Generator / back-up power

[jim-00-4.6]

So our utility power went off over the weekend; about 4 hours overnight on Saturday night & a couple-three hours on Sunday late morning.
No problem for the overnight, more than a little inconvenient on Sunday.
My wife ended up having to go down to her office on Sunday because the router was down, and even with her laptop on battery power, no internets, no VPN, goddammit gotta goto the office.

She indicated some non-utility power would be nice.
Sunday afternoon, I put together some alternate power for the router & cable modem, so those will be powered for 5+ hours without grid power.

Do any of you have generators and/or alternate power for when the utility takes some time off?
Auto or manual cut-over?
Whole house or just the refrigerators?

A little math indicates a 7000watt (8750 peak) genny would take care of things, excluding the range & the dryer.
An 11,000 watt, natural gas powered, auto-cutover genny would do the whole damned house.

Input, please.

 

[robertf]

honda e2000

fortunately i havent had to use it, but it starts up every january when I check it

 

[kk88rrc]

We don't have one but I use Honda's EU line all the time on jobs. Super quiet & fuel efficient.... but pricey.
http://powerequipment.honda.com/generators/models/eu7000is

 

[jim-00-4.6]

"Pricey" is 1 way to describe a 2000-watt generator for $1100.

 

[MM3846]

"Pricey" is 1 way to describe a 2000-watt generator for $1100.

Those little baby Hondas make almost zero noise. They are well worth the money. Friend has two running in series and does most of his house "essentials" with them. You don't even know they're on from the street.

 

[jim-00-4.6]

Still, I'd need 4 of them to run things excluding range & dryer.
For that price, I could have an 11Kw, natural gas genny that auto-starts & powers the whole house, with included transfer switch, professionally installed.
(4) Hondas, each producing 53-59 dB, or the 11Kw producing 63 dB.
Granted, the 7Kw genny is 76 dB. which is more than a vacuum cleaner, but less than standing on the sidewalk of a busy street.

In parallel, not series.

 

[SGaynor]

Well, it comes down to what do you want it for? Just to run the internets in your house and a fridge, or everything else?

If you are a ways off from civilization, maybe the whole house make sense (esp if you have nat gas). If you are in town and power goes out once in blue moon, then the Honda make sense.

 

[speeddr2000]

i would need more specs but 7000 watts is 58 amps now you might not have every thing on in your house. A normal breaker panel is 150 plus. I would need the actual specs cause usually the box lies. Also if you have auto switcher it starts getting expensive.

 

[jim-00-4.6]

Suburb, nat gas.
The internets are already covered, so I could just stop now.
2 fridges, a freezer & the furnace total around 3Kw. Starting current is obviously higher.

The big draws are the range & the dryer, no air conditioning.
Much of the lighting is LED, lots of glass for natural light.
We don't really use a lot of lights when we're sleeping.
The REALLY important thing is the coffee maker.

7Kw, gas powered, manual cut-over, installed cable (in conduit) from genny to panel, all in is around $1200-$1300.
As an added bonus, I could justify buying some not-legal-for-gasoline-in-US jerry cans. For, you know, not gasoline.

The fridges & freezer are usually full. It'd piss me off a great deal to lose all that.
The other day, we weren't in & out of them cuz the power was off. Besides, couldn't cook anything anyway.
Furnace, fridges, microwave, coffee maker & some lighting.
7Kw works.
I have half a dozen 20# LP tanks in the garage, plus camp cooking stuff. Longer-duration outage I can cook with that.

It's starting to seem like me justifying to myself to do the 7K.
Just wondering if anyone had anything bigger than a Honda hand-carry box.

 

[fishEH]

I bought an 8000watt generator when we were without power for a week back in 2011. It was one of those "I'll take whatever you have on the shelf" situations.


I mounted a 30amp gen socket on the outside of my garage next to my gas meter. It's away from our bedrooms and I can lock it to the meter. From there it goes into my garage where I spliced in another 30amp gen socket. Then it goes into my circuit panel in the back of the garage.


Basically when the power drops out I kill the main breaker(incoming power) along with all the individual breakers. Fire up the Genny and backfeed my panel. Turn on what breakers I need to. Usually lights and fridge/freezer.
It's nice to drink a cold beer while watching TV with the lights on while your neighbors are huddled around candles, LOL.


I don't want to hear any shit about killing linemen, etc. I'm not a retard and my wife knows enough not to touch anything.


When I'm not backfeeding my panel I use that breaker for running my welder/plasma.


A natural gas auto-transfer would be tits but its also a lot of scratch for something that I haven't even used once per year.

 

[jim-00-4.6]

I don't want to hear any shit about killing linemen, etc. I'm not a retard and my wife knows enough not to touch anything.

Which makes me curious about the grid-tied solar systems in my neighborhood. Why didn't I have power from them? Other than the obvious "it was dark outside", but what about the daytime outage?
I guess they just didn't have enough capacity to share.

A natural gas auto-transfer would be tits but its also a lot of scratch for something that I haven't even used once per year.

