More than one generator.

Soundguy · Nov 28, 2011

i have a 12.5kw, plus a selection of inverters.

I've long since contemplated getting a small gas genny in the 1000-3000ish watt range for times when i need more than the inverters produce, ( or longer ), or don't want to get out a tractor and the pto genset.

soundguy

Dargo · Nov 28, 2011

Yup, a 65kW for the house and a little 8.5kW gas powered Honda for assorted uses. I see a LOT of people with extremely small generators they call their "whole house" generators. I wonder if they know that often times low voltage is worse than high voltage on electronic equipment. I have a little to spare with 65kW, but not a huge excess. I had electricians and companies that only install generators size my generator. I didn't just take a WAG. I have to assume some people consider a "whole house" generator one that runs just a few circuits in the house. My 8.5kW Honda will run my pool house if I make sure the A/C is turned off. If I want A/C, then it's too small for even my pool house.

orezok · Nov 28, 2011

I have 3. A 1000 Honda inverter. Use that for small jobs around the ranch as it's east to move and will run most small tools with ease. I also use it for camping when I only need to charge the batterys. A Yamaha 2400 inverter for larger tools and for camping when I need to run the air conditioning. An ancient Craftsman 3600 that I use for emergency power for the house and that occasional time when I need to use the welder away from the barn.

Actually, make that 4. I have a 40 year old Onan 6500 that I picked up for free (best price I know). The previous owner, a friend, said it was running. I plan to make it a permanent backup for the house.

Our power is mostly reliable except for the 12 hour outage last week that went unexplained by Edison.

grsthegreat · Nov 28, 2011

Dargo said:
Yup, a 65kW for the house and a little 8.5kW gas powered Honda for assorted uses. I see a LOT of people with extremely small generators they call their "whole house" generators. I wonder if they know that often times low voltage is worse than high voltage on electronic equipment. I have a little to spare with 65kW, but not a huge excess. I had electricians and companies that only install generators size my generator. I didn't just take a WAG. I have to assume some people consider a "whole house" generator one that runs just a few circuits in the house. My 8.5kW Honda will run my pool house if I make sure the A/C is turned off. If I want A/C, then it's too small for even my pool house.

again it all depends on your total load. You obviously have a huge demand. Alot of the houses i wire onto generators dont have anything like the demands that you require. I do load calcs and actual load tests on houses when asked to do them, and there are times where i get a total connected load of 50 amps on a 200 amp service. Lots of times.

These people have gas heat, gas water heater and gas dryers and stoves.

They dont need anything over 20kw to be very comfortable in a power outage. Now in the hotter climates one needs to consider a/c, but here in north Idaho we dont, so this is not a factor up in my neck of the woods. a/c start loads mess with small generators big time.

firedog · Nov 28, 2011

1 - 5600w
1 - 10Kw welder/generator

both have been converted to run bi-fuel. during power outages we run the smaller one mostly; the larger as needed.

Mousefield · Nov 28, 2011

I have 3 generator's, one for the house 8 circuit generator panel and one in the shop to power my pump in my 2,000 gallon water storage tank. The 3rd one is my first one bought about 20+ years ago, small 1,800 watt Coleman, just haven't got rid of it.

Dargo · Nov 28, 2011

grsthegreat said:
They dont need anything over 20kw to be very comfortable in a power outage. Now in the hotter climates one needs to consider a/c, but here in north Idaho we dont, so this is not a factor up in my neck of the woods. a/c start loads mess with small generators big time.

Clearly you know much more about sizing than I do; that's why I had to pay professionals. I can do most things, but making darn sure, I don't want to guess. I'm sure you've probably seen what happens with bad guesses. As you may, or may not know, one of my daughters has had 2 brain surgeries in the last year. (That makes commercial generators installed seem cheap) We get several months with high temps in the upper 90's to low 100's with very high humidity (heat indexes 115 to 120 on those days) and I'm told that it would not be good for her to bake in extreme heat. That's the reason for the high end commercial diesel generator. Being in a zone with a relatively high probability for "the big one" and several smaller earthquakes, I just was too concerned about that to go with a NG generator. If we had a big quake, NG is the first thing shut off. A big expensive NG generator wouldn't do me much good then. BTW, it only took me 10 years (and my daughter's illness) to finally decide on what to buy.

BobRip · Nov 28, 2011

Greg H said:
Two.
7550 watt Troy-bilt electric start for the whole house and just picked up a Champion 2000 watt Inverter to run the furnace for extended times.
I just tested it out and got 10 hours run time on a gallon of gas at 1/4 load.

That's the same small generator I have. I hope it holds up.

BobRip · Nov 28, 2011

Dargo said:
Clearly you know much more about sizing than I do; that's why I had to pay professionals. I can do most things, but making darn sure, I don't want to guess. I'm sure you've probably seen what happens with bad guesses. As you may, or may not know, one of my daughters has had 2 brain surgeries in the last year. (That makes commercial generators installed seem cheap) We get several months with high temps in the upper 90's to low 100's with very high humidity (heat indexes 115 to 120 on those days) and I'm told that it would not be good for her to bake in extreme heat. That's the reason for the high end commercial diesel generator. Being in a zone with a relatively high probability for "the big one" and several smaller earthquakes, I just was too concerned about that to go with a NG generator. If we had a big quake, NG is the first thing shut off. A big expensive NG generator wouldn't do me much good then. BTW, it only took me 10 years (and my daughter's illness) to finally decide on what to buy.

Your situation calls for more caution than most. Good for you for addressing your true needs. I have never understood why someone would backup one utility with another. The event which took out electric could easily take out NG.

I monitor my power consumption with a blue line innovations power monitor. It watches the meter and gives me power and accumulated watt hours. I typically see loads below 1 kw. I have a lot of breakers in my house and can manually dump loads pretty easily. I also built a monitor for generator current. I have not really used it yet. Also my house is insulated with ICF construction and has R50 in the walls and R55 in the attic. This gives me very long times without the need for AC. A good thing because I cannot run my AC off of the generator. I could put my garage AC in the kitchen I guess. I have also put in about 40 gallons of well storage to minimize large generator need. The solar hot water heater and CFLs also help. The fireplace is enough for most heating needs. The gas grill and microwave provide cooking. Best of all my wife is a Girl Scout and likes to cook on burning wood piles or whatever.