Finally bought a small generator.

[5030]

Our new home will be built with standby power ready to go. Our power outages are few, but when you are spending $600k already, what's the difference

I'd not want to see what your mortgage payment is....

 

[andre3k]

I have a 9kw generator that runs my entire home including two ac units. Have soft starts installed on both ac units to lower the inrush current. All lighting inside and outside my home is LED now, so very little current used there. With an interlock installed it makes a world of difference and I saved a lot of money versus buying a standby generator.

 

[yubh8tn]

We have a 13k/15k Westinghouse. Runs the whole house about 6-7 times a year.

 

[EddieWalker]

I always service a generator and run it dry after using it. I also bag the exhaust to keep the daubers out.

I had that happen on my little Honda generator. It wouldn't start and I kept thinking it was a fuel issue. It wanted to start, but it just didn't seem to be getting enough fuel. I messed with it for hours until I noticed the exhaust was plugged up with dirt!!!!!

 

[Cycledude]

After massive storms ripped through western IN last night, I finally bought a 3500W Inverter Generator from HF. It will run almost 24 hours on 5 gallons of fuel.

So far, quite impressed. Easy setup and starting, also very quiet. Rumor says we could be without power for 6 days. Looks like I can keep the freezers running and the air fryer too

Wish I had not waited so long View attachment 808683

Bought the same one about 5 months ago, they had a coupon thing going so I paid $720 , have only put 1-2 hours on it so far. Changed the oil after about 1/2 hour of use. Seems to start very easy when it’s warm outside but not very easy when it’s cold outside. Kinda surprising how heavy the little thing is, if it wasn’t so heavy I’d probably store it inside the house during cold weather to insure it would start Easy when I needed it. I probably should have bought the next smaller size, they are quite a bit lighter so would be much easier to carry by hand and probably would put out enough power for the little I would use it. Power outages have been pretty rare where I live and rarely last more than an hour, about 30 years ago Power was off for about 24 hours because of a serious ice storm.

 

[PJRAM]

We just had a Generac propane generator installed to replace our portable gasoline Honda unit. We wanted something that would run our well, oil burner, fridge and freezer. It is supposed to run 4-5 days at 25% load off of the 250 gallon propane tank.

 

[yubh8tn]

We just had a Generac propane generator installed to replace our portable gasoline Honda unit. We wanted something that would run our well, oil burner, fridge and freezer. It is supposed to run 4-5 days at 25% load off of the 250 gallon propane tank. View attachment 809652

So does that equate to one day at 100% load? Just curious. I am considering a whole house propane unit, but fuel use and the ability to have my propane tank refilled in an emergency are my huge concerns. I am talking a severe storm with power out for several days. Not just a infrequent outage.

 

[PJRAM]

So does that equate to one day at 100% load? Just curious. I am considering a whole house propane unit, but fuel use and the ability to have my propane tank refilled in an emergency are my huge concerns. I am talking a severe storm with power out for several days. Not just a infrequent outage.

They say at 100% load the generator will use 5 gallons per hour. So that would equate to about 2 days. They also say it may overheat and may shut down to cool off.

 

[ponytug]

So does that equate to one day at 100% load? Just curious. I am considering a whole house propane unit, but fuel use and the ability to have my propane tank refilled in an emergency are my huge concerns. I am talking a severe storm with power out for several days. Not just an infrequent outage.

Generac publishes usage tables against loads, and that is the easiest way to sort out how much propane you would need. @PJRAM brings up a good point that full load is not a sustained full load unless you get a Prime power rated generator. (Basically one designed to be on at 100% power all the time, in high heat.)

@grsthegreat is the expert, but I would try to target a generator that can run happily at about 50% when your normal loads are on, but pay extra attention to your AC units and well pump to ensure that your generator has enough capacity to start them up. LRA (startup amperage, aka "locked rotor amperage") can be 3-7 times running power, and your generator will need enough capacity to be able to start the AC. Inverter AC units, aka variable speed (infinitely variable, not three speed) ACs typically have startup currents very close to running currents. My $0.02 is to upgrade your AC when you are installing whole house standby backup power. It makes the load management much easier, and makes the demands on the generator much more reasonable.

I think that you should pretty much count on not getting refilled during an emergency. Firms almost always prioritize getting propane for heating out first. Our local branch of a national propane company told me when I asked that when there is an emergency, they don't fill generator propane tanks as a matter of policy until the the emergency is over and they are caught up with heating fuel deliveries.

You also need to look at the evaporation tables that will de-rate the flow from a propane tank by temperature and load to make sure that when it is cold you can get enough fuel out of the tank. That is mostly a small tank, above ground tank issue. Personally, I would take the longest outage that I had ever seen and double it. (at least)

All the best,

Peter

 

[yubh8tn]

Generac publishes usage tables against loads, and that is the easiest way to sort out how much propane you would need. @PJRAM brings up a good point that full load is not a sustained full load unless you get a Prime power rated generator. (Basically one designed to be on at 100% power all the time, in high heat.)

