Need tutorial on gas powered generators after the disaster here in MD.

[Jim Matthews]

I bought the smallest of the GE home power generators, the model 040315GEA after Hurricane Irene. I considered the tri-fuel unit mentioned but wanted something automated, in the event that I was unable.
What good is saving a few dollars if you can't answer the call of duty when your family is in the dark? Refueling a gasoline powered generator requires a cool-down period of several hours - more if it's hot outside.

We were without power for 6 and a half days, with no lines down or tree damage in our town. All the line crews were in Vermont while we were in the dark. This was a disruption - not the sort of catastrophe you face.

After three days with no water from our well, I decided that a generator made sense after all.

It runs on natural gas from our local provider. Their gas pressurization units have self-contained power (run on - you guessed it - Natural gas) which are theoretically self-sufficient.

It was installed by a local electrician - as these connections are the source of catastrophic failure. Get these wrong and you've got a house fire that's difficult to extinguish.
The hang up was the gas connection, as the local providers were overwhelmed by orders and lacked a directive for sizing the flow meters - as alluded to above.
If you do hire someone to do the installation - pay in three installments. 1/3 to order the generator up front 1/3 when it is installed 1/3 when it passes the load test.

The delay between the 2nd and 3rd steps for me was 18 days - but I don't live in a region known for competence or customer service. YMMV
The Borg stores hire out - and if there are lots of orders, you could get someone that's learning the ropes on your dime.

This is the sort of thing that is worthy of paying the price for experience. If someone can "install it today" they're probably a Newbie.
I'll let someone learn how to seal coat my driveway, clean my gutters or cut my grass - I want a professional handling electricity.

While the do-it-yourself approach can work if you're competent, having someone an electrician install the device is simpler and provides a degree of liability coverage.
(My home owner's policy did not cover any self-installs. If a fire, structural damage or personal injury resulted - they would not cover losses.)

My total cost was $7k.

[Eric DeSilva]

We had a 20kW generator installed by through Dominion VA (at least you get free financing for two years). What we found was that with the electrical work, gas work, and inspections, the generator cost was not the most significant cost. Ours is a Generac unit, set up with a transfer switch that handled most of the house (we have gas, so ovens/cooktop/dryer/heater are not heavy electric loads)--heat pump, sump pump, freezer, fridge, washer/dryer, TV, computer/internet hardware, and a good collection of outlets, lights. Think the total bill was about $11K, but that involves moving all the circuits from the two electrical boxes we have into the box for the transfer switch and the gas hookup. Probably could have spent a little less, but $11K for 20kW sounds better to me than $10K for 10kW. You get the picture. I called around, and the quote from Dom VA wasn't much different from any other contractor. A lot may depend on your local permitting and such.

[Dick Adair]

Now may not be the best time to shop for a generator at bargain prices. After the two storms last fall I decided I was going to get a generator and a backup sump pump. I have two pumps in the basement on a perimeter system and for about six hours they could not keep up. My plumber loaned me a spare for for a few hours and it got me through the peak. I waited a few weeks, until the stores were restocked and then went looking. I bought a portable 6500 Generac for , had a disconnect installed, and bought a backup pump. If I never use it for an emergency it is worth the peace of mind just having it.

My son lost power to his house again last week after that storm, and with in one hour I had his fridge, freezer and small air conditioner running. It was only needed about five hours, but it kept the house comfortable for them. I like the ability to move it when needed.

[Ole Anderson]

One thought that I am having is that if I am going to spring for an auto start backup genset, I am not going to save a few bucks and not size it for running my A/C at the same time. At least here in MI, it seems that there might be some truth to this hot weather being more than just a heat wave. Looking at the glacier melt rate on our trip last year to AK is convincing me. And the numbers some of the meteorologists are throwing out there for temp increases over the 20 year life span of the genset are downright scary. Hopefully they are not right. We don't use A/C a lot, but when we do, we are sure glad we have it. And this last week we have been in northern MI where it has been in the low 90's (and another 5 degrees warmer than that in southern MI where we live), and we are sure glad when we return to the RV and its air conditioning.

[Matt Meiser]

One nice thing about the current Generac transfer switches and electronics--they've got ability to shed load on an AC/heat pump unit. If the generator is running at too high load it won't let the AC start. Likewise, it will shed the AC if enough other stuff starts. Out of the box it will shed 2 AC units with just a length if wire to your thermostat or furnace. You can add 4 more load shed modules (really just relays) that can shed 4 more big loads--say an electric water heater, spa, etc.

[Jim Laumann]

I've got a 6000W unit powered by a 11hp Honda (gas). Must hook it up myself, and manage the power load myself - but then again, I've got considerably less invested than some of the units being described ($1400). Got it many years ago when we were out of power for 8 days due to a early winter ice storm. We've been out for 2-3 days a couple times since then.

It will run my well, freezers, refrigs, the circulation pump on my gas boiler, the sump pump, micro wave and some lights. Not perfect, but it makes a outage liveable.

Jim

[Brian Elfert]

My generator is pretty darn quiet, but in a summer power outage with everyone opening windows it could get annoying hearing it for hours or days. I've always figured I would offer power to the neighbors to at least keep their freezers and refrigerators going. I figure that should stop any complaining about the noise.

[Kevin W Johnson]

My generator is pretty darn quiet, but in a summer power outage with everyone opening windows it could get annoying hearing it for hours or days. I've always figured I would offer power to the neighbors to at least keep their freezers and refrigerators going. I figure that should stop any complaining about the noise.

