Finally bought a small generator.

[5030]

Our new home will be built with standby power ready to go. Our power outages are few, but when you are spending $600k already, what's the difference

I'd not want to see what your mortgage payment is....

 

[andre3k]

I have a 9kw generator that runs my entire home including two ac units. Have soft starts installed on both ac units to lower the inrush current. All lighting inside and outside my home is LED now, so very little current used there. With an interlock installed it makes a world of difference and I saved a lot of money versus buying a standby generator.

 

[finallydribben]

We have a 13k/15k Westinghouse. Runs the whole house about 6-7 times a year.

 

[EddieWalker]

I always service a generator and run it dry after using it. I also bag the exhaust to keep the daubers out.

I had that happen on my little Honda generator. It wouldn't start and I kept thinking it was a fuel issue. It wanted to start, but it just didn't seem to be getting enough fuel. I messed with it for hours until I noticed the exhaust was plugged up with dirt!!!!!

 

[Cycledude]

After massive storms ripped through western IN last night, I finally bought a 3500W Inverter Generator from HF. It will run almost 24 hours on 5 gallons of fuel.

So far, quite impressed. Easy setup and starting, also very quiet. Rumor says we could be without power for 6 days. Looks like I can keep the freezers running and the air fryer too

Wish I had not waited so long View attachment 808683

Bought the same one about 5 months ago, they had a coupon thing going so I paid $720 , have only put 1-2 hours on it so far. Changed the oil after about 1/2 hour of use. Seems to start very easy when it’s warm outside but not very easy when it’s cold outside. Kinda surprising how heavy the little thing is, if it wasn’t so heavy I’d probably store it inside the house during cold weather to insure it would start Easy when I needed it. I probably should have bought the next smaller size, they are quite a bit lighter so would be much easier to carry by hand and probably would put out enough power for the little I would use it. Power outages have been pretty rare where I live and rarely last more than an hour, about 30 years ago Power was off for about 24 hours because of a serious ice storm.

 

[PJRAM]

We just had a Generac propane generator installed to replace our portable gasoline Honda unit. We wanted something that would run our well, oil burner, fridge and freezer. It is supposed to run 4-5 days at 25% load off of the 250 gallon propane tank.

 

[finallydribben]

We just had a Generac propane generator installed to replace our portable gasoline Honda unit. We wanted something that would run our well, oil burner, fridge and freezer. It is supposed to run 4-5 days at 25% load off of the 250 gallon propane tank. View attachment 809652

So does that equate to one day at 100% load? Just curious. I am considering a whole house propane unit, but fuel use and the ability to have my propane tank refilled in an emergency are my huge concerns. I am talking a severe storm with power out for several days. Not just a infrequent outage.

 

[PJRAM]

So does that equate to one day at 100% load? Just curious. I am considering a whole house propane unit, but fuel use and the ability to have my propane tank refilled in an emergency are my huge concerns. I am talking a severe storm with power out for several days. Not just a infrequent outage.

They say at 100% load the generator will use 5 gallons per hour. So that would equate to about 2 days. They also say it may overheat and may shut down to cool off.

 

[ponytug]

So does that equate to one day at 100% load? Just curious. I am considering a whole house propane unit, but fuel use and the ability to have my propane tank refilled in an emergency are my huge concerns. I am talking a severe storm with power out for several days. Not just an infrequent outage.

Generac publishes usage tables against loads, and that is the easiest way to sort out how much propane you would need. @PJRAM brings up a good point that full load is not a sustained full load unless you get a Prime power rated generator. (Basically one designed to be on at 100% power all the time, in high heat.)

@grsthegreat is the expert, but I would try to target a generator that can run happily at about 50% when your normal loads are on, but pay extra attention to your AC units and well pump to ensure that your generator has enough capacity to start them up. LRA (startup amperage, aka "locked rotor amperage") can be 3-7 times running power, and your generator will need enough capacity to be able to start the AC. Inverter AC units, aka variable speed (infinitely variable, not three speed) ACs typically have startup currents very close to running currents. My $0.02 is to upgrade your AC when you are installing whole house standby backup power. It makes the load management much easier, and makes the demands on the generator much more reasonable.

I think that you should pretty much count on not getting refilled during an emergency. Firms almost always prioritize getting propane for heating out first. Our local branch of a national propane company told me when I asked that when there is an emergency, they don't fill generator propane tanks as a matter of policy until the the emergency is over and they are caught up with heating fuel deliveries.

You also need to look at the evaporation tables that will de-rate the flow from a propane tank by temperature and load to make sure that when it is cold you can get enough fuel out of the tank. That is mostly a small tank, above ground tank issue. Personally, I would take the longest outage that I had ever seen and double it. (at least)

All the best,

Peter

 

[finallydribben]

Generac publishes usage tables against loads, and that is the easiest way to sort out how much propane you would need. @PJRAM brings up a good point that full load is not a sustained full load unless you get a Prime power rated generator. (Basically one designed to be on at 100% power all the time, in high heat.)

@grsthegreat is the expert, but I would try to target a generator that can run happily at about 50% when your normal loads are on, but pay extra attention to your AC units and well pump to ensure that your generator has enough capacity to start them up. LRA (startup amperage, aka "locked rotor amperage") can be 3-7 times running power, and your generator will need enough capacity to be able to start the AC. Inverter AC units, aka variable speed (infinitely variable, not three speed) ACs typically have startup currents very close to running currents. My $0.02 is to upgrade your AC when you are installing whole house standby backup power. It makes the load management much easier, and makes the demands on the generator much more reasonable.

I think that you should pretty much count on not getting refilled during an emergency. Firms almost always prioritize getting propane for heating out first. Our local branch of a national propane company told me when I asked that when there is an emergency, they don't fill generator propane tanks as a matter of policy until the the emergency is over and they are caught up with heating fuel deliveries.

You also need to look at the evaporation tables that will de-rate the flow from a propane tank by temperature and load to make sure that when it is cold you can get enough fuel out of the tank. That is mostly a small tank, above ground tank issue. Personally, I would take the longest outage that I had ever seen and double it. (at least)

All the best,

Peter

Great info, thank you.