So we moved into our home a few years ago. It’s a great house in a great neighborhood. But we weren’t prepared for how unreliable the power grid is here. There’s a lot of old growth trees, and all the power lines are above-ground. Every time there’s a big storm or really heavy wind, there’s a good chance of a power outage. There was a big storm a few weeks ago, and one section of the neighborhood was without power for almost 48 hours. We have a 6-month old, and my wife gets really uncomfortable without power - so I decided to look at generators.
I’ve learned a number of things:
My already lackluster understanding of basic electrical systems has rendered me useless in figuring out what my basic needs are here.
Holy shit - there’s a lot of money that could be spent here.
It seems that one of the worst things that you could do is buy something that is going to severely underperform. But I also don’t feel like going for a top-of-the-line generator is going to be entirely necessary.
What are my basic needs? Do I need to be able to run my HVAC (gas-powered)? How inconvenient is a portable generator when it’s stormy/blizzard conditions? What about the giant host of things I haven’t even conceived of needing to ask about?
There are entire forums devoted to the discussion of home power, but I’ll throw in what I do. I have a 6500 watt generator and it powers everything I need easily. I think a lot of people make the mistake of adding up the wattage of everything in the house and buying a unit bigger than that for ‘insurance’. Of course all the companies that sell generators encourage this.
But you don’t need anywhere near that amount. Just look at the things you really need. Furnace, refrigerator, some lights, TV etc. You aren’t trying to maintain a decadent lifestyle, just basic comfort. You do need to allow for the furnace motor to start since they draw way more than the running amperage for a second or two.
Mine is an older, natural gas powered Onan that runs at 1800rpm instead of the 3600 the cheaper units run at so it is somewhat quieter. If you are going to go with gasoline you need to work out a system of storage for the fuel, and rotate that supply so it doesn’t get stale. If you do not have the mindset to stick with this level of preparation, I highly recommend natural gas or propane.
Hooking up to the house is an important aspect. The best was is to have an electrician install a disconnect leading to an interlock panel, but it is also expensive. Just making a ‘suicide cord’ to lead from the generator to a 240 vac outlet is quick and dirty, very dangerous and probably illegal in many locations. If the power company hears the generator running while they are repairing the lines, and discovers an unsafe tie-in, they will disconnect it anyway.
Another thing to think about is do you go backup generator or standby power? A standby unit is permanently installed and senses loss of power and starts automatically. For a backup unit you need to haul it into place and hook it up each time. There may be stricter requirements for standby units in your city. You could place a standby generator in a permanent, covered location and then only have to hook it up and start it your self.
I have the Onan mounted on a rough terrain wagon (big tires) and will pull it into place, hook up the gas line (I have a dedicated connection point) and tie in to the disconnect. It is much cheaper than a full standby unit.
We used to have short outages every year , but since I am more prepared the power has never gone out!
I have a Honda EB3000C portable generator. Like you, we have a lot of trees. And like your area, it can get windy. Last year (or was it the year before?) we lost power for three days. It would be very nice to be able to plug the generator into the house so that we could have power to the outlets. We wouldn’t be able to run the stove or dryer, and I think the water heater draws too much power. But we’d have power to the television, microwave oven, and most importantly, the coffee maker. We have a propane heater, so the generator will allow us to use the fan to circulate the heated air.
The upside to the portable generator is it’s not as expensive as having a permanent one installed. (I bought mine 8 years ago, so it didn’t cost as much as the one in the link.) Another upside is that it doesn’t have to just be for emergencies. Our contractor and his crew used it when building the new deck.
The downside is that you have to run an extension lead into the house, and get the power from that to where you need it. The TV, cable, etc. are on a power strip, so that’s easy. During the three-day outage, we had to move the coffee maker to the living room. And you’re not going to be able to use hard-wired lighting fixtures, or any of your outlets.
My house is old, with knob-and-tube wiring and a fusebox. I’ll eventually have it re-wired, and get a circuit breaker box. I don’t have ten kilobucks handy at the moment, though. As part of the upgrade, I’ll ask that it have a means to connect a portable generator to the house, and a cut-off switch so that my generator isn’t trying to power the whole neighbourhood.
It’s a little expensive, but it’s also a one-time cost, and mandatory.
Not only is this illegal everywhere, it’s extremely dangerous, and not just for the mope who is unlucky enough to be handling the cord – people have killed and injured utility workers by backfeeding the grid from improperly connected generators. Whatever kind of generator you get, a transfer switch and proper wiring into the panel (or inlet receptacle in the case of a portable generator) is non-negotiable.
I have a Honda EM5000is. Living in South Florida, I bought it as a hurricane supply. I rarely have power outages that last more than a few minutes, so I wasn’t worried about a stand-by unit that kicks in automatically.
