Best Emergency Generator- Need Answer ASAP

[Frogspon]

Now why would you think that.

I bought a new lawn mower and in the manual is a picture of 2 guys holding it up in the air and trimming a bush with it, manual says don't do it. I wondered who would be dumb enough to do something like that, Frogspon answered that question for me.

Guess I worded the question poorly, but my thought was with all these people mentioning "anything is better than nothing."

When in reality, for it to not be a complete disaster and waste of money, you need a massive gas generator, placed in a strategic location. So don't forget to purchase an equally as expensive extension cord, fed into your house somehow without an adding to your whole freezing problem.

And then you get the extension cord inside and need to play tonka toys with adapters to get all your equipment hooked up. I'm sure with all the electrical engineers around here that no one will be daisy chaining their Christmas light extension cords.

It's just not as easy as oh go buy a dinky generator and put it anywhere. There's a lot that goes into it.

 

[Mawlbec]

Just a thought but for everyone thinking of a generator with the cold weather...

Put some more thought into it when this is all over. Don't buy a generator alone, think about how to connect a 30 amp (or even 50 amp) to a port (called a generator power inlet box) on your house, which then diverts your panel (with something called a manual transfer switch), and helps you move power (strategically) to certain parts of your house without any of the extension cords. It really makes a difference if say you have your aquarium in your living room, a refrigerator in your kitchen, and your lights and internet in your office, all at once.

Most electricians can do this at an hourly price, super cheap and super helpful for me for the past few years. Your electrical panel should already be wired well enough to help you.

 

[ca1ore]

So sad but on BRS Facebook people are reporting total losses of fish and tanks. Many of them even had generators but apparently the heaters could not keep temp up even with a generator for them.

unfortunately that’s because you need many more watts to keep a tank at 78 when the house is at 30 than you do when it’s at 65. I learned this the hard way years ago when the boiler in my house failed in January while I was away. Didnt have an apex monitoring my tank back then ..... plus there was no email anyhow.

 

[ca1ore]

Most generators also come with 220. If you have a 220 outlet in your garage just connect the 2. VERY IMPORTANT shut off your main breaker on your fuse panel. Start generator and you'll have power to the whole house. No other cords needed.

did not realize you could do that. When I still used a portable, I also installed a manual transfer switch. Generator to port on side of house, then manually select which of 10 circuits to power. Worked great if I was home, not so great if I was out of town.

 

[Tamberav]

unfortunately that’s because you need many more watts to keep a tank at 78 when the house is at 30 than you do when it’s at 65. I learned this the hard way years ago when the boiler in my house failed in January while I was away. Didnt have an apex monitor JG my tank back then ..... plus there was no email anyhow.

Yah totally sucks for those in Texas where they probably thought it would never be that cold there to be bursting pipes and the houses are not insulated like they are here and such!

Some might be out of power for days or weeks I bet.. idk Might be time to pack the fish and stuff in the car and drive a few states over.

 

[Jekyl]

Just have to make sure your fuse panel has the main breaker off. Otherwise when the power does come back on there will be a fireworks show.

 

[Mawlbec]

Just have to make sure your fuse panel has the main breaker off. Otherwise when the power does come back on there will be a fireworks show.

Not true with newer model transfer switches, they are either off, on, or generator, protecting you from that scenario.

 

[ca1ore]

Not true with newer model transfer switches, they are either off, on, or generator, protecting you from that scenario.

i think he was referring to feeding generator power back through a 220 outlet. Possible maybe, but not sure I’d try it LOL.

 

[Mark]

unfortunately that’s because you need many more watts to keep a tank at 78 when the house is at 30 than you do when it’s at 65. I learned this the hard way years ago when the boiler in my house failed in January while I was away. Didnt have an apex monitoring my tank back then ..... plus there was no email anyhow.

Do Texas homes not have gas furnaces? A 2000-watt generator can easily supply enough power to run a gas furnace, since they only consume around 600-watts(1200 at startup). Seems to make more sense to heat the house to 75, and let the tank adjust to that room temp. You could even run a small tank heater and pump. I figured people weren't doing that because perhaps electric heat pump furnaces are more common?

