STANDBY GENERATORS

First a definition - to me whole house means that I can operate off the generator just as though I was still on the grid.

We moved to the Smokies - 30 miles west of Asheville- from Miami. There I had a 15 KW gas powered Generac with manual transfer switch. When I moved here the deciding factor was - cold weather- I did not want to have to go out in 20 degree weather with snow on the ground to start a generator. I have a 350 gal propane tank buried under the rose garden in front of the house and the only thing in the house that uses it is a small backup furnace. So I had a 20 KW Generac with automatic transfer switch installed. Total cost including having the gas company run a line from the tank to the generator was $9,000. The generator has a weekly exercise / test / battery charge cycle, starts up and runs for 12 minutes to do whatever it is that it does. Power goes out - generator comes on in 20 seconds. Power comes back on generator goes off and you don't even know when that happens unless you are close enough to the generator to hear it shut down.

Best $9,000 I ever spent.

I have a Champion 7500 / 9000 and hooked into transfer switch. I bought it with 10 hours use the previous owner picked up from super storm sandy. He could not justify keeping it and I bought it at bargain price

My 10kw is gasoline, but if it was available, I'd use natural gas. You have to use non-ethanol gasoline, unless you want to buy carburetor kits by the dozen.
Non-ethanol is expensive, too! And you have to consider how to safely store enough to get you through a long outage.

@M GO BLUE

We also have a 1100sq. ft. home. LP powers the range, water heater, and forced air furnace. In the past we powered the lights, TV and well pump with a open frame 3500W generator.

Two months ago we installed a 8kw Generac Guardian standby generator with a auto transfer switch to power a sub panel that includes all of the circuits we wanted to run for including washer and dryer. We often have power outages, some up to 5 days. It has worked twice since installed and performed as expected.

We chose LP because we already have it available with a 1000G buried tank.

NG would be a good choice, however, if you wish to be self reliant, LP would be my choice because the supply is at your residence and would not be dependant on an interuptable source of fuel

I know a lot of folks who are going to propane fired Genracs and such as a back up to the mains.. Sad to think that the power companies have let their lines get so bad that "Thousands without power" is a common occurrence. I grew up out in the boonies as it were (Story time: Went to buy propane, woman really wanted to give me directions to the tank farm.. She was sure I could not find it, Till I told her my name,,, It is the dairy farm I grew up on). I moved to the city I expected more reliable power.. Well on the farm, we occasionally lost power for a few hours, but I think one time we could not milk the cows with the power milker.

In the city,, Days without power is common.

This is why the first MOD I made to the motor home was so it could feed power to the house, which was also modified (Added proper generator transfer panel and inlet) so the motor home could feed it.

The box, wires, plugs, sockets and installation, Couple thousand dollars.

Click: Furnace comes on,

Warm wife... Priceless.

wa8yxm wrote:
... Sad to think that the power companies have let their lines get so bad that "Thousands without power" is a common occurrence....

The power companies haven't let anything "get so bad"... The lines are what they are. They are above ground. That was the technology available when they were put up.

If they want the improve reliability during ice/wind/rain/etc, the only way to do so is to move the infrastructure underground.

That is a VERY expensive exercise when 98% of the infrastructure is above ground... They can do it, but we have to want it. And for us to want it, we have to pay for it.

It's very simple economics.

SolidAxleDurango wrote:

wa8yxm wrote:
... Sad to think that the power companies have let their lines get so bad that "Thousands without power" is a common occurrence....

The power companies haven't let anything "get so bad"... The lines are what they are. They are above ground. That was the technology available when they were put up.

If they want the improve reliability during ice/wind/rain/etc, the only way to do so is to move the infrastructure underground.

That is a VERY expensive exercise when 98% of the infrastructure is above ground... They can do it, but we have to want it. And for us to want it, we have to pay for it.

It's very simple economics.

Yes however there are cases in my area where the power company has not kept up with pruning trees. They have also reduced staff and rely on subcontractors more. The power lines due require maintenance. In many cases the maintenance has been lacking due to cost cutting measures.

Lantley wrote:

SolidAxleDurango wrote:

wa8yxm wrote:
... Sad to think that the power companies have let their lines get so bad that "Thousands without power" is a common occurrence....

The power companies haven't let anything "get so bad"... The lines are what they are. They are above ground. That was the technology available when they were put up.

If they want the improve reliability during ice/wind/rain/etc, the only way to do so is to move the infrastructure underground.

That is a VERY expensive exercise when 98% of the infrastructure is above ground... They can do it, but we have to want it. And for us to want it, we have to pay for it.

It's very simple economics.

Yes however there are cases in my area where the power company has not kept up with pruning trees. They have also reduced staff and rely on subcontractors more. The power lines due require maintenance. In many cases the maintenance has been lacking due to cost cutting measures.

At least in this area, one reason they haven't trimmed trees is because many residents complained when they did!