STANDBY GENERATORS

CavemanCharlie wrote:
I would be afraid in a big natural disaster that the natural gas supply could be cut off too. Take for example a earthquake. The gas lines are going to break and when they do the gas is automatically shut off and then no more generator. Someone mentioned a tri fuel one that would be the cats meow because you would have 3 times the chance of finding some fuel somewhere.

My brother has a automatic transfer generator that runs on diesel fuel. But, for us on the farm that makes since because we have a lot of equipment that runs on diesel.

The natural disaster:
1. Tri-fuel was mentioned earlier, however bi-fuel (NG and Propane) is a better solution - which means you have propane back-up, but no gasoline (or gasoline related problems).

Note: for *any* gasoline generator, a fuel stabilizer such as StaBil or Seafoam should be added to the fuel supply.

2. Diesel is good solution also (can't be part of tri-fuel).
However, if you are in cold country, you need to make sure the diesel
supply is either heated, or "matches" the weather.

IMO - If the property has NG supply, that would be my first choice, set-up as bi-fuel.

Second choice -
*If* the property is in a rural area, where folks have large propane tanks instead of NG - propane would be the obvious second choice.
The LPG supplier is usually on a re-supply schedule in those areas.
(You don't need to transport propane bottles).

First and Second choices are "clean" fuels - almost no chance or possibility of contaminated fuel.

BTW - most fire stations -in earthquake prone So. CA- have large bi-fuel generators complete with large propane tanks and auto transfer for both power loss and loss of the NG supply.

Very large buildings -and public building with high electrical loads- will have diesel powered gens with power-plants any OTR trucker would be proud of!

Last -
Diesel.
Most likely you will have to maintain your own fuel supply.
Good point is that diesel won't "go bad". You just should check periodically for water contamination.

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Your MH generator -
It all depends on what you want to run.
A simple set-up can be *separate* basic wiring to manually connect the items you wish to power.
(*separate* = heavy gage extension cords or hard wired to auxiliary outlets which are "dead" when not connected to the generator)

Central air = NO
One room window air conditioner = YES - with power to spare.

And the obvious No-No.....*NEVER* power (back-feed) a sticks and bricks electrical panel.
You need a manual or automatic transfer switch - or the aforementioned separate wiring set-up.

LOTS of options - shop around for your needs and budget..;)

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