Posted on 06/04/2024 8:42:56 AM PDT by eastexsteve
I live in rural NE Texas, and we experience power outages often. Some last for days. This year, we've been hammered by bad weather, and this round is the 12th time I've been on generator power this year. I've played the "generator game" for decades, starting off with one that I thought would be just good enough to keep me going, running the bare minimum appliances until the power came back on. This was torture. In my opinion, most people make bad decisions when it comes to buying a generator. They think small, and short run times. The truth is, here in Texas, you need one big enough to power your whole house, including A/C. For a 2,000 sqft house with a family of four, (that is VERY energy efficient with all LED lights etc.,) you are talking at least a 12KW - 13KW running watt (not surge watt) generator. If you want to stay married and keep your kids from running away from home, don't think about anything smaller. And, you want it fuel efficient enough to run all day. Also, you want one built to go extended run times. Most of these smaller camping or job site generators won't cut it, since they won't run very long under a load between fueling, and require oil changes every 50 hours. You're not powering a tent or a garage shop. You are powering your house, and you may have to do it for many days. Propane/Natural gas generators are VERY inefficient. Gasoline is somewhat better. Diesel is the best. Here in Texas during the "big freeze" a few years ago, some people even lost natural gas pressure! With the world like it is, and getting worse, you need to consider things like fuel, fuel storage, and fuel availability in case of a SHTF scenario. Before you go plop down hundreds of dollars on a generator thinking you need just enough to get you by, you better give it some serious thought.
I’ve had the 14kw Generac for going on two years. Total run hours is around 50 hours. it does a 10 minute auto test every week and runs a diagnostics check during the run. The maintenance schedule calls for maintenance at 185 hours but I plan on doing the oil, filters, and plugs this summer. The kit costs around $70 or so. the generator has worked out really well. It got us through two power outages in the past. I wanted something for back up as the power companies kiss the climate freaks toukis. In the age of Biden I don’t trust anything. As for looters Idaho Is a gun loving constitutional type state. We take a very dim and proactive approach to such crap.
Thanks for the maintenance insight. :)
Bump to find later
Any info on solar generators? Is it worth making the plunge?
“Poor decision making. They cut themselves off from the rest of the grid, didn’t increase the output of their grid, and now when bad things happen they don’t have the backup.”
They also let leftists convince them that diversifying, by using “green energy” like solar and wind, was a ‘good’ idea. Stupid, really stupid “”thinking””. The leftists are still trying to fundamentally transform Texas into one of their typical s-holes. And it looks like, with their orchestrated invasion by illegals, they just might get their fondest dream to come true.
Its my understanding a 250 gallon propane tank is too small for a 14kw and up generator in a very cold climate because of the smaller surface area in the tank to get enough evaporation of the liquid to gas. I was told a minimum 500 gallon tank was necessary. I’m in east Idaho and colder than 20 degree below weather is not unheard of. My generator is on NG I’ve never put a propane back up supply in but I am thinking about it.
At some point, you’ll run out of fuel to operate a generator. Thus I got one just big enough to operate the fridge, the two freezers and the oven and I figure , a ball park calculation, I have enough LP gas in my 500 gallon tank to keep the generator going long enough for us to consume the food in the fridge and freezers. With the items in the fridge going first. After that, I’ll just need to run the generator once or twice a day to keep the freezers down to temp.
I live on the Gulf Coast. Running a portable generator is not cheap. When prepping for a hurricane, I need to buy 100+ gallons of gasoline to last for 5 days, plus a case of oil. The last hurricane headed our way, turned away from us. Hurrah, but now I have 100 gals. of gas to store & use. That’s dangerous & as gas doesn’t store well or long - it attracts moisture - I have to use it soon.
Running the generator can be dangerous, too. Rain can continue long after the storm has passed. You can’t run it in the rain without a well ventilated shed or shelter well away from the house (carbon monoxide exhaust). Running extension cords all over the house for refrig., lights, fans, maybe TV is problematic. Messing with the cords while hot can be a shocking experience. I’d hate to have small children around all this stuff.
Finally, a large portable generator weighs several hundred pounds. Getting it to/from the service center is a chore.
PS Chain your generator to something if you want to keep it.
You can’t be far from us in Kingston. We also have a full house generator.
We lived in Florida for almost 40 years. We only lost power a few times due to hurricane type winds. I swear, here in TN, it goes out almost weekly. The only explanation I can think of is trees falling constantly. It forced us to invest in the ginormous Generac and I’m so grateful we have it.
I’ve been amazed at the energy efficiency increase in freezers over the past couple of decades. My friend has a medium chest freezer from 2000, which pulls 5A, and a larger one from 2019 which pulls just under 2A.
