As many of you have probably heard on the news, the Pacific NW was recently hit by huge long-lasting power outages due to weather. I was one of those affected. To be prepared for next time, I want to buy a generator that can power either my furnace or a couple of space heaters, and four 23 watt compact fluorescent lights.
I'll figure out the exact capacity I need later, but I was wondering about brands for now. Which are the good ones to look at?
Use the "waste heat."
Nick
Space heaters?
For heat, I suggest you get a ventless LPG portable heater. These run on those squat cylinders sold at camping supply stores for about $2.50 each. The gas cans only last a few hours so you can also consider getting a hose assemply that will permit your heater to run from a 20# LPG tank.
Alternatively, get a kerosene fueled heater.
I use the LPG ventless heater to warm my feet sometimes.
We have a 5 kW generator we picked up from Wally World for about $500. The generator is a coleman and the engin is a tecumson. As soon as you get a unit you should plan on where you will keep it when not in use and when you will place it when it's operating. The best place is near the service entrance when you can tap the ground connection for your entrance panel. You definitely need to have the frame of your generator grounded to "ground" and to the service entrance ground. I put in another ground rod and tied everything together with #6 bare copper cable. You also have to decide from the start where you store the gas and how much you keep around.
You add all this together and you discover why some folks just go ahead and spend $8000 (plus) to have a professional installation of a "whole house" automatic generator run from a BIG LPG tank.
You will have to decide how you will get the power from the generator to your loads.
If you "do it right" you need a transfer switch. A 5 kW generator is enough to power a LOT of stuff. I run the water pump, the ice box, and most of the "small stuff" (TV, computers, lights, dishwasher). If I want to use the electric stove or heat water, I have to shut off most of the other stuff.
If you don't have enough power to keep the ice box running at least an hour or two both morning and night, you will lose all your food.
?
I posted this in a similar thread in this ng about a week ago:
I can power furnace, refrigerator, freezer, well and a few lights and TV at the same time. Transfer box is necessary inless you want to drag a lot of cords around and have plugs for items, like furnace, that normally don't have plugs. Someone in thread mentioned that you can get a single whole house switch a lot cheaper than transfer box.
If you have natural gas, it is probably better to get a natural gas generator as you will avoid gasoline storage and need to stabilize and inventory gasoline. Full use of my generator takes 10 gal gasoline/day.
Frank
How about spending the money on a modern solar array on your roof. You'll never have to depend 100% on the energy company anymore, in addition the extra juice gets put into the electrical grid that can make you money!
Tom
Abe wrote:
Details?
Missed the "Pacific NW" part, didja? :-)
On a more serious note, though, a generator is a *lot* cheaper than a solar array with an equivalent output. And a generator works in cloudy weather, and at night.
We lived off of ours for 2 weeks (Honda 3500). A freak storm domino-ed the power poles on our street, for like 2 miles and even with crews working around the clock it took a long time to get power back. One thing to keep in mind is feeding it, it easily used 5 gal of gas per day, probably more, likely I am understating this. The power company had crews fueling everyones generator, at no cost, around the clock, you might not be so fortunate. If I was buying again it would be diesel, much better run time per tank. It was around memorial day, so no heating was needed or A/C for that matter. I was able to run 2 full sized double door refrigerators, a chest freezer, a few lights a couple of box fans, and occasionally we booted up the computer to check email and just get an internet fix. I would power down a refrigerator or 2 for that. We just used extension cords for all that, but a hard wire is possible, you just need a way to insure the main is off to be legal not to mention safe. The power company collected all the meters, so I could have hard wired, but I took that as an opportunity to upgrade my main panel to 200 amp.
You're much better off to run the furnace (typically about 800 watts) than a couple space heaters (1500 watts each). The furnace heats the entire house, the space heaters maybe a room, if you're lucky. Gasoline will be unavailable until the power comes back. The furnace will also use less gas than the space heater. An electrician, or a HVAC guy can show you how to wire a generator into the furnace. Just needs an electrical cord cut off something or other, a screw driver, and a couple wire nuts.
Any brand of generator will work several dozen times. Honda has a reputation of being the quietest, and longest lasting and most dependable. If you're comfortable with mixing gas and oil, you can get a small two cycle generator off Ebay for about $150 or so. I bought an ETQ, and it runs a 700 watt toaster with no problem at all. That was my test, for the generator. See if I could run a toaster. Should run a furnace.
My Dad's Coleman 5,000 watt is noisy enough to need ear plugs if you're standing next to it for more than a minute or two. The ETQ, I could tell it was running, but it really amazed me how quiet. Hondas also tend to be very very quiet.
Un-vented heaters are quite safe and are less likely to kill you with CO poisoning than a vented space heater. The reason is that the un-vented heaters but with grossly excess air and don't produce any CO in the first place. A vented heater is adjusted to use only slightly more air than is necessary to burn the gas (excess air results in extra stack losses) and almost always produce some CO. Often they produce quite a bit.
But ANYONE who uses LPG or natural gas should have a battery operated CO detector.
I keep my generator in my garage. I had a CO detector next to it for 4 days and it didn't go off.
Why did you do that? The generator frame will be connected to ground when you connect the generator to your panel.
So can I. But my generator uses 2 gallons of gas a day. (well, except for the well...)
If the neutral at the generator is bonded to the generator frame, yes. Otherwise, no.
Peak load becomes important. Then you have to manage a smaller unit by taking things off line or making sure several things do not come on at once. My neighbor gets by with a generator half the size of mine but wishes he bought a bigger one.
Frank
Because solar power is insufficient, unavailable for half the time, and so expensive you will never recoup the investment.
For those values of "solar power" that mean "solar electric". Direct-use solar is cost effective, suffering only from limited availability.
Exactly how often will you be using this generator?
My generator neutral is connected to the panel neutral (and hence to the ground) and my generator ground is connected to the panel ground. The neutral is not bonded at the generator. That is how it is supposed to be. If it is bonded you must be sure the neutral is not connected at the panel; as the neutral and ground can only be connected once..
Didn't we just have this discussion.
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