Question for Hurricane Area Members

[zzvyb6]

As the dust settles in Houston and the water is rising in Florida, I would eventually like to know what home generator configurations have worked out the best. There has been a debate about this for as long as I can remember. What are the success and failure stories from the
hurricaine and tropical storm areas)?

Tractor PTO -(But you need the tractor to clear wreckage, trees, stabilize buildings, whatever. Don't want the motor running for so many hours, etc).

Small gasoline powered generator - (Tractor is free but gasoline not available, not enough power for long term needs)

Small diesel generators - (Are there a lot of these models handy to operate ?)

Large diesel generators - (storage, fuel stability, fuel availability)

Natural gas generators - Status of natural gas or propane supply

Solar battery charging systems (is there enough power to have a life for a few weeks with batteries ?)

Wind turbines - Enough power (after the fact of course. Would they survive 100+ mph winds) ?

Multiple power systems - Cost & maintenance of lots of equipment, multiple fuels, cable and plug sizes, storage of this equipment.

 

[houstonscott]

During hurricane Ike I used my Yamaha 2000. Ran for three days at my home then another two weeks at a friends. Kept the refrigerator and freezer going. Ran tv and a few lights. As far as gas, what I found was I had all the fuel needed in the cars. I owned three cars, drove one and took fuel from other two cars fuel tanks. Fuel supply's come back fast, not really an issue.

 

[rustyshakelford]

It comes down to frequency of expected use and budget. To me the best all around is a natural gas whole house generator of 17-22 kw minimum with an auto transfer switch. For us, we don't have NG so I use my Miller bobcat efi welder at 12kw to run the appliance and the small ac unit for bedrooms. It's set up in my shop out of the elements with a switch.

What im shopping for though is a larger diesel generator atleast 50kw and set that up permanently in the shop. We have bulk diesel on site and I wouldn't have to worry about the fuel going bad.

Brett

 

[wagne223]

I 've lived in FL my whole life. When the storm come I'm usually without power for 5-7 days.
No NG or propane on site.

I also like to keep things simple.

So, I have a generator feed into my main load center. All to code. The load center has a generator breaker that cannot be turned on until the main is off.

No auto switch. Just make the correct cord to connect gen to gen connect on house.

You have to load manage.
I use a 5000 watt construction generator.
I run, refrigerator, chest freezer, window AC plus misc lights TV, ect.

When the well tank is empty from flushing, I turn off every thing else and run the pump.

When it is time for showers I turn off every thing else and turn on the water heater for 30 mins to heat up. Then off with that and back on with the well pump.

You get the idea.

It would be nice to have a 20k watt with auto switch but that is not practical for me.

 

[vsteel]

I did a lot of research on past storms and a lot of it depends on what you have at hand, how you work, how you want to live, and geographic region.

1. How much power do you need? Need to run an electric heater, well pump, sump pump, water heater, AC, or other things?
2. How much inconvenience are you going to put up with and then take a realistic look at your budget. One extreme is you don't even want to know the power is out other than a small LED blinking or barely hearing the generator run. That option is going to take a lot of fuel and require an expensive generator and setup. Maybe you just want power to keep the freezer and refrigerator from spoiling the food. That is going to be the super cheap solution and won't require near the fuel.
3. Do you have a place that makes sense for solar or wind? Some places no matter what are not good for one or both so they are not practical.
4. How is your fuel supply (on location storage), how stable is your natural gas supply, do you have enough pressure and volume of NG to run a generator? Do you run a lot of things from propane or just have a tank for the generator, the more of a regular customer you are the higher you are going to be on the refill list. How soon does fuel supply come back? How soon does power come back?
5. Do you have a tractor(s)? Do you have fuel for them? Are you going to need them so you can't run the generator? Do you have multiple so one can be making power while the other is working? Do you care if there are times you would not have power because the tractor is busy? How reliable are the tractors?
6. How much power do you really need and what level of inconvenience are you willing to put up with during a power outage?
7. How mechanically adept are you? I ask because there are going to be people say I built this generator or I bought a non running military generator got it running and it works great for cheap. Do you have the mechanical skills, time, or desire to follow the more manual but cheaper path?

