Portable Power? Emergency Power?

[Mudderoy]

September is when hurricane season starts to get interesting. Yeah August too, but this is a September post. :D

Just thinking of some of the things I've always wanted to own and it reminds me of a generator!

I was wondering if any of you have a electricity generator, what you have, how do you like it and was there something that surprised you about it?

I saw a commercial the other day where they were reminding people that with a generator you can run your refrigerator, TV, etc... then they showed these portable generators.

What they didn't say is what you have to go through to hook them up, run them, the noise and the possibility of theft since they have to sit outside!

I mean you can connect one to your electrical panel, but that requires a sizable investment.

So what's your experience?

[OrangeXJ]

I have a 6.5k Kolhor that runs on natural gas. I have it tied into the out side box and bid not cost over 50 bucks. It will run the refrigerator's freezer the small a/c. It preaty much runs the whole house.

[LizardRunner]

used to have a 3000 watt honda. The RV has a 6.5kw generator that is fueled by the main gas tank. It's easier and cheeper to just run 12 or 10 ga. Extension cords. Hooking one up to your electrical panel can be done but you need either an auto switch over circuit (the fancy method) or an extension type cord hookup to the panel. both can be set up by an electrician or by someone who can read and follow directions and diagrams. The RV generator has to be plugged into with the external power cord and supplies the whole set of circuits. The down side is the noise.

[Mudderoy]

I have a 6.5k Kolhor that runs on natural gas. I have it tied into the out side box and bid not cost over 50 bucks. It will run the refrigerator's freezer the small a/c. It preaty much runs the whole house.

Yeah, I'd love to have one with a auto switch for the house hooking up to the natural gas. How much does it cost you to run that 6.5kva an hour?

[OrangeXJ]

Yeah, I'd love to have one with a auto switch for the house hooking up to the natural gas. How much does it cost you to run that 6.5kva an hour?

I don't what it costs per hour. I really don't care because if it is on I've got a/c. During Ike I ran it for 10 days my normal $25 a month gas bill was over $200 so it's not cheap. But like I said while all of the neighbors were sweating there ass off in the dark it was business as usual at my house.

[Mudderoy]

I don't what it costs per hour. I really don't care because if it is on I've got a/c. During Ike I ran it for 10 days my normal $25 a month gas bill was over $200 so it's not cheap. But like I said while all of the neighbors were sweating there ass off in the dark it was business as usual at my house.

Oh that's perfect. $200 for 10 days lets me know what I wanted to know. More than worth it!

[xj4life2]

A couple of winters ago we lost Power for 4 days outside temps in the 20's and night time in the teens , no heat , no cooking , inside the house was at about 45*. I would have givin anything for a generator that year. Heating water outside on the camp stove wasn't fun. Now I have one but am saddened by how little it will run. Just the basics but its enough to get by on. I HIGHLY recomend getting one, great for camping tooo !!!

[Paddletrucker]

We don't have too many hurricanes make landfall here in N.E. Oklahoma :D, but we do have tornados, ice storms, high winds, and various other things that know our power out. Shoot, a few years ago, we had an ice storm that knocked my power out for over two weeks.:boohoo: We are all electric and it remained a balmy 30 degrees in here for almost that entire time.

I live on a one mile long, dead end road. There is one house north of me and three more south of me on the whole stretch. The power company prioritizes emergency outings and how they repair them by how many homes will be brought back on line by each repair. That means we are among the last in our county to get power restored every time. It kinda sucks, but it sure is nice only having the traffic of the retirees that live south of us!

We run on generator power a lot. I looked into one of those systems that run on natural gas and come on automatically when the power goes out. I could do it for about 8 large, but we don't have any gas lines out here and those generator companies won't install their systems on propane tanks, for some reason.

So, I use two things. My semi has an auxiliary power unit on it. I'll let it run a bunch of stuff. If i don't happen to have my truck here and can't get it in here, (that's about 50% of the time in the sows here), I'll use a small gasoline HOnda generator. It's super quiet. I think this year, I'll buy another one. We also have plans to install a wood burning stove this fall. If I can run a few lights, watch TV, keep the food from spoiling, and keep remotely warm, we'll be golden.

