power backup/generator

[alan40]

Looking for a generator for back up power for my home. Talked to my co-op and they recommend a 5000 watt or above.
Looking around my area I find alot of Colemans and Honda's.
Thats like going from one end of the spectrum to the other in price/quality. Talking to the my local fuel supplier he said they had problems with Coleman gererators last year. Anyone out there have any suggestions or know of any sites were I can browse different brands? Also looking into a monitor system to install in the house to stop feedback to the powerline. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. This forum has always been very helpful and all inputs are greatly appreciated.
Had a good frost last night. Look like it's time to store the brush hog and find my rear blade.
Take care and have a great day!
Al

 

[TomG]

I can't help you much with brands. I've got a Honda 6500, and have no complaints--other than the automatic choke did stick in extremely cold weather.

The 6500 is actually 5500w of continuous duty power. That's an important distinction. It gives capacity for electric motor surge, but you can't run full power continuously. The breakers will handle higher load than the generator's 100% rating. You have to monitor the continuous load or depend on the generator's thermal protection.

The 6500 gets us by for furnace, well pump, some lighting and some stove. It will power most of the stove or a water heater if other things are off.

I installed an approved backup generator panel. It's a separate sub-panel fed from a 60A standard 220V breaker in the main service panel. It also has a 60A breaker for the generator feed. I wired most of the existing house circuits onto the backup panel. The generator, itself, is only capable of 30A/220V. However, with most of the house on the 60A backup panel, we can pick and choose what's on and off.

An approved panel around here is one with 3 point main breakers (2 hot & the neutral). Most main service panels have 2-point breakers that don't break the neutral. An incorrectly connected or grounded generator can back-feed the utility neutral. Utility line workers have been killed as a result. A panel where the utility and the generator mains cannot be on at the same time also is required.

What I found is that the generator with 30A mains feeding a 60A panel works just fine. An alternative is to put a 3-point transfer switch ahead of the main service panel. That way, any house circuit can be fed from the generator. However, the transfer switch has to have the same power rating as the service. Our service is 200A, and a 200A transfer switch is much more expensive than the 60A sub-panel with 3-point mains.

 

[TomG]

Slight mistake here. A 6500 Honda is capable of 22.5A/220V power, not 30A. It's probably capable of 20A continuous. I don't know if the generator mains are 22.5A or not, but they certainly are less than 30A. I used #10 wire for the feed, which is 30A wire, and is the minimum gauge required, unless the feed exceeded 100'. A long feed would require #8 wire. My feed runs underground from a shed and is about 80'. Sure is convenient to just start the generator, go back to the house and throw two breakers on the backup panel and most of the house is powered. No extension cords to run etc.

Other than that, everything is the same, and the set up works very well. There is a fridge, but not a freezer. I think trying to keep a fridge, freezer, furnace and pump going during a prolonged outage, while trying to do a little cooking and hot water, could require a lot of juggling circuits off and for a 6500, but it's possible. It might be quite difficult with a 5000.