Generators

[Tegridy Reef]

Following

 

[Big G]

Hello! Looking to pick up a generator for emergencies, mostly for the reef to be honest. Nothing else in the house other than maybe a fridge or freezer would need the power and I live in minnesota so there really arent natural disasters leaving me with power more than a day or 2.

Not all generators are made the same however, and I know with our reefs they contain delicate electronics and need "clean" energy produced to avoid damage. What generator does everyone recommend?

I would want to power the RO Varios 6 return pump and 1 300 Watt heater, and the refrigerator. I think i should be able to get by with a 3000 watt generator with plenty of power to spare for phones and other basic QOL items for the worst case scenario of 2-3 days without power. Really hoping to spend less than $1k as much more than that Ill just go for the whole home generator option.

The only problem with portable generators is you have to be there to plug them in. What if you are at work or gone for the weekend? I bit the bullet and got the whole house automatic gen. Lots of bucks but the peace of mind is real nice. Where I live we get power outages throughout the year, and sometimes for several days. Peace of mind. . . .

 

[Mark Gray]

Anyone run their Generators on natural gas?

 

[cracker]

With a 1000$ budget consider getting the biggest You can. when the power is out it's nice to be able to run more than the essentials . I have Generac 6500. I could run a fridge, small deep freeze both tanks returns only TV & a window Ac. Maybe more not sure. It is noisy & drinks the fuel

Now Big G has it down with a whole home generator .

 

[Big G]

Anyone run their Generators on natural gas?

Propane

 

[cracker]

Good question, Big G does your's run on propane?
already answered !

 

[Big G]

Good question, Big G does your's run on propane?

Yep.

 

[Mark Gray]

Propane

I think it would run on natural gas too but not 100% I have Natural gas piped into my home so this would be optimum for me

 

[Big G]

I think it would run on natural gas too but not 100% I have Natural gas piped into my home so this would be optimum for me

Yes. It has a lever inside the unit you can choose the type of gas. Pretty easy to switch.

 

[Jeepguy242]

Yep.

i know propane stores better, but isn't gas cheaper to run than propane?

i get 8 hours out of 5 gallons for roughly 15 bucks... propane here is around 24$ for a bottle exchange and 18 if i get it filled at the one place that fills them (if they have the time to fill them... usually i have to leave the bottle and they call when its filled)

i have the option of converting my gas to propane with my gen.... would it be worth it to convert... how much run time can you get from a 20 pound grill bottle?

 

[USMA36]

There's no need to run a ups if u get any brand generator that has an inverter style instead of the older brushed gens. The new inverter gens will run at a constant 60hz with no fluctuations like the brushed gens

Agreed, however, if you want to save money over a Honda and have a lot more power A ups is the way to do that, protect your equipment and clean up the power. My t5 lights flicker on straight generator power. When run through my ups I can’t tell a difference between wall power and generator power.

 

[USMA36]

i know propane stores better, but isn't gas cheaper to run than propane?

i get 8 hours out of 5 gallons for roughly 15 bucks... propane here is around 24$ for a bottle exchange and 18 if i get it filled at the one place that fills them (if they have the time to fill them... usually i have to leave the bottle and they call when its filled)

i have the option of converting my gas to propane with my gen.... would it be worth it to convert... how much run time can you get from a 20 pound grill bottle?

Gasoline generates more btu’s Which means longer run times. The downfall is that it’s very difficult to store large amounts of gasoline. 1 gallon of gasoline will generate approximately 115,000 btu’s compared to 1 gallon of propane which will only generate 91,000 btu’s but is much much easier to store in large quantities.

 

[Jeepguy242]

Gasoline generates more btu’s Which means longer run times. The downfall is that it’s very difficult to store large amounts of gasoline. 1 gallon of gasoline will generate approximately 115,000 btu’s compared to 1 gallon of propane which will only generate 91,000 btu’s but is much much easier to store in large quantities.

i have 2 55 gallon drums made for storing gas, the only problem i have found is that i have to make sure to rotate them thru running them in my cars and re-filling them... even with an additive for storage ethanol fuels suck and non ethanol gas is too expensive and hard to get...

i lived in florida for 7 hurricanes and have been without power more than 15 days in a row on generator power... first time was 12 days and i had 5 gallon cans... that was a mess... shortly after that i got my drums made for storing petroleum products and a hand pump (like the kind you see in farm trucks) and no problem....

i do like having the drums in the garage as i am constantly filling up the cars with 10 gallons here and there, but lugging a couple of 5 gallon cans to the store on lawn day is getting old...

