Generator advice

[Larry Caldwell]

I just bought 10 gallons of gas for my mother and stabilized it. If she gets through the winter with no power outages, we'll just pour the gas into a vehicle and buy new next fall. The stormy season around here is October through March. I buy the ethanol free premium, which costs an arm and a leg, but only about a buck a gallon more than the
E10 gas. Sta-Bil has a stabilant labeled for E10, but I'm not sure how much I trust that. I don't see how a stabilant will keep the gasoline from drawing moisture out of the air.

 

[clemsonfor]

We have a 6500 watt gasoline Honda. The well pump is wired to a 220 volt transfer box with a pigtail. When the power goes out I pull the disconnect on the well pump transfer box and plug a 220 volt extension cord for the well pump directly in to the generator. This runs our two fridges, some lights, and pellet stove ran off extension cords ran through a window sill. Keeping gas stable isn't that big of a deal. Fresh gas in the generator and 25 gallons of fresh gas in cans (enough for a week) every fall with fresh Sta-Bil added. Gas maintenance takes me about an hour a year to do. Low tech and, except for the initial cost of the Honda generator, and not that expensive. This does work. We were with out power last February for 72 hours. We stayed warm, watered our livestock, and flushed our toilets. All of our neighbors have this identical set up.

Instead of adding stabil every year you could just put that gas in your truck and then go buy fresh for the cans, then add stabil at that time.

 

[DavidVT]

I bought a 5000watt coleman for the Y2K event....
Most it has done in the following 11 years was to power a friend's job site while the house was built.
I can count on one hand the number of times I have had to use it for a power outage. I live in Rural Vermont but seem to have more reliable power than when I lived in Tacoma,WA.
I try to start it regularly but if it runs an average of 4 times a year that is a good year.
I have an air compressor plugged into it as the dummy load when cycling it.
We power our well pump, furnace, microwave, freezer and refrigerator. I hear the generator lug when the compressors start up. My heat is an OWB so I have to have the small pump powered to heat the house.
I learned the hard way to put synthetic motor oil in the generator. A freeze at 30 below made me snap the pull cord when on the old dyno oil. Changing that pull cord at that temperature and at 3AM by flashlight is something I will never forget.
I am a diesel supporter but as much as I want to replace this with a non ethanol diesel, I simply can't justify the expense. When the old Coleman lets me down I will think about it again. I look over at the now very underused oil heat tank and know it could be a power source.....
In the winter I run my old fuel into the cars and refresh the 5 gallon tanks from time to time. In the summer I use the fuel for the mowers so it is always fresh. The problem in the summer is getting caught with all the tanks empty because somebody went crazy mowing for days.......

NEW OWNERS: Take care of the Carbon Monoxide, make sure you have a monoxide detector in the living space(s) that is powered by the generator supplied circuits!

SIDE STORY: Our generator is in a bulkhead area outside the foundation. There is a roof but the sides are open to the air. Once when I had a faulty basement door seal the CO was drawn into the warm basement and then up into the living space... Because the CO detector was not plugged in properly, I almost did the Mrs in on that oops. I came in late from work during a power outage and the house seemed odd. I glanced over at the CO detector and was quite unhappy with myself to find it was off. when I plugged it in it jumped to 200. Needless to say it got real cold when all the windows in the house were thrown open and the generator shut off. Scary lesson I share so someone else won't make such a mistake.

 

[whistlepig]

Instead of adding stabil every year you could just put that gas in your truck and then go buy fresh for the cans, then add stabil at that time.

That's what I do. I put the old gas in the truck, buy fresh gas, and then add fresh stabilizer to last a year. The closest gas station to us is a one hour round trip.

 

[IslandTractor]

Instead of adding stabil every year you could just put that gas in your truck and then go buy fresh for the cans, then add stabil at that time.

That is actually the only way to do it. You cannot just keep adding more StaBil to gas. One year is all you get.

 

[clemsonfor]

:thumbsup:

That is actually the only way to do it. You cannot just keep adding more StaBil to gas. One year is all you get.

