Home Generator

[NotMe]

Good on you, Depending on the emergency (hurricanes and tornados come to mind) and the nature of the damage the utility will cut the supply on orders from FEMA, the fire department, the state or city.

BTW I have an interest in a company that supplies emergency gen sets to the oil patch and cell phone companies. Back up and redundancy is the name of the game if you want to keep the lights.

Might add that NOLA used NG as back up for their emergency communications system. That was BEFORE Katrina. The practice was to put gen sets in the basement as well and everyone know how well that worked.

As for me and mine we have duel and in some cases tri-fuel options. Equipment is mounted well above the 500 year flood line. In Okla. and N Texas we have the equipment and fuel in safe rooms.

[NotMe]

If the user facilities afe taken down by wind or water pipes are exposed often vented to the air. To minimize the possability of explosion the supplys are cut.

[trader_4]

And if it gets that bad, a generator isn't likely to matter anyway. Here in NJ, during Sandy, nat gas was cut off to some shore areas that were the hardest hit, totally flooded, wrecked, etc. But residents were forced to evacuate and not allowed in those areas for weeks to months either. So if it gets that bad, it isn't too likely that a generator is going to do you any good regardless of what it's fueled with. In 50 years of various outages, I've never had nat gas go out. During Sandy, I was without electricity for a week, but had nat gas the whole time. You have to so some reasonable analysis of likely scenarios. And I think in many cases, nat gas is about the best solution there is.

[clare]

Which has nothing to do with "the grid" going down. Yes, you CAN lose gas supply in a severe disaster - but by then gasoline and electricity are usually also in extremely limited supply.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per NotMe:

That's what happened to at least one New Jersey town in the aftermath of Sandy.

[trader_4]

It sure did. And in every case where that happened that I heard of here, the area was under mandatory evacuation. People were not allowed to return, re-occupy homes, etc for weeks to months. So, losing nat gas that way shouldn't deter someone from relying on it for the more typical generator scenarios. No backup scheme is perfect, but IMO using nat gas is about the best scenario out there for most people who have it available. In 35+ years of experience, I've never had nat gas go out during a power outage. It hasn't gone out at all, except I think one time when the gas company was doing work and notified everyone of an interruption for a few hours.

[Tekkie®]

trader_4 posted for all of us...

And I know how to SNIP

This is probably the best thought on this. Nat gas if you can get it, propane if not.

The school district where I used to work had a deal with the Nat gas supplier for a better rate if they could cut it off during peak demands. Which they did!

The nat gas supplier to my area wants a $1 a foot to lay pipeline from the closest source. Ouch. If I was younger and had money I would go propane and a genset in a heartbeat. I am old and cranky and outages bother me more and more.

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Tekkie®:

....

I think I am going to cost out running nat gas out to the gennie and then compare that to the cost of propane.

I'm thinking 10 days absolute worst case for an outage around here.

My suspicion is that I'll be able to buy enough propane to operate two or three times that period for less than what running nat gas out to the gennie will cost - but I want to get down to dollars and cents before I make a choice.

[trader_4]

$1 a foot sounds like a great deal to me. If you're using oil for example, even if you paid for 1000ft install, it would only be $1000. Any place where significant winter heating is involved, you could recover that cost savings in fuel, servicing, etc in just a few years. My nat gas usage over the winter for heating was $630. I'd bet oil would easily be 50%+ more. In 3 years, you'd have the cost of a 1000 ft run covered.

[Tekkie®]

trader_4 posted for all of us...

And I know how to SNIP

I will check on the price I was working from memory which in my case is none too reliable. In this fellows case the nearest point was 1-1/4 miles away.

New homes here are always underground propane.

[trader_4]

I was comparing heating bills with a friend last night who has oil. My guess that oil was at least 50% higher was way off. He said he's paying $500 a month in winter and his house is smaller, but old and not as well insulated. I just looked at the EPA estimates for the cost of heating by various methods, based on Q413 energy prices. Oil is

2.7 X the cost of nat gas!

And propane is just as much as oil.