How do you prep for future power outages?

[bindian]

Since 2007, I have relied on a 10hp diesel thumper, 7500w generator. It is recoil start. Power went out Feb. 15th at 3pm. I had the cold soaked generator started after waiting 15 minutes between start attempts. I was afraid I would not get it started. I got it started, after having to jump off the tractor to move it out of the barn. Thankfully, something told me to warm up the truck that morning. Two after I ran two extension cords into the horse for heaters and TV and satellite, I wanted a bath. But no water. During the summer when hurricanes come near and the power goes out, I can get water enough for bathes for 6 days from the community water at the top of the hill. Not in the winter. The morning of the 16th, it hit 9 degrees here. Lowest I ever scene. Summer outages do not have cold soaked equipment to deal with. I never shut that thumper down for 6 days until the temp went above freezing. Even when the power came back on.

So when I heard a radio ad for a 22kv Gererac system on sale, I jumped on it. But the company is way behind and I won't get a guy out here until the 25th. No more dealing with cold soaked equipment. It will be using propane, so I need a bigger tank.
hugs, Brandi

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Yes, but when dealing with automatic start and transfer units, I have to show the inspector paperwork verifying the unit can handle multiple loads starting at same time WITHOUT shutting down generator. on my own unit last summer, I had just happened to have fuel guage and monitoring equipment hooked onto my 22kw unit. I was able to see real time numbers. The ac starting previously would bump my unit to 20KW momentarily..... without anything else working. Meaning if i had other big units hooked up and running there could have been an issue. Since than I added a soft start to the ac which dropped startup to about 9kw surge. I did notice that my generator ran for 13 hours, averaged only 5.2 kw and used 19 gal of propane. I only let it run cause my wife had her large quilting group occupying the basement. Happy wife happy life

'Lectrical sorts are ultra conservative. I built a shop a couple years ago, and converted my 200A service to 400A to handle the shop load. The utility company didn't like me installing a 5 hp. air compressor and a 16kw demand water heater because the ampacity of the overhead wire between the transformer and two 200A panels might heat up if everything in the house and shop was turned on at once. It would never happen.

 

[Grumpycat]

My retirement house will have at least 3 Tesla Powerwalls (or equivalent) plus ample solar panels that it will almost be off-grid.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

I really wish people would stop using that TERM, WHOLE HOUSE. It's kind of meaningless for a number of reasons.

One it can mean, that you have a transfer switch for your whole service and a generator that will handle every load in your house and possibly property at the SAME TIME! That would be expensive and possibly cause more problems than it solves. And, do you need to dry clothes and have the hot tub heating during a power outage?

Then it could mean that you have a transfer switch that switches the main service but with a lesser generator, and automatic or manual load managment. That is my preffered choice. In fact, I have a 200 amp automatic ASCO switch, in an electrically heated house, with five buildings and typically use a 7.5 KW generator. In the summer, that's still too big. But every light in every building works, and for me that important. I switch to wood stove in the winter during an outage.

Lol, I don't know what you're objecting to. That's exactly what I have, my entire house, every building (spanning four circuit panels) on the property, every function, comes from the transfer switch next to my generator. WHOLE HOUSE. And it's grrrrrreat! And it causes zero problems.

 

[oosik]

Been out here for 40 years. Longest outage has been 28 hours. That's the ONLY major outage in the 40 years. Otherwise - last outage I can remember - eight or nine years ago - four or five hours. Just keep the frig and freezer shut and cover up with afghans.

We do have two planned outages per year. They each last exactly two hours. Allows electric utility to do any necessary work.

Our Co-Op utility is rated as one of the very best in the nation. Our electric rate is, also, one of the lowest.

 

[check]

We put in a 12.5 kw Isuzu diesel generator in Nov 2012 and redid the two 200 amp breakers with one on automatic start of the generator. It pretty much runs the whole house exclusive of the 4 ton main floor heat pump and one of the hot water heaters. Even the electric clothes drier is on it. Its 60 gallon tank will run for 10 days.

Ralph

Wow, Ralph, 60 gallons in 10 days? That is just amazing! Without shutting it off periodically?

 

[check]

Lol, I don't know what you're objecting to. That's exactly what I have, my entire house, every building (spanning four circuit panels) on the property, every function, comes from the transfer switch next to my generator. WHOLE HOUSE. And it's grrrrrreat! And it causes zero problems.

Yup. We have a whole house (and garage) 17 kw Kohler, and we use it. In fact, the wife and kid tripped the 70 amp breaker on it last summer! Had to explain to them that you can’t be baking, cooking, running the dryer, the HWT, the washer, and the AC all at the same time!

One thing I DON’t like is the fact that it uses about $75 worth of propane a day.

 

[Diggin It]

^^ My 7K portable runs about 8-10 hours on a 6 gallon tank. Not sure how long the 2K would run on a tank that is much smaller. Figure gas prices and availability on 15-20 gallons a day. That's another problem with portables. You have to keep checking on fuel every few hours. If you have any critical needs that make you keep it running full time, you need to top off last thing at night and first thing in the morning.

With a standby, you don't keep to be too concerned with fuel supply unless you go into a multi-day outage. But yes, I can imagine it will bite the wallet. How bad will depend on LP prices at the time.

Another problem I've seen with my portables is that they get very hot and have to be shut down every few hours to cool. Not sure if that will be an issue with the standby.

 

[SylvainG]

From what I've seen, gas tank size is determined to give about 8 hours of running time at 50% capacity.

 

[check]

From what I've seen, gas tank size is determined to give about 8 hours of running time at 50% capacity.

We just got a new Westinghouse 1250/1050 dual fuel, that says in the manual it gets 12 hrs. on the 5 gallon gasoline tank, and I thought that was pretty good (Daugen has the same one.). But that pales in comparison to Ralph’s Isuzu Diesel where he reports 10 days on 60 gallons of diesel (only 6 gal./day!)