18 HRS. NO POWER

[Bat Guano]

After fooling around with a 6500 watt Honda inverter generator for a few years, I sprung for a 14 Kw Generac whole home unit on natural gas. Initial cost was about $3600. An electrician friend installed it in exchange for a CMP Garand...

Best money I ever spent; I sleep better when it huffs and puffs outside, and it adds saleability and value to my house as well. Makes me wonder why I didn't get it installed when I built the house in the first place!

 

[chief38]

Yup! The whole House Generac's Rule - no doubt about it! But for those who can't do that - the USA Contractor grade Generac Portables are the way to go. The reason I don't say invest in a Honda is that the Honda 8K -10K Portables are more than the whole house Generac's are installed! The Honda's are great - just insanely priced!

 

[ladder13]

After fooling around with a 6500 watt Honda inverter generator for a few years, I sprung for a 14 Kw Generac whole home unit on natural gas. Initial cost was about $3600. An electrician friend installed it in exchange for a CMP Garand...

Best money I ever spent; I sleep better when it huffs and puffs outside, and it adds saleability and value to my house as well. Makes me wonder why I didn't get it installed when I built the house in the first place!

Whole house generators are a big selling point in the area I used to live in. When I sold, the generator and two 110 gallon tanks that fed it were very welcome by the new owners.
Almost everyone on my street had them, some of them had much bigger ones than my 22k, and at every outage strutted their power.
The best part about them is you never need to rise from your chair, just enjoy light, heat, A/C, etc.
Sold my General 8000 watt portable and never looked back.Messed with two portable for years until I bit the bullet and went for the gold.

 

[ladder13]

RW:

Glad you mentioned this very important step. Of course, for those folks who have the big Generac natural gas units, they are probably being installed by pros who handle all the gas plumbing and electrical installation, but for those using gasoline units, like myself, here at calm, for instance, this is extremely important!!

Here, my son, who is a telephone "line splicer" (so he's up on the same poles that the electrical linemen are on, and has a vested interest in safety) is installing the interface for my generator to feed into the electrical breaker box. Notice that the interface has its own breakers, four 110V, and one 220Volt. This is a limitation, considering that I have a 200 Amp service entrance, but we picked the most important circuits to run through the box, and it runs everything I need, refrigerator, TV, AC, lights, etc.

There is absolutely no way that we can energize the line running into the cabin!!! Believe me, with my son climbing poles for a living this is a primary concern for us. I also have many linemen friends, including the guy who put in the service right here at the cabin. We have a buried line through the woods for both the phone and electric. Ground mounted transformer.

We do not have to shut off the main breaker. The double pole, double throw switches are foolproof.



Once the covers are back on the breaker box, and the interface is closed up, there are no exposed connections of any kind. (Notice the rough sawn 2x4"s...cut from poplar trees that were cut down to provide space to build the cabin).

Here's all that you see on the outside of the cabin, a watertight covered plug to connect the cable from the generator to. In an outage, I can have the system up and running in a couple of minutes.



The generator is stored nearby, and secured. I only run the cable when I am running the generator, although it could be left in place permanently.

Safety for the electrical workers is really important, as you have said, they could easily be electrocuted when working on what they believe to be a dead circuit, which some homeowner has inadvertently energized.

Best Regards, Les

Les, my first real job was as a "cable splicer" for AT&T and then NY Telephone.
I worked underground and aerial. When working aerial we always checked the "strand"(steel wire holding up the aerial cables) before working up above. You never knew if a line was energized, storm or not.
Nice clean job by your son, btw, I had the same transfer switch for my portable before we did the whole house. Powered my well pump, oil burner, fridge and a few lights, all I really needed from my original antique pull start 5500 watt Generac.
Thank God, no more oil burner and being held hostage by the companies delivering oil.
Some idiots will plug a generator into their dryer outlet, cause they want to save a few bucks, that's where an issue of electrocution can occur. One needs to separate the gen from the electric feed, a transfer switch does that.

 

[bearfoot]

still learning more from the replys. the propane/ lantern/ single mantel is the same as a 300 light bulb. what is really nice about it i can lower it for less light. if positioned in a good location, it usually can light 3 rooms. have the LED flashlights, the ones w/ the magnets on the bottom are great for the bathroom or under the fan on the stove. justr never thought power would be out for 18 hrs. for winter, am interested on generators for the gas furnace ^^^ as discussed above.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

for winter, am interested on generators for the gas furnace ^^^ as discussed above.

If ya got a newer decent operating 1/3 horsepower motor it'll probably use less than 1k watts on startup and probably 4-500 running. If ya got an old 1/2 horsepower motor that operates poorly you could double+ that... or if or if.... There's a bunch of charts on the Net that list all home appliances and power requirements of generators. Cheap light duty and long extension cord will make things worse.

 

[Dave_n]

After a tree next door took out the power lines during a very cold April in 2014 (and needless to say, I was out of the country during the 6 days without power), my rather upset wife said "Whole House Generator" is next. So I ended up with a 20 KW Kohler running on natural gas. Well worth it. Happy wife and warm or cooled house depending upon the timing of the storms. Dave_n

 

[chief38]

Just listened to the Weather Report and we might (hopefully NOT) get a chance to use our Generac tonight! They are predicting severe wind and thunderstorms in my neck of the woods this evening. All that is needed is for a tree to take down a power line and it's generator time.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Just listened to the Weather Report and we might (hopefully NOT) get a chance to use our Generac tonight! They are predicting severe wind and thunderstorms in my neck of the woods this evening. All that is needed is for a tree to take down a power line and it's generator time.

"hopefully not"

Oh please... don't pretend. You know you want that baby to crank up!!

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Got a 5500 from Lowes that I've had since Lilly. During the day it ran the ice box. At night it ran the 5000 btu for the bedroom. I'm a simple man with simple needs.......
SInce then my buddy has gotten a whole house automatic generator so when a hurricane comes I just go to his house

 

[snubbyfan]

Losing power out here's not an uncommon thing. We've been without power for over a week before.
We have both propane and kerosene back up heat and a 5000 watt generator.

 

[pmanton]

I'm an AZ guy who dreads the thought of a power failure in the Summer. 119 in the shade here today. No AC would really be bad.

 

[snubbyfan]

I remember one summer, we lost power for about a week.
It was hot so we'd go tubing on the local river during the day and cook our suppers on the grill.
The generator kept the 'fridges and freezers cold and we could still watch stuff and go online.

 

[les.b]

I'm an AZ guy who dreads the thought of a power failure in the Summer. 119 in the shade here today. No AC would really be bad.

My GF used to live in Yuma. She would call me and say: "It's 120 in the shade". Then she would tell me: "There ain't no shade!!!". I told her that I had always heard it was "dry heat", so it didn't seem so hot. She said "They lie". "It's humid too".

BTW...I spent two years in North Africa. I arrived in April. Wearing winter clothing. As the plane was landing, I saw funny looking wavy distortion over the runway. Wondered what that was all about. Soon found out. Yep...about 110-120.

Best regards, Les

 

[bearfoot]

on tv warnings all day about flood stages, storms warned for fri. and sat. going to get a few small propane tanks and food early am. wish everyone a good weekend.