Time to buy a generator!

Reefer911 · Dec 22, 2022

mfinn said:
I currently use a Predator 8750 with a gentran which powers most of my house. When I had the gentran installed I had a Generac 6000. I recently contacted several electricians and talked with a couple hvac companies asking what it would take to add my heat pump and furnace to my gentran circuits and nobody I talked with said it would be possible unless I had at least a 12K to 15k generator.
No biggie.
But I am getting ready for weather to roll in tonight.
Weather report is calling for freezing rain with a possible build up of 1/2"+.

Thankfully my furnace is gas. So is the cook stove. We will still have to get creative while on generator, especially with the aquarium. I have a 600w heater for the new build. Maybe during that time I can run intermittent skimmer and UV to save a few watts

olonmv · Dec 22, 2022

mfinn said:
I currently use a Predator 8750 with a gentran which powers most of my house. When I had the gentran installed I had a Generac 6000. I recently contacted several electricians and talked with a couple hvac companies asking what it would take to add my heat pump and furnace to my gentran circuits and nobody I talked with said it would be possible unless I had at least a 12K to 15k generator.
No biggie.
But I am getting ready for weather to roll in tonight.
Weather report is calling for freezing rain with a possible build up of 1/2"+.

Microair.com. Look at soft starts. I run my entire home with a 8750 inverter generator. They also work on heat pumps.

Joepie · Dec 22, 2022

I do have a battery pack, that is always 100% full. For my own reassurance. Connected with only one heater and one flow pump.

Reefer911 · Dec 22, 2022

olonmv said:
Microair.com. Look at soft starts. I run my entire home with a 8750 inverter generator. They also work on heat pumps.

Is this something that is wired in by an electrician? I’ll definitely do that since mine is a 7000

olonmv · Dec 22, 2022

Reefer911 said:
Is this something that is wired in by an electrician? I’ll definitely do that since mine is a 7000

I’m an electrician so I wired it myself but. It’s really easy to wire. One wire cuts so that it can be spliced, aside from mounting the unit it’s just splicing and landing wires (4 total I believe). Totally worth it. I run a 4 ton unit along with everything in my house. Of course during an outage I try to keep loads down. But it’s very capable of running my home.

alton · Dec 22, 2022

Although Honda is the best, I can't afford it. So the next best invertor generator and we use at work is the Harbor Freight Predator Invertor generator 9500. I have a plug on the outside with a 40 amp breaker tied to my 200 amp breaker on the inside panel so the 40 amp cannot turn on until the 200 is turned off first. My new 4 ton ac compressor when used as a heat pump turns out 90 degree air from the vents when it is 25 outside. Big difference from yesteryear when heat pumps would freeze up around 40 degrees. And since it only draws 16 amps its well under the 9500's limit. In the snowy freeze two years ago I got by with a 600 watt invertor generator ($300). I ran my return pump, heater, and TV. The fireplace was a blazing. No reason not to keep some kind of backup for your aquarium

Dburr1014 · Dec 22, 2022

My lucky day a few days ago.
We got one of these at work and came in damaged. Instead of them throwing it away, I asked for it. Got it for nothing. Pure sine wave, all the bells and whistles.

Well, I fixed it. I can run all of my pumps as normal and have 24 hours of battery.
Plenty of time to hook up my generator.

w8lifts · Dec 22, 2022

Texas power grid checking in: buy a generator!

d2mini · Dec 22, 2022

w8lifts said:
Texas power grid checking in: buy a generator!

Ya, screwwww that.

I'll be paying it off forever but thankfully we got a standby gen. And i thought we just had to worry about hurricanes.

olonmv · Dec 22, 2022

w8lifts said:
Texas power grid checking in: buy a generator!

Agree, ERCOT is trash.

Reefer911 · Dec 22, 2022

My wife and kids got stuck in Texas at her parents house for two weeks during all that. She’s usually ready to leave their house after about 3 days hahaha!!!
She planned on taking the kids to see my mom after a few days but never made it down to see her lol.

alton · Dec 22, 2022

With portable invertor generators you have to make sure it comes with 120/240 volts. Most have 30 amp 125v

Reefer911 · Dec 22, 2022

olonmv said:
I’m an electrician so I wired it myself but. It’s really easy to wire. One wire cuts so that it can be spliced, aside from mounting the unit it’s just splicing and landing wires (4 total I believe). Totally worth it. I run a 4 ton unit along with everything in my house. Of course during an outage I try to keep loads down. But it’s very capable of running my home.

Thanks, I will definitely look that up. I can do simple wiring if it’s obvious what to do. But I don’t do electricity so ain’t no way I’ll be attempting to figure anything out on my own when it comes to electricity

Reefer911 · Dec 22, 2022

alton said:
With portable invertor generators you have to make sure it comes with 120/240 volts. Most have 30 amp 125v

That Honda has 120/240

olonmv · Dec 22, 2022

Reefer911 said:
Thanks, I will definitely look that up. I can do simple wiring if it’s obvious what to do. But I don’t do electricity so ain’t no way I’ll be attempting to figure anything out on my own when it comes to electricity

My bad. It’s microair.net is the site.

mfinn · Dec 22, 2022

olonmv said:
Microair.com. Look at soft starts. I run my entire home with a 8750 inverter generator. They also work on heat pumps.

Yeah, I will, thanks.
My main concern for hooking up my heat pump would only be for summer cooling.
I have other small heaters in the house that we use to keep warm.

olonmv · Dec 22, 2022

mfinn said:
Yeah, I will, thanks.
My main concern for hooking up my heat pump would only be for summer cooling.
I have other small heaters in the house that we use to keep warm.

The device is awesome. Cuts start-up amps by 70%ish. And their customer support is top notch. The address is a dot net just in case you missed my correction.

mfinn · Dec 22, 2022

olonmv said:
The device is awesome. Cuts start-up amps by 70%ish. And their customer support is top notch. The address is a dot net just in case you missed my correction.

I would probably have to upgrade my by-pass ( gentran) box. I think it's only a 30 amp. I know I would because of room for additional circuits. My hotwater heater takes up 2 of the 6.

olonmv · Dec 22, 2022

mfinn said:
I would probably have to upgrade my by-pass ( gentran) box. I think it's only a 30 amp. I know I would because of room for additional circuits. My hotwater heater takes up 2 of the 6.

I don’t have any of that stuff. Maybe in the future I’ll do a transfer switch but, for now I just back-feed my panel via a twist lock that I installed and a interlock so that I can’t run my main breaker and back-feed breaker at same time.