All electric house and a generator

[Code54]

Thanks for the info. Just had a brand new furnace and heat pump put in last year so it is fairly efficient.
We looked at propane heat but the cost different was not worth it as our electric rates are not too bad and we really rarely run the "emergency" heat (aka heat strips).
I don't have a well so that helps me there and the water heater was going to be a load shed so that also should help. I do have a wood stove that can help heat the house if we end up having to totally bypass the heat strips which would be fine if we need to do that. Another interesting idea was to shut off one bank of heat strips and just run 7.5kw of the strips so it would be doable with a 20kw generator.

 

[ultrarunner]

I go through about 50 gallons a year for each 150kW back diesel at the hospital... the biggest tank I was permitted to put in is 200 gallons... a double containment belly tank...

The city said this is sufficient to allow for refueling... at least my diesel has never become stale... never have less than 100 gallons on hand per genset...

The 150kW backup is rated at 125kW prime.
]
We have an agreement with the municipal corporation yard to furnish diesel should a disaster be declared... crazy... I know.

 

[grsthegreat]

GRS - great post. Out of curiosity, what fuel storage capacity do you recommend for those large units? The only large generator I ever was involved with was a 100kw backup power for a 40,000 sf. medical research facility, and that would not run the chiller. It had a 5000 gallon diesel tank, or about 50 gallons/kw. Of course it was designed to run 24/7 during a regional power outage with a critical load, so that is overkill for home use, but from my experience a gallon of fuel will provide a full kw for about 2 hours, 4 hours at 50% load, so a 22 kw unit would require between 135 and 270 gallons of fuel if you wanted to run it for a week. I don't have a diesel generator, so don't know how efficient they are.

Since its an emergency backup system, i personally would not use less than a 250 gal tank as you might not get a winter delivery here where i live. Most of my customers op for 500 gal tanks. I went with 1000 cause now i can fill it in fall when prices of propane are at the lowest rate, and coast thru the winter. It also depends on what other gas appliances you have. I heat with wood, but there are lots of times i let the gas furnace take over as im too tired to deal with the firewood. My system also includes 2 gas water heaters and a gas dryer.

 

[MossRoad]

I go through about 50 gallons a year for each 150kW back diesel at the hospital... the biggest tank I was permitted to put in is 200 gallons... a double containment belly tank...

The city said this is sufficient to allow for refueling... at least my diesel has never become stale... never have less than 100 gallons on hand per genset...

The 150kW backup is rated at 125kW prime.
]
We have an agreement with the municipal corporation yard to furnish diesel should a disaster be declared... crazy... I know.

Geez, that's not much fuel on hand for a hospital at all! A local TV/Radio station has a couple thousand gallon tank. And what'll the headlines be the day they use it??? Entire town without power.... WE KNOW!!! :laughing:

 

[ultrarunner]

At the time we built the municipality had implemented new restrictions on storage of Diesel Fuel... if we went over the threshold all kinds of rules kicked in... the idea is we could order fuel from the corporation yard...

For decades we tested weekly under load and now every other week to comply with testing limits imposed...

 

[Code54]

Wow, 50 gallons is nothing, I have that much around the house for the tractors.....

 

[RalphVa]

We put in a 12.5 kw Isuzu diesel generator about 4 years ago. It powers essentially the whole house, and my wife even used the clothes drier during one outage. Our electrician replaced the one 200 amp panel with a Generac (think it's called Genetron or something like that, owned by Generac) one with auto transfer switch. It also has 6 circuits on load control. That clothes drier is one of them.

It runs essentially all the house equipment but the main 4 ton heat pump. We have upstairs heat pump (with emergency coil locked out via the thermostat; before that there were a couple relays that locked out the coil) and basement ductless heat pump on the generator. One electric hot water heater is on the generator (on one of those load control circuits).

It's run about 15 minutes every 2 weeks. Uses about 2.5 gallons/yr of diesel unless we have a power failure. There's a 60 gallon tank; so, it'll run a long time at 0.2 gallons/hr usage. I actually make up about 1/2 the tractor fuel from its tank and replenish once it gets down 15-20 gallons about once/yr.

Finally got to the 50 hour oil change mark this year. No other maintenance other than keeping it clean. Have a battery tender on the battery. It runs LCD screens on both the generator and the circuit breaker box. Definitely need a good battery tender. Tried a solar powered one for a while: not enough. Has to be an outside rated battery tender, too. Had an inside one fail, even though it had the cover to the power outlet outside covering it.

Got the Isuzu from the diesel outfit up in Maine. Good unit except for insufficient rust proofing of the cover. Have sense treated it and repainted some.

Ralph

 

[ultrarunner]

Wow, 50 gallons is nothing, I have that much around the house for the tractors.....

Yep about 50 gallons annually per genset from each 200 gallon belly tank.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Since its an emergency backup system, i personally would not use less than a 250 gal tank as you might not get a winter delivery here where i live. Most of my customers op for 500 gal tanks. I went with 1000 cause now i can fill it in fall when prices of propane are at the lowest rate, and coast thru the winter. It also depends on what other gas appliances you have. I heat with wood, but there are lots of times i let the gas furnace take over as im too tired to deal with the firewood. My system also includes 2 gas water heaters and a gas dryer.

Yeah, I figure 250 gallons would give about a week's continuous run on a 22kw genset. When we were farming we had a 1000 gallon above ground tank for the tractors and 500 gallons for the furnace. Back then they were essentially the same fuel. Now that low-sulfur is universal, the new motor oils don't buffer the sulfuric acid as well, so if you run stove oil in the generator be sure to change oil more often.

 

[elisagrace]

You can get arrange it second hand also.