@grsthegreat is the expert, but I would try to target a generator that can run happily at about 50% when your normal loads are on, but pay extra attention to your AC units and well pump to ensure that your generator has enough capacity to start them up. LRA (startup amperage, aka "locked rotor amperage") can be 3-7 times running power, and your generator will need enough capacity to be able to start the AC. Inverter AC units, aka variable speed (infinitely variable, not three speed) ACs typically have startup currents very close to running currents. My $0.02 is to upgrade your AC when you are installing whole house standby backup power. It makes the load management much easier, and makes the demands on the generator much more reasonable.

I think that you should pretty much count on not getting refilled during an emergency. Firms almost always prioritize getting propane for heating out first. Our local branch of a national propane company told me when I asked that when there is an emergency, they don't fill generator propane tanks as a matter of policy until the the emergency is over and they are caught up with heating fuel deliveries.

You also need to look at the evaporation tables that will de-rate the flow from a propane tank by temperature and load to make sure that when it is cold you can get enough fuel out of the tank. That is mostly a small tank, above ground tank issue. Personally, I would take the longest outage that I had ever seen and double it. (at least)

All the best,

Peter

Great info, thank you.

 

[check]

So does that equate to one day at 100% load? Just curious. I am considering a whole house propane unit, but fuel use and the ability to have my propane tank refilled in an emergency are my huge concerns. I am talking a severe storm with power out for several days. Not just a infrequent outage.

If you haven’t installed the propane tank, yet, get a big Honkin 1000 gallon tank. We have a 500 gallon tank, and we have never come close to running out while using our 17 kW Kohler standby generator. But the longest power outage has been about five days. Interestingly, the gas supply company said that they would be willing to take out our 500 gallon and put in a 1000 gallon tank. My friend who has a fairly steep driveway, did that, and so his propane furnace lasts all winter long without a refill. I’ll have to ask him what his current consumption rate is like on his generator. It is a 22 kW Generac.

Meanwhile, when we built our place in 2002, we had the electrician install an external year plug and a 60 amps generator subpanel connected to it, with the proper lockouts. We then bought a King portable generator that was 6500/5500 W, and it powered what did we needed just fine. Now that we have the 17 kW whole house generator, we consider the portable one as a back up in case, for some reason, the main generator fails.

Interestingly, they did a lot of upgrades to the power pole system here, but we have been getting more power outages than before. It seems that every time there’s any kind of storm, including a rain storm, the power goes out. Fortunately, Hydro One, our power utility, is very well equipped with trucks and personnel, and they fix it up right quick.

 

[5030]

Our Generac standby is diesel powered but we still have 3, 500 gallon propane tanks we own outright so no rent involved plus we can fill with any supplier we want to, based on price per gallon. I usually keep 3 valved off (full at 85%) and run on one.

 

[Oaktree]

If you haven’t installed the propane tank, yet, get a big Honkin 1000 gallon tank. We have a 500 gallon tank, and we have never come close to running out while using our 17 kW Kohler standby generator. But the longest power outage has been about five days. Interestingly, the gas supply company said that they would be willing to take out our 500 gallon and put in a 1000 gallon tank.

Don't know about your gas company, but many around here reserve the option to charge tank rental if you don't use a certain amount of fuel in a year (usually equivalent to the size of the tank). Something to keep in mind if you don't experience a lot of long outages.

Bought the same one about 5 months ago, they had a coupon thing going so I paid $720 , have only put 1-2 hours on it so far. Changed the oil after about 1/2 hour of use. Seems to start very easy when it’s warm outside but not very easy when it’s cold outside. Kinda surprising how heavy the little thing is, if it wasn’t so heavy I’d probably store it inside the house during cold weather to insure it would start Easy when I needed it.

I picked up a similar-size Champion 10, maybe 12 years ago. So far only times I've run it have been semi-annual exercise runs, haven't had a power outage longer than a couple hours since I got it. Got a couple halogen work lights I plug into it for a load. Always starts easily, but I haven't tried it in the cold.
Got it mostly to power the refrigerator and freezer during a summer outage. Nothing I'd really need in the winter.

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I'd not want to see what your mortgage payment is....

It's a cash purchase. We do all of our land/real estate in cash only.

 

[grsthegreat]

So does that equate to one day at 100% load? Just curious. I am considering a whole house propane unit, but fuel use and the ability to have my propane tank refilled in an emergency are my huge concerns. I am talking a severe storm with power out for several days. Not just a infrequent outage.

