Generators, sizes and fuel options?

[Straightgrain3016]

Are you keeping the battery on a trickle charger?

...and AGM Batteries seem to be the norm.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

For those of you that have 10k gasoline electric start generators, how trustworthy have your start battery been. My one year old 10k Generac gas generator gas a small 4× 5 x 2 inch lead acid battery, and once again today with temp at 18 deg F , that battery won't turn starter and needs a boost from a car battery. I am not impressed with battery they provide. Thinking I will leave spare car battery in house for winter months. Yes the little battery does work in summer maintenance tests. Anyone else ditch the little battery ? And sub with what ?

The little battery was worthless. I wired it to a standard deep cycle boat/RV battery and put it on a maintainer.

 

[newbury]

The Duromax XP9000 iH I just received even came with a "battery maintainer".

 

[wawajake]

The little battery was worthless. I wired it to a standard deep cycle boat/RV battery and put it on a maintainer.

I decided same as you, I put a deep cycle battery inside the house with a mini set of booster cables ready to bring it outside and attach to the gen battery whenever it is cold out and need gen started......thks for input !

 

[newbury]

I've one car, a Honda civic that is parked most of the time far from a power outlet and 2 tractors that are not always near power outlets. But they all jump well with a Gooloo 4000. I figure my generator will be the same.

 

[ning]

I decided same as you, I put a deep cycle battery inside the house with a mini set of booster cables ready to bring it outside and attach to the gen battery whenever it is cold out and need gen started......thks for input !

hmmm... could you just permanently mount the battery inside, with appropriately-sized cables (larger for the longer run) going through the wall to the genset? (assuming the genset is always used there)

 

[wawajake]

Unfortunately , although great idea Ning , it is a solid concrete wall , that already took a few hours to drill thru when they installed the Generac cable for interloc switching. Fortunately my exterior door and boiler room is only a few feet away to store the RV battery in winter. So simple enough my way.

 

[RalphVa]

The battery on a fixed generator will also likely have to power the auto response part of the panel with the transfer switch. I tried a solar charger. Was not enough.

Have our 12.5 kw Isuzu's big marine battery on a tender. The Isuzu was enough to do the whole house except for the 3 ton heat pump last winter about this time.

 

[TheMan419]

My 6800 watt unit came with a battery and a maintainer built in. It finally failed after about 9 years. Time to get a new one. Last time I had to fire it up I had to jump start it with the tractor. I like the idea of having a li ion jump pack around for this task as well.

 

[stumblinhorse]

My electric coop has a good tool that I looked at to determine the correct size I need for my generator. It shows temp at the meter as well, which is smart. My max usage yesterday was 1.65 kwh, when my tractor was plugged in. The temp line is helpful to see as well. My 6k/5k inverter should be plenty to run 4 essential circuits.

just waiting on the high altitude jet from champion for my unit. Then I will test my setup.

If you are not sure what size you need take a look at your power provider. They might have something like this available.

 

[dodge man]

My generator came with a little battery also, junk, lasted about a year. I bought another one, not much better. I kept them on a trickle charger also. Mine is about a 6500 watt so it’s small enough for a pull start and has always started. I gave up on the batteries.

 

[copytmpmzl]

It seems the power is not something that can be relied upon as much as it used to be. Seems like in bad weather getting the power back on takes longer than it used to. So I wanted to get some ideas of what people are using to keep critical items running to survive a bad storm. I already have the needed wiring etc to run “most“ of what I think I need and will be pulling some romex to make sure I get what I need on the correct circuit.

I like the idea of tying into my 300 gallon propane tank for fuel since that allows me to run for multiple days and not store fuel. But that means I need to modify connectivity to the house and lose a little efficiency of power generation, especially at my 8K elevation. So not sure which way to go.

Also I would like to understand the math on what size I need. Biggest draw for my set up is the well pump and pressure tank. Other items on the circuit are electric stove, fridge, propane boiler/pumps, outdoor boiler and microwave vehicle wraps atlanta. So I think 10000 watts should be plenty. But not sure what considerations I need to figure in.

thanks for any insight.

After being without power for a couple of weeks due to the recent storm we've decided to invest in a generator to plug directly into the supply, ready for future emergencies. What's anyone's experience with diesel ones big enough to run ideally the farmhouse and a bungalow on basic essentials? Any input is much appreciated.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

After being without power for a couple of weeks due to the recent storm we've decided to invest in a generator to plug directly into the supply, ready for future emergencies. What's anyone's experience with diesel ones big enough to run ideally the farmhouse and a bungalow on basic essentials? Any input is much appreciated.

