Well, after about a week of on and off power for me and about 5 days with no power for the girlfriend and her parents due to recent ice storms, I am starting to look at generators for backup power. I am looking to you guys for suggestions. I want at to be able to power sump pump, 1 side by side refrig, tv, well pump, and at least 1 of the baseboard heaters (I have a furnace, but don't need that big of a generator). I was wondering about brands, places to buy, and size(watts)

Thanks,

Nick

 

Nick

What kind of money are you wanting to spend? I have 2 generators that I use for two things 1 for the camper and the other for power for the house.

CRIS

 

Look at the one in the classified ads, that is a bargain, you can run your house and a couple of neighbors too. If I lived near him I would go get it..........

 

The one Jack has for sale looks like a good deal, but a little more than I was looking to spend. I was looking for something under $1000 and I live in a rural area, so noise isn't a big issue.

Thanks,
Nick

 

Nick

I've got a 5000KW with 6500KW surge with a 10HP briggs. I've been through 8 hurricanes with it and no problems. I took and added a 50amp plug by my breaker box and then made a pig-tail to run from my gen to the 50amp plug. When the power goes out I turn off the main and all the 220s except for the 50amp plug breaker. My little 5000kw runs all of the 110volt breakers in the house. I can go from room to room and use all the lights and plugs. The 5000kw will run my FRIG, window A/C, lights, fans and the water pump with no problem.

CRIS

 

If noise is NOT a problem you can get a 5k generac at your local Home Depot. My uncle has a Honda EM6500 to power up his house in case of emergency. I bought a Honda EM 5000 off of Ebay this fall and it was like new for a decent price.

 

Thats a decent list of things you need to run.

2 pumps - any idea on what your pumps draw?
1 full size fridge
1 TV - what size TV you want to run?

Remember with electric motors you need to figure in surge wattage, this includes the fridge. If you have a gas furnace you should be able to run that no problem.

I have a Generac 7550 EXL. Picked it up from Home depot for $900 bucks. (It was $1000, we had a 10% off coupon).

The local power out here in Guam is decent but not reliable at times. Especially with the heavy storms and typhoons we get.

With our generator here is what we can run.

All our lights and outlets
TV and computer
Full size fridge
Microwave 1000 Watt
Central A/C

The only complaint I have with mine is it is a touch noisy. But it runs well. It came with wheels on it. Features are electric start, 7 gal fuel tank, an idler switch to save fuel.

A few other tips.

Have a proper transfer switch put in so you can tie in to the house. Also get a grounding rod and drive it in near where you plan on running your generator. This is for safety and helps provide clean power from your generator.

Here is a link to what I got.

Hope this helps.

 

Hey now you guys,
I thought we all agreed gasoline was for lighting fires and washing parts. What you really need is a diesel genset. If you need something for standby use get a diesel unit. I have a military MEP-003, (some of you out there will know what I am talking about.) It is 10 kw. 60Hz.
both single and 3 phase. It is powered by a 4 cylinder air cooled Onan {CUMMINS} diesel engine. These run at 1800 RPM are skid mounted and weigh 1250 lbs. These are the units that they drop out the back of a C-130 on a parachute and use to power anything in the field. You can get them at government auctions and also E-Bay. Lawnmower engine types run at 3600 RPM and unless you get a good one they will beat themselves to death in about 500 hours. Some good ones are by Kubota and Yanmar. Mine is a bit noisy but it sounds like a diesel and not a lawnmower. Hey, you could even put stacks on it. Check out Northern Tools and you can get a good idea of what is out there.
Whichever unit you do get make sure you install a transfer switch to isolate the mains or you could backfeed the grid and kill someone working on the line trying to fix the origional problem.
There is a picture of mine in My Gallery.
Later Jim.

 

If you want a perminate generator , try this link: Click Here

Starting price is about $1800 and they have plenty of power....

 

To help you size things up you can use this figure. anything you want to power should either have a amp or watt rating. If its amps you can figure it easy. If its watts figure this, 1000 watt light for example will need 1000 divided by your volts (120) which will equal about 8.3 amps of current. things like the little misses hair dryer, ya the super 2500 watt super styler one, that will need 21 amps all by its self.

 

I've gone thru several generators and have tended to let the initial price influence what I got. Obviously, size (wattage) is critical but just as important is the fuel to run it. In my case, I felt a need to have a fuel supply of one to two weeks since the gas stations, in my area, lose power when I do. That means that I've got to store and keep fresh at least 35 to 50 gallons of gasoline. My truck burns diesel and my wife's car burns premium gasoline so you can see how difficult it is to rotate it to keep fresh gasoline on hand. In addition, there is the matter of a fire hazard in keeping so much gasoline on hand. The solution I settled on was to get a LP fueled 6000 watt Honda with an electric starter. Now I don't worry about stockpiling a fuel supply AND, my wife can start it.

One thing you can count on is that when you need it, the weather will be miserable and the road conditions may be poor. Heaven help us if we get a really bad hurricane thru our area like those seen in Florida.

 

Subaru Robin makes a GREAT genset. Find a dealer near you and they can advise you from there. I have sold several of these over the years with 0 problems to date..

Jason

 

I think something in the 5.5kW size is going to be right for me. I have found a reconditioned Coleman 5.5kW with an 11hp Tecumpseh engine for $575 delivered. It has a 5 gallon tank and it has 2 standard outlets and 1 120/240 20amp outlet with the 4 prongs.

Here is a link:
http://electricgeneratorsdirect.com/...bd6b93478edaa7


Thanks for all the help again,

Nick

 

Nick,

Check out www.coloradostandby.com

I was in the same boat you are, power losses for 1-14 days at a time, finally had it! I looked around locally for a whole house gen set that would power everything. I have it hooked up to my natural gas, the lights go out, it comes on in under 6 seconds. I know that something like this is out of your price range, but these guys have some good prices on gen sets. I was quoted $10,000.00 + for my unit (10kw Onan) installed locally. I bought everything from Colorado Standby for $5300 complete (free shipping). Me and a buddy (electrician) installed it in a day. The next day, I lost power for 10 days, talk about timing. I let it run the whole time, only turned it off to check the oil. It used less then 1/2 a quart of 30 weight in that time period, and never missed a beat running all appliances and central air.

Also check out www.onan.com for a good chart on household electrical draws relating to generators. This will give you a real good idea on the right sizing. And I would get the best unit that you can possibly afford, nothing worse then getting a day into a power outage and have the thing go t-ts up on you. Kubota portables are pretty popular around here, seem to have the least problems, or I should say no problems. Higher end Honda units are a good pick also. The Generac whole house and other Home Depot/Lowes portable generators, don't seem to hold up very well under continuous use, ie., days long power outages. I looked at all of these, and being in a rural area with lots of generator owners, I asked a few questions of my neighbors.

I don't know if any of this will be of any help for you, but may help someone else in the market for a generator. I just wish I would have gotten one years ago. Best money I have ever spent.

Mike

 

what ever you do i would recommend propane or natural gas. been down that road keeping fresh fuel on hand is a hassle. have 30kw military gen set, 400 gal. propane buried. sorry not for sale