This is good enough to power my fridge, some lights, the TV, and such. I have a stand-alone portable A/C that I can set up for a given room.
We have’t had a storm hit since I bought it in 2006, but I throw a little gas in it every three months or so to make sure things are running well.
The Honda is quiet, and has good fuel economy - it scales back based on the load, and can supply either 110 or 220. You can get similar power with slightly less economy, and a lot more noise, for much less money.
I have an interlock cutoff professionally installed by an electrician, as mentioned above.
I live on the east coast and hurricanes along with other storm interruptions are an issue. Several years ago we went 9 days without power and all I had was a 1kw portable generator. A portable genset may serve you but I couldn’t use mine when it was raining and extension cords from the unit to the refrigerator, etc were inconvenient.
Later I bought a 7kw diesel because at the time we heated with oil and this provided an abundant fuel source from my above ground oil tank. I installed a sub electrical panel that could be powered by the genset via an outside receptacle allowing me to use interior outlets, furnace, and the water heater as needed but not all at the same time. Unfortunately, a diesel genset can be a PIA because you need to perform a maintenance run about every thirty days to keep it lubricated and ready and I grew weary of this schedule.
My current setup is a 15kw whole house natural gas (house heat is now NG) genset with an automatic transfer switch and maintenance involves changing the oil, plugs and filters after every 100 hours of run time. It was expensive at about $8k but my power outages now last only 30 seconds until the transfer switch kicks in. The noise of the unit isn’t bad at all and during power outages, I run lines to neighbors on each side of me for their refrigerators, TV’s and morning coffee.
It looks like you have 3 basic choices:
A small portable genset using extension cords for limited power supply.
A midsize portable genset supplying power to an electrical sub-panel box.
A whole house genset.
If I were you I would consult an electrician to determine what devices you would like to power and then try to balance your desires and needs against your budget to arrive at a solution.
Some really great responses here, I really appreciate it everyone. We’re definitely going to call in our electrician for an estimate and consultation. We may be completely priced out for the moment, but at least we’ll have an idea of what to save towards.
Central Air is highly desirable in July and August. That requires at least a 15kw generator.
Mine got a workout the first week of August. Storms and high winds knocked down limbs. Was out of power six days.
The generator ran my central AC. It really speeds up whenever the AC cycled on. Lights dimmed too. But 15kw did keep me cool in 100 degree weather.
My natural gas bill for Aug shot up from $25 to $92. Well worth it. Compared to six days in a motel.
Don’t waste money on a gas generator. I did that first. You run yourself crazy refilling the tank twice a day. By day 3 you’re driving to the gas station to refill your cans. The last time mine wouldn’t start. I had to get it serviced to clean out the gunked up old gas. I always used stabilizer and it still gunked up my carb.
That’s when I sold the portable generator and got a whole house natural gas unit.
Don’t bother with anything but a whole-house unit unless your budget is really nickel-and-dime and you desperately need partial power. They got so cheap it’s crazy - the first time I looked at whole-house units they were around $1/watt installed. Good ones, installed, ready to go (less propane tank installation etc. if you don’t have natural gas) are now well under $5k and you can keep going in an outage without having to choose which rooms you want to power. Installation is also much faster and easier since a multi-breaker transfer panel doesn’t have to be wired in - just one big switch on the main supply.
Switch out all of your lighting to LED, using CFL and incandescent only where you have to, and you’ll buy back about a kilowatt of effective power.
I live in a semi-rural area. We will generally lose power during the winter at least 3 to 4 times, in the summer maybe once or twice. Never for more than 24 hours, usually less than 12. So we have just a small Honda 3.5KW gasoline generator. We have the furnace and the well pump wired with separate plugs so we can just plug them into the gen, flip a switch, and they have power. We have one devoted outlet in the center of the house (next to the refrigerator) that the gen also powers. Anything else, lights, TV etc., we use extension cords from that outlet. This is about the max a 3.5KW can handle. Even so, when on the generator the refrigerator light is noticeably yellow (though it still keeps everything cold).
A good 3.5K gen will only cost you a few hundred, and any electrician could do our wiring setup in a day (we did it ourselves). Powering the furnace, well, fridge and a few other things the generator will last about 5 hours on it’s gas tank. It normally sits in the basement next to the garage door. When needed we roll it just outside the door, cover it with a piece of plywood, start it and close the door (takes less than ten minutes). Been thru foot-deep blizzards this way with no problems (other than making sure we have enough gas).
The key issue is that we only lose power occasionally, as I said. A whole house, turnkey system would certainly be nice, but not really worth the expense for us. Our whole setup including the wiring and the generator would be under $1000.
For the ultra cheap solution, you can hook up an inverter to your car and run an extension cord into your house. It will be plenty to run your TV’s and Internet. 500 watts can power quite a few small devices.
