Portable Generator for temp power outages.

[Sawyer Rob]

I thought of that but running my tractor at 2600 rpm for hours made me cringe both for the tractor and the fuel consumption.

Do you honestly think your tractor wasn't designed to run at pto speeds for hours and hours??? IF mine wasn't, I send the terd down the road!

Secondly, how much fuel do you think your tractor would use? I'm betting it would use less than you would think.

SR

 

[Popgadget]

The PTO option is the best one in my opinion. I have a 25kw PTO as a backup to a 22k propane automatic. Largely because my wife insisted on having a seamless transition, and didn’t want to hook up the tractor if I wasn’t home.
I wouldn’t hesitate to run the tractor as long as was required, I would guess that it costs less to run than the propane one.

 

[Diggin It]

Hours and hours is one thing. Days and days is another.

Not sure why this keeps coming up. The PTO option may be OK for some, but it isn't for all. If you have several tractors, maybe you can afford to commit one to a single task like this.

 

[EddieWalker]

We woke up this morning with the power out and 8 inches of snow with 8 degrees F Temps.

We have 20 baby chicks in our feed room out at the barn. My wife said that we have to get them into the house to keep them warm.because there is no power for their heat lamps. I started up the little Honda generator on the 5th pull and ran my 2 longest extension cords out to the barn. Heat lamps are on and I have another heater under a metal chicken waterer.

I have another extension cord into the house to keep.our phones charged, make coffee, and now that coffee is done, my wife is steaming eggs for our dogs breakfast. 4 of them get a couple hard boiled eggs with their crockpot food, the other one prefers raw eggs over her food.

Our BBQ is propain and it's on wheels, so I moved it closer to the back door so we can fry some eggs for our breakfast.

This part of Texas is shut down from the snow. Maybe a lot of Texas is shut down? We have plenty of heat from our wood stove, but no internet, but good cell service so far.

I can see where a bigger generator would be better, but just having this small Honda is a life saver in so many ways. Small is better then nothing.

 

[Diggin It]

^^^ They're saying rolling blackouts across affected areas, but not for how long or how often.

 

[Citydude]

We woke up this morning with the power out and 8 inches of snow with 8 degrees F Temps.

We have 20 baby chicks in our feed room out at the barn. My wife said that we have to get them into the house to keep them warm.because there is no power for their heat lamps. I started up the little Honda generator on the 5th pull and ran my 2 longest extension cords out to the barn. Heat lamps are on and I have another heater under a metal chicken waterer.

I have another extension cord into the house to keep.our phones charged, make coffee, and now that coffee is done, my wife is steaming eggs for our dogs breakfast. 4 of them get a couple hard boiled eggs with their crockpot food, the other one prefers raw eggs over her food.

Our BBQ is propain and it's on wheels, so I moved it closer to the back door so we can fry some eggs for our breakfast.

This part of Texas is shut down from the snow. Maybe a lot of Texas is shut down? We have plenty of heat from our wood stove, but no internet, but good cell service so far.

I can see where a bigger generator would be better, but just having this small Honda is a life saver in so many ways. Small is better then nothing.

Don't forget to drip faucets that aren't within the heating area of the wood stove.

 

[tibadoe]

I run a Generac GP17500E. Pretty hefty for a portable - would hate to have to move it very far or very often. Got it for home power outages and powering my welder when needed. Wired up a manual transfer switch and it takes 5 minutes from roll out to throwing the switch. Powers entire home with exception of electric heat. Use the gas logs or wood stove and all is good.

Thought for sure I would need it for this past ice storm over the weekend. Got 5/8" ice with lots of power outages and trees down in our area. But we made it through with little damage (compared to others) and no loss of power. Some in our county and surrounding areas will be without power for a good week or more. I feel for them.

I did notice that once we got the generator we hardly loose power anymore. Guess it murphy's law kicking in.

 

[grsthegreat]

8” of snow up here doesn’t even stop traffic. But add ice and that’s a different puppy. We have had many ice storms over the years. Lots of power lines down. One local utility even had 2 helicopters fly low over the power lines to get rid of excessive ice buildup a few years back.

 

[PILOON]

I'm at the end of the line in a rural setting so we see all too many outages.
Usually the average is about 4 hours but once it lasted 4 days.
I have a gas unit 9000 start/7 run hooked up via a manual transfer box.
Runs my sewage pump, water supply fridge and freezer plus a few household circuits.

For cooking I have an induction hot plate and the microwave.
Bonus is that I can run internet and TV for distraction.
For heat I use 2 ceramic heaters and my slow combustion fireplace.

So far so good!

Were I younger I'd probably consider a fully automatic diesel whole house system but that time's is past.

To identify the genny powered outlets I found LED indicated outlet splitters at the local dollar store. Nice handy gadget.

 

[EddieWalker]

Apparently somebody decided it was a good idea to rely on windmills for part of our power supply here in Tezas. Now we have learned that when windmills freeze, they do not generate electricity. Now we are waiting for them to thaw out enough to start spinning again.

^^^ They're saying rolling blackouts across affected areas, but not for how long or how often.