Accurate.
Depending on where I put the genny, I could either have a reasonably short cable run, or a stupid long run.
Yes, I'm aware of the need to go up a gauge or 2 based on distance.
Either location is away from bedrooms, and I'd build a thing around it anyways.
My panel is outside. A curious Colorado practice.
I'll put the cut-over switch on the inside of the garage wall behind the panel.

 

[az_max]

Which makes me curious about the grid-tied solar systems in my neighborhood. Why didn't I have power from them? Other than the obvious "it was dark outside", but what about the daytime outage?
I guess they just didn't have enough capacity to share.

Grid-tied systems must shut down if there's no power coming from the grid. It's a safety concern that the wires will not all be de-energized if crews are working on them. I understand that if you have enough battery power to run your house, you can connect a transfer box, but most systems don't have battery storage.

 

[toadermcgee]

Grid-tied systems must shut down if there's no power coming from the grid. It's a safety concern that the wires will not all be de-energized if crews are working on them. I understand that if you have enough battery power to run your house, you can connect a transfer box, but most systems don't have battery storage.

The system I have will run a few outlets as that is all I have hooked into it. The inverter can handle 3.5kw, but I only have 980 watts of panels which usually provides 750 to 600 watts. The batteries will provide the 3.5Kw for about an hour before they are spent. I working on making an 24 volt generator to hook up to the batts when needed.

The systems that don't use batteries are useless when the power fails as they use the sin wave from the utility to match and send power back down the line. Nothing coming in and it doesn't know what to do. They are much cheaper but not very useful in my book.

 

[az_max]

...
The systems that don't use batteries are useless when the power fails as they use the sin wave from the utility to match and send power back down the line. Nothing coming in and it doesn't know what to do. They are much cheaper but not very useful in my book.

Those are most of the systems sold or leased around here. My coworker is mulling over the Tesla battery packs or something like 24 4D batteries in a rack for his house. He already owns the solar panels. His Electric bill is pretty much just service charges from APS. Quite impressive for an all-electric home in Phoenix.

 

[Devildog01]

I bought an 8000watt generator when we were without power for a week back in 2011. It was one of those "I'll take whatever you have on the shelf" situations.


I mounted a 30amp gen socket on the outside of my garage next to my gas meter. It's away from our bedrooms and I can lock it to the meter. From there it goes into my garage where I spliced in another 30amp gen socket. Then it goes into my circuit panel in the back of the garage.


Basically when the power drops out I kill the main breaker(incoming power) along with all the individual breakers. Fire up the Genny and backfeed my panel. Turn on what breakers I need to. Usually lights and fridge/freezer.
It's nice to drink a cold beer while watching TV with the lights on while your neighbors are huddled around candles, LOL.


I don't want to hear any shit about killing linemen, etc. I'm not a retard and my wife knows enough not to touch anything.


When I'm not backfeeding my panel I use that breaker for running my welder/plasma.


A natural gas auto-transfer would be tits but its also a lot of scratch for something that I haven't even used once per year.

Whatever lineman murderer.

 

[kennith]

I've got one of these:

https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/powerproducts/models/ef2000isv2

It's enough to run quite a bit, if you're willing to switch things around. Pair that with my Weber Genesis (with several spare cylinders I keep nearby), as well as the Engel, and the odds of me having to actually light wood on fire are very slim indeed.

Honestly, the only thing I can really imagine using the thing for is playing on the computer or watching movies during outages. It sure is quiet, though, and very well made. Made in Japan, too. Very nice.

If you're trying to run a whole house or half of one though, just invest in a damned standby generator. Don't be fucking around; save yourself all the headache, pay out, and ignore the issue from that point forward. It may seem like a lot of money, but you'll have the whole house running like a top when the power goes out with no trouble at all.

Whatever you do, don't by the cheap seasonal shit. Call Honda or Yamaha if you want something portable.

Cheers,

Kennith

 

[jim-00-4.6]

The inverter can handle 3.5kw, but I only have 980 watts of panels which usually provides 750 to 600 watts. The batteries will provide the 3.5Kw for about an hour before they are spent. I working on making an 24 volt generator to hook up to the batts when needed.
.

What batteries do you have?

 

[speeddr2000]

Whatever lineman murderer.

If a line man is relying on some one else to check voltage for them. They aren't going to be a line man for long.

 

[jim-00-4.6]

If anyone doing a tie-in ever asks me if the breaker is off, I always say yes without checking.
You! Out of the gene pool!
Lock out, tag out, jackass.

 

[D Chapman]

I wired a pigtail into my breaker box and used the breaker box as a transfer switch when needed. Just need to remember to cut off the main breaker before plugging the generator in so you don't give the lineman a tingle. Pretty sure this is illegal, but it works. I used a Honda EU3000iS with this set up. The 3000 will run a surprising number of household items before it starts to strain.

In my new home I'm going full back-up. 17Kw with whole house switch is only about $5k installed with pad. I poured my own pad and had a friend install the switch, that saves a lot. The switch is the biggest deal unless you know how to fuck with that shit. I'm like a little bitch when it comes to AC power.