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NRA Endowment Member
House generators
Anybody have a whole-house generator? Pros? Cons? Cost?
Dad's wealthy neighbor had one installed a few years ago that is fed by his gas line and automatically switches on and off, but he paid over $20k for it. It's a monster!
I'm just thinking about one to run our small 2500sqft house when the power goes out in the heavy storms we've been getting every couple of summers. Wife is especially sensitive to heat from her medication.
Dad's wealthy neighbor had one installed a few years ago that is fed by his gas line and automatically switches on and off, but he paid over $20k for it. It's a monster!
I'm just thinking about one to run our small 2500sqft house when the power goes out in the heavy storms we've been getting every couple of summers. Wife is especially sensitive to heat from her medication.
“A gun is a tool, no better or no worse than any other tool: an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that.”
NRA Endowment Member
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Cons: They need to be run periodically to keep them from developing problems. Upkeep can get expensive if parts fail. Installation can be costly especially if you have to get it permitted.
Cost: Depends on how big a unit you would require. That would require an energy survey by a licensed electrician who is knowledgeable in such matters. The unit would size would be the total amp draw of all the electrical devices you have that would be required to be running simultaneously, plus a percentage over that. Motor start current is roughly 4X run current, so you need a cushion to prevent problems with frequency/voltage sensitive devices; reduced momentary voltage = increased current draw. This can be detrimental to the generator, also, as it would be required to provide more than rated current if you are on the ragged edge of generator amp capacity vs. total amperage draw.
― Douglas Adams
laying down, ran on propane not included in the size estimate.
Ran the whole house and was 8-10 thousand depending on the electrical work
needed to hook it up. It was automatic including the monthly maintenance run.
All our appliances except the fridge and the washer/dryer and AC are gas. The AC is a five ton unit. We could tap the gen into our gas feed, which would mean permits and an authorized installer.
Starting to sound like more trouble than it's worth for a few days.
NRA Endowment Member
> AC
> Kitchen
> hot water heater?
> a room, like living room and bed room. chances are you spend most of your waking hours in one room.
> also chances are you wont be using all of the electrical stuff at one time. since you want your wifey to be comfy if/when the power goes out, id just center the gen around the creature comforts.
- Don Burt
Jerry
...well, when the zombies start surrounding the house, he won't need to get out to find gas to refill the generator tank ..
...but, the real trick would be how to make his food supplies last as much as his energy supply...
Solar is a very cheap way to heat or pre-heat water for showers, you can use scrap plumbing components and store the hot water in insulated tanks....
What most people need is to run a backup AC unit, like a wall unit, their fridge / freezer, a TV / sat system, and a few lights. This can easily be acheived under 10kw, on gasoline.
The most expensive part is a cutover panel on your main electrical panel and getting the parts and an electrician to make it. Wire up those devices you want to run to the cutover, run a cord to the generator and voila! your backup generator devices are running, no extension cords, and an inexpensive generator of $900 can do the trick.
Whatever you do, do not use propane! A one week large propane generator can use $1000 of propane to operate. Gasoline is expensive, but you can keep 20 gallons in 5 gallon cans around for your lawn mower, and potential generator use, and that's enough to run it for at least two days if you need it. Diesel is the best option, but the generators are MUCH more expensive. Since diesel has more energy than gas and stores longer, it is prefered for commercial generators. A 10 k diesel generator can run about twice as long as a comparable gasoline generator on about the same amount of fuel.
In our home, we also have a 5 ton A/C unit, but our hurricane / outage plan relies on a backup wall AC unit. We hunker down in there until the world gets back to normal.
D
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:
NRA Endowment Member
D
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:
I don't leave my window units installed. They are in the boxes stored in my shed until I need them as they only take a few minutes to install. I'm sure that your HOA will overlook a window unit in place for a day or two and even if they don't, they'll probably tell you to remove them within so many days and by then you likely won't need them.
Life member of the American Legion, the VFW, the NRA and the Masonic Lodge, retired LEO
Life member of the American Legion, the VFW, the NRA and the Masonic Lodge, retired LEO
Teach is on target about the cost. You will need anywhere from $15K-$40K in solar cell panels depending on what you want to run off them. Marine deep cycle batteries are a really poor choice for storage; you'll want the ones specific to the solar application. Comparing them to the marine deep cycle; the ones you need are three times as tall, twice as wide, and twice depth of the marine batteries, and cost about 10X what the marine deep cycle batteries cost. You need monster storage capacity if you want to run more than just a few CFC lights. They start needing replacement at around 7-8 years, and you need to replace them all at the same time to keep up efficiency. If you plan on running 220V you will need 22 of them(12V batteries). DC-to-AC inverters that run in the KW range for whole house run in the several thousands of dollars range. Good news is that even with the solid state ones you can use the heat off them to heat the house in the winter. The size of the inverters is about what a medium sized 24 gun safe would be.
The batteries also need to be kept to a temperature range of 55-85 deg. for best operation efficiency. Too cold or too hot and they lose output efficiency; reminds me of Goldilocks and the porridge. The inverter needs to be energized in "Hot Standby" all the time to keep it ready for use. Starting up cold, they will require a warmup period for use if you don't want to fry some of the circuitry.
I used to take care of inverter/battery systems in the 240V-480V range, and they are labor intensive to keep running. Battery checks with hydrometer weekly, voltage checks daily, electrolyte check at least weekly, and temperature of battery storage room/building daily, and inverter check daily if you keep the inverter energized.
If you want a faster payoff on investment you need a connection box installed that lets the inverter be connected all the time supplying power to the house and excess to the grid, with automatic disconnect to the grid in case of power failure. More money for controls.
One more thing. Solar electric cells and hail are incompatible. You will have to build frames with safety glass fronts to keep the fragile and brittle solar cells from becoming waste material.
Solar electric looks good until you do the math.
― Douglas Adams
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202714559/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=ge+generators&storeId=10051#.UBmoS6PvwVA
A $15 80 watt power inverter plugged into the car cigarette lighter can be used for all kinds of stuff-- charging cell phones, charging laptops, charging batteries for cordless tools-- they can even run a few lights in your house if you have florescent or LED bulbs.
Before I had my whole house generator, I used my 5550 Troy Bilt. I made up two drop cords, with male ends on both ends. My house was wired in dual phase, so I plugged one cord into each side of the house. That kept the freezer and fridge running, and provided lights and TV, in the evening. Robin
Life member of the American Legion, the VFW, the NRA and the Masonic Lodge, retired LEO