Emergency power help

[Fudsey]

Just finished installing mine. 11k, enough for whole house.

I used a gas generator for years back-fed into the house through the dryer plug to do the whole house. Yes this is dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. If you don't have an automatic power switch, first thing is to shut off main breaker before even starting up the generator.

Never want to back-feed into the power grid, this is how lineman die.

 

[cbdaugherty]

Seriously, considering getting a generator for emergency power outages.

I like to get one that for a period of max two weeks... will run the tank, charge say two small household electronics at a time(switching out cells, tablets kinda thing) and will run the fridge/deep freezer(I buy bulk meat losing that would hurt 0o) ...thinking Id plug in the fridge during the day when every ones opening it...and the freezer at night.

And I really dont know what to buy and they seem to range from pretty reasonable in cost to insanely expensive.

I guess gas powered, but have natural gas lines here. Also Not worried about size how tiny it is...I have a clean dry workshop for storage. Budget and it doing what I need it to do are my concerns.

I just need....this range of watts is what you should be getting to run all that.... Cause I'm confused. Any suggestions welcome.

About 10 years ago we moved OUT, way out from the city. Propane in a tank for heating and cooking; electricity for everything else including our water. 220v well pump. Traditional furnace and AC. I bought a Generac 8-10kw and the power transfer panel to connect the generator to my home and protect any power company workers who might be working on downed lines.
I put any and all electronic devices on APC UPS unit to correct the power to be the clean correct sine wave needed. The generator runs my furnace, refrigerator, deep freeze, lights, well pump and my tank pumps with minimal complaining. I recommend you contact an electrician to install the panel, use the one you called to discuss the power requirements of your particular situation. It is too easy to make an expensive mistake and most companies are willing discuss how to do this the least expensive Right & Safe way.

 

[eeleven]

Am very intrested in this thread, i bought a "black max" 7000 watt generator, it has a voltage reglator will that help with the "dirty power" issue or how can i produce clean power with it ? I have two reef tanks , 60 cube with 25 gallon sump and 16 gallon bio cube , but i am in the process of a 220 build and dont want to lose any of my equipment to a "dirty power" issue . Any ideas ?

 

[RamsReef]

Am very intrested in this thread, i bought a "black max" 7000 watt generator, it has a voltage reglator will that help with the "dirty power" issue or how can i produce clean power with it ? I have two reef tanks , 60 cube with 25 gallon sump and 16 gallon bio cube , but i am in the process of a 220 build and dont want to lose any of my equipment to a "dirty power" issue . Any ideas ?

Don't worry about it.

If you must though you are looking for a "Power Conditioner"

https://www.tripplite.com/products/power-conditioners~23

 

[cracker]

After the last several here in Fl, I'm shopping for a generator, I want one of the large generacs 7500 or 8000. Lot's of questions ! These units have an electric start. I want a pull start as well. Could You jump start one with the truck battery? Questions like that. The main query is just how much of your house will it run ?!

 

[michaelrc51]

After the last several here in Fl, I'm shopping for a generator, I want one of the large generacs 7500 or 8000. Lot's of questions ! These units have an electric start. I want a pull start as well. Could You jump start one with the truck battery? Questions like that. The main query is just how much of your house will it run ?!

Sure, you can jump start them as the starter circuit is 12v.
It's not that simple. You should do a load calc on your home since it seems as though you want to run your whole house. What size panel do you have? A 100, 150, or 200amp are the most common. Size it for the size of the panel and decide if you are going to power it natural gas or propane or just keep feeding it gasoline. You will need to figure out how you are going to feed your panel, you can do a generator switch which is a bit pricey or just backfeed a circuit with an adapter on your panel. The adapter just makes it so that your main breaker feeding the panel can't be in the on position while the breaker you are back feeding is in the on position.

Lots of things to consider here. For the tank equipment I would definitely make sure it's an inverter/ generator.

 

[cracker]

Thanks michael. I do want to plug it into the house or take it with me if I want. I got questions I don't know I have ! inverter/genenter I don't know the difference . Something I can research and a good start.

 

[RamsReef]

You decide if you want critical load (tank,furnace,fridge,etc) or whole home backup for sizing. Myself, if you live in a city or well connected go for critical load.

Inverter style generators work by using the generator to charge a dc component (battery or large cap bank) and then use an inverter to change it back to AC.

Regular single phase gen: Pro: Much cheaper, more robust / no electronics to fail
Con: high speed idle (less efficient at low load), harmonics due to low/over loading.

Inverter style: Pro: Low idle more efficient, output signal is clean and decoupled from prime mover, more feedback from electronic controls, quiter at low speeds.
Con: Pricey, more failure points

Myself I would not worry about the ac signal out of a regular generator, but thats me.

A backup system I have made is take a used ups thrown away because the batteries are no good. Take out the batteries and solder new wires to a couple external batteries. I can power my critical loads for quite a while on this.

 

[michaelrc51]

I think Ramasula said it well.
Only thing I would like to add is that it is critical to size your generator correctly. As loads get closer to a generator's limits it causes issues with the sine wave and actually clips the peaks of the waves and this can cause damage to electrical devices like pumps and computer equipment. This is where an inverter/ generator will stay more stable until you overload it. But, it will stay stable most likely beyond the rated output. I have seen a few burned up well pumps and such from generators.
I have a little Honda EU3000 inverter/ generator which works well but it is only 3k watts. Its great but it obviously won't run your whole house. In the future I am going to add a natural gas whole house generator. Honda EU3000 cost $2300 a whole house Generac natural gas unit will probably run more than $4500+ installation for a house with a 200amp service.

I think sizing is the most important factor. Size it correctly for what you are looking for and don't overload it and you'll be fine. Bottom line, better to have to much than not enough. If you don't have enough power you may end up costing yourself more money if you were to fry your refrigerator or something.

 

[Polara Pat]

Seriously, considering getting a generator for emergency power outages.

I like to get one that for a period of max two weeks... will run the tank, charge say two small household electronics at a time(switching out cells, tablets kinda thing) and will run the fridge/deep freezer(I buy bulk meat losing that would hurt 0o) ...thinking Id plug in the fridge during the day when every ones opening it...and the freezer at night.

And I really dont know what to buy and they seem to range from pretty reasonable in cost to insanely expensive.

I guess gas powered, but have natural gas lines here. Also Not worried about size how tiny it is...I have a clean dry workshop for storage. Budget and it doing what I need it to do are my concerns.

I just need....this range of watts is what you should be getting to run all that.... Cause I'm confused. Any suggestions welcome.

I have a Honda 2K and a buddy has a 3K that I have used a few times. I like the 3K for the fuel capacity and it is more quiet (not sure how to say that but I don't think quieter is a word) with that said I would go with the 2 2ks and set them up with a larger tank. That will give you longer run times, more power, and more versatility.

 

[fermentedhiker]

After some losses from a long term outage I put in a whole house Generac 11k. I was using a portable 4k that would actually run the whole house as long as I didn't use the oven or the drier, but it hated when the well pump kicked on. I didn't dare leave it running while I was at work and no one else was around so it just was an untenable situation for high end coral or anemones.

I've been happy with the whole house. I got a 500 gallon propane tank installed so it'll run close to two weeks continuously.