You might already know this but you'll get better efficiency if you replace your 7812 by a buck converter. But why the 7812? It regulates from 14V-35V to 12V which is above what a 12V deep discharge battery will give you. You would be better off with a boost converter so when the battery voltage drops below 12V when discharging, it will still provide that 12V supply you need to power your modem.A UPS is a necessity if I want to keep my internet and phone up. My modem/router requires a 12 volt supply, so I have a battery tender on a 12 volt deep cycle battery in the garage, I run it through a 7812 voltage regulator, and a couple caps and fuses. The internet sails through any power dropouts with no interruptions. Cell phones and a tablet double as a computer. Of course, if the lines go down I'm on my own; no cell service at my house, but the cell phones work great VOIP. And no feeking noise box generator.
![]()
IC 7812 Voltage regulator Pin and Circuit Explained
The IC 7812 voltage regulator is commonly used as the regulated power supply in electronic circuits upto the voltage 12 V.eeeproject.com
If we had an extended power outage that coincided with a deep freeze, then the barn usage could peak at around 5000 watts. That would cover the water heaters, a few lights, and a 3500 watt tack room heater that we run enough to keep water pipes from freezing. The general guidance from the installer to us was, "Don't run the clothes dryer and the oven at the same time." I would be inclined to include the tack room heater in that grouping. Our generator is 22KW.whats the load on the barn. my barn has about 600 watts of heat for water tank heaters. its hooked onto the house generator. not an issue.
I guess if you have lots of money or aren't "cheap" then bigger is better. But if you can have a little diesel keeping you out of the dark, warm showers and hot food, fridges/freezers kept cold AND there isn't any appreciable fuel cost adding up day after day in extended outages, well that's my cup of tea.
Mine IS whole house. It 20kw NG that takes over everything including detached garage & shop. There is nothing we cannot use today that we can't when on internal power. It was sized that way.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.
I could always add a tanking circuit to the front end, but a 12v. battery has to discharge a ways to drop below 12v. I did a 24 hour test and it worked fine.You might already know this but you'll get better efficiency if you replace your 7812 by a buck converter. But why the 7812? It regulates from 14V-35V to 12V which is above what a 12V deep discharge battery will give you. You would be better off with a boost converter so when the battery voltage drops below 12V when discharging, it will still provide that 12V supply you need to power your modem.
You can drop a kw off your load by swapping the 4600w elements in the water heater to 3600w elements. Recovery is slower, but if your hot water demand is low, it will work fine.On WHOLE house power.
We once were out of power for 4 days and I desperately wanted/needed to shower.
Decided even cold water would suffice.
To my surprise that water was still actually very comfortably hot. OK I did not need to mix hot/cold but sure nice.
In my situation I wanted mainly to save all my food (2 fridges and a 22 CF freezer) plus very basic creature comforts, like some light, water and basic cooking.
However with my 1000 watt genny I have that plus more than expected.
Reminds me of my last water heater failure. Unfortunately a generator didn't help with that. A number of days followed where I heated my water on the stove for bathing in whatever way made best use of a couple gallons of heated water. Now I'm always mentally casting suspicous glances at the new water heater.On WHOLE house power.
We once were out of power for 4 days and I desperately wanted/needed to shower.
Decided even cold water would suffice.
To my surprise that water was still actually very comfortably hot. OK I did not need to mix hot/cold but sure nice.
In my situation I wanted mainly to save all my food (2 fridges and a 22 CF freezer) plus very basic creature comforts, like some light, water and basic cooking.
However with my 1000 watt genny I have that plus more than expected.