Well, during this last outage, I too worried about running a generator too late at night. I shut mine off by 11:00pm, as the the small gen I started te outage with was noisy and wouldn't run the A/C anyway, and the fridge would be ok till the morning before needing to run again. We had neighbors that ran them all night. I won't worry about it next time, I guess it's just part of the "pain" of an outage and people just have to accept it.

[Mike Cutler]

Don

It comes down to what you want to spend, and how much you want to try and power at once.

For portables if money is no object. Honda 6500, or two 3500's in parallel. Clean power. The Honda's have an inverter type generator that produces a nice clean 60 hz. sine wave. If you have a lot of high end microprocessor controlled appliances that you want to protect the Honda is the one. You're looking at close to $5K before you fire it up for the first time. They're also among the quietest generators.
Power requirements for me are about 6000 watts for "normal" load cycle during the day.
These are the current requirements for my house during the last power outage. I use a voltmeter and clamp on ammeter to monitor voltage and current.
Well pump was 6.7 amps
Refrigerator was a nominal 2.7 amps and 5 amps during the defrost cycle.
Freezer was less that 2 amps.
Total lighting was about 4 amps, but we weren't trying to light up the neighborhood.
Washing Machine was 13 amps, but it makes it own hot water. As soon as I saw 13 amps the clothes were washed in cold for that week.
Water heater was 17 amps. Yep we ran it, but it had to be cycled on by itself. I only had a Coleman Powermate 5K generator so it couldn't take any extra start up current if the water heater needed to be ran. I no longer have an electric water heater.

The small generators run through a lot of gas, probably a half gallon an hour, so it can get kind of expensive. You need to have the ability to store more gasoline than you might be comfortable with.,
The propane generators can be very expensive to run, at least in Connecticut. In fact the Govenor had to sign an emergency order allowing any propane company to fill any tank, regardless of which company actually owned the tank. There was some serious price gouging going on.
The folks that had natural gas piped generators in my area, including Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, and the local restaurants as well as the individual residences, were out of luck. The power outage took out power to the natural gas facility in town, so they had no fuel. I still don't understand that little nuance.

Whatever path you take, portable or standby, have the connective interface ( Generator Transfer Panel, or Switch ) done professionally. Don't back feed through some hodgepodge, jury rigged, setup. It's dangerous, no matter what anyone tells you. I'm also being a hypocrite here, because I back fed through the garage sub panel to gain the protection of the sub panel breaker, which I switched in the main panel to a smaller breaker for additional protection.
I kind of do this for a living though, and I still know it's wrong. I felt like I was back on a submarine rigging the ship for reduced electrical.
A generator transfer panel and switch is now installed. It's an extra couple hundred dollars, but it's worth it. It also gave me a sub panel to free up some breaker space in the main panel.

PS
The portable generators require a somewhat uncommon male 240 connector, an L6-30, or L6-20 if memory serves me correctly. The people that bought generators after the power went out, could not get the proper connector(s) to use them. Make sure you have al of the necessary connectors if you go portable.
Additionally there is an internet website that sells dual and tri-fuel carburetor adaptors for most generator to allow you to use Gasoline, Natural gas, or Propane as a fuel source. Could be a handy adapter to have.

[Brian Elfert]

Most of the big boxes carry L6-20 and L6-30 receptacles and plugs on the shelf. I just bought an L6-20 plug and receptacle at Menards about a week ago. They even carry some of the fancy four wire locking plugs.

I suppose when everyone is snapping up generators they are also emptying the shelves of the locking plugs.

[Greg Portland]

A few comments:

1) Determine your total capacity. Do you want A/C running, elec. dryer, elec. range, etc.? Can you live if only 1 of those is on at a given time?
2) Decide if you want the backup to kick on and switch over automatically. This is a significant expense versus a manual switch.
3) For larger units, figure out where you're going to put it.
4) Determine if you're going to use NG from the street or your own tank w. other fuels (diesel? LPG?). Size the tank appropriately.
5) Right now, all the generators and installation services are going to be VERY $$$$. I would strongly consider waiting until the prices drop back down.
6) Used generators are an option; you'll want someone to go over the engine closely (just like buying a car).

My parents have a 4-cyl CAT generator with a LPG engine that they got used. They manually switch over to the generator on power outages. The downside to this is if they are out of town. However, we have other relatives in the area who would come over to switch over the power (run the fridges, etc.).

[Ben Hatcher]

If you're thinking about spending $10k on a generator system that just sits there 99% of the time and costs you money the other 1%, you might want to look at bimodal solar systems with a battery backup and grid tie that will save you money every day and could make you money at times. While it might be cost prohivitive to buy a system capable of generating and storing enough to run an AC day and night, but they have enough benefits that I think they're worth a look.

[Kevin W Johnson]

PS
The portable generators require a somewhat uncommon male 240 connector, an L6-30, or L6-20 if memory serves me correctly. The people that bought generators after the power went out, could not get the proper connector(s) to use them. Make sure you have al of the necessary connectors if you go portable.
Additionally there is an internet website that sells dual and tri-fuel carburetor adaptors for most generator to allow you to use Gasoline, Natural gas, or Propane as a fuel source. Could be a handy adapter to have.

Everything I've seen (new generators) uses an L14-30R (4 prong) for a 30A output.

[Greg Portland]

If you're thinking about spending $10k on a generator system that just sits there 99% of the time and costs you money the other 1%, you might want to look at bimodal solar systems with a battery backup and grid tie that will save you money every day and could make you money at times. While it might be cost prohivitive to buy a system capable of generating and storing enough to run an AC day and night, but they have enough benefits that I think they're worth a look.

Some companies will install an entire solar electric system for free and then you pay them for utilities over the lifetime of the system. http://greenlivingideas.com/2010/10/...r-home-states/