I am fortunately okay with nothing worse than a few downed branches. Within my family, however, I have one cousin on Long Island whose power was out for eight days and another who had severe damage to the house. I know other people who still have no power. (Search Google News for either LIPA or ConEd.)
I remembered seeing a Generac whole house unit at a Home Depot. These seems to be a natural gas powered generator system along with a "transfer switch" that kicks in during a failure of power from the public utility.
Does anyone have one of these or perhaps a similar unit made by another company? Did it ever deploy? Have you been happy? Do you have any recommendations?
As to the connection with travel, if you're away on a trip, wouldn't it be nice to know your lights, security system, heat, a/c, refrigerator, freezer, etc. will still be working when you get back?
Last edited by Landing Gear; Nov 12, 12 at 12:35 pm..
Reason: fixed punctuation
Do not forget to add the cost of electircal work and permits etc. Also fuel issues Natural gas lines break as they did in certain areas with Sandy and Gas can not sit forever.
A cheaper method may be a small or medium size honda generator. No cut over switch just common sense about what you decide to plug in via extension cords and the amp/current draw.
A big caution with all these generators is make proper exhaust far away from people or living areas. Many people died in Arizona swimming near house boats before they connected carbon dioxide as a cause of death.
my mother in law in new england has one. change over is flawless. runs on natural gas when it is turned on, certain of the appliances are turned off. i do not know what it cost, but it was expensive
a frined has a similar one, runs on propane. crossover is flawless. cost a bunch.
i have a 8-9000 watt gasoline powered generator. has 4 2000watt outlets. with extension cords, i keep everything excepting the electric stove and oven running. i use a gas grill and oven and a toaster oven. the generator burns about a gallon of gas an hour. that's 20 gal a day. lots of attention. if you do not use the thing, the gas gets bad, so one must use it or drain it. if i had it to do over again, i would get a diesel unit, or get hooked up to the natural gas line.
Natural gas units are the way to go - you'll need a slab (installed to code) and if I am not mistaken, most gas companies will hook the generator up for free.
You'll need to do regular tests, oil changes and transfer switch tests. An electrician needs to install the transfer switch, as your hooking it up directly to the utility line to your home. In most cases, the utility needs to pull your main breaker for the electrician to do his thing.
All in all, a bit of a pain to install, but well worth it. Just keep in mind that if power is out in your area, and your home is the only one lit up - you will be playing Holiday Inn for a while...
The whole house generator is a great way to go, but significantly more expensive of course. I looked at these last year after Irene, and decided that typical power outages were of a much shorter duration that I would be happy with a portable gasoline-powered one.
I finally went with a Honda 5000 watt generator, and had an electrician install a transfer switch. It's pretty easy to wheel the generator into the driveway and hook it up, and we have heat, hot water, fridge/freezer/microwave and several rooms' lights/outlets. I got to use it for about 24 hours when we lost power after Sandy and everything worked flawlessly. It also sips gasoline, I got about 11 hours on its 6 gallon tank. Just keep a couple (or three) 5-gallon cans filled up during the winter and you're good for a few days of power outages.
I think this was the best reasonably-priced solution for us, and it worked out beautifully.
last year during the freak Halloween ice storm in NJ i lost power for 5 days and the following week had a 20Kw Kohler natural gas generator installed. At the time i was REALLY questioning spending the money on something i may never use but after losing power for almost 2 weeks in this latest storm I can now say its money very well spent.
I decided i was going to power my entire house, if i were to do it all over again i would power just the essentials, i could have done it for probably half the cost and it would have been sufficient. I ended up providing power to both of my neighbors and still had plenty of capacity to spare.
My parents have a 20 kW natural gas generator. I think it's a Generac, but I'm not sure. It cost around $10,000. It runs a/c in most of the house, fridges, outlets and lights in most of the house.
Once a week it kicks on for 10 minutes or so for a self-test. Otherwise, when the power goes out it turns on after 30 seconds or so. It's rather loud - definitely louder than the air conditioning compressors outside, but not deafening.
My parents have a 20 kW natural gas generator. I think it's a Generac, but I'm not sure. It cost around $10,000. It runs a/c in most of the house, fridges, outlets and lights in most of the house.
Once a week it kicks on for 10 minutes or so for a self-test. Otherwise, when the power goes out it turns on after 30 seconds or so. It's rather loud - definitely louder than the air conditioning compressors outside, but not deafening.
My Kohler does exactly the same thing, you're right, it is louder than i expected it to be.
I understand that plug-in hybrids are the rage in Japan. It costs a bit to put the adapter into your 220 volt charger. Once done, you can run your house off your Prius' engine. Full tank = about a week of juice. Enough to run your 'fridge and lights. I dunno' about AC.
Interesting - how did you do that? (I'm not familiar at all with generators - did they just plug in to it?)
Yes I just ran extension cords to both my neighbors, i have outside receptacles in the front of my house and on my deck so it was easy but i could have run them out windows if needed.
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Mission critical data centres uses battery backup and generator. If natural gas is available that is the fuel of choice. Propane or diesel is next and gasoline are for smaller applications.
Storing gas for generators (leaving in tank or external gas cans) - make sure you add gas stabilizer to the stored gas.
20kW is almost full 200A service at 110V. If everybody is only using minimal it can power a few neighbour's house as well.
Storing gas for generators (leaving in tank or external gas cans) - make sure you add gas stabilizer to the stored gas.
Instead of that, I just put the gas back in my cars after about 4-5 weeks of storage in the cans and then fill up the cans again. I do add stabilizer to the gas that's in the generator (and snowblower).
My parents have a 20 kW natural gas generator. I think it's a Generac, but I'm not sure. It cost around $10,000. It runs a/c in most of the house, fridges, outlets and lights in most of the house.
Once a week it kicks on for 10 minutes or so for a self-test. Otherwise, when the power goes out it turns on after 30 seconds or so. It's rather loud - definitely louder than the air conditioning compressors outside, but not deafening.
I have a 20kW Generac myself. Mine handles the entire house, with an intelligent automatic transfer switch that signals the generator to start, waits for it to stabilize, then transfers the household load to it within 20 seconds (or so) of commercial power loss. And although it's not exactly quiet, it does not exhibit the "surge" you find on portable generators when the load is temporarily increased and the governor on the motor calls to increase the RPM. This makes the background noise effectively constant and easy to ignore.
When commercial power returns, the transfer switch automatically switches back. There's no apparent interruption in power; you may hear the "thunk" as relays engage, but that's it. 10-15 seconds later the generator motor shuts down.
I used a 4.4kW portable generator for 10 years before acquiring the whole house unit. We lose power here more often than I'd like, and although the portable generator is a lot cheaper, I really hated to have my wife or son deal with it while I was traveling. Also, the maintenance required on the whole-house unit is very minimal . . . Check the battery once a year and change the oil every two (more often if it runs a lot).
And at least in Maine, a standby generator actually has a positive impact on the resale value of your house
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