Question for Hurricane Area Members

[omrebel]

Sorry, internet went out and it posted to wrong thread.

 

[John_Mc]

I had the main panel on my house wired for a generator hook up. There is a mechanical interlock in the panel so the generator circuit breaker can't be turned on unless the main is off (isolating it from the grid). I can switch on various circuits as needed to manage the load. There is a plug on the outside of the house where I can connect my generator.

I was able to do fine with just a 4500 watt portable gas generator (6000 watt surge). This was enough to keep my fridge and freezer going, some lights, and supply power to my boiler (propane, but need electricity to run the controls and various zone pumps). When I needed to run the pump for our 500 foot deep well, I just shut off the breakers for the freezer and fridge. It does help being in VT, in a well insulated house no real need for AC, and with the ability to use either our wood stove or our boiler as primary heat. Our hot water comes from a loop off the main boiler, so no heavy electrical load for that. We can cook in our microwave (which is also a convection oven) or in our toaster oven.

I did add a propane conversion kit to the generator (about $150, if I recall), which allows me to run off either propane or gasoline. We have a 500 gallon buried propane tank, which is oversized for our needs (in a year when I don't run the wood stove much, I use about 650 gallons of propane for the year. For longer outages, I can connect the generator directly to the 500 gallon tank.

My original generator was fried by a lightning strike a few years ago (it was not in use at the time, but an extension cord up to our treehouse was plugged into it). I replaced it with a Honda 5500 watt continuous generator. I have the propane conversion kit for it, but have not installed it yet.

Frankly, I have no interest in going larger on the generator. It does not take a lot of fuel, and we can get by indefinitely on it. Sure, we'll know the power is out, but we really don't care. We're interested in emergency survival and protecting our home from damage, not living in luxury.

 

[CalG]

Just what do you need electricity for when all the communication lines are down?

Charge your cell phone?

 

[John_Mc]

A word of warning:

A lot of portable generators out there - including some advertised as being good for "emergency backup power" - have very dirty power: a Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of 20% or more. The max recommended for use with electronics is around 5 or 6%. You may think "big deal, so I can't watch my TV". The problem is that most modern heating systems have electronic controls. Some of these simply won't run on such dirty power. Make SURE your critical systems will run on whatever generator you buy.

 

[two_bit_score]

A word of warning:

A lot of portable generators out there - including some advertised as being good for "emergency backup power" - have very dirty power: a Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of 20% or more. The max recommended for use with electronics is around 5 or 6%. You may think "big deal, so I can't watch my TV". The problem is that most modern heating systems have electronic controls. Some of these simply won't run on such dirty power. Make SURE your critical systems will run on whatever generator you buy.

What is the best way to make sure of that?

 

[coobie]

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.

Being a retired electric lineman (38 years)I had the chance to see and hear a lot of generators.We ended up buying a 17KW whole house propane generator.Purchased a portabale honda 2000 watt for work around the yard.

 

[thepumpguysc]

Mine is an old "Power Back 5250 run".. I think its 6000 surge, it runs the whole house except the stove..
10hp Tecumseh motor that I converted to electric start for 100.00 w/ parts from ebay.. toothed flywheel & starter.. I just hook up my jump box for a second, direct to the starter.. no battery to maintain.. & I'm up & running.. total time without power>> 15 minutes MAX..
It'll run 9hrs on a tank of fuel & has a low oil shut down system on it.. You can pick them up for around 250.00/300.00 on Craigs List.. all day long..
I'm looking for a larger one w/ duel fuel..but cant seem to find a 10K watt for under a grand..

 

[aczlan]

Just what do you need electricity for when all the communication lines are down?

Charge your cell phone?

Keeping freezers/fridges cold, AC/heat running (depending on the area and season), water pressure up (if on a well), hot water hot, etc, etc, etc.

Aaron Z

 

[oosik]

Been here 35+ years - never once had to run my generator to keep things going. Longest power outage - 21 hours. Power provided by excellent co-op and we don't experience extremes of wx here.

 

[John_Mc]

What is the best way to make sure of that?

Best way to check on THD is to find it in the manual or ask the manufacturer. I've found that the harder the information is to pry out of someone, the more likely it is to be a problem. THD tends to go up the more heavily loaded and generator is. Beware of manufacturers who "you did THD at 50% load, or don't tell you at what % load the rating was made. If the answer is "that specification is not available", you are likely either talking to a dealer who doesn't know his stuff or is too lazy to find out, or the rating is so bad there embarrassed to make it public.

For example, Generac GP series does not publish the THD spec. If you ask them, they'll just say "it's over 6%." If you push hard enough they'll eventually tell you it's something like 23% went at full load. That stinks. Some of their higher end generator lines are quite good, however.

Every inverter based generator I have ever seen has better power quality than the grid. They are rather expensive, however, And their search capacity tends to be lower.

Other specs to look at other specs to look at are frequency stability and voltage regulation. Frequency should be within plus/minusa couple hertz throughout the specified load range. I'm not sure what and " officially acceptable" voltage range is. I'd like to see mine between 110 and 130 VAC. I've noticed that a lot of portable generators tend to be set towards the high-end of that range. That's probably not a bad thing, since they often tend to be used with long extension cord's which can cause some voltage drop.