About 12K down here Rudy, we aren’t that far away either so this area pays more than some others. Go figure ;-)
Planning on having a back-up generator installed
- Thread starter Rudy Vey
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- #22
Decision made and we go with the second guy who actually came in as the lowest quote. Now. the process of getting all the permits has started.....this is the only real hold up. In their experience it may take some 6 weeks. The install is done within two days, generator is ordered already.
Your strategy was similar to ours. Power is very reliable here with our longest outage over 25 years lasting 7 hours a few years back. The issue with portable generators is fuel consumption. Anything much bigger than 2,000 watts will burn through 5 gallons of gas in a few hours. We settled on a roughly 2,000 watt generator that can run 5-6 hours on a gallon of gas and keep 10 stabilized gallons (Have a third 5 gallon container to fill if we find out a major storm is coming) in a shed that is away from our house that we can stretch to around 3-4 days of use to run either a refrigerator or a single 5,000 btu window (or both if we start the air conditioner first) air conditioner while charging our electronics and or running a fan. Have used the generator just once during the 7 hour failure to keep from losing the fridge as, while frozen food can last 24 hours without power, the refrigerated section is only good for 4 hours. Just use extension cords to the generator. We've a fireplace for heat in the winter.
From our camping we also have a couple 12 volt 20 amp hour lead-acid agm battery packs that can run my CPAP (2 days each), run a smaller 12v fan, an 800 lumen 12v RV light (60 watt equivalent) and also charge small electronics. We've a 30 watt solar panel that can charge one of these up fully with around 8 hours of direct sunshine instead of the generator. Can also charge from our cars via an inverter.
Bottom line is that we've enough limited backup capacity significantly mitigate the worst impacts from a power failure for up to four days. More if we have access to additional fuel.
I had a 5k Honda generator. A smaller, stand-alone, generator could have powered the sump & fridge, but we were also on well water which, like the furnace, was hard-wired. Can you imagine not having water to flush the toilets (or make coffee) for 9 days? With the generator off at night, house temps were in the lower 50s by morning. We had friends & neighbors coming over in the morning to warm up. Running the Honda for power and heat 3 hours off and on, took about 5 gal a day.
Makes sense, need to scope power for your minimum requirements including the start up surge for electric motors. Water is essential. We've no sump to worry about an are on municipal water so nothing for a generator to do in that area. Realize municipal water is power dependent so we keep some cases of water on hand.
Key issue is managing equipment start up surges. A newer energy star small window AC and 18 cubic foot fridge together only pull 7-8 amps (roughly 850-950 watts) or less than half the generator capacity. The issue is that the start up power surge is easily triple running watts so when we tested we had to start the AC first followed by the fridge and then any electronics or storage batteries we would want to charge. AC is set to the lowest cooling temp so it does not cycle off as the surge would kill the generator. Not the most convenient situation but better than having no power at all and reasonable for us given the historically low probability of an extended power outage in our area.
Question, did you do anything or have a remote structure that would allow use of the portable generator in the rain? In our case I've some extra concrete blocks to get it off the ground and from our camping set up would need to set up our camping tarp (has poles) to keep it dry.
One other comment on our local power outage risks is that we've seen ice storms knock out power in nearby (luckily not us) communities for up to a week. In these cases the outages are localized and there were always nearby gas stations with power where one could get fuel for a duration beyond our 3-4 day reserve.
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- #26
The generator was installed and so far, even with the nasty weather we have the last few days, we have not yet lost power. It works like a charm, does its weekly test run. Installation was two days with a three guy crew for all the electric, switches, wiring, concrete pad etc. Then a day two guys doing the plumbing for it. Township inspection was done for both the plumbing and the final inspection, nothing they did not like and said "they did a good job" - enough for me. Our local gas company also installed a new larger meter. So, we are all set. Went to my cardiologist Friday and he showed a lot of beard stubble..they had lost power Tuesday and their whole house is on electric, no hot water, no cooking, no heat. Gave him my contractor's info and his wife called them asap.
We had a long run with no power losses, but starting 3 days ago, power has been out at least as long as it has been on.
I'm so glad we have the generator!
We have dodged a bullet here at the homestead, but I am now budgeting for one when we remodel. Of course, it seems this old house is constantly being remodeled!
I am in the middle of having a Generac installed. The prices here in Massachusetts are a bit higher. All the quotes I got were around $14,500.
We have a delay, because the gas company has a 6 - 8 week backlog in upgrading meters. Ticks me off.
We have a delay, because the gas company has a 6 - 8 week backlog in upgrading meters. Ticks me off.
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I looked into a Generac 2 years ago to replace my Honda gasoline (to get rid of middle of the night refueling). The Generac guy quoted $10K, but recommended getting a portable tri fuel (gasoline/propane/natural gas) and tapping into the natural gas line. I got a 8k watt Firman for the price I sold my Honda for ($800) and had a plumber extend the stub-out that the Gas people put in for free (we were due gor a new meter). Ran it 5 days straight earlier this month when it got to 10 degrees out. Very nice.
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- #31
Interesting, our gas company did the meter upgrade done after all the generator work was done. They came about three weeks after the generator was done and ran successfully. Guess different companies have different ways of doing the work.
Congrats Rudy. Now you will never lose power again.
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- #33
True, main reason we got one, but we had three short outages since we got it. But, it makes you sleep better....
