How many have standby generators?

[pacu mom]

I think we will get a second generator to power the old part of our house. We had a 14 hr outage yesterday. I had a very difficult time disabling our gate so that I could get out. Because we still haven't set up the new tank, I had to run extensions to power the current pumps, the freezer and refrigerator. To save some $$$ I hired a journeyman electrician to do the wiring of our addition and to connect to the generator. So we have a gate that was never connected, all lights in the garage connected, and one light in our fish room. We used candles and flashlights last night (except in the garage), and supper consisted of throwing foil wrapped left overs into our two wood stoves.

After the previous outage, I consulted with an electrical contractor and the propane company who in turn consulted with each other. A second generator can be done, but we will have to dig a 18" trench nearly the entire width of our property for the propane line. (A second tank is out of the question because of property lines) Trying to save money is going to cost me now...we have to change things so that everything that should be powered by the first generator is connected. Until last night, we did not know that we had all the lights in the garage, and one light in the fish room. We have some pretty funky wiring.

 

[d2mini]

I would love one, but I can't justify the cost.
I have powerheads on battery backups for times when we lose power for minutes to hours.
But we don't lose power for more than several hours except for once every few years... or longer. Takes a major hurricane or something to blow through.
The last time was Hurricane Ike.
Been in the new house for almost 3 years now and have yet to lose power for more than 2-3 hours.
So I have a regular gas generator I can roll out of the shed. Just have to deal with the hassle of getting gas for it.

 

[hllywd]

I picked up an electric start 9000W Troy Bilt 4 or 5 years ago. A few months shy of 3 years ago now I finally got around to installing a manual transfer switch to make things easier for my wife if I wasn't here. Funny, about three months later we had a Derecho... (big straight line wind storm for the uninitiated!) come through Ohio and we were out of power for ~7 days in the middle of the hottest spell I can recall - 100°+ temps for several days straight! My wife flew to California for a week the next day! I was using about $50 of gas a day, but kept the generator running nearly the entire time. I wasn't able to run the central air, but with a 5000BTU unit in the bedroom, and another downstairs where the tank is I ran everything for the tank, plus most of the lights I needed in the house, 2 fridges, a kegerator, and a deepfreeze with headroom to spare.

Interestingly, the guy across the street powered his central AC, and fridge with a 5kW Dewalt generator, not many lights, but it sure was nice walking into their house with a 20° temperature differential!

 

[hllywd]

I think we will get a second generator to power the old part of our house. We had a 14 hr outage yesterday. I had a very difficult time disabling our gate so that I could get out. Because we still haven't set up the new tank, I had to run extensions to power the current pumps, the freezer and refrigerator. To save some $$$ I hired a journeyman electrician to do the wiring of our addition and to connect to the generator. So we have a gate that was never connected, all lights in the garage connected, and one light in our fish room. We used candles and flashlights last night (except in the garage), and supper consisted of throwing foil wrapped left overs into our two wood stoves.

After the previous outage, I consulted with an electrical contractor and the propane company who in turn consulted with each other. A second generator can be done, but we will have to dig a 18" trench nearly the entire width of our property for the propane line. (A second tank is out of the question because of property lines) Trying to save money is going to cost me now...we have to change things so that everything that should be powered by the first generator is connected. Until last night, we did not know that we had all the lights in the garage, and one light in the fish room. We have some pretty funky wiring.

Does your generator put out it's rated capacity? 20kW isn't huge, but it's still a lot of juice. Excepting the fact it sounds like you were expecting "whole house" service, wired appropriately you should be able to cook dinner, and have lights where you want them with a generator that size.

Interestingly, I did wire our sub-panel that powers the garage, and kitchen into the transfer panel. On generator power I have power in the garage, and was the only house for blocks with non-solar landscape lights during our big outage!

 

[pacu mom]

I'm thinking of getting a 22 KW generator to power the old part of the house. I'm going to consult with the electrical contractor to see if it is possible to just get another transfer switch for the second subpanel and bypass the current "work of art" transfer switch that leaves too much of the new part of the house still without power. If we have two generators, I'm not going to be happy to have parts of the house still in the dark.

 

[ryeguyy84]

I have a 12V 35ah deep cycle battery that could power my 2 vortechs and radion for a little while. When it dies (it never has) I'll use my car to recharge it. As for heat, during hurricane sandy was heating water on the stove every few hours and putting it in bottles and floating them. I managed to ride out the storm only losing one Acro.

it may not be the best, but I live in an apartment so I had to get creative.

 

[tehachappi32]

I have/had a duracell generator. Used 3 times any never really considered save the day (power loss for 2 hours only). Cost me $150 and it stopped working the last time I tried to use. If I again get a generator, I will make sure it is a 4 stroke type. The 2 stroke types you have to mix the gas which is for me a real pain, not mentioning the problem associating with the incorrect ratio....

 

[tidus10]

This is my backup generator.. always makes me happy just looking at it..

But in reality I really should get on especially living in upstate NY.. and heck this is an old thread to bring back from the dead..

 

[hllywd]

This is my backup generator.. always makes me happy just looking at it..

But in reality I really should get on especially living in upstate NY.. and heck this is an old thread to bring back from the dead..

I think they're closing that one down actually!

 

[tidus10]

I think they're closing that one down actually!

Haha in fact they are! Good ol' songs.. It's sad they are closing it down it was a nice plant best view I've ever seen from a containment building but anyway BACK ON TOPIC!

 

[Code4]

A whole house one now. Before that, one for the tanks. Lol

Shelley

 

[Breadman03]

I think they're closing that one down actually!

San Onofre. I used to see them out my bedroom window, and I believe you're correct.

 

[ravi197699]

After Sandy, I got Genrac 5000k generator and it is hooked up to my panel, It runs everything but my dryer. I have 1500w small generator for my fish tank and additional 1500w 12v invertor that gives 1000w continuous power and it can be hooked up to 1500w.

 

[Kolkri]

I have one.

 

[pacu mom]

I'm confused. I have a Generac 20kW generator, which produces 17kW when fed natural gas (as I do). I have 400A service to my house, in two 200A panels. Each time it's come on I haven't had any issue running whatever I wanted to in the house -- but I haven't tried to stress it (I'm sure that if I tried to turn on both ovens, the electric dryer and both AC zones it'd run out of juice).

When I was planning, the consensus among the electricians was that the 20kW unit would be sufficient for all but those three items (and would probably work with one or two of them going).

Do you have a problem with the unit powering your whole house?

It turns out that when the the wiring was done, that eight 20 amp circuit breakers were devoted to the equipment room.... which is why the generator is too small for the entire house. We have put parts of the old house onto the generator system, so can be comfortable during during an outage.