Powerr out for ‘bout 2 hours this morning. Finally decide to hook up propane powered Troybuilt 7,000w gen set. Fire it up and run power cables from shed to front porch. As I am pluging in power strip, ‘lectric comes back on.

Story of my life! Happens every time!

When I used to install generators at the end I would tell people "you can thank me now." "For what?" "Guaranteeing you won't have power outages." Response was always confusion or "Yeah, Murphy's Law."

I would go back for annual maintenance and ask how many times the generator has turned on. Vast majority of the time their unreliable power grid suddenly stopped having outages miraculously.

Then I'd tell them they had purchased an $11,000 power grid insurance plan and it's working. Usually get a laugh, sometimes people would be mad they spent the money. The second group I never understood, you are covered in event of outage and have put zero wear on your genny, in my book that's a win/win.

I’ve thought about getting a whole house gas genny but we’ve only gotten a handful of short outages over the years, no more than 2 hours with most much shorter. So like the op. I just have a small LP genny to cover some basics if needed.

Damned if you do damned if you don’t.

How hard / How much $ is it to have the generator hooked up to automatically kick on when power fails?

Is it worth it?

For a whole house unit, it varies from $10-20K IME (genny, wiring, gas, and installation). It depends if you already have natural gas run to your house and how much is ‘automatically’ covered (which will drive how big your generator is).

Toms,

I'd take it to the next step and have a transfer switch installed. Then you can just roll out the generator, plug it onto the outside connection, fire it up and be done.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
How hard / How much $ is it to have the generator hooked up to automatically kick on when power fails?

Is it worth it?

A lot of variables there. The number I used above is average cost for 22kw standby unit. Will cover most houses that aren't all electric. So you never notice when the power goes off except for ten second warm up period.

High quality portable generator (7kw) costs $1,000-$4,000 and average normal install $900-$1,100.

I yield to no man in my "thriftyness". I got an 11000 watt whole house Generac with automatic operation for a total installed price of $3700. I have a propane furnace and a basement so I don't want to feed a 22000 watt unit to run air conditioning which I would never use during a power outage anyway.

quote:

Originally posted by Gene Hillman:
I yield to no man in my "thriftyness". I got an 11000 watt whole house Generac with automatic operation for a total installed price of $3700. I have a propane furnace and a basement so I don't want to feed a 22000 watt unit to run air conditioning which I would never use during a power outage anyway.

That's some ninja level frugality there considering the generator costs $3,200 and ATS is $700. That means gas man and electrician paid you $200 for the pleasure of installing your equipment and the county was handing out free permits that day.

We went 12 days without power during Hurricane Sandy and three days the year after that during another Nor'easter. Enough was enough - we got a 17 kW whole house generator with an automatic transfer switch. Best $12K I ever spent. Have used it sporadically since - no worries.

Adios,

Pizza Bob

Around here, if the power goes out for more than a minute or two, it'll be out for at least several hours. Usually it's tree branches down on the lines, but this past winter, someone took out a power pole with their car down the road a bit. The longest I was without power in the 6 years I've been here is 48 hours (after a summer windstorm). It's fairly easy to pull my generator out of the garage, put it on the pad behind the garage, pop up the small cover for it if it's raining (usually is), run the geneator cord through the doggie door to the generator, and switch over.
Without power, I'm without water, my septic pump doesn't work, and although my heat is propane, I need power for the blower fan.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
Toms,

I'd take it to the next step and have a transfer switch installed. Then you can just roll out the generator, plug it onto the outside connection, fire it up and be done.

This is the plan for the future. I just have too many other projects going right now to deal with it. I just bought the cabin and am in the middle of updating.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by Gene Hillman:
I yield to no man in my "thriftyness". I got an 11000 watt whole house Generac with automatic operation for a total installed price of $3700. I have a propane furnace and a basement so I don't want to feed a 22000 watt unit to run air conditioning which I would never use during a power outage anyway.

That's some ninja level frugality there considering the generator costs $3,200 and ATS is $700. That means gas man and electrician paid you $200 for the pleasure of installing your equipment and the county was handing out free permits that day.

Actually a year and a half ago when I bought it the sale price was $2900 including the transfer switch. I live in the sticks so there is no county permit. The electrician did the hook-up for $450 and my long standing propane salesman did the gas for $0. I did buy an automobile battery and a base for about $125 and that was it