TC generator saves the day.....and the fridge contents

Yep. Now is the time to buy an emergency generator. Not during the emergency.
Winter is coming. :(

I’ve used my eu2000i several times to power the essentials in my home, it is amazing how good that little generator works.
It’s so quite that our next door neighbor didn’t know we had a generator running and thought our power had come back on and theirs didn’t.

I have a onan 6500 and the honda 2000, we have a bunch of elderly neighbors so I have enough extensions to reach their homes and power their refrigerators off the 6500 while running our stuff off the honda ( had the onan when we lived in the mountains and the power would be out for weeks after storms)

Purchased ours in April years back. In November a huge windstorm knocked trees down everywhere, and being on a dead end road we were three days until power was restored. It was an extension cord maze by then, but we were so happy to have water from our well, and power to keep everything safe.

That was just the first time, and there has been more. Also worth mentioning they make microwave popcorn and dry hair while on camping trips.

We also lost power for almost 24 hrs in the last storm. An extension cord run to the house for the fridge and a cozy camper made the neighbors green with envy. The little built in LPG Onan did its job although I miss the 5500 Marquis that was in my toy hauler that could run the entire house for long time off the 40 gallon tank.

A week ago this past Monday we were out of power for about 10 hours. Not weather related. When we build our house 26 years ago, I installed a transfer panel in the hallway, and a remote starter for my Yamaha 6000. The Yamaha has been great. Only one filter change and zero maintenance in over 26 years. Fortunately we do not need it often, and it has never failed to start.

I also installed a propane stovetop. We are on a well, and have to pump septic uphill. We typically use our wood stove for heat. The Yamaha will not run the septic and water pump at the same time, so I usually turn the septic pump off. If it is needed, it sounds an alarm.

I store my truck and TC in front of my garage. It has my Honda 2000 with the extended fuel tank modification. If all else fails I can move into it. I keep the TC loaded, black and gray tanks empty, water tank full and stocked with food.

Wayne

We too are fortunate to have our OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer setup always with us even parked at home when not being used.

Can easily use the running off the batteries and Power Inverters and then recharge the batteries each each day with the OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer being run by the 2KW Generator for three hours or so... Its just like camping out haha...

Have had to do this several times here at the house when we had county wide power outages...

Just run a couple of HD Extension Cords from the trailer into the house...

One extension cord providing 120VAC can run several lights and the home entertainment setup for many hours during the day and evening from my large battery bank. The second extension cord providing 120VAC is dedicated to running the fridge for a couple hours during the day and trickle charging my computer room UPS setup batteries which runs more lights and comms/connectivity to the outside world.

The problem I usually run into is finding a gas station on emergency power to refill my jeri-cans. One year I had to use my handy OKLAHOMA CREDIT CARD and suck some gas out of the truck gas tank haha...

This reminds me I need to check-out a few other new gas stations as the one that had back-up power to run their pumps at the edge of this county has recently closed down due to a new SHEETZ gas station being built.

The other fun side of this is we are usually the only one here in the neighborhood with lights and TV's going from the patio area and this invites alot of the neighborhood to come around. The propane grill gets a good work out and good fellowship with the neighbors... The hugh coffee pot of fresh grind and brew bean coffee was great as well...

No telling how many 2kW portable generators have been purchased around here due to this haha...

A couple years ago my next door neighbor and I loaded up one of the 2KW Hondas in a little red wagon and pulled around the neighborhood charging up the fridges to save some folks their meats and cold things..

A couple hours a day will save alot food from spoiling...

Roy Ken

I'm fortunate enough to have an power pedestal in side yard.

Main power meter disconnect are on this pedestal so all I have to do is flip MAIN OFF, plug in Onan 4KW to receptacle open up circuit breakers in house panel to non-essentials and fire up generator.

Old-Biscuit wrote:
... Main power meter disconnect are on this pedestal so all I have to do is flip MAIN OFF, plug in Onan 4KW to receptacle open up circuit breakers in house panel to non-essentials and fire up generator.

I do not think this set up is legal in California, definitely not in El Dorado county.

If your generator is setup and running, and someone flips the Main on, it could electrocute a Utilities worker repairing your service. With a Transfer switch (manual or automatic), you cannot have both the utilities power and generator connected at the same time. The purpose of the Transfer Switch is to select one or the other.

As I recall, when I installed my Transfer Switch, I was told there is a serious fine if caught simply flipping the Main off and connecting a generator.

Something to think about.

Wayne

Old-Biscuit wrote:
I'm fortunate enough to have an power pedestal in side yard.

Main power meter disconnect are on this pedestal so all I have to do is flip MAIN OFF, plug in Onan 4KW to receptacle open up circuit breakers in house panel to non-essentials and fire up generator.

So the main breaker for your house service is in a pedestal, in the side yard? Is that typical of service installs for your area?

When I had the fuse box ripped out of my house and 200 amp service installed, I asked about having the main put someplace more accessible than in my crawlspace where the panel is. Nope, couldn't do it per (local/national?) electrical code. I didn't press on exactly why or what code.