 

[USMA36]

i have 2 55 gallon drums made for storing gas, the only problem i have found is that i have to make sure to rotate them thru running them in my cars and re-filling them... even with an additive for storage ethanol fuels suck and non ethanol gas is too expensive and hard to get...

i lived in florida for 7 hurricanes and have been without power more than 15 days in a row on generator power... first time was 12 days and i had 5 gallon cans... that was a mess... shortly after that i got my drums made for storing petroleum products and a hand pump (like the kind you see in farm trucks) and no problem....

i do like having the drums in the garage as i am constantly filling up the cars with 10 gallons here and there, but lugging a couple of 5 gallon cans to the store on lawn day is getting old...

Most people don’t have the room to store that much gasoline. In many places inside storage of that much wouldn’t even be legal. Either way turning over that much gas would be too much work for most. 15% better run times on gasoline may not be worth it when I can store a 500 or 1000 kB propane tank underground indefinitely. The best of both worlds are the dual fuel gasoline/propane generators. Burn what you have. No muss no fuss.

 

[Jeepguy242]

In many places inside storage of that much wouldn’t even be legal.

actually according to the national fire code inside storage of up to 660 gallons is legal in an approved container

my business is ammo manufacturing, the national fire code is brought up many times in my line of work....

it is surprising that the fire marshal in my area didn't even know the code for the storage of smokeless gunpowder and had to look it up..

 

[Davy Jones]

Looks like i can get a used honda eu3000is for about $1k in my area. the whole home generator would be amazing but we dont plan on staying at this house more than a couple more years, so i am going to wait on that for my next home purchase. As for the being home, my work is very chill, if i have to run home to set up a generator cause there is a storm its fine, i live about 15 minutes away and can work from home when i want. (gotta love IT jobs) The longest we have been without power in this location was 3.5 days and that was a major storm. definitely not the norm. With that said, the more i think about it the more I would also like to be able to have the internet, and a computer or something hooked into power as well. 3000 watts should be enough but if i find larger i may go that route. Honeywell, generac, dewalt and briggs & Stratton all have good reveiwed generators so I may pick up one of those and avoid the Honda prices lol Either way I really appreciate the comments on here about what to get

 

[fishybizzness]

I would go with the Honda eu3000. You can get a 5 or 6000 k for cheaper but the noise level of the cheaper genn will send you nuts in a short time.

 

[Brew12]

Looks like i can get a used honda eu3000is for about $1k in my area. the whole home generator would be amazing but we dont plan on staying at this house more than a couple more years, so i am going to wait on that for my next home purchase. As for the being home, my work is very chill, if i have to run home to set up a generator cause there is a storm its fine, i live about 15 minutes away and can work from home when i want. (gotta love IT jobs) The longest we have been without power in this location was 3.5 days and that was a major storm. definitely not the norm. With that said, the more i think about it the more I would also like to be able to have the internet, and a computer or something hooked into power as well. 3000 watts should be enough but if i find larger i may go that route. Honeywell, generac, dewalt and briggs & Stratton all have good reveiwed generators so I may pick up one of those and avoid the Honda prices lol Either way I really appreciate the comments on here about what to get

I use a 5kW generator with a 240V output to power my entire house. I have to be careful not to have too much running at a time but it came in handy when we went a week without power.

Something like this isn't for everyone though and can be dangerous if you don't open the main breaker in your panel to wire it in.

 

[jd371]

You can use one of the cheaper generators if you run your equipment through a ups and them to,a generator. A decent ups doesn’t cost much and will have an inverter to clean up the generators power and built in surge protection.

I haven't needed to use it yet , but this is my set up as well. I have my Ph's hooked up to a UPS and they can run for about 4 hours if the power goes out. Anything longer and I plug in the return pump and a spare heater into the same UPS as the PH's and run that off the generator.
So far in all the years I've lived in this house we've been very lucky and never had a power outage longer than a few hours, usually just a blown transformer. Even during Hurricane Sandy when the block across the street and the block behind us all lost power for a week, we weren't effected. We ran extension cords across the street to supply power to our neighbors.

 

[Jeepguy242]

I would also like to be able to have the internet, and a computer or something hooked into power as well.

Chances are if your power is out then the switch box down the road won’t have power either so kiss the internet goodbye unless you hotspot your phone

After a couple of hurricanes in Florida we had no cell service either cause the power to the cell towers was knocked out too