Portable generator powering most of house in power outages.

[J.Wal]

A year in review.

I have used the generator 3 times for outages.... everything has worked as it should. Best money spent. No complaints!

 

[tookielee]

there is probably a kit to convert that Champion to natural gas -
then no messing with fuel, and oil will stay much cleaner

 

[check]

Thanks.... looks like it came out of the industrial world, and they don't spend on retail advertising.

Shouldn't need a 55gal drum :laughing:, unless I'm planning for back2back apocalpyses..... I'll keep this in mind for future A orders....

You've probably read this earlier.... posting for other folks.......

PRI-D, PRI-G - How It Works @ Survival Unlimited.com

^ Nice #'s on that ASTM D-525-98 gasoline stability test.

Rgds, D

I am wondering how it compares to the stuff Canadian Tire sells.

 

[RoyKing]

Having learned the hard way that gasoline will be impossible to get for many days after the storm, and when you show up with 55 gal drums the rest of people in line get angry. I made the move to diesel, beside being cheaper to run, its more likely to run. Have had two storms they left us without for 24 days and 15 days. Even groceries were hard to find for awhile. Leaving wasn't a long term option because hotels were filled hundreds of miles away. So you could drive away for the night and sleep in the car, but it would be ruff to get home for days to flooding, power, fuel shortages. So keep a vehicle and spare cans ready for drive out along with lots of cash and guns don't take interstates, chainsaw, chains, tow straps. Both times I have 4 roads out but they were all closed, water, trees. On Third day we cut trees, drag them out of way and forged 12 deep water walking ahead of the 4x4 f350 to keep on the road, traveled for hours to find gas station to take cash, had to wear my handgun and neighbor sat on cab roof with an AR while we filled drums. My current plan is too stay home for upto 2 weeks, got satellite tv and internet if the dish doesn't get a tree on it.

 

[CarlL]

Just came across this thread. A few years ago needed emergency power for an oxygen generator for elderly family member. Ended up doing the whole house on the cheap. Bought a slightly used 13K portable generator for $400 of web. Got an outdoor transfer switch and had it wired in by electrician friend and checked by power company. The generator went in a modified plastic garbage can shed on a block foundation. The shed has fixed louvers in one end and in the doors. The other end has a large fan and louvers that open when the fan is on. The battery is kept on trickle charge with a small solar panel on the shed. The muffler meshes well with a vent dryer outlet on the back of the shed and the cable is plugged in and coiled inside the shed, ready to plug into the transfer switch. I test on load a couple of times a year and it always starts right up. Turn off all the circuit breakers and turn on what we need. Can run the furnace fans, microwave, refrigerator, TV and lights, if we only use the ones in the rooms we occupy. Have not tried either of the two central A/C units we have, but I believe the starting load level of the generator will even handle the smaller of the two units. Love the convenience of no extension cords to a portable generator to plug and unplug. First time I used it, a couple of neighbors wanted to know why our house was the only one in our development with the lights on!

The whole thing cost me about $900 and a bit of labor. Have used it twice, but both outages were in terms of hours, not days. Looks good and works good. Videos for similar setups can be found on the net.

 

[check]

Just came across this thread. A few years ago needed emergency power for an oxygen generator for elderly family member. Ended up doing the whole house on the cheap. Bought a slightly used 13K portable generator for $400 of web. Got an outdoor transfer switch and had it wired in by electrician friend and checked by power company. The generator went in a modified plastic garbage can shed on a block foundation. The shed has fixed louvers in one end and in the doors. The other end has a large fan and louvers that open when the fan is on. The battery is kept on trickle charge with a small solar panel on the shed. The muffler meshes well with a vent dryer outlet on the back of the shed and the cable is plugged in and coiled inside the shed, ready to plug into the transfer switch. I test on load a couple of times a year and it always starts right up. Turn off all the circuit breakers and turn on what we need. Can run the furnace fans, microwave, refrigerator, TV and lights, if we only use the ones in the rooms we occupy. Have not tried either of the two central A/C units we have, but I believe the starting load level of the generator will even handle the smaller of the two units. Love the convenience of no extension cords to a portable generator to plug and unplug. First time I used it, a couple of neighbors wanted to know why our house was the only one in our development with the lights on!

