Dargo
Super Member
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2004
- Messages
- 5,974
- Location
- S. IN
- Tractor
- Jinma, Foton, TYM, Belarus, Yanmar, Branson, Montana, Mahindra and maybe some green and orange too.
I only have a small 10k portable generator. It would obviously run a couple of my refrigerators, some lights, etc. I really want to put in a 'whole house' generator setup with an automatic transfer switch. My big "however" is what fuel source to use.
To give some background, I have 800 amp electric service to my place as well as natural gas. I have 4 A/C units and 5 furnaces along with 2 fireplaces. I don't really think I need to be able to replace all 800 amps of service in an outage, but I am spoiled enough to want to be able to run at least a couple of my A/C units; those being 4 ton units each. I also have 2 large freezers and 3 full sized refrigerators running in the house and guest house besides the normal dozen TVs or so, computers and lights.
Now for the part that confuses me some. I do live in an area that is considered part of the New Madrid Fault zone. My thought is that the longest time frame that I may be without power is if we have a massive earthquake. With that being a possibility, I am afraid to go with NG because I think many of the underground natural gas lines may be ruptured and they will be shut off. For propane, I don't have any real desire to have a large propane tank sitting outside anywhere. That leaves diesel. I do have a relatively small, but generally full, 550 gallon diesel tank in one of my barns. Even if it's only half full, that gives me a relatively large amount of diesel fuel on hand in an emergency. For gasoline powered generators, I really haven't seen large ones that run on gasoline nor do I want to keep large quantities of gasoline around the place. Besides it having a comparative short shelf life, it is rather volatile.
So, I ask you guys, what would you do? Besides not being sure what fuel to use, I really don't know what size to get. My guess is that I can probably get by with a 30 to 50k unit, but I don't know. Any ideas?
To give some background, I have 800 amp electric service to my place as well as natural gas. I have 4 A/C units and 5 furnaces along with 2 fireplaces. I don't really think I need to be able to replace all 800 amps of service in an outage, but I am spoiled enough to want to be able to run at least a couple of my A/C units; those being 4 ton units each. I also have 2 large freezers and 3 full sized refrigerators running in the house and guest house besides the normal dozen TVs or so, computers and lights.
Now for the part that confuses me some. I do live in an area that is considered part of the New Madrid Fault zone. My thought is that the longest time frame that I may be without power is if we have a massive earthquake. With that being a possibility, I am afraid to go with NG because I think many of the underground natural gas lines may be ruptured and they will be shut off. For propane, I don't have any real desire to have a large propane tank sitting outside anywhere. That leaves diesel. I do have a relatively small, but generally full, 550 gallon diesel tank in one of my barns. Even if it's only half full, that gives me a relatively large amount of diesel fuel on hand in an emergency. For gasoline powered generators, I really haven't seen large ones that run on gasoline nor do I want to keep large quantities of gasoline around the place. Besides it having a comparative short shelf life, it is rather volatile.
So, I ask you guys, what would you do? Besides not being sure what fuel to use, I really don't know what size to get. My guess is that I can probably get by with a 30 to 50k unit, but I don't know. Any ideas?