Whole house generator

[grsthegreat]

I keep hearing that the prices of propane tanks has skyrocketed. A lot of propane suppliers won’t rent for generator use only, as the refill rate is low. Just my observations

 

[ponytug]

does natural gas or propane make more sense for a whole house generator on a rural property. At this point, I do not have either on the property. Thanks!

As you are in Texas, I would point out that natural gas isn't always available when you want it. E.g. last winter. Recent actions by ERCOT don't give me the warm and fuzzies that it won't happen again.

I would recommend propane, if you don't have natural gas on the property. Buy a big tank, fill it, and connect up your standby generator.

Or go for solar, and add batteries. There are commercial batteries, e.g. Tesla Powerwalls, LG, Enphase, and others, and there are lots of DIY versions made from lead acid, or old electric car batteries, e.g. Prius, Leaf, etc.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Larry Caldwell]

does natural gas or propane make more sense for a whole house generator on a rural property. At this point, I do not have either on the property. Thanks!

Fuel storage is a big consideration. There are a couple big advantages to propane:

1. Propane does not go bad. Even diesel has a limited tank life, though with stabilant and good filters you can keep it around for a few years.

2. Your fuel supply is on-site. I heard that the problem during last winter's ice storm was that the natural gas supplies froze at the well heads before the water could be extracted. I didn't hear that residential supplies were interrupted, but they had to shut down power plants.

 

[PILOON]

Propane won't go bad but the colder it gets the less the tank will provide.
Many bury their tanks to take advantage of ground heat.
Come spring you'll find that many tanks have about 1/3 propane remaining in them.
OK, you can heat a propane tank but when needed for a power outage it's rather counter productive.

 

[grsthegreat]

thats onbe of the reasons i buried mine...that and the fact a 1000 gal tank is mighty ugly outdoors.

question, i have a customer thats looking at purchasing a solar generator. i have no knowlege about these units. shes looking at an ecoflow delts with 160 watt solar panel. there mighty expensive at nearly 1500bucks. just wondering if anyone has used a solar generator.

 

[ponytug]

thats onbe of the reasons i buried mine...that and the fact a 1000 gal tank is mighty ugly outdoors.

question, i have a customer thats looking at purchasing a solar generator. i have no knowlege about these units. shes looking at an ecoflow delts with 160 watt solar panel. there mighty expensive at nearly 1500bucks. just wondering if anyone has used a solar generator.

In an area prone to fires, I think burying a propane tank is a great idea. I know that I wish mine was.

I think that the "solar generators" are really expensive for what you get; a small solar panel and a small battery. But if all you need is to charge a phone or two, and don't want to/can't run a car, or run a generator, it is ok. (Do the math: 160W times six hours of sunshine is less than 1kWh of power. Not a lot. And you need to be able to leave it out somewhere to charge.)

I think most people underestimate their needs until they live through a multi day outage. Sure, I have lived for long times with no power, but that sort of living involves dried or canned food, no phone, kerosene lights, and cold water baths. Not for everyone...

We have solar and are adding large scale batteries, but recently we have had power shut offs of increasing frequency ever year, and just had to face facts that for us grid power was no longer something that we could rely on. Ten or twenty times the price, (before subsidies) but you get AC, freezers, and internet...after subsidies, it can be a lot less, but it depends on where you live. (26% federal credit if paired with solar or wind)

Definitely a YMMV item in my view...

All the best,

Peter

 

[Jchonline]

Bought a 22KW Generac brand new in a crate from someone CL for $4500 and installed it with my electrician. 2 smart switches and a lot of wiring. Works great.
Downside is its NG. NG was dirt cheap, but now its going up in price....
Maybe Ill put some solar panels across the front of my house to show my neighbors I'm woke?

Careful. Some of us are so rural we dont have power from the power company so we need those solar panels!

Now if you have a grid-tied solar system.... I watched a special on the California PG&E utility company that sends a bunch of city dwellers their so called "Net Zero" energy summary so they feel good about themselves "helping" the environment. The dirty secret is they take the total solar produced by their house - the amount they use. If they produce more than they use, then are Net Zero! However, when the sun goes down their homes are run by fossil fuels...which is actually when we usually consume the most electricity. So during the day they sell the excess to Arizona, but at night they have to buy it back at a higher rate! What a crock!

 

[Jchonline]

Our 15kW just tops the batteries off if solar doesnt produce enough...which is only a few days a year. The beauty of it is our house never surges or has a brown/black out. We are always running on either solar excess or batteries. The generator doesnt provide power to anything. It just charges batteries when they get low.

 

[ranger danger]

5 years ago I installed a 10kw MEB803 military tactically quiet generator on my off grid property. Then I installed 6 370w solar panels and 8 Battle Born lithium por4 batteries running through a Victron 3kw inverter. The generator is a Perkins diesel that uses 5 gallons of fuel in 9 hours at full capacity. The genny runs the house and recharges the batteries at the same time when we need it which is about 20 times a year. I have a remote start for it inside the house. All in it cost me about $17k. The generator I got from a government surplus auction site with 34 hours on it for $3800. I feed the generator from a 200 gallon tank with offroad diesel that doubles as a fueling station for the tractor. PG&E can suck rocks!

 

[EddieWalker]

We had a pretty good freeze here and the power was out for a week. A bigger generator might be a good idea and I'm curious bout this one. I'm not sold on Generac and I've always thought of Cummins as being a good brand. Anybody know anything about this generator?

Cummins Power Generation A071Z402 Cummins RS20AC - 20kW Quiet Connect™ Series Home Standby Generator System 200A Service Disconnect

Buy Cummins Power Generation A071Z402 Direct. Free Shipping. Check the Cummins RS20AC - 20kW Quiet Connect™ Series Home Standby Generator System (200A Service Disconnect) ratings before checking out.

www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com