The whole thing cost me about $900 and a bit of labor. Have used it twice, but both outages were in terms of hours, not days. Looks good and works good. Videos for similar setups can be found on the net.

Good for you Carl!

 

[PILOON]

Going back a fair number of years we had a summer outage caused by a 'near tornado', poles down everywhere as well as bunches of trees.
Being at the end of the line we knew we'd be out for many days. Hydro, on the phone, even admitted the long delay.
Called my favorite tool supplier and they advised me they had 25 generators on a truck and en route,
Gave my CC over the phone and picked it up.

Well I purchased a 6000 (electric start) watt genset and never looked back.
At the very least (at that time) the cost was justified just in fridge and freezer contents.
I later installed a manual transfer panel that feeds fridge, freezer, water and sewage pump as well as 2 household circuits.
Just so happens that my main TV is on one of the household circuits so outages are tolerable.
For heat I have an excellent fireplace as well as a slow combustion in the family room downstairs.

Face it, we are talking EMERGENCY here and not all your comforts so I'm good with my 6 KW genset.
Today Cosco generally offer 8/9000 watt gensets for comparable costs (adjusted) that I bought back then.

Actually more serious is communications as during long outages the batteries that power the landline go flat and cellphone coverage is very iffy here.
I have actually seen a telcom truck parked all day just to keep the batteries charged. (yes land lines do need DC power to operate).

LOL, around here I'm referred to as one of the original 'pioneers' as we are on a lake that was initially free 'land grab first come first served'.
Beauty is we are but 1 hour from Montreal but with all the amenities of wild forest waterfront on a pristine spring fed lake at the top of the watershed.
PURE PARADISE!
All sorts of wild life and pure air.
Downside, very slow internet (works but depending on how many download HD films).

All in all I can't complain as for my internet needs it works OK but not everybody agrees with me.
(They are the ones that insist on HD downloads ( and grab all the band with) Heck, I remember when rabbit ears and steel wool was needed to get black and white reception of TV.
HD, **** I don't care what color the commentator's pimple is.
Just let me see the action and hear the words!

 

[Industrial Toys]

It's all a big TRAP. Not like people have hard wired lines and the BELL Central Office has HUGE batteries and Generators. I am the only one using the copper that goes in front of my place anymore, and the REMOTE that services my lines some distance out from the CO, has fairly small batteries.

Cell sites, have generator hookups, but in a wide spread outage, there are not many generators to go around, plus the sites may be overloaded.

Long story, short, there may be nothing you can do to ensure communications.

Ham Radio? I'm a Ham, and don't even have suitable gear for that.

 

[cqaigy2]

Our last "long" widespread outage had the cell towers go down, after their batteries ran out. I'm not sure how the land lines stayed up, It looks to me they are on the same poles the power lines are on.

 

[RoyKing]

both cell towers and land lines were down, The bells brought in small gens running off propane to run the roadside switches. Now the cell towers have propane gens, but they don't regularly run them, so they had startup problems. That's when being on Satellite helped, as long as I had power I had internet and TV.

 

[drssg]

I never thought about cell phone service going out due to a power outage. Our last major outage knocked out the land line, electric, and cable (includes internet) for over a week.

Cell phone service remained fine for voice and data.

 

[RoyKing]

As you move to rural areas every cell tower needs a fiber feed to back haul. My Verizon tower fiber is back haul on our local ATT fiber loop that needs local power to keep the repeaters running. A big storm only leaves satellite and ham radio, who all seem to have gens.

 

[PILOON]

Update.
As I drove home radio warned us of T-storms and heavy rain in my area.
Hope I don't need the genny tonight.

 

[check]

Update.
As I drove home radio warned us of T-storms and heavy rain in my area.
Hope I don't need the genny tonight.

Well, at least we aren’t getting what they are forecasting out West - up to 60 cm of snow – that’s over 2 feet!

 

[check]

Well, at least we aren’t getting what they are forecasting out West - up to 60 cm of snow – that’s over 2 feet!

Update - 4 feet of snow in Waterton Park Alberta (just North of Montana)!

And yet tomorrow in Toronto it is going to be 86° nominal, and 100° with the humidex.

Wow.

