quote:

500 gallon propane tank,

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Above or below ground? They look ok in a rural area but in upscale area not so much. In Wisconsin they call the tanks gas pigs and paint them pink with pig faces.

Another vote here for the Cummins whole house generator. I have had one for years now on a 500-gal propane tank. Power goes out, generator goes on.

The only suggestion I would make is to make sure you have someone in your area who can and will service them.

That would be you. You need to be able to service it yourself. You also need filters, oil, and spark plugs on hand. You may need to know how to adjust the valves as well. Ours are ground level so the rubber drain hose doesn’t work unless you have a very shallow pan. I use the vacuum oil extractor I bought for the jetskis.

After an ice storm, hurricane, or whatever emergency, those guys that get paid to service them will be backed up for months.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: trapper189,

I put a Generac whole house generator in last year.

I saved a lot of money using my own plumber and electrician over their all in one quote.

The charged me a $1000. to program it and validate the warranty.

I was still way ahead.

The load shedders were about the same price on Amazon as they wanted to charge.

The were one short and I ordered it from Amazon rather than wait weeks for them to get their big order.

I counted the number of days that my power went out in the last 40 years, The worst was Katrina. I could stay in a luxury hotel outside the cone of doom for several months for much less. Other than hurricanes power in my area is 100 per cent reliable.
If I was living in Puerto Rico it would be a different story. Obviously if you have a medical condition that requires electriicity you should leave. As wasmentioned these things require maintence as well as lots of fuel.

I live in hurricane land and my street was out of power for 10 days after hurricane Sally in 9/2020.
I have propane tank that only runs my fireplace and i have natural gas available. But its ends 1 house past me. I know becuaee my neighbor of paid to have it brought down the road for their generator. I went with natural gas since my plans include getting rid of the fireplace and converting it to natural gas. I have a 24kw generac for a 3k sq foot house and a pool and a well. Hot water heater and stove is gas. My sales guy said I’d last about 2-3 days at full throttle on 125 gallon tank of propane. So do the math accordingly. We have not been hit by a hurricane since I got it but we have had some really good storms and power has been out for 8-12 hours at a clip several times. I paid about $13k all in delivered and permits etc. if I sell I feel I can get that back out. Only 4 houses on my street have generators and after sally my neighbors were letting people shower and do laundry at their place as entire neighborhood except my street is 100% electric.

Katrina was three weeks without power in August 2005. I dumped out the fridge contents and stayed with relatives in Tennessee. I know that the Florida panhandle is the most hurricane prone on the Gulf Coast. Each to his own. We seldom lose power except for a few hours at a time. When I lived in rural Wisconsin it was a different story

I’ve had to look at this same project in several different ways. I have gas at the street, but not plumbed to the house. For Issac I was out of power for over 10 days, Ida 6 lots of storms in between with multiple days. I bought a harbor freight generator afterwards and ran extension cords. I loose power often

-Solar panels with battery storage
-Whole house generator, with gas run to house, stand alone tank.
-Inverter generator attached to dedicated 50A circuit and transfer Switch/lockout. Placed on outside elevated deck area

Solar panels were insanely priced for needs (98,000+)

Because how my property sites, requirements, codes a stand alone was not feasible and cost prohibitive (30,000+)

I opted for an inverter generator, single 9500/7500 initially, I can run basic essentials. The plan is to add a second generator which is paralleled giving 14,5kw to the 50amp plug. This will run the elevated living spaces and essentials in ground level apartment if not flooded. Total cost about $5500 built completely out. Yes, fuel requirements need to be planned for, I have 80gal storage which is enough for 5-6 days initially running 24hrs (both gensets). The inverter gens are very efficient and quiet.

Currently employing my second Generac - highly recommended. First one installed 2007 and worked fine but had to be replaced while still working well in 2021 when we added a third HVAC system and needed more capacity so upgraded.

They've been great. When the power goes, it's always cranked right up.

We have them serviced routinely. Other than routine oil and filter changes, in the 18 years we've had them the only issue was that the scheduled maintenance twice replaced the self-start battery.