 

[bfd211]

Sorry to be that dude with the ASAP in the title but we're having a bizarre cold front in Dallas. It's been < 15 degrees F for the last three days with 6" of snow. They are now doing rolling blackouts and I need to get an emergency generator. I have to get one from home depot.

Was hoping y'all have some quality suggestions that I can go snag real quick in case I get caught up in this.

Honda makes a tiny one that'll hold your ampage. Don't remember the model but it ran about 300 bucks on Amazon.

 

[Tan_The_Man805]

Most generators also come with 220. If you have a 220 outlet in your garage just connect the 2. VERY IMPORTANT shut off your main breaker on your fuse panel. Start generator and you'll have power to the whole house. No other cords needed.

Do not run a generator in your garage, or inside at all, please.

 

[ca1ore]

Do Texas homes not have gas furnaces?

I'm sure some do. Imagine some have oil and other eclectic. I don't live in Texas, but if you've followed the news there have been gas outages also. Double ouch!

 

[living_tribunal]

I'm sure some do. Imagine some have oil and other eclectic. I don't live in Texas, but if you've followed the news there have been gas outages also. Double ouch!

Most do. There are gas outages going on as well since some of that gas is being used to create electricity. The whole thing is a mess and now the drinking water is contaminated so most are without water.

The situation in texas is a lot more severe than people think right now. 15 people died yesterday. As some go into 70 hours without power, in single digit temps, I can’t expect that number to decrease over the next two days.

We need prayers, this is a crisis.

 

[tricky_tran]

I thought it was bad last week. When I drove into Austin Weds night, it was just chilly. Thursday was when the freeze started to happen. I thought it was interesting and cool to see these frozen plants and ice all over my car. Seemed to have been better on Friday. We then started to drive home Friday night around 8:30pm and there was already black ice in random places. About 2 hours later on State Highway 29, it just started to come down and my windshield started to freeze. Once I hit the 10 west, it started to come down even more and visibility was really bad. it did not clear up for us till we got closer to El Paso. Prayers for Texas

Texas largely relies on natural gas for power. It wasn’t ready for the extreme cold.

Texas largely relies on natural gas — especially during times of high demand — to power the state. Experts say natural gas infrastructure, from pumping it out of the ground to the plants in city centers, was unprepared for the plunging temperatures brought by the winter storm.

www.texastribune.org

 

[Jekyl]

Normal in Michigan.

 

[tricky_tran]

Normal in Michigan.

Unfortunately not normal in Texas.

 

[jstephens24]

yea im one in TX with no power or water or generator. Since Monday at 8a we have been without power all but 1 hour and no running water since Monday evening. I have an air stone going but the tank is just getting too cold. My inside house temp was as low as 47 and tank temp is low 60s. I am essential at work so I have to be there so not expecting any survivors. I have lost both clownfish, 2 yellow tangs, powder blue tang and 2 wrasses officially. Some are missing or on the brink of death. We have been through storms and hurricanes and have never lost power for than10 minutes prior to this.

 

[living_tribunal]

Unfortunately not normal in Texas.

It’s not the cold. It’s not having power or water for three days straight in single digits.

Every Texan would prefer -30 degrees F with power over this.

 

[mauisue]

I have a Duracell PowerSource Quiet Gasless Portable Power and Solar Generator, 1440w Output Inverter (1800w Peak) it runs my equipment for my Red Sea 350.​

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[LeftyReefer]

yea im one in TX with no power or water or generator. Since Monday at 8a we have been without power all but 1 hour and no running water since Monday evening. I have an air stone going but the tank is just getting too cold. My inside house temp was as low as 47 and tank temp is low 60s. I am essential at work so I have to be there so not expecting any survivors. I have lost both clownfish, 2 yellow tangs, powder blue tang and 2 wrasses officially. Some are missing or on the brink of death. We have been through storms and hurricanes and have never lost power for than10 minutes prior to this.

That sucks.

Any way you could boil some water over a small fire or propane stove or something to heat up the tank with?

No small inverter even?