It is really going to come down to your personal situation and what you have and what you are willing to put up with. I personally did go with the PTO generator option for the following reasons.

1. I have 2 tractors so I can run the generator on gas or diesel, though when I bought the generator I only had the diesel tractor. This gives me a liquid cooled engine and it is always taken care of so ready to run.
2. I can have a lot of clean reliable power for cheap and there isn't another engine that I need to take care of. For the price of a PTO generator I couldn't touch a good quality generator of the same output.
3. Hours on the tractor? LOL, tractors are good for thousands of hours. Heck the old 1951 Oliver 77 I have used to farm 200+ acres for years and years by itself. I can remember my dad plowing for 2 weeks solid from dawn to dusk and that isn't counting the disking, rod weeding and planting along with the haying it would do as well. If the Oliver 77 or the John Deere 2320 have issues with even a couple of hundred hours more on them then I need to get rid of them and get a real tractor that is made to work.
4. I am OK if I need the tractor to not have power for a bit and I do have fuel storage to give me a lot of power for quite a while.

 

[bmg88201]

I have Kohler generator hard wired to my house, it sits on a small concrete slab and runs off the NG line that supplies my home, as soon as I lose power it kicks on. I think NG has a better chance of being available during a disaster. It runs my entire home. Delivered and installed for approx. $5500. It also starts up by itself once every three months and runs for 15 minutes. I service it once a year. It is 9 years old and is trouble free.

 

[s219]

I did a lot of research and planning and ended up with a 22kW water-cooled diesel unit (Isuzu diesel engine, Mecce Alte generator head, manual start and switchover). Going through that planning process tells me that everybody will have different factors and would arrive at some other unique setup based on their situation.

As I remember it, one of the key factors going diesel was that we don't have natural gas here, and have no other need for propane. Since I would not be a regular propane customer (ie, not getting refills on a normal basis) I would have had to buy the propane tank outright, pay for installation, and be responsible for all maintenance, leaks, etc. Big difference from a normal customer who either gets a tank installed for free or rents it, with full maintenance coverage, for mere dollars a month. Taking into account the cost of the tank/etc caused the propane options to price themselves out of contention.

Another consideration on the larger units is water-cooled versus air-cooled. For example, you can buy a ~14kW Generac gas/propane generator in an air-cooled 3600rpm configuration or a water-cooled 1800rpm configurations. The latter costs about twice as much, but should last longer and run quieter. Is that enough to justify the extra cost?

Finally, do you want an automatic transfer switch, load shedding, etc, or have full manual control?? All have pros and cons. You can always start off with a manual setup and add those other options later (as I may consider when I get older and put more value on convenience).

 

[s219]

BTW, the flaw with any of these generator options is the vulnerability of the generator or fuel tank/source during a hurricane. A tree could flatten my generator shed and I'd be out of business. Other people are at flood risk. Put some thought into how you can protect the generator and fuel tank/source from various storm hazards.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Around here the most popular fuel source for heating is home heating oil and the gold standard for generators is a diesel generator plumbed right into the fuel oil tank. When I buy fuel oil the invoice I get from the oil company says "diesel oil" on it, they are the same thing here. (I realize in some places they aren't).

I've lived places where natural gas was the dominant heating fuel and there the gold standard was a natural gas powered generator. Whatever you use for heat -- so long as it isn't electricity or solar.

 

[TheMan419]

Don't live in hurricane country but in lake effect snow country. We have a gasoline powered generator.

When I bought it we were in a different house and setting up a natural gas one would have been big bucks. Now at the new house it would have been a snap. So if/when it is time to replace this gen set I hope to be in a position to do the whole house I don't even realize the power went out set up.