How many of you own generators and what size?

[BillyP]

Here's my generator. By the way, no back feeding here

Guess the pic didn't go through. I could have sworn it did.

 

[thingy]

Just 150 dollars more for 15 miles,,to bury it,,,man,,,thats cheaper than I thought,,what the heck is wrong here? I know,its 150 more,,thats the way these companies work,,like my insurance company for example,state farm,,,we got [had] two big white pines on the windward side of house that if they fell would probably destory 1/3 of our house,well,a good chunk anyways,,,I didn't want to worry about that anymores,so decided to get somebody to cut them,[had to be cut from top down],,asked the insurance company if they paid for stuff like that,,they said we was covered if the wind blew them over,,which would probably be 20,000,[if they fell right],who knows but alot,,,,but they wouldn't pay a dime to help get them cut,[one had just died],,,cost me 350 dollars to have them cut down,,,its a racket,,hear many people down in katrina ville fully think the same now.thingy

 

[tallyho8]

Yes Thingy, you're right there. Hurricane Cindy (a few months before Katrina) broke the top out of my 80' sycamore tree and it fell about 60 feet and hung up in the tree about 2 feet away from my roof. Called the insurance company and they said "we don't pay anything to get it removed if it didn't damage your house". Then they said "it increased my risk, and if I didn't get it removed in 10 days they would cancel my policy". Had to pay a company $500 to come move the one ton branch. When Katrina hit, the rest of the tree fell on my roof causing $3000 in damage which the insurance company gladly paid for.

 

[thingy]

Yeah,its a racket,,computor generated satistics,,,,,I'm thinking about trying to really reduce our policy,,just get major damage only,,if you can do something like that,,wife takes care of that stuff,,come to think about it,,thats probably part of the problem here,,,thingy

 

[tallyho8]

Well you can change your deductible from $500 to $1000 but it will only lower your rates about $10 a year. After Katrina, the insurance companies here that are still writing insurance, are making people get $5000 or more deductible on wind damage and then raising their rates 50%.

 

[MossRoad]

MossRoad,
Those are "inverter" generators. I had one and they are very nice. They can provide 120v at idle if the load is that small. Heres a link to what they are. Honda Generators - Honda's Portable Electric Power Generator Line

Thanks. I saw one running in a state park on a trail bridge. A carpenter was repairing a bridge that a tree had fallen on. It was idle and I thought something was wrong with it, as I'd never seen one idle before. Then his compressor kicked on, pulled a load, the generator fired up, the compressor filled the tankand stopped and the generator went back to idle. Same thing when he used his circular saw. I was quite impressed and spent several minute interrogating him and preventing him from getting anything done.

 

[MossRoad]

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 think the reason people back feed through a 220 outlet is because it is there and much less expensive than a cutover switch. A simple cutover switch is essentially an on-off-on switch. ON grid power. OFF no power. ON generator power. There is no way the two power sources to mix and it isolates the house from the power grid when running on generator power. A low amperage switch (under a hundred amps) is pretty inexpensive. Unfortunately, a switch that will run a house with 200 amp service(pretty typical) is very expensive to purchase and install properly. That's why people backfeed their house. If they do it safely, there is no problem until something goes wrong.... get caught, damage a nieghbor's house or injure (or worse) some lineman, then pay the consequences the rest of your life.

I'll admit that I'm guilty of backfeeding my house in an emergency. I pull the main disconnect and trip the service panel main breaker before plugging in the generator, then starting it. I really should invest in a whole house transfer switch. Anyone got any leads on a 100 amp switch?

 

[MossRoad]

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.

There was a home owner seriously injured(maybe killed, I can't recall) here in the last couple years by a neighbor that back fed the entire block by hooking a large generator to an outlet that he attached to the electric lines UP ON THE POLE!!! The neighbors thought he was a hero for giving theim "free" power during the outage until the "accident" happened.

I'm pretty sure more folks are killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from the generator exhaust than by electrocution each year. People tend to run the generators in their attached garages with the door closed or only opened a crack so no on steals the generator. Then they go to bed and the whole family never wakes up. Very sad.

 

[MossRoad]

You guys are just afraid of big brother,if he sees your scared he'll keep scaring you,

No, we are respectful of our fellow man. Just because somone is a cop, firefighter, utlity worker doesn't mean they are "big brother". They are employed, working to make a living, just like most of us. You seem paraniod.

 

[schmism]

Guess the pic didn't go through. I could have sworn it did.

liquid cooled turbo!

holly cow dude whats the specs on that?!?!