How many of you own generators and what size?

[HomeBrew2]

I've been using a Gererac 5000W unit from Costco since 1992. It will run the well pump, 3 friges full of beer and meat, some lights, PC, fans. I rarely run the furnace or a/c. I just backfeed the house thru a 220V outlet I bolted to the outside breaker panel. I also have a Honda 2000i to run my Hitachi jack hammer and HF wire welder

 

[Highbeam]

I own a coleman 5500 watt (6850 surge) with an 11 HP tecumseh engine. The generator was purchased for welding with my 220 volt stick welder plus assorted construction type projects away from power. I also use it for backup power during our 2-48 hour power outages that happen every couple of months in the winter. It works great, but is loud and thirsty. I use extension cords to power the fridge, some lights, and the entertainment center which if you add up the wattages required means the generator is about triple the size it needs to be. It was 499$ at Costco a few years ago.

"The main things I would need to run would be my fridge and my freezer plus a light or two."

Your needs are modest. Most fridges have a sticker inside of them that lists the input watts. Mine lists 750 and is a pretty typical fridge, so lets assume 1000watts for yours. Two of those fridges plus another couple of lights and a bit of reserve leads you to only needing a 3000 watt generator OR if you can manage your power, you can certainly get by with a 2000 watt generator like the fine Honda Eu2000i which is whisper quiet and easy on fuel for less than 900$ delivered. My next backup generator will be the Honda and my Coleman will be the welder genny or sold off.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I just backfeed the house thru a 220V outlet I bolted to the outside breaker panel.

I hope you have a switch to isolate your house from the power grid. Whenever there are power failures we hear reports of linemen who get the heck shocked out of them because some homeowner is unknowingly backfeeding power into the grid from his generator. It is illegal to do this in most states and dangerous as all heck too. It is a simple matter to have a cutover switch installed.

 

[3RRL]

I've got 3 generators. A small 3500 Coleman used around camp and a larger Generac 5550 Wheelhouse used for welding and the well pump. Both of those are portable. Then I have a large Cummins 20kW Industrial back up generator. It's tied into an off-grid solar power system that mainly charges the batteries if there is not enough sun to charge them, but designed to run the entire house in case of an outage. (The house is not built yet)

 

[SkyPup]

Honda 2000i, Honda 3000i, and 13kW PTO genny, use them all for various purposes.

 

[Jagmandave]

I have an 8,500 cont/12,000 surge Generac with a B&S 14hp single and like Eddie says, it's pretty loud but not too too thirsty. It has the idle back feature, which helps when the load is off, but just about anything more powerful than a light bulb's draw causes it to speed up again. Mine has a 50 amp 220v outlet that's great for the welder, seems to do just fine. I bought it as a backup for the new house I haven't built yet, but I have strong memories of a few years ago when my neighborhood lost power for over a week, so I'm glad to have it. (Funny thing is, that time my 'hood lost power, mine and 3 other houses on the block were still "lit" the whole time, everthing else for miles was dead!)

 

[_RaT_]

I hope you have a switch to isolate your house from the power grid. Whenever there are power failures we hear reports of linemen who get the heck shocked out of them because some homeowner is unknowingly backfeeding power into the grid from his generator. It is illegal to do this in most states and dangerous as all heck too. It is a simple matter to have a cutover switch installed.

I've heard that but never verified it with a lineman. My guess is that if you attempted to backfeed into the utility supplied power, you would instanly overload the generator since every home is still tied in and every load waiting for power. This of course would be directly proportional to the number of homes affected. Just the starting load of refrigerators of in all those homes would probably make a 500KW take a dump. I cannot imagine what the in rush current must be when they re-energize the lost power, it must be huge. You are right though, it is critical that you disconnect from the utility power.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

_RaT_ can't say that I have verified it either. But when we were blacked out for a week the utility company started sending people out after about 4 days to make sure people would turn their generators off, or make sure they were isolated from the grid, while the crews worked in the area! I can't imagine they would go door to door to do that if it was NOT a real hazard.

 

[Dhill]

I have a 10K Coleman (Honda engine) whole house gen as back up for utilities. I'm off-grid so I don't need a transfer switch. I tucked my generator behind the shed to further diminish sound pollution. The generator unit is insulated for sound output also. But it's a 3600 rpm unit and it's going to make noise. I don't like listening to vacuum cleaners and that's about how much noise this thing makes. The 3600 rpm is designed to run for about 10 hours without shut down. Mine is propane fueled. I rarely run it for more than an hour and I've had nothing but good use out of it. If I had a need for a generator to run 24/7 for an extended period of time, I would most definitely get a diesel 1800 rpm unit. Generally, they are more expensive than 3600 rpm units (though I have heard of them being built for much less), but they are quieter and can be run for longer periods of time.
I also have a portable Coleman 3500 watt genny that I bought at Lowes. Before I hooked up my 10K, I used the 3500 as my back up. I ran air-conditioning as well as the rest of my household needs with it through the hot Texas summer, and it functioned just fine. It would last about 1 1/2 - 2 hours on a gallon of gas. It's quite a pain filling the tank up to run for an extended period, but it would handle the loads okay (refrigerator, lights, window a/c unit). I would not use the portable for extended usage genny either. And as others have said, if you get a whole-house genny, be sure to get the transfer switch. I would be willing to bet that if you have code restrictions in your area, that a grid tied genny would have to have a transfer switch before it would pass code.

 

[caylor]

I have two generators. One is a 5500 watt 11HP Tecumseh engine Coleman "Maxa ER" generator like Highbeam's it is LOUD and thirsty as he mentioned. I used it to provide back up power and to run my tombstone welder.

All of our appliances in our home are electric so we did the extension cord thing and cold showers during outages for a while. I learned through those outages that NOTHING kills the survival spirit like taking a cold shower in the morning when it is below freezing and the ambient temperature in your house is in the 45-55 deg range. (Bear with me you northerners, I am Texas boy).

So I now have a Miller Bobcat 250 Welder/Genset 10,500 W which is large enough to power the majority of the circuits in the house. I just need to get an electrican over to wire up a transfer switch.