According to scuttlebutt in my neck of the woods, Generac has maintenance issues.
Go with Kohler.
I had forgotten about that, but recall now. That was an additional point of failure in the TX system.
We’re also west of Knoxville, in Harriman.
We did the whole-house generator when we moved to TN from CA. It was propane — our only option considering where we lived. (We lost power a LOT!) It was Generac, and the company who installed couldn’t have been better. The generator was a large factor in selling the home.
New house now. Installed another Generac in January (before the blizzard!). Our utilities are underground so we haven’t lost power often here. The company that installed it was the same one as before. Sadly, it’s under new management and their customer service is seriously lacking. Not happy about it, but we’ve got no choice.
The peace of mind is priceless.
Im beyond the stalks of the Frozen Tundra, when we moved out here we didnt have power 1/4 of the time in the spring and 1/8 of the time in the fall.
It seemed that if there was a storm anywhere within about 60 miles or so we started having problems. Electrician and utility claimed nothing wrong, just a mystery. As far as reliability, we were pretty much on our own for 12 years or more.
Eventually the utility reworked a lot of the lines and things in the area that came out this way and it all stopped. Its been a number of years and since then the power winked out a couple of times but there was only one real outage (4 days?) so not too bad.
Im guessing they knew all along what was causing the problem but it was too costly for the utility to bother to correct before the scheduled project.
You might be on your own for a good while if you are away from the main population.
I have a 15KW DuroMax that burns gas or propane. The propane is a weak sister when it comes to providing the power that the generator needs for a full 15KW. It only provides about 12KW on propane. Gas works but burns about 2 gallons an hour.
If I ever have to do it again, I’m going to get a giant propane tank and an automatic on/off generator with a minimum of 15KW with propane.
I like the diesel recommendation but find the idea of having at least 250 gallons of diesel in a tank in my yard repulsive.
Diversifying isn’t a bad thing. But you’ve got to remember why you’re diversifying. Part of the goal is flexibility, so if something bad happens to one source of energy you’ve got others to pick up the slack. And that also means you have to have ENOUGH of those others TO pick up the slack. That’s one of the problems Texas keeps running into, they don’t have enough overage in their production capacity, so when one source goes down the increased demands on the other sources causes cascading failure and they lose a whole section.
“Diversifying isn’t a bad thing. But you’ve got to remember why you’re diversifying. Part of the goal is flexibility, so if something bad happens to one source of energy you’ve got others to pick up the slack. And that also means you have to have ENOUGH of those others TO pick up the slack. That’s one of the problems Texas keeps running into, they don’t have enough overage in their production capacity, so when one source goes down the increased demands on the other sources causes cascading failure and they lose a whole section.”
All quite true. I blame the bad results on bad choices made by naive Texans that are trusting liberals (leftists) to make those decisions. It never ends well when you do that.
General things to consider with this setup.
If you size a generator for “Peak” load, you’re going to get a pretty big genset.
If you size it for “Average” load, you’ll be surprised how small a genset you can work with and still have margin.
BUT....if you size for “Average” you need energy storage - battery and inverter.
If you are willing to get a bigger battery, you can size for bigger than “Average” and run it at it’s most efficient load and dump all the power to battery then shut the genset off and run on battery.
The other thing good about a battery-based system is you can charge the batteries with whatever you have - solar if you have it is a good primary and use the genset when the sun doesn’t shine.
A decent size house genset is going to use in the neighborhood of 1/2 - 1 gal of diesel per hour depending on load. You have to decide how much diesel you want to store for whatever outage time you need.
Lastly, a couple of small gensets can be pretty flexible. In the past I’ve used two small gensets - one to run a window air conditioner for comfort during the summer and another to run appliances and whatever.
There are lots of ways to skin this cat - you have to deccide what is best for you.
First night I walk the perimeter at dusk. I let off a few rounds into the brush near access locations. Then repeat a few times that night at random intervals. I use a pistol to save money - a 9, .38 or .40.
Actually heard “thump, thump, thump” running away a few times. PPL gots to know.
Assume that it is over rated by 10% to account for surges and a safety margin. So that gives you a starting number of 90 Amps for a 100 Amp breaker, for example, to routinely operate your home. That in the high end. (That does not assume 2 phase loads which will require a 2 phase generator).
Now look at your loads and see which single phase ones you deem critical. They are usually 10-15-20 amp single pole breakers. Add up the numbers on the breakers and that should be the minimum you think you need.
Take you high or low numbers and multiply by 120 then divide that by 1000 to get VoltAmps which will approximate the Killowatt load. That should be the rating range of a generator that works for you.
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