How much are you willing to rough it? If you have natural gas I would consider focusing on one room in the house to heat/cool. You’d need about 600 watts for a small window air conditioner. Add in your refrigerator and a couple of LED lights and you have your creature comforts. You can eat cold cuts or alternate between the refrigerator and a hot plate. there’s no need to run the refrigerator 24/7. It’s insulated for a reason. You need to add another breaker to the box with a switch plate that prevents dual use of the generator and utility electricity. You should be able to get by for less than $1000 if this is an occasional short term event. Look for a used generator.
If you plan on living in the same house then you could set up the panel for a permanent system but start out with a portable one that gets you by.
I’d also consider how long you’re planning to stay in the house. If you’re moving in a year or two, I’d just get a portable generator and run cords in the house to what has to be on. You can run the furnace by disconnecting the on/off switch from the house wiring and splicing it into a power cord. Just be sure that there is no way for power to go back to the panel. If you’re in your retirement home already, then I’d just get a standby generator professionally installed and have it run everything. If you don’t have natural gas then you can get one to run off propane but you also have to have a tank big enough to get you through your longest outage.
Probably the best compromise there is. Cost is relatively low (usually under $1000 for a professionally-installed, 8 or 10 line transfer panel, pad, and external power connector) and it gives great flexibility over the years. Got a sudden emergency? Haul out a small generator or go buy whatever’s on the shelf. Longer term? Drive to the next state and come back with a good Honda or other 8kW.
Much safer and more convenient than setting it up in your driveway and dragging $500 in extension cords everywhere. (Have you priced good ex cords lately?) Also a good selling point for a house.
I purchased this generator and converted it to run on propane (will also run on NG) using a kit purchased from this company. I wired it up to a manual transfer switch.
The transfer switch powers my well, computers/communications, entertainment system, lights, fridge, etc., but not my HVAC. My whole-house fan takes care of summer heat, and as I have a 1000 gallon propane tank, I can run my gas fireplace in the winter.
I also built a small outdoor shelter for the generator to help attenuate the noise. The shelter is lined with rock wool.
I did all of the work myself except for the final wiring of the transfer switch.
I saved more than half of the cost of a professionally installed stationary generator.
I do have to start the generator and switch everything manually, and then switch it back when power is restored, but the cost savings was considerable.
I went the gas generator route, by far the cheapest solution, but far from ‘turn key’, and no where near autostart, but works good for my purposes. Power outages are rare now that the power company did a huge tree trimming project and re-ran lines with insulated lines and auto-restart breakers. The times messing with gas refills and the like are more of a novelty, ‘feel good that I have power’ then anything like an annoyance. Before that we had far more and longer power outages (2 seperate times about a week without power). The entire house including 2 wall a/c units, well pump can be run, though a lot of the high drain appliances are gas (dryer/heat/oven/stove).
People comment that gasoline generators will get gummed up/hard to start, need high maintenance, but that really has not happened to me and the generator is currently 13 years old (or so). There are minor things, and yes a propane generator would be ‘better’, but hey 13 years.
However from your postings I would not recommend a gasoline generator in your case due your OP which indicates perhaps more of a lack of experience with generators and or gasoline engines.
My son spent about $10K installed with a transfer switch for a natural gas generator. It is supposed to kick in automatically when the power fails, but at least once it didn’t and I had to go out in the snow and get it going by hand. I was visiting and he was at work. It powers everything in his house except the electric oven and the electric dryer. He does not have air conditioning in Redmond, WA.
The only downside is that it has to be run for several minutes every month or so and makes a hell
of a racket. The neighbors do not like it, but they dislike it a lot less when he invites them in during a power outage.
Where I live, we have outages fairly frequently, but only once did one last more than a few hours. Unfortunately, that was during the great ice storm of '97 and for us it lasted just a week, but for a few it was over a month. I guess if I thought I would be living here for a long time, I might do what my son did. Unfortunately, we have a fully electric stove. My son has a gas range with electric oven, so cooking is not a real problem for him.
Yeah, we’ve had our generator for nearly thirty years and have only had to have it serviced once. And a blast of ether (starting fluid) guarantees it starting on the first pull *every *time.
House generator’s are very popular here in Vermont where the snow is heavy, the power lines are long and if you are at the end of the line you get service last.
People here usually go with a second power panel that hooks up to both the main power and generator as inputs. Then you distribute the circuit breakers so the stuff you want power for is on the second box and the stuff you can do without is on the main. Then you figure out haw much power you need for box #2 and get that size generator and whatever gas tank you choose (gas, diesel, propane).
Once everything is installed you set the system to automatically fail over to the generator when the power is out. For the fancy ones you can even schedule tests so you don’t have to manually fire them up once a month to keep them fresh.