In terms of advice, other than to think ahead about fuel supply (big tanks, if your outages could last a long time and/or your refilling is infrequent) the only other thing is to be sure to think ahead in terms of future demand (adding HVAC, home shop equipment, freezers, etc.) so you get one that's big enough up front.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
I counted the number of days that my power went out in the last 40 years, The worst was Katrina. I could stay in a luxury hotel outside the cone of doom for several months for much less. Other than hurricanes power in my area is 100 per cent reliable.
If I was living in Puerto Rico it would be a different story. Obviously if you have a medical condition that requires electriicity you should leave. As wasmentioned these things require maintence as well as lots of fuel.

The problem is finding a hotel when there is a storm. Even outside hurricanes, I lose power a couple times a year. The older I get, the less I want to be in a house without a/c. I have done it for a few hurricanes/TS’s but I will not do it again.

I have an 1800rpm Cummins whole house on nat gas.

7 yo, no problems.

The 1800 rpm gives it more of a low rumble rather than sounding like a hypersonic lawn mower.

Over the years we’ve had 2 Generacs and currently have a Kohler. The Kohler is superior but more expensive. No issues, they all received annual maintenance. We need ours a few times a year but it’s an absolute must in the dead of winter as I’m near the foot of the White Mountains in NH. A whole house generator is the way to go if you can swing it. I trenched the backyard maybe 80’ so I could place the unit further from the house and closer to my shop building which already has propane tanks…it’s more quiet as well.

quote:

The problem is finding a hotel when there is a storm. Even outside hurricanes, I lose power a couple times a year. The older I get, the less I want to be in a house without a/c. I have done it for a few hurricanes/TS’s but I will not do it again.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That is true. Everything is booked within 600 miles. We have relatives well out of the zone. We spent considerable time in Tennessee with relatives after Katrina. My wonderful brother contacted me and said he had aerial photographs of the damage to my house. He is a firefighter and has access to that stuff.

No comment on the generator side of things other than to say that we have a Kohler 8 RES and I’m not impressed with it.

The thing I’ll say about propane is we got screwed over by Amerigas not doing the auto fill like they were supposed to and then being unresponsive when we ran out. I got Delta out quickly with a tank, then bought a second. When the guy comes out to auto fill, he tops (well, up to 85%) the one we’re running off, opens the other, then closes the one he just filled. Should there be any issue getting filled timely, I just switch tanks and we’re back in business. If you own your tank(s), anyone can fill them. Around our neck of the woods at least, the companies won’t fill other companies tanks. Seems fair enough.

Edited to fix the myriad typos I missed posting from the phone. Sorry!

quote:

Originally posted by mrvmax:

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
No love for Cummins-Onan whole home generators?

I was going to go with them but ended up with B&S. If I ever get another one it will be Cummins.

My Nephew designs and sales whole facility back up system for Medical and industrial sites.
I talked with him about 6 months ago he suggested i look into a Cummins

The one thing I’d do over is really figure out what size generator I needed instead of going whole house. Running a bigger generator uses a lot more fuel even when it has no electrical load. Do we really need to run the AC, microwave, electric dryer, stove, etc. all at the same time in Northern Michigan? We looked at the price and it wasn’t much more to get the bigger generator and whole house sounds great, but it was a dumb decision. We definitely could have made a 10kW generator work.

The owner’s manuals from the manufacturers’ websites will list how much fuel each generator will use at various loads.

I have recently looked at Generac, Cummins, Kohler with "all in one" dealers.

I find that all are bundling post sale service and warranty costs into the project. One mentioned the company would be monitoring my generator and upon notification of an issue would be there at my house to service the generator without my awareness of the service issue.

I look online at prices for ATS, generator, and other components and find big differences in the quoted dealer costs for just these items.

There are code requirements such as distance from structure, natural gas plumbing certifications, etc. And, there are installation needs that create complexities for a homeowner DIY.

