Gdetrailer wrote:Lantley wrote:2oldman wrote:Lantley wrote:That is one amazing 4300w generator, assuming this stuff is all electric.
I can have lights stove, fridge, freezers, hot water, internet internet and heat. All essentials. No cords no huge genset.
This stuff all requires electric however we have natural gas appliances. The stove, water heater and furnace are gas but they do require electric to operate. 4300watts is enough to keep me in business when we have power outages.
If we need A/C we can always retreat to the RV which has a built in Onan.
X2!
I could have gone with a 4Kw 240/120V gen myself since my heat is natural gas furnace and a wood burning furnace connected with the gas furnace. Have gas water heater and gas stove/oven (although the oven needs 120V for the gas safety valve).
All of my lights in the entire home at the time were Florescent making a light power draw there.. I have changed out most now to LEDs at about 1/3 the power draw..
Computers, router, TVs and such take minimal draw, perhaps 300W when all are on..
Have fridge and deep freezer, those really don't use a lot of power other than startup surge..
Deep well pump for water is 240V and my 4Kw gen is 120V only which I use for camping so I needed another gen to power the water well..
Since I needed a different gen, to make life easy in the dead of winter, I chose a bigger gen with electric start.. My DW has difficult time pull starting most small engines at times, even a push mower can be a challenge so electric start was a major item on the wish list.. So, HF at the time only had electric start in the 8700 watt size, I think they make have a 6,500W one now..
Typically, you really only want to pick the SMALLEST gen as possible to power only the critical loads.. The 8,700W gen is powered by a 13 HP engine and is a lot thirstier than my smaller 4Kw gen which uses a 6.5 HP engine.. So choosing oversized gen for the critical loads will just waste a lot of fuel if you are not careful.
Fuel choice can also affect gen size selection, natural gas/propane (these have less energy content)and you must upsize compared to gasoline or Diesel gens.
Far, far cheaper to conserve energy when on generator power, commercial power is always cheaper than trying to make your own and basically all you need is to keep things like a fridge, lights, light heating and cooking and perhaps some electronic entertainment going. For that you most certainly do not need a 12Kw-20Kw gen for the whole house.
