Hey guys, thanks for the thoughts and feedback.
Mickey Fx I have a propane fireplace at this house. I love real fireplaces, the smell of burning wood in the house, but too many headaches at this point. For now, I値l do without, but maybe in the future I値l revisit this option.
Travelover I don稚 plan on heating my house electrically over the winter, just for power outages. As I mentioned above, I have a propane fireplace, which is ok for heating. I live in the burbs near Montreal. If we have a long power outage, the propane would cost me more than the diesel for my tractor, and would give me less heat than I probably get from heating through a 10 KW generator.
Iplayfarmer I couldn稚 agree with you more. Getting a bigass dedicated generator is a big expense, requires maintenance, and will be idle 99% of the time. The PTO genny makes so much sense because the tractor, being that it is like a Swiss Army utility knife around my place, is always being used and maintained, and would always be ready to go.
Dargo I have changed my stripes to. In my teens and twenties, camping in a tent was a blast. I am 50 now and my idea of roughing it, better have air conditioning
brandoro As I stated above to Travelover, I live about 30 minutes from Montreal.
To what Soundguy and other ask, what do I need during a power outage? I guess I could get by with nothing, many people do. And having a couple of things running is better than nothing. Fact is many people take electricity for granted, at least I do, until there is a power failure. Then it is a PIA. if your unlucky and it痴 out for more than a day, it痴 a major PIA. I went through the major outage the winter of 1999/2000 when we had the ice storm here in Quebec and the big steel girder electrical towers were collapsing from the ice accumulation. I was luckier than some with power out only 4 days, but some were out up to a month, with our winters, not a good situation.
I already have the tractor and want to see what my options are. It didn稚 occur to me till I read some of the responses that my BX has a 23HP engine, but at the PTO it is only 18HP (17.7 according to the Kubota site). From the response and a couple of searches, I guess a 10KW would be the biggest I could go with.
I know diesel engines are beefier and stronger engines than most gas engines, and as far as I know Kubota makes a decent engine. Any thoughts from people on having to run one of these full throttle for extended period of time? If the power was out for say a week, running at full throttle, and at fueling times maybe giving it a 30 to 60 minute break, doing the proper oil change and so on; you think it would hold up ok?
AS A FOOTNOTE to Travelover痴 comment about the propane heater. My propane fireplace is built in with the house and vented outside. Anyone ever think of using a propane or any combustible material type heater in your house during a power outage, think again. During that ice storm there were many reports of people being found unconscious or even dead, because they used these heaters inside their house and had all the windows and doors closed. They sucked all of the oxygen from the air and people passed out unconscious and if left long enough, died from asphyxiation.