I didnt think you could just wanted to make sure someone wasent using flawed logic. :thumbsup:

 

[tmajor]

I've got a new generator on the way.

I was thinking about the fuel situation and exercising the gen. every so often. What I didn't want to do, was put gas in the tank, and even, if I let it run dry, still have the residue and some fuel left in the tank. Or, try to drain the tank, etc..

I was thinking, a 3 way fuel valve .. on-off-on, might be the answer. I could put a pint of fuel (or however much needed) in a small tank and run that through the engine, rather than putting fuel in the gen. fuel tank. Which tank, it pulled fuel from, would depend on the valve position.

These valves are used on zero turn mowers, etc., with duel tanks.

 

[CurlyDave]

That's what I do. I put the old gas in the truck, buy fresh gas, and then add fresh stabilizer to last a year. The closest gas station to us is a one hour round trip.

Put the Stabil in the can before you put the gas in. Filling it with gas mixes the Stabil with the gas. If you fill the can first, it is not that easy to mix.

Just picking up the can and waving it around a few times doesn't really do the job.

 

[Dargo]

Since I put right around 1600 hours on my Honda 8500kW generator in the last 5 years I said "screw it" and went with a whole house diesel generator. Since I'm the only house on a particular run, I am of very low priority to the power company. I'm generally out about 2 weeks or so a year for some reason or another. It's terrible. Being that I just flat can't sleep very well when it's 110 degrees in my bedroom at night, I had to get a generator that could run all 10 tons of A/C plus everything else. Also, I'm getting too old to run dozens of extension cords all through the house. Besides, my wife could never do it if I wasn't home. Due to my situation, I just bit the bullet and bought a large diesel generator with a service rated 400 amp automatic transfer switch.

Oh yeah, last winter I snapped my 10' rear blade off on a raised manhole when clearing snow and discovered that my 8500kW Honda just doesn't have enough power to power my welder or plasma cutter. I can do without the plasma cutter and go back to O/A, but it's rather hard to not have my welders when making repairs.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Looking for some generator knowledge and advice!

I do not have natural gas or a propane tank. I don't think I need (or really want) a whole house system. In the 6 years we have lived here we have not lost power for any length of time over a couple of hours, although we do have power lines and lots of trees.
We have about a 7,000 sq ft house, well water, septic and oil heat. I would like to power two refrigerators, a full size freezer, some lights, hot water etc. I would like to have some heat in the winter if the power is out in the winter, but other than that just the basics.

I have looked at a generac 17500 watt gas powered generator which is about $2300 on amazon. Is there a comparable or better diesel powered unit or anything else I should consider?

Thanks for the help - my $300 TSC unit is great for my barn but will not be of much use if we loose power for a couple of days!

As has been mentioned and backed up by surveys, most people can by without much inconvenience with a genny in the 6-7kW range. I've ran a 1HP well pump from a 4kW genny. For spuratic needs a few times a yr and duration measured in hrs not days. Something this size should more than handle your needs. And in this kind of situation, for me at least it's hard to justify a diesel model. For larger and I expect all diesel models if the starting battery is shot when the genny is needed, you're SOL for starting unless you can jump start from another battery. Most gas gennys under 8-10kW will likely have a pull start that can handle the situation.

See propane mentioned here and no mention of its down side and I'm not talking fuel cost. Propane's ability to vaporise the liquid fuel is very much dependent on surface area of the liquid propane. It takes a lot of surface area when talking winter time in colder climates. Couple months back a ran onto a nice article with charts on the Yamaha site talking about min tank size needed to vaporise enough fuel to run a genny. If I recall correctly, a 400 gal tank can't quite meet the needs of a 7kW genny @ 20 F. Unless you already have a large tank and or don't live in a cold climate, propane isn't the fuel of choice.

I have 3 genny's of different sizes and numerous other engines that see irregular use. Gasoline has never been a issue for me.

If we have some advance notice, we always fill the bath tub so was have some water to flush and wash. Keep another small supply for drink and cooking. We also have an alt for cooking and heating water since we now are an all electric home.