 

[grsthegreat]

I have a lot of customers that use portable generator to power most of house. They have to physically shut off larger 2 pole circuits, and may have to manually flip thru well and or water heater circuits as needed, but is doable. I had that same thing for about 19 years before I installed fully auto 22kw unit a few years back. I do like the fact that I do nothing and lights come back on. I install 22 kw units all the time. They typically cost between 8-10k fully installed... depending on complexity. Mind you I live in area where power can be out for 5 days at a time. Cheep insurance if you ask me. But to each there own as far as I’m concerned. I can tell you I’ve never had a customer tell me that they wished they never installed it...but I have gotten calls of thanks during power outages for the generator. Especially a few years back when power was out over thanksgiving....had lots of calls and text thanking me for installing gens.

 

[MossRoad]

We came home from vacation at midnight Friday to a power outage. Large outage, maybe 16,000 people in our county alone. Neighbor said it was out for about 2 hours already. So we went to bed during a thunderstorm. Got up at 8am and power was still out, so got out the old Coleman 4000w generator with 2-3 year old 87octane 10% ethanol and Stabil, gave it a shot of carb cleaner, and it started 3rd pull. Ran the freezer and 2 fridges and well pump, took showers, flushed toilet, etc... let generator run for 2 hours until it ran out of gas. Went about our day. Fired it up again with fresh gas around 2:30 and watched the ND football game. Fell asleep. Woke up around 4:30pm and shut down the generator. Power had returned.

We bought that generator back around 1995 when we bought this house, because we have well water, and I wanted to be able to flush the toilet and take a shower. I've only had to use it maybe half a dozen times, but run it for 1/2 hour about twice a year with a load. It was under $400 back then. Good thing to have around.

I'll top it off with fresh gas and more Stabil for the next time.

 

[shooterdon]

I have a lot of customers that use portable generator to power most of house. They have to physically shut off larger 2 pole circuits, and may have to manually flip thru well and or water heater circuits as needed, but is doable. I had that same thing for about 19 years before I installed fully auto 22kw unit a few years back. I do like the fact that I do nothing and lights come back on. I install 22 kw units all the time. They typically cost between 8-10k fully installed... depending on complexity. Mind you I live in area where power can be out for 5 days at a time. Cheep insurance if you ask me. But to each there own as far as I知 concerned. I can tell you I致e never had a customer tell me that they wished they never installed it...but I have gotten calls of thanks during power outages for the generator. Especially a few years back when power was out over thanksgiving....had lots of calls and text thanking me for installing gens.

I looked at not only the installed cost ($10k) but the operating cost as well. I believe it was $75/day IIRC ($375for a 5 day outage). It was more than I wanted to spend and I do not need power 24/7. What is necessary is electric start so we can start the generator easily.

With my large 10 kw Honda gas generator ($1500 used) I power up for an hour every 5-6 hour and we are OK for water (fill the tubs for flushing with a bucket) and keeping the fridge and freezer food safe. It uses just over 1 gallon/hr. which works out to less than $15/day For charging batteries and cell phones, I have a small 900W HF generator that runs for about five hours on a gallon of 50:1 mix. I paid $90 for the little thing and it not bad for the price. Total cost to operate the gas generators is under $100 for a 5 day outage.

I am looking at adding this for the cell booster, Jetpack, and computers:

https://www.amazon.com/Portable-300...show_all_btm?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews

I have a second 5kw Generac gas generator that backs up the Honda...might be overkill as the Honda is a commercial unit and should last a long time. Under $3000 for everything.

The downside is that it takes about 15-20 minutes to move the generator out, fill it with gas, run the cord, and throw the safety interlock on the main panel. Not fun if it is below freezing, or pouring rain. I keep enough treated fuel for two days and a can of starting fluid just in case.

Long term, I may convert the Honda to use propane. Less costly to operate and no fuel issues. Cost for the propane conversion is about $300.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Long term, I may convert the Honda to use propane. Less costly to operate and no fuel issues. Cost for the propane conversion is about $300.

I doubt it will be less costly to operate... I'm wondering how you came up with that?

SR

 

[shooterdon]

I doubt it will be less costly to operate... I'm wondering how you came up with that?

SR

Looking at dual fuel generators it is apparent that propane is less costly to operate. Propane is $1.39/ gal...gas $2.59. I would be using my 500 gal tank to supply.