Propane Whole House Generators, Warning.

[Garandman]

I even have a swede (sp?) saw in case all my fifteen chain saws fail!

So how many chain saws is enough?

We got a propane genset up north because we already had tanks and vendor in place. Gasoline was more appealing when it didn稚 have ethanol. Diesel is often the choice of people who heat with oil.

Horses for courses.....)

 

[3Ts]

That's nuthin'. When I was a kid we had one that used ice.

My parents told me about that and that there was an ice delivery to the door as well. I do remember the milk deliveries and the paper routes.

 

[ning]

I've considered a whole house gen. I've got a spare 325g tank from when we swapped the house to a 1000g tank (later added a second after that).

With our capacity we can buy once a year at the lowest price - last couple of years have been $1.40/g. If you need 30% more propane than diesel, that's the equivalent of $1.82, which is about half the price of diesel here.

Considering the lack of diesel stink and a quieter generator, plus the nearly zero-maintenance of a propane tank -- it's a no brainier here.

 

[PILOON]

That's nuthin'. :laughing: When I was a kid we had one that used ice.

And at my log cabin I buried a 24 X 24 chimney clay tile with a foam lined door to keep the milk eggs and meat cooled.
Worked great, butter was always hard and nothing perished.

I later 'modernized' by converting a small Asteral fridge to propane.
Basically it used a soldering iron type element as a heat source that I replaced by a propane burner. As time went on I obtained a heavy old Servel propane unit as an upgrade. LOL, sold the Servel for 2-3 X what I originally paid for it years later.
The whole cabin was later propane plumed for lighting as well.

Then we got real modern when Hydro came around.

Good old days!

 

[goeduck]

We had a fireplace, but it was only good for heating the living room that was located at the end of one of the long Y wings of the house. We had a neat cantilevered hearth out along the front of the fireplace. It was also a sitting bench on each side of the fireplace. I remember many cold mornings when my dad would make a fire. We could sit on our butts on the floor with our feet under the hearth and eat our breakfast on the hearth in front of the fire. Great memories. He did orient the house to take advantage of the sun. In winter, the sun would shine directly into the house first thing in the morning at sunrise and hit a large brick wall, which it would heat up. The sunshine came in almost all day long until sunset. In summer, it came up way to the left and quickly got blocked by the roof overhang, and didn't shine in all day long. Passive solar before passive solar was cool. :laughing:

A construction contractor built my house for himself and did a few things right. The fireplace is smack dab in the middle of the house and is masonry all the way with crawl space combustion air. Huge. It also has glass windows to catch the morning sun to warm the masonry (we get the morning sun twice, once direct sunlight, then again as it bounces off the water). Warms the house up quickly (on the one day a year it is not raining). :laughing:

I put a wood insert in the fireplace and it is now the lead source of heat.

 

[diplodock]

We have a 20KVA with a transfer switch, fueled by propane. It will, and has run the whole house including AC during storms on several occasions.

They tell me that it will through a whole 200 gallons of propane in about 85 hours at full output, so it ain't gonna last forever in a SHTF. What it will do is keep the freezers going long enough to can or otherwise salvage most of the stuff in there, assuming you run a duty cycle frequently enough to keep the chill on. As for having AC for months - no going to happen without a re-fill of the the old propane tank.

To give you a frame of reference, 200 gallons of propane will run our fireplaces and cooking stove for 14-18 months. Just got it filled this week, last was in Feb, so no fireplaces (pilot lights use the most fuel) and it took 45 gallons.

We also have an 8KVA portable gasoline unit, which averages 1 gallon per hour.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

As for having AC for months - no going to happen without a re-fill of the the old propane tank.

You also have to refill your wallet too!

At over 2 bucks a gallon here, it cost me over $800.00 every time I fill my 500 gallon tank! With what a propane genset cost to RUN, that's WAAAAAAY to much cost per hour just to have some electricity...

SR

 

[Garandman]

A construction contractor built my house for himself and did a few things right. The fireplace is smack dab in the middle of the house and is masonry all the way with crawl space combustion air. Huge. It also has glass windows to catch the morning sun to warm the masonry (we get the morning sun twice, once direct sunlight, then again as it bounces off the water). Warms the house up quickly (on the one day a year it is not raining). :laughing:

I put a wood insert in the fireplace and it is now the lead source of heat.

Our place is pretty small (1250sf) andinexpensive, But was designed by an architect to be passive solar and be heated from a central source.

This side faces due South and the yard was cleared back enough that it is sunlit most of the day. Thereis a brick chimney in the center, and an atrium so the hot air can rise to the second floor. The back stairway was designed to circulate cooler air down to the first floor. We have a Hearthstone soapstone stove.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Tell me you actually use that stove?

I think some people missed the point. Saying I have Propane this and it runs that. First of all ,it has to work when needed, and secondly it might not be up to the task, for a variety of reasons in a longer outage.

For me, it's always about, not what works, but having an understanding of what won't work.

I love my Diesel Generators, but if i had a choice between a wood stove and a generator, I would take the stove any day. You can trust it, and you can fend for yourself. I keep hearing about people removing wood burning equipment to install propane or NG, and I just shake my head. So very short sighted and foolish.

 

[Garandman]

Tell me you actually use that stove?

You know people who buy $2,000 + stoves as decorations?

That picture was taken after it was installed last August. It replaced a smaller Hearthstone.