Posted on 11/19/2022 1:40:05 PM PST by gop4lyf
After 1 day. Turn off genset and go to a hotel. Cheaper.
That genset will use a lot of fuel. So consider that.
If you back feed into your panel, then you’ll need to know what breakers to shut off and leave off (water heater, for instance)
A subpanel and transfer switch is the right way to do it.
Another way to think is to pair it with a decent sized battery and then you could supplement with solar.
I ran my all electric home for a couple weeks after a hurricane with a 5kw genset and the knowledge of what I could run at the same time.
I shut everything off but the water heater for 30 mins before shower time, then shut it off and turned on the well pump. This is complicated for some people.
Now I can run just about everything with a 2kw genset hooked to a single/split phase converter with a 4kw battery used for overnight incidental loads.
There are many strategies from just buy a 25kw set and live as normal to get a small one to run a few lights and fridge.
It’s all depending on what your worst-case scenario is. A day or two? You’ll be fine, a week or two? Think maintenance items. A month or two? Think small and basic and a supplemental battery.
It’s up to you and how much of an education you need to safely run a backup genset.
Absolutely. I use the Marine Sta-Bil, and do a double dose. And I buy premium gas, on the theory that if it degrades a little in storage, it’s still pretty good. And I feel better about dumping a little in the cars, on top of a nearly full tank, to use up older stuff. Cars take premium.
Transfer switch.
L
Stinking rich. We usually winter at the 20,000 sq ft home next door to Obama on Martha’s Vineyard. But that’s only if we are letting friends use the 20,000 sq ft home next to Obama in Hawaii.
Depends on the hotel rates. And if the hotels nearby have power. Plus it’s worth a premium to be in my own house, own bed, etc.
I hired an electrician. Our local propane company was a bit of a problem. Kept saying their tanks were unavailable. If I didn’t have a propane stove, they wouldn’t put in a tank for just a whole-house generator.
I’ve got a 250 gal at the new place. Have a cooktop and a gas log. Need to get a plumber out to give me a quick-connect for the generator. I’m not full time there yet, but I’ve moved the generator.
You should have asked this question before you bought the generator.
Look at the main circuit breaker on your power panel. That should tell you the max current it takes to run your house as is. Your generator could work for a 100 Amp feed.
Fear not though, you can run selected loads and switch out various items as you switch others on if your generator can't handle the full continuous load.
You need an electrician to wire the generator into your home’s distribution panel. A transfer switch will be required. A plumber is needed to connect your generator to an energy source for the generator. I have a Generac generator that powers my entire home when line power fails. It is fueled by natural gas. It produces little noise when running. Call some licensed businesses to receive quotes for the needed work.
I knew it!
I live in the neck of nowhere. After living through a derecho and an ice storm (2 weeks without power/water each time_once in extreme heat, and the other in freezing temps) I didn’t care what hoops I had to jump through to put in the generac. I’m pretty sure I would have been a wimpy old-timer. Glad I didn’t destroy the WPA outhouse!
What zip code are you at ?
Better check your math 12,500 W is not 10 amps @120V
North Texas out in the boonies.
I have a Generac 11KW. The only thing it won’t run is the AC and water heater at the same time. Furnace is propane as is the stove. Forget about running an electric furnace with it.
I wired the Transfer box in myself. Everything is color coded. On Generac you just wire whatever you want tor run on the genny through the Transfer box bypassing the main box. When the power goes out for 60 seconds the genny fires up and takes over. Main thing needed is a Positive Disconnect from house main.
Hie an electrician if you don’t know how to do it properly.
If you have 12kw that should be about 50 amps anyway. There will be a breaker on the generator that will show you how many amps it makes. Generators generally do NOT run your whole house unless you paid thousands for it.
You must know what you want to power in an emergency and know how big the breaker is in the breaker box. I run a few lights, computers,freezer, and refer, and a gas furnace on 5kw. If you are all electric, that's about what you can run also because a water heater, electric furnace, cook top, dryer, ect will Not run even with all the other stuff cut off. A 12KW probably won't even run a cook top by itself. All the breakers in your breaker box that are double 30's or double 50's are NOT going to work on a generator. Another thing,.....Gasoline will break you at $4 a gallon for anytime at all. I run about 6-8 gallons for 10-12 hrs on a 5KW.
Having said all that, If you don't understand what you are doing get an electrician. They will keep adding more expenses as you go along telling you it's for safety or convenience until the cost is more than your generator, but if you don't understand how things work, you will either die or release a lot of smoke. Another thing to keep in mind is you could kill the light company's worker if you run the generator without disconnecting from the service. Most beginners use what is called a suicide cord to hook up to the house. All the people here will hyperventilate but if you know what you are doing and follow the right hookup sequence, they are working all across America today with no problem, they probably have laws against it in most major cities, but hey, in the country,...whatever.
If you have to ask FR for advice, I would go for an electrician and bend over for the price,
***************************************************** More importantly it disconnects your home from the street mainline! You don’t want to electrocute the dudes fixing the downed lines!
If it were me... (I live off grid)
Also get a 100 gallon (or 50 whatever you can afford) and ONLY run it on propane. Don’t use gasoline. No shelf life, no worry about liquid fuel, and propane can be used for back up heat and run many of your appliances, including a refrigerator. Or if you can, convert everything to propane (clothes dryer, oven, stove, central heat.) You will want a transfer switch so you won’t have to worry about going outside to plug it in. And with an electric starter your electrician can probably tell you if it can be used to automatically start when power goes out.
12500 will run just about everything you need but not all at once. The biggest draw will come from central heat or AC. For an example a small portable electric heater will take 1500 of those watts. Not sure what your central heater takes but that is easy enough to look up by just a quick look at the circuit breaker. Probably 8-10kwatts. A modern refrigerator barely uses any power. Here’s a link for some wattages
https://prosconsshopping.com/average-wattage-for-household-appliances
You might want to check with your insurance agent. Some policies prohibit connection to your own power supply because a lot of people burn their houses down in the process.
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