Back-up Generators

[hr3]

The only benifit i can think of for propane or NG over diesel and or gas is the shelf life if the fuel. I dont have to store or swap fuel for my generator as its hooked up to a propane tank..that never goes bad

Agree totally and propane is my primary generator with a gas liquid cooled backing it up.. and someday hope to have a pto or a stand alone diesel unit too.. all on automatic setup..

 

[bigtalker]

Easy to muffle the noise. mine is very quiet

What are the options to muffle the noise further than stock. Thanks. GB

 

[grsthegreat]

What are the options to muffle the noise further than stock. Thanks. GB

mine has a 2" threaded exhaust and it runs thru a car muffler. sunds like an ideling car/truck at full operation

 

[GreatWhitehunter]

I've installed a few of these with real good results. I does take some common sense when loading. What I usually do is make the breakers with a label maker so the Home owner knows which breakers to open.
GenerLink.com - About GenerLink - The easy way to connect a home generator

 

[hr3]

For the generac owners - have you ever done the recommended valve adjustments? I'm interested if you did it yourself or had it done and what was the cost?

Here is what is in the repair manual for adjusting the valves.. It's very easy to do.. .. I hope this comes out ok my scanner isn't liking this computer so I took a pic of it,,

 

[dstig1]

Since most of us have diesel tractors... Why have people not been looking at the diesel gen options...

I have a friend who is in th emiddle of a diesel gen purchase... the unit is on a slab with a 40 gal fuel tank with an auto fuel transfer pump from his home heating oil tank...

Offroad diesel is cheaper by the BTU than propane around here....


Diesel Generator* Diesel generators Hardy Diesel

If you have nat gas, it is a very easy choice. Short of a line explosion next door, when have you ever heard of a nat gas interruption? But power sure goes off. The connection couldn't be simpler and you have an essentially unlimited ability to run without having to run for fuel, ever. And when things are really bad (major hurricane on the coast, for example), finding gas or diesel can be tough - if the roads are even passable.

Propane is similar, IMHO, but isn't just quite as unlimited as Nat gas is. You can run out, but a big tank can be made to last a long time. And it never goes bad, which gas certainly does and diesel will too.

Those are the biggest reasons I see.

 

[Redneck in training]

Joel, I'm curious and you may know this..... I too have a 5500 watt gen set, 8250 starting watts. My water tank has dual 4500 watt heating elements. I didn't think my Gen set would run it but my neighbor was convinced it would and if it didn't, the breaker would trip. So, I made sure all other breakers were off and tried the water heater during my last outage (Irene). Hit the breaker for the water heater and it appeared to run fine. I let it run for an hour to heat the water and was able to take a hot shower.

My thinking is dual 4500 watt heating elements= 9,000 watts which exceeds my gen set. Maybe the elements don't require 9,000 watts to start??

The heating elements are switched in sequence. Top goes on first and when its thermostat turns that off it enables the lower element. Therefore the water heater uses maximum 4500W at any given time or none when hot.

 

[msb1766]

I am having this backup generator installed:15kW Home Generator System - Home Generators by GE Generator Systems

They are ordeing it on tuesday so probably will be installed in a couple of weeks.