It's always a good feeling that what you spent on a just in case basis actually happened and you have it.

Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

Just took delivery of my Kubota GL14000 diesel generator a couple weeks ago. Still need to get it placed near the house, get a transfer switch Hooke up and a larger capacity fuel tank. I’d like 250 gallons or more. I have a Bobcat S250 and a tool cat to help with the fuel consumption, maybe even sell some to my neighbor for his Kubota track loader and JD tractors to keep it fresh.

Might be spring before I get the finished placement and setup. Didn’t quite get the landscaping of that area done before the deep freeze and a couple feet of snow set in.

I don’t think we’ve had an outage longer than 6 hrs in the 27 years we’ve been here. If it’s not a weather related outage I’ll be rationing what electric power I use.

quote:

Originally posted by gjgalligan:
I have a 22kw Generac, owners manual says 3.5 gal/hr of propane under full load.
2.5 ga/hr at 50% load.
I have never heard it run but at one speed. Doesn't matter if on exercise mode or powering the house.

I also have a small 3200 watt gas gasoline generator (used for my travel trailer in the woods.) If on prolonged power outages I often shut the big one down any run the house overnight with the small one. It has a fuel shut off so I can easily run the gas out of the carb when shutting down.

It should always run at rated speed (either 3600 or 1800 RPM, depending on the type of generator it's driving) as that determines frequency. You want 60Hz at all times. How much fuel it uses depends on the load. At 80% load the governor is wide open to maintain rated speed. At 20% load it gets to loaf a little.

Think of it as your car maintaining 60mph on a level versus maintaining 60mph going up a steep hill.

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:
My generators are humming along just fine too.

Oh, those are cute little generators. My 19 2mW generators and the little 750kW one are all doing just fine too.

That's the house load. We also have three 4160 Volt generators rated at 1000kW each.

I have a tiny Honda EA2200. I bought an external 5 gallon gas tank that I can refill while it runs. I get ~10-12 hours out of the tiny on board tank, so this will run for days. It's a backfeed setup, all manually connected and I manually shut off the mains. I't enough to charge laptops, phones, run a lamp or two, and run the furnace electrics (gas furnace).

It's gotten me out of a jamb or two, but truly, I lose power often enough that I am recently considering a Generac. I am also convinced that reliable distribution of electricity (not including normal trees down interruptions) is a thing of the past.

^^^When you say 'Backfeed Setup', are you backfeeding the Dryer Outlet, or do you have a dedicated Interlocked Breaker on your Distribution Panel that's fed/backfed by the Generator?

I shut off my main, and plug this into an AC outlet (20A, 12AWG) I have wired up in my garage. It's just a 120v generator. But it feeds one side of my panel/buss. It's inverter, so when nothing much is drawing, it really ramps down and is very quiet. When the furnace motor kicks on, or the coffee pot, it ramps up.

I shut off all the unnecessary breakers, so it just feeds the furnace, and a run of outlets used for some lighting, coffee and chargers for cell/laptops. This is an emergency only arrangement. But it keeps the pipes from freezing.

NOTE: I had to make a double male cable (10AWG, to lower resistance for the ~30' run through the garage and to where I keep it outside). This is uber-not kosher. I get it. But, it's what I do. And the other 99.99999% of the time, if I need a little camp generator, I just use it as such. That danger-male-cable is only for emergencies. I should mention I also used illuminating ends in the build of the cable, so it is an added don't-be-stupid safety measure. And the rig is $1,300 all-in instead of $15k for a Generac.

Honda EU2200i

The little 2200 watt Honda is only a 120V generator so he can only energize every other circuit in his panel. Obviously you have to turn off all the 240V circuits.

Instead of the male to male suicide cord, I would just hook it straight to a 20A single pole breaker in the panel.

Those little 2200 watt generators are very capable and can easily power the (gas) furnace fan, fridge, and some lighting/tv/internet circuits. He has a very capable setup, especially with the extended runtime gas tank.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
^^^When you say 'Backfeed Setup', are you backfeeding the Dryer Outlet, or do you have a dedicated Interlocked Breaker on your Distribution Panel that's fed/backfed by the Generator?

His generator only puts out 120V, not 240V, so he cant use a dryer outlet. That generator is only capable of putting out 18 or 19 amps at 120V, so he can backfeed a single 20A 120V circuit just fine.

We lost power on Friday, just as soon as I got home from work (5 PM). I have a Generac 15KW gas generator that is 20 yrs old and never been used, except for running it every couple of weeks.

I use 87 Octane gas with the appropriate dose of Stabil in it. My generator was supposed to run the whole household until we converted our 2-car garage into an in-law apartment. Some of those circuits were repurposed for that.