I am hopeful that I can find the equipment at a reasonable cost and contractors willing to install things at a cost.

I don't want to spend $15K for a package, and $400 a year for their continued income stream.

I live in an area that has pretty reliable electric service, but we do on occasion have brief power outages that last for a few hours or so.

We were in a three or four day outage with hurricane Sandy and a Husky 2,000 watt generator got us through o.k., but it was a PITA doing the extension cord swapping and frequent gasoline refills.

I have been thinking about this over the years and more-so recently, and I have decided (similar to 911BOSS) to get a portable Tri-Fuel backup generator in the 10,000 watt running load range and hook it up to a manual transfer switch.

An inverter generator would be preferable, but they are approx. 2X the price for the same output.

I’ll put the $ differential towards the MTS and other hook-up items that I will need.

I’ll do the MTS now so it’s ready to go, and pick up a generator after few more important / necessary purchases need to be made.

After a lot of due-diligence, I’ve decided on the Champion 12,500 peak wattage generator, but may drop down in size one model below in output.

Can anyone recommend a licensed electrician in the Allentown area that installs MTS’s?

We run a Coleman Power Mate portable generator with a Honda GX something (380?) 13 hp single cylinder air cooled motor. It's the largest single cylinder they make. The next size up is a twin cylinder.
Wattage is 7800/6250. It is not an inverter generator, it's semi-square wave dirty power.
Here, A/C isn't needed 360 days out of the year, so we didn't plan on A/C electrical loads.
When power goes out, I usually wait several hours before firing up the generator. Also dependent on outside ambient temperature at the time of the power failure.

We keep two five gallon gasoline cans on hand for generator fuel. Once a year, those two gasoline cans get dumped into one of the daily driver fuel injected road vehicles and burn it up.
Then refill the two cans again with fresh fuel. With most everything else being diesel for power equipment, I no longer have the gasoline turnover, and simply replace it about once per year.
No stabilizer added, and no special/expensive non ethanol gasoline. 87 octane unleaded regular, with up to 10% ethanol added.

With a manual transfer switch, I can have it up and running in about 15 minutes.
We have a water well here, no natural gas available. We can power everything in the house except for the wall oven, and the free standing kitchen range oven. Range surface elements, 2 or 3 max of 5 total.

The reason I wait several hours for powering it up is due to being extremely careful about leaving gasoline in the generator after using it. It takes some time for properly preparing it for the next nap.
When the power failure is over, the generator sits for absolutely no longer than 2 days. Then I drain the gasoline from the generator tank so it's completely empty and dry.
The Honda motor carburetor has a small brass float bowl drain screw on the bottom of the float bowl. I wad up several paper towels into a ball, place that under the float bowl drain, and drain until nothing comes out of the float bowl drain. Then the generator sits until the next usage.

I've owned that generator for about 20 years now. Starting it from storage, you first fill it with gasoline. The engine ignition switch is off at this point. Open the gasoline tank shutoff valve and allow the float bowl to fill. Set the choke to full choke and give the rope pull start one good pull. Then turn the engine ignition switch to on and pull the rope again.
It has started every single time on the second pull for 20 years. The key point here for the fantastic after storage starting ability, it NEVER has any gasoline sitting in it when it isn't operating.

Oh, and it's quite rural here. Cornfields and woods for neighbors. But I still chain the steel tubing generator "cart" frame onto the trailer hitch of one of the daily driver vehicles when it's in use.

20 years ago, $999.00 plus tax from Sam's Club. I made the interconnect cord myself, rated for 240V/30A continuous.

I've been looking at getting a portable generator for years but still haven't gotten around to it. Just as well, I suppose, because we haven't needed one since the ice storm of 2009.

However, whatever one I do get will be an inverter generator and I'll be keeping my eye on the reviews of this one. It's a new model Harbor Freight Predator inverter so I'll give it a couple of years to build up some reputation but one of the food trucks in the area runs its little brother (9500) and is pleased with it.

https://www.harborfreight.com/...ology-epa-72614.html