Posted on 04/25/2011 2:59:23 PM PDT by spacejunkie01
I need advice on the best backup generator to buy, particularly non gas run. I like solar but not sure who deals in them besides mysolarbackup.com and they're not cheap.
If I want to run my freezer/fridge for an extended period of time, what would be best?
Another thing, storage of large amounts of gas or diesel (hundreds of gallons) is very difficult these days due to all the permits and inspections required. Even more difficult to put underground, at least legally.
Propane is much, much simpler. If it leaks there isn’t an issue with soil contamination. So the requirements are far less for a large storage tank underground.
I have a 500 gal. underground propane tank for my standby generator...
One thing to keep in mind is that propane is stored in liquid form, and requires heat to vaporize. Vaporization draws heat from the surrounding area and if the buried tank isn't big enough relative to the gas draw, the tank will 'freeze up' and you'll be stuck with no gas pressure.
I had to use a vaporizer (essentially a 'water heater' type unit) on my 10,000 gallon tank on the farm to alleviate the low gas pressure problem.
I picked up a used propane range to put in my shed - paid $75. LOL, hopefully it functions, because it’s been in my garage for two years waiting for my husband to finish the shed. I understand the plumbing is very simple, and cheap, so it’s a good choice for my shed-I plan to do canning out there.
You have to be careful with electronics. For things like a computer / HDTV and receivers you need a clean sine wave. Generally those are done with inverters. Most R/V folks buy a Honda or something of that caliber. They cost about 3 - 4 times what a normal generator costs but they don’t have a lot of capacity.
For normal household stuff (that used to be the case before everything went digital) a regular generator was fine.
Forget solar, it is good for a few lightbulbs for a couple of hours. It's basically a battery backup like used on computers with a solar panel to charge the batteries. If you check out their wattage, they range from a few hundred watts to maybe 1500 for a large beast. You have battery maintenance and very little power. Even a large one wouldn't run you freezer for a couple of hours.
Figure out what you want to run and add up the amps. The look for 5000 watts for every 30 amps of 110volts usage. If you want to run air conditioners, get ready for big bucks and something in the 12-15kw range. Very few solutions would run everything without giving up something. I have 5kw gasoline for hurricanes and it barely runs a few lights and my refer and freezer. It also takes about a 5 gal can of gas a day, so at $4 a gallon, well you get the point. I have been thinking about converting it to nat gas for about 5 years, so you see how much I worry about it.
Forget solar, it is good for a few lightbulbs for a couple of hours. It's basically a battery backup like used on computers with a solar panel to charge the batteries. If you check out their wattage, they range from a few hundred watts to maybe 1500 for a large beast. You have battery maintenance and very little power. Even a large one wouldn't run you freezer for a couple of hours.
Figure out what you want to run and add up the amps. The look for 5000 watts for every 30 amps of 110volts usage. If you want to run air conditioners, get ready for big bucks and something in the 12-15kw range. Very few solutions would run everything without giving up something. I have 5kw gasoline for hurricanes and it barely runs a few lights and my refer and freezer. It also takes about a 5 gal can of gas a day, so at $4 a gallon, well you get the point. I have been thinking about converting it to nat gas for about 5 years, so you see how much I worry about it.
We had a 17kw Generac standby generator installed last fall - our water heater, clothes dryer, cooktop and furnace are all propane so the generator is piped into that same system from our 500 gallon tank. If our grid power goes out for more than ten seconds, the gen fires up and runs everything. It starts itself once a week automatically for fifteen minutes as a self-test, change the oil once a year on the two cylinder four stroke 900cc engine.
Price was a little over 10K plus tax.
Hi have a 40kW standby generator with a 500 gal. underground propane tank. Its been in service more than 4 years. I’ve averaged about 20 hours a year of power outages and it automatically runs for 15 minutes every week to keep it healthy. My tank is now down to about 60% - I haven’t refilled the tank since I installed it...
You want enough fuel storage to go at least days and ideally a week or so in a real emergency.
For diesel, if you really have enough to last awhile, you won’t burn through it fast enough to keep it from degrading. And the legal storage requirements for hundreds of gallons of diesel/gasoline these days is daunting - even on a farm.
Seems like you would not have to run it for more than a couple hours each day to keep things frozen.
During the outage after Ike, I ran our fridge off of a 1000W generator averaging about 12 hours/day for 17 days. It powered some lights, a couple of TV's, a battery charger, my laptop and modem.
It will take a modern fridge about 4-6 hours to go from warm to cold on the first day, then it will take a couple hours to regain what it lost overnight, and cycle on and off as needed.
What I did was run the frige during the day with the thermistat wide open, then leave it closed over night. I had some small 10AH 12V batteries for cooling fans at night.
A small efficient generator can do that on about 2 gallons/day. A larger one will pull more appliances, but it will use more fuel.
As for alternate fuels, you can buy larger wattage generators setup to run on NG or Butane, or you can buy an aftermarket kit to convert most any generator to them.
Solar is iffy, as is wind. A generator is much more reliable when you are talking about food storage.
Sorry, the first word was supposed to be “I”...
Cummins and Kohler make some nice generator set packages for the home. Stay away from Generac. They offer both gas fired and diesel sets. They can be installed with automatic transfer switches which automatically start the generator when the power goes out and shuts it off when the power returns. All this will cost more, but it all depends I guess how much you are willing to spend.
The fuel rate demand for a normal generator is low and where I live the ground is warm (I’m in central CA).
Interesting problem though...
Cummins and Kohler make some nice generator set packages for the home. Stay away from Generac. They offer both gas fired and diesel sets. They can be installed with automatic transfer switches which automatically start the generator when the power goes out and shuts it off when the power returns. All this will cost more, but it all depends I guess how much you are willing to spend.
Is that gasoline without alcohol? I'd have to drive 50 miles to by gas without alcohol. I wish I had that for my chain saw.
If I want to run my freezer/fridge for an extended period of time, what would be best?
Google non-electric freezer/refrigerator.
Yep. Lasts all winter or summer without the need for any stabilizer.
Just as a note, the smaller generators usually have a much shorter operating life. The Generac 40kW models, at least the older ones anyway, use a water cooled Chrysler V6 engine and run at 1800 RPM’s. The smaller air cooled versions are not designed to run a lot hours and typically run at 3600 RPMs making them much louder with a much shorter lifespan. Parts for these proprietary engines are much harder to come by verses a common car engine.
The Generac 40kW model I got was $8800 with a 200 A automatic transfer switch. That was about 5 or 6 years ago though.
Some of the larger Generac’s are pretty decent. You just have to know what you looking for. A standard car engine that turns at 1800 RPM’s can last a long time, particularly on propane or natural gas.
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