Comparison Home Stand By Generators

dave1949 · Dec 12, 2014

K man said:
Nothing wrong with the installation it was all approved by the propane supplier ( tank 10 feet away from generator) and far from the nearest house window not carport. As for overhand I don't see what the problem is. I have snow guards above the whole side of the house so no snow will fall and bury tank or generator. Also eave through over generator. Not sure what your laws are in the U.S but here in Canada this installation is approved. Was also install according to Generac specs in their installation instructions.

Approved or not, you voluntarily put an ignition source (the generator) and a fuel source (the tank) in close proximity to your building. Ignition and fuel are what home fires are all about.

If you have a house fire the propane tank will be involved. Those tanks can take a lot of heat from a fire but they do burn sometimes and fire crews do train on how to extinguish them. They tend to shoot flames upward from the relief when they do burn and will ignite anything above them like overhangs.

If your generator fuel system has a problem and catches fire, it could easily spread to your building.

However small the chances of those things happening is, you could greatly reduce or eliminate them with more space. The propane supplier, Generac, the building code writers, nor the inspector are going to replace your burned home or come to put out the fire.

Think about LP or NG gas lines running through buildings. It's 'safe' and approved but every now and then a building is blown to smithereens. That may be considered an unavoidable risk, an extremely small risk, or a risk that is offset by a benefit. You are accepting risk that could be avoided. Extremely small does not equal zero--especially if you are the non-zero. What benefit do you get in return for taking that risk? There is the difference.

Propane Tank Distance Rules and Requirements

K man · Dec 12, 2014

well, I sure am glad that I am not as paranoid about it as you are lol. I have seen many generators installed that way and never heard of any catching fire and burning a house down yet. I know what you mean in one way and not in another. I will talk to people who install generators and a fire man that I know and see what they think about my installation. If I have to move the tank away from the house then will no big expense there. Thanks for caring

dave1949 · Dec 12, 2014

K man said:
well, I sure am glad that I am not as paranoid about it as you are lol. I have seen many generators installed that way and never heard of any catching fire and burning a house down yet. I know what you mean in one way and not in another. I will talk to people who install generators and a fire man that I know and see what they think about my installation. If I have to move the tank away from the house then will no big expense there. Thanks for caring

You are welcome. I only mentioned it so that you can make the best choices for yourself.

Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Murphy never sleeps.

daugen · Dec 12, 2014

KMan, Dave is a fireman and sees, hopefully not too many times in his life, the utter
devastation, death and destruction caused by home fires. Plus the firemen who get killed fighting them.
So any little thing you can do to reduce the risk of fire in your home is, to most firemen, a really sensible thing. Now not all firemen are smart. Dave we all know is very smart.

After a bad fire, if you could hear the anguish, I guarantee that you would not think Dave paranoid.
Now he can answer his own questions here, but as a fellow fireman, and a retired home town insurance agent who saw too many homes destroyed both by fire and water, well, I've heard too much of it.
Three dead little kids in my home town many years ago who even with a smoke detector could not get out due to not having a second exit or a chain escape ladder. No second means of egress? Better have an escape ladder or reliable device.

stepping back, I don't think you will hurt yourselves taking all the little precautions mentioned. Now how many of them you want to ignore for your own good or not good reasons is anyone's prerogative, but I do think the likelihood of getting hurt or starting a fire cannot help but increase. Firemen don't like that. Too protective.

Did I get it right Dave?

buickanddeere · Dec 12, 2014

Iirc the later direct drive Generac units with horizontal shafts are more durable. Some earlier Generacs were vertical shaft with a V belt drive.
As with any generator. An undersized/overloaded generator is going to fail early. Better to size to 80% max continuous load on the gen set.

dave1949 · Dec 12, 2014

Did I get it right Dave?

Pretty close. Drew, I am not a trained fireman, I'm an old guy who helps out at the local VFD.

By bureaucratic necessity and truly useful reasons, we get training sessions on a variety of things from how to rescue a person who has fallen through ice, how to deal with hazardous material spills or fires, to how to deal with crashed electric vehicles that can electrocute responders. I have been through the live training exercise of extinguishing real burning propane tanks. Being a skilled and knowledgeable fireman ready for whatever happens is more complex than most people realize I think and I don't claim to meet that standard by any means.

You sure don't want to experience a house fire of course. Anything that reduces the chance of a fire or the severity of the fire works in your favor. It is a situation where people can make their own luck--good and bad.

Garandman · Dec 13, 2014

We put ours on the far side of the garage. Can't hear it unless you listen.

buickanddeere · Dec 13, 2014

In the nuclear and aviation industry. The best kind of hazard control is that you get rid of hazards. Either the hazard is moved far enough away is can not do harm or something else less hazardous is used. Eg remote location of gen set down wind of structures. Or housing the gen set in a large metal building instead of a small wooden building. Use a non flammable solvent cleaner instead of a flammable solvent etc. as previously stated, Murphy never sleeps.

ultrarunner · Dec 13, 2014

My uncle built a concrete block "Bunker" for his genset 25 years ago and it has worked out well... plenty of circulation and combustion air and it is not going to burn because even the roof is concrete with sod on top.