Champion dual fuel generator, convert to nat gas?

valhalla360 wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

Are they going to be interested in dragging the gen out, checking oil level, hooking up to natural gas, pull start and then run extension cords all over the place?

........

If your power is going out once or twice a month or for days at a time, I could buy your argument.

If it's once or twice a year for a few hours, not so much.

We've never found ourselves in the first case.

Of course, you can do a hybrid solution. Get an electric start portable and build a vented doghouse for storage in the yard. Generally if it's not going to be weeks (never have seen that), I want the fridge, freezer, and furnace running. Maybe add the entertainment center. A portable can easily handle that. That doesn't require a host of extension cords around the house and if it concerns, you run them semi-permanent where they are tucked up out of the way.

If I was having regular power outages, I would look into if the well pump could be replaced with a 120v version.

:R

For the record, my power has rarely gone out..

In fact, since I bought my bigger gen it has clocked 6 hrs since I bought it about 5 yrs ago..

Three of those hrs were from a power outage last week due to POCO having "equipment failure" at the power distribution center that feeds the lines going past my house.. The rest of the time clocked has been from periodic "exercise" tests over the yrs..

Typically our power interruptions are mere seconds, not enough time to warrant starting a gen and the UPS units I have about the house can handle those interruptions.. UPS units on computers and TVs gives us 15-20 minutes to decide if starting the gen is needed.. They are also nice when the gen runs out of fuel, keeping things running at all times.

In the case of this most recent power outage, I was able to start the gen transfer power to my home all the while keeping my DW's computer and cable internet running as she is still working from home.. The only issue we ran into was the CABLECOs system backup power failed after 2 hrs.. But all the time the gen was running our house was pretty much normal operations including having heat..

While real small gens are nice to have if you have nothing else, there is nothing that compares to having a gen large enough to handle more than a fridge, TV and a couple of lights AND having a gen with transfer switch..

OP mentioned that they were considering natural gas because the intended audience may not take care of a gas only gen to the point it most likely would not work when needed..

Standby gens with autostart FIX that issue.. They auto start when outage happens, they autostart on a schedule for testing and now days they can even email you diagnostics and if it encounters an error or issue..

Not everyone is inclined to properly maintain a gen, not everyone is inclined to drag a gen out into the yard each time the power blinks, not everyone is inclined to drag around a bunch of extension cords..

And sadly, not everyone realizes you can't safely run a portable gen in a home, enclosed space or building, on the porch or in an attached garage with the door open..