A 250 gal tank is absolute minimum generac recommends. Most of my customers have 500-1000 gal tanks. mine is a 1000 gal buried tank.

a generator never runs at 100% if sized collectly. Mine runs less than 50% for extended outages. Highest in winter with heated water troughs and heat tape, lower in summer. I have a 22 kw and had a summer outage that lasted about 4 hours. Had 5 ton ac running entire time, lights, refer, freezers, etc and i had a Flo-Pro meter installed to watch actual gas usage. I averaged 1.25 gal per hour. I was amazed that the isoft starter i installed on my ac unit allowed my unit to run at an average of 25% according to my real time genmon monitor unit. The ac used to lug down my generator, but not anymore. It took about 60% off of the starting amp draw.

 

[ultrarunner]

I have a 3K Honda generator. Use it out & about on the property. Allows me to use my heavier corded power tools. In the 40+ years out here - never even once had to use the generator because of a power outage.

Excellent maintenance will provide superior service. Our Co-Op electric utility is the best.

Amazing out in the sparsely populated area compared to the California cities with rolling blackouts and powers safety shutoffs where my 1980’s Honda 5000 continues to keep the lights on.

 

[Joel/ak]

If you haven’t installed the propane tank, yet, get a big Honkin 1000 gallon tank. We have a 500 gallon tank, and we have never come close to running out while using our 17 kW Kohler standby generator. But the longest power outage has been about five days. Interestingly, the gas supply company said that they would be willing to take out our 500 gallon and put in a 1000 gallon tank. My friend who has a fairly steep driveway, did that, and so his propane furnace lasts all winter long without a refill. I’ll have to ask him what his current consumption rate is like on his generator. It is a 22 kW Generac.

Meanwhile, when we built our place in 2002, we had the electrician install an external year plug and a 60 amps generator subpanel connected to it, with the proper lockouts. We then bought a King portable generator that was 6500/5500 W, and it powered what did we needed just fine. Now that we have the 17 kW whole house generator, we consider the portable one as a back up in case, for some reason, the main generator fails.

Interestingly, they did a lot of upgrades to the power pole system here, but we have been getting more power outages than before. It seems that every time there’s any kind of storm, including a rain storm, the power goes out. Fortunately, Hydro One, our power utility, is very well equipped with trucks and personnel, and they fix it up right quick.

Smart keeping the little guy for just in case. My folks had a 20 kw on their house for my mom's medical equipment. Power went out and generac wouldn't start. Made a midnight run to our property to grab the 4500. Bad battery. Tech made it out the next day. Under warranty, I wasn't gonna touch it

If someone chooses a portable, don't just run the engine. Put that thing under a load routinely. I run mine monthly. Throw the switch and I crank either the heat or AC, everything on and even run the air compressor. For atleast an hour every month

 

[i7win7]

Can't make gas, diesel or propane, then solar could be a solution. A large solar gen is basically just a battery. You can recharge it with solar or gas gen. I am using ecoflow equipment (need more solar panels). Their Delta solar gens can start/stop their gas gen to recharge the battery.

Recently survived 4 days without power and only burned 2 gal of gas per day.

 

[ponytug]

Can't make gas, diesel or propane, then solar could be a solution. A large solar gen is basically just a battery. You can recharge it with solar or gas gen. I am using ecoflow equipment (need more solar panels). Their Delta solar gens can start/stop their gas gen to recharge the battery.

Recently survived 4 days without power and only burned 2 gal of gas per day.

I agree, solar is great when the sun shines, but it isn't a panacea, at least for us. We have a solar system with batteries, and this time of year we generate several times our daily load. The battery backup system is great. At most, we hear a small "thunk" as the transfer switch relay drops the grid, and that is the only symptom that we are on backup. Switching back to grid is silent. I have never noticed.

However, we still need sun for power to charge the batteries. Come November through February, we don't generate enough solar power to cover our usage (and we have propane for heat). Last winter, after a solid week of overcast weather, our batteries were only about half full. Then we were hit with a multi day snowstorm that was followed by an outage that had has pinching watts, trying to keep the lights and heat on. We were only recharging a 1-2kWh/day. If we move to heat pumps, our minimum load will go way up. (We get down to 0.2kW pretty easily, with bursts to 1.2kW to run the heat; while a heat pump would run us closer to a 2-3kW sustained usage.)

We still need a generator backup for extended winter storms and for outages due to wildfires, as we know first hand that large fires generate enough smoke to really tank solar production.

I think of it as belt and suspenders.

YMMV

All the best,

Peter

 

[Larry Caldwell]

A friend gave me one of those little Honda 2000 generators too, runs great but I think the stator is bad, I haven't looked at it for a few months ago but apparently it's a thing and about $200 unless anyone has any good deals they know of on the parts... it starts right up but the error light comes on or whatever and there's no voltage output...

I have no idea how to flash the coils on an inverter generator. On my old conventional generators, all you have to do is plug in an offset grinder or drill motor and give it a spin while the engine is running. I doubt very much that would work with an inverter in the way.