STANDBY GENERATORS

Our $2K 8KW fully automatic LP fed generator powers everything we might need in our cottage. That includes the water pump, two water heaters, furnace, electric stove, washer and dryer, three window A/C's, fridge, freezer, assorted computers, TV's, satellite receivers, various cell and tablet chargers, lighting, and even our motorhome if needed. We just use common sense in deciding what to use when. For instance, we don't use all four stove burners and both oven elements at the same time. We don't run the dryer when the stove is in use. Even the water pump is left off until the pressure drops enough to need a boost except when showering. We just use what we need, paying attention to what else is running at the same time. When we're not at the cottage, the generator will kick in for an outage automatically, but only the basic heat and fridge/freezer requirements need to be met then, since most other loads are turned off. Having an automatic generator that duplicates the full utility company capacity is certainly nice to have if you don't care about the cost, but realistically, a smaller, lower cost unit will get the job done with a minimum of inconvenience. We seem to manage quite well in our 30 amp motorhome, so managing in our cottage when we only have 70 amps available is not really a hardship for us. My point is that if you evaluate your electrical needs with an eye towards actual usage, instead of just adding everything up, you may be surprise at how much money you can save just by using some manual energy management.