You would need to describe what "basic essentials" means to you! What are the loads you plan to operate during an outage and what loads you can do without.

I have seen a 20Kw diesel generator provide "basic essentials" for what the perceived needs were. And for someone who manually managed thier loads, a 6Kw generator took care of everything they needed.

What you don't want is a 20Kw generator running at quarter load.
Write out what you see as your needs during an outage, then add up the loads. I have always reccommened a diesel to run at 80% of calculated load. It will run more efficiently and you won't have problems with coking up the engine.

 

[ponytug]

@copytmpmzl I think that @MAX-24-Dean gives great advice. Go out and check your power meter a couple of times during the day and work out what you really use, then think about how much you would be willing to cut out. It is all in the details.

I like diesel because I keep it fresh on the ranch, so I have good stocks. If it is generator only, I would look into a small auxiliary fuel pump that would circulate the generator's diesel over a filter while it is on standby.

We get by just fine on a 5k (6.5kW surge) diesel that runs the furnace, microwave, and the refrigerator and freezer, but no AC, no electric water heater, and we don't use an electric dryer. My neighbors up the hill put in, and use, a 22kW generator because they want to be able to run all of their AC units. The folks across the street light their kerosene lantern and toss a log in the wood stove, which we could do as well, but I prefer to keep the freezer running.

All the best,

Peter

 

[newbury]

What you don't want is a 20Kw generator running at quarter load.

And this is important with diesels because of the potential for "wet stacking" linky

 

[TheMan419]

After being without power for a couple of weeks due to the recent storm we've decided to invest in a generator to plug directly into the supply, ready for future emergencies. What's anyone's experience with diesel ones big enough to run ideally the farmhouse and a bungalow on basic essentials? Any input is much appreciated.

As stated it really depends on what you call basic essentials.

Most of us live without city water so we need to think about powering the well if grid power is not available. That means you need a generator that can provide 220.

We get by with a 6500/8500 generator. We have to manage the load. Can't run the coffee pot, microwave and pump all at the same time. Heck the coffee pot takes close to 1000 watts.

Fridge is run off the thing too. So are some lights but they are all LED so negligible power draw there.

Others think basic essentials are doing laundry during a power outage.

 

[copytmpmzl]

As stated it really depends on what you call basic essentials.

Most of us live without city water so we need to think about powering the well if grid power is not available. That means you need a generator that can provide 220.

We get by with a 6500/8500 generator. We have to manage the load. Can't run the coffee pot, microwave and pump all at the same time. Heck the coffee pot takes close to 1000 watts.

Fridge is run off the thing too. So are some lights but they are all LED so negligible power draw there.

Others think basic essentials are doing laundry during a power outage.
Has anyone else tried this? Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-psychoactive constituent of the cannabis plant, and is now legally available in drops or capsules.

I've been using it for the past week, thought it was worth a try as I suffer from insomnia. For me it really works - been sleeping much better, with no hangover effects next day.

I've been using the Holland & Barrett capsules - the only problem being they're really expensive (£34.99 for 60). I've also bought, not not yet tried CBD oil with Turmeric, some from Superdrug which are much cheaper (£4.99 for 30) though appear to be about half the strength of the H&B ones.

It would be interesting to hear others' experiences, particularly other brands you've found good.

also thank you for your suggestion

 

[westcliffe01]

Diesel Generators for Home Power or Off-Grid Electricity

There is a pretty big price jump above 6.5kW but the Izuzu or Kubota 12kW generators offer good value for what they deliver. I would always go with a water cooled generator because it leaves open the possibility to do waste heat recovery from the coolant and exhaust system to heat either the residence or garage/shop in the winter and that way you get double the value out of the fuel burned when you do need to run it.

If people keep up with the EV crap it is not going to be long before we have rolling blackouts here in the US since nobody is adding to baseload generation nor expansion of grid capacity. A calculation of moving the transport sector from Fuel to electric in the UK ( small country compared to the US) the cost worked out to 200 000 to 500 000 UK pounds per household to do the upgrade. Here in the US it would be more. I cant afford that, I guess I will just have to go off grid so I dont have to pay anything into that mess.