My setup is battery start. I need to shut off the main power at the panel, hook up the generator to the external outlet, then manually switch the circuits from "Off" to "Gen". With a full tank, I ran it from 5PM to 7AM Saturday. Went out and refueled the generator. It was almost dry. My estimate is 1.5-2 gallons/hr. I refilled my gas supply Saturday and it cost me around $95 for 30ish gallons!

The generator really saved our Christmas. The FIL was comfortable downstairs and we were able to cook out traditional Prime Rib for Christmas Eve.....

Rogue can you provide more detailed info on how or where to buy a link like yours to a secondary tank. Thank you.

Wondering how it pulls the fuel from that tank?

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Rogue can you provide more detailed info on how or where to buy a link like yours to a secondary tank. Thank you.

Wondering how it pulls the fuel from that tank?t r

I'm not Rogue, but there are a bunch of kits listed on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/honda-g...erator+fuel+extender

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Rogue can you provide more detailed info on how or where to buy a link like yours to a secondary tank. Thank you.

Wondering how it pulls the fuel from that tank?

I bought from eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/17149...ebfff4abf8%7Ciid%3A1

It came with all the lines.

.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: r0gue,

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:...
Instead of the male to male suicide cord, I would just hook it straight to a 20A single pole breaker in the panel.

It was a question of reach. It is convenient to reach a plug close to the outside of the house. The beakers are deep in the basement, which would require a significant extension.

About a week and a half ago, we lost power for 45 hours in the zero degree temp range. We have a Champion 2000 watt inverter generator that we’d use for camping, so I hooked that up. It ran the fridge, chest freezer, our propane stove forced air, computer, monitors, Starlink and ORBI mesh, and a lamp or two. It ran for about 40 hours straight and used less than 5 gallons of gas. While great for emergencies, you really start to miss a hot shower and cooking a meal without going outside to use the camp stove.

I need to read up on backfeeding power for short periods of time to run the hardwired well pump. Since we just moved here a couple months back, not having water during an outage hadn’t even occurred to me. We learned a lot and are much better prepared for the next one.

Just a note to all you guys wanting to also be a suicide cord back feeder…

Safety concerns aside, if you are going to do this, you need to ensure that the circuit you are back feeding is not using an AFCI/GFCI circuit breaker. Back feeding one of those electronic breakers will wreck it. Heaven help you if you try to back feed one of those fancy Leviton or Tesla panels.

A certain unnamed someone, *ahem*, in his younger days, discovered for a fact that Square D will not honor the warranty on a back fed QO115PDFC. Kinda like when your Mom knows you didn’t brush your teeth, they know what you did, and will deny your warranty while gladly charging you $60 for the replacement.

Having a regular breaker and tying directly to your panel is soooo much safer than double ended male plugs. Still not safe without an interlock, but infinitely safer than having a double male cord laying around.

I have a 10k gas portable generator with a dedicated interlock backfeed breaker. I run a cable from the generator to a l14-30 plug on the side of my house.

I can selectivity run everything I need (furnace, lights, fridge/freezers, well) or (furnace, lights, toaster over, hot plate) or (well pump and hot water heater).
I just can't run the major items (furnace, well pump, water heater) at the same time.

I used the generator for 37 hours on this last storm, used around 25 gallons of gas. Personally I use ethanol free for storage, but refill the tanks with regular E10 while running. I drain the tank and put the leftover E10 into my vehicles to refill with Ethanol Free to store it again.

I had to refill my onboard tank every 8-10 hours. I'd reduce the load, run for 1 minute with no load to shut off, wait 5 minutes to refill, check the oil, and restart (push button electric start for the win).

I'd love an automatic standby setup, but considering I paid under 1500 for my setup vs the 6300 my folks paid for theirs, I'm ok with the limitations.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Rogue can you provide more detailed info on how or where to buy a link like yours to a secondary tank. Thank you.

Wondering how it pulls the fuel from that tank?

Most generators have gravity fed fuel systems, which wont work with the extended fuel tank posted above.

These little Honda 2200 generators have a fuel pump, which causes suction in the tank and draws fuel from the auxiliary boat style fuel tank.

quote:

Originally posted by sigcrazy7:
Square D will not honor the warranty on a back fed QO115PDFC.

I should note, i installed a plug in my garage. 20A outlet, 12AWG back to a 20A breaker. And it's on the correct side of the buss to hit my furnace, and the few emergency items I need. I'm still shit out of luck in the summer. No AC.

I'm looking into getting a generator and am torn between just spending $1,000 on an independent one I have to plug in or going full blown into a much larger one with automatic start up and transfer.... the key is trying to figure out how much wattage I need to keep the freezer and frig running and able to run the three mini splits for AC in the summer. Oh, and this would all be running off of Natural gas.