One thing we are warned about here every year is that if you are using a generator, make sure to unhook your house from the power company first. They tend to get really irritated when they come to restore your power and get shocked by the power back feeding into the lines from your generator. Our power company will fine the pants off of you for it, and the workers remember your house. When it gets down to who gets back on line soonest, they remember you, too. I usually offer them something to eat and coffee.;);)

Honda makes great little generators that are not only great for emergencies, but are ideal for running stuff at a remote camp site. I've used it to power electric cook tops and the small microwave out of my semi on camping outings. They aren't loud, not too heavy, and don't use tons of gas. Right now, I can't think of the model my Honda is, and it is out in the loft of the barn. I know it was somewhat expensive, but it sure is nice not to be able to hear it running outside the back door!!

[4.3LXJ]

One thing we are warned about here every year is that if you are using a generator, make sure to unhook your house from the power company first. They tend to get really irritated when they come to restore your power and get shocked by the power back feeding into the lines from your generator. Our power company will fine the pants off of you for it, and the workers remember your house. When it gets down to who gets back on line soonest, they remember you, too. I usually offer them something to eat and coffee.;);)



That is what I was talking about with the master breaker. Most breaker panels in the last 30 years have them in CA, land of superior regulations. It is the huge one at the top.

[Paddletrucker]

Pretty sure ours is an E3000 model. I got it on sale for a little less than 2,000bucks one year through a deal my wife came up with through the state. She works for the state. I'd love to have another one and I could power the whole place, I think. It usually runs for a couple of days and nights on about four gallons, if memory serves me.

[Firemanray]

I have an 8500w Troy built I bought after "Rita" (please don't ban me for foul lanquage). I installed a 220v breaker in my panel. I turn off the main (VERY important), turn on my breaker and fire up the gen. I can power everything (not at same time) in my house except the main A/C. I can run window unit and frig, or elect. stove (1 burner) and lights. Just have to monitor what is on and off while gen. is running.
I chain the gen. to a pole under my back deck, if some fool is dumb enough to try and steal it, non of my arsenal requires electricty to operate!!

[Paddletrucker]

I chain the gen. to a pole under my back deck, if some fool is dumb enough to try and steal it, non of my arsenal requires electricty to operate!!


:D:D I always kinda figured a dumbass carrying a generator wouldn't be too awful hard to sight in.;);) I have a loooong drive way, too. So far nobody has attempted that. It helps that most around here know that my wife carries a gun for a living and does a lot of the firearms training for the state agency she works for.:sniper::sniper:

[OrangeXJ]

We don't have too many hurricanes make landfall here in N.E. Oklahoma :D, but we do have tornados, ice storms, high winds, and various other things that know our power out. Shoot, a few years ago, we had an ice storm that knocked my power out for over two weeks.:boohoo: We are all electric and it remained a balmy 30 degrees in here for almost that entire time.

I live on a one mile long, dead end road. There is one house north of me and three more south of me on the whole stretch. The power company prioritizes emergency outings and how they repair them by how many homes will be brought back on line by each repair. That means we are among the last in our county to get power restored every time. It kinda sucks, but it sure is nice only having the traffic of the retirees that live south of us!

We run on generator power a lot. I looked into one of those systems that run on natural gas and come on automatically when the power goes out. I could do it for about 8 large, but we don't have any gas lines out here and those generator companies won't install their systems on propane tanks, for some reason.

So, I use two things. My semi has an auxiliary power unit on it. I'll let it run a bunch of stuff. If i don't happen to have my truck here and can't get it in here, (that's about 50% of the time in the sows here), I'll use a small gasoline HOnda generator. It's super quiet. I think this year, I'll buy another one. We also have plans to install a wood burning stove this fall. If I can run a few lights, watch TV, keep the food from spoiling, and keep remotely warm, we'll be golden.

One thing we are warned about here every year is that if you are using a generator, make sure to unhook your house from the power company first. They tend to get really irritated when they come to restore your power and get shocked by the power back feeding into the lines from your generator. Our power company will fine the pants off of you for it, and the workers remember your house. When it gets down to who gets back on line soonest, they remember you, too. I usually offer them something to eat and coffee.;);)

Honda makes great little generators that are not only great for emergencies, but are ideal for running stuff at a remote camp site. I've used it to power electric cook tops and the small microwave out of my semi on camping outings. They aren't loud, not too heavy, and don't use tons of gas. Right now, I can't think of the model my Honda is, and it is out in the loft of the barn. I know it was somewhat expensive, but it sure is nice not to be able to hear it running outside the back door!!

What you said about dis conecting the main house is a given. I had a line crew come to my house and tell me to turn off my gen set so they could safely work on wires. I told him to think about it there are 750 houses in my sub divison if my house was not isolated from the main grid it would kill my gen set trying to supply power to that amount homes. He thought about it for a while and said your right.

[Carves]

The main "trick" with a gennie ... Is to work out what you need to have powered up in an emergency.

If you want to have life as "normal" then maybe get a biggun


Ones Ive had, have been petrol 2.5kva - 4.5kva ... which were more than adequate for the "emergency" items I wanted powered.

X2 on a woodstove if you can ..... as it = cooking/heat/ho****er.



edit ... WTF :shocker:

.... all I typed was ho****er .... ???

[Mudderoy]

What you said about dis conecting the main house is a given. I had a line crew come to my house and tell me to turn off my gen set so they could safely work on wires. I told him to think about it there are 750 houses in my sub divison if my house was not isolated from the main grid it would kill my gen set trying to supply power to that amount homes. He thought about it for a while and said your right.

Could come back.

[4.3LXJ]

I would like to make one more point about cutting the main power to the house, as well as sizing

You have lots of electronics in your house, including what runs your heat and AC. I have replaced lots of circuit boards, including my own, because the voltage drops on the grid. When the appliances try to draw too many amps, the same thing happens to your house as happens to your XJ. The voltage drops. When that happens, the appliance tries to draw as many watts as it takes to run itself, and will draw more amps than it can handle. It can fry a circuit board easily, along with little relays in it.

[Joliet Johnny]

As an apartment dweller on the 1st floor a generator is out :( I have thought about Optima yellow tops and an inverter for lighting/entertainment. Power outages were a problem in the past so to this day Im nervous about keeping much in the fridge/freezer.

Im very interested in powering a generator with wood gas with a battery bank of $40 irregular Optima yellow tops. I also want to run LED light bulbs and as efficient as I can find appliances. Plan is use as little grid power as I can under normal conditions so when the bad ones show up it doesnt hurt as bad. And as an added bonus I am green in the best way (in the wallet)

[cantab27]

after the first quake we put the kids and women in a house with a generator, it was 4 something in the am , -2 degrees ,so yeah was good the neighbour had one , they had heat plus light....... the men folk sat around our bbq, drinking coffee and shitting ourselves..lol ....after being through a natural disaster the more things you have the better,,,,, and we still shake.........

[Paddletrucker]

What you said about dis conecting the main house is a given. I had a line crew come to my house and tell me to turn off my gen set so they could safely work on wires. I told him to think about it there are 750 houses in my sub divison if my house was not isolated from the main grid it would kill my gen set trying to supply power to that amount homes. He thought about it for a while and said your right.:rolleye0012:
Well, it should be a given. However, around here, there were people that didn't . I'm not too sure how their generators worked. I never really thought about what you said about the gennie trying to feed the whole neighborhood.

I don't hook into my box. I just run some extension chords inside and plug in the stuff I want to use. That's how I "plug my house" into my generator. I guess it's because I'm too lazy to set it up right.:rolleye0012::D

[cpttuna]

B&S 5500 generator. I also have a 20 watt solar panel for outside the garage. I have a mobil home furnace in the garage. The solar panel is used to charge a 12 volt battery. I then run a power invertor to operate the thermostat which runs off 110.The solar panel was purchased off e-bay(just wait for a good deal). I was going to buy a 5 watt but the 20 turned out to be a better buy. I also bought 3 heavy duty ext cords off e-bay. The only in house mod was to change the thermostat for the furnace to a plug in. This way, if the power went out,I just unplug and plug in the ext cord going to the generator.

[prerunner1982]

If you are going to get a generator..... you mights as well get one with a welder.

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/commercial/files/images/product-images/Bobcat_250.png

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/enginedriven/product.php?model=M00185

[Mudderoy]

If you are going to get a generator..... you mights as well get one with a welder.

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/commercial/files/images/product-images/Bobcat_250.png

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/enginedriven/product.php?model=M00185

lol, where would you sleep if you bought that?!?!?! :smiley-whacky119:

[saar]

lol, where would you sleep if you bought that?!?!?! :smiley-whacky119:

I know where I would... right next to it, outside the house :D