Home backup generator advice

[Scythanith]

My girlfriend and I are currently building a house in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and will be building a new fish room in the basement. We are definitly looking to instal a LP generator incase the grid goes down. Most of our system is Carrier and I was wondering if anyone had experience with Carrier back up generators? Pro's vs Con's to another company? What kind of output in KW (it would be to run the tanks and maybe the fridge or something like that)?

http://www.residential.carrier.com/products/generators/index.shtml

Tanks will be (all tentative):

~300 gal running a hammerhead, ER RC250, 2 IC 660's and maybe 2 400 watt MH, a couple 300 watt heaters, maybe 4 tunzes..... some type of controller.

160 ga running a barracuda, ER RC125, 1 IC 660, couple 250 watt heaters, two tunzes.

These are just a guess equip but its close enough.

Cheers, Thanks for all the opinions!

 

[Icefire]

You just need a pump and a heater running.
A 5kW with honda engine would be best.

Sask... talk about rural

 

[Scythanith]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10079199#post10079199 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Icefire
You just need a pump and a heater running.
A 5kW with honda engine would be best.

Sask... talk about rural

Yep, I was thinking the same thing but I figure I might as well get something big enough to run most of the entire operation. Plus there will be heat lamps and misters running for all the reptiles!

Haahaa rural.... we have some cutting edge scientific research going on here at the University of Saskatchewan. And yes, I know how to run a combine and castrate a bull haahaa. Unfortunatly people are realizing (the research, not the castration) this and our housing prices are going through the roof.

Cheers, thanks for the info!!