac-owning folks made out. I just know that there were failures and those folks had to scramble to find portables. It was not pretty.

But in regard to the propane cost issue, I seem to remember whole house consumption numbers in the 3-4 gallons per hour range. So for my 8-day design basis outage, that's maybe 700 gallons, give or take depending on load. That's a lot of money to a poor old retired poverty case like me!