RIP. Unfortunately, the war on hydrocarbons will make the grid less reliable and increase demand for generators. Maybe the left will try to ban those, too.
Do Freepers own generators from Generac or other companies?
Not a generac one but yeah, I have a cheap one that works. I have to pull start it and manually switch from grid to gen but it cost me a lot less than the auto type. No more than I need it, it works fine for me.
I see that California has banned portable generators.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4021209/posts?page=59
I have a self-starting generator that does well enough when the power goes out. I have to cut off the heat pump as that is 220 but my pellet stove runs on 110.
Five years ago we put an instant-on whole-house Generac in our 5,000 sq. ft. house. Heavenly! Especially in our very rural area.
It seems like it would have been difficult to build an AC generator before the introduction of the power MOSFET....
Have a Generac - love it.....
I've got a Generac. It's gotten me through a few hurricanes in Florida.
My only complaint is it's LOUD!
I don’t own one, but have seen many designing for the utility company.
Big here outside Philly. The burbs have tons of trees...
Got one for the house 3 years ago. We have many power outages and it has been a godsend. Works like a swiss watch. Final straw before getting it was 4 days without power in Jan. 2019. Wife and I in parkas in house! I recommend!
God rest Mr. Kern!
My in laws & a friend both have them & love them!
When my wife came down with Pulmonary Fibrotosis I bought a Generac Generator for use in emergencies when the power went out. She had electric powered oxygen generators for breathing.
Only problem with it was the ground fault circuit interrupter often opened when there was rain, and the starting batteries need to be changed ever so often.
Wife has passed away and I still have the generator for emergencies.
I looked into them a couple of years ago since we live in FL and it seemed at the time that every hurricane or tropical storm that came through resulted in a 4-5 day power outage. In 90+ degree WX that’s pretty uncomfortable. Best price I found was a bit over $10K for the generator and wiring. Price didn’t include installing a one or two 60 gallon propane tanks. We don’t have natgas where we live and propane is/was running around $4.50-$5.00 a gallon and these generators can burn up 100 gallons in 3-4 days if run constantly. I decided to pass at the time and use a portable 6500 watt genset for essentials. Thinking about a Generac again ‘cause I’m getting on in years and don’t have the same tolerance for inconvenience and discomfort that I used to have... Lol.
Thank you Mr. Kern for making a wonderful product and may you rest in peace.....
I have a Generac I got after Sandy left me without power for 8 days.
LP gas run and it powers my whole home, including well and pump.
I have three 100 gallon tanks - I also heat with LP.
Love it!
Made his money utilizing fossil fuels. Smart.
It’s great to see a Mechanical Engineer who did good! May he RIP.
We installed a whole-house Briggs & Stratton 26 kW generator a year ago. When we ordered it, it was 20 kW, but they replaced that model with a 26 kW for LESS money! We added an automatic transfer switch which is REAL handy. We also added two load-shed modules for the air conditioner and the electric oven. It there is too much load when the generator is starting or running, those modules prevent the air conditioner and oven from getting power. The oven load-shed module failed recently and it was replaced under warranty. They also changed the air conditioner module because there was a bad batch of circuit boards.
26 kW is huge and should easily run the entire house.
We get some serious outages in severe wind and snow storms up here in North Idaho, so this is good peace of mind.
It runs on natural gas so we should be ok as long as King Brandon doesn’t shut down all natural gas sales in the USA or drive NG prices to the stratosphere. The probability of that is clearly not zero.
The unit runs an exercise cycle for 15 seconds once every two weeks in the winter and once a week in the summer. It also runs a longer “burn off” cycle once in April and once in September to warm it up and drive off any condensed water. Older generators run for 20 minutes every week.
So far, we’ve had one four hour outage and it was really cool to have a well lit house when most of the neighborhood was dark!
And the fuel to run them will come from?
I’ve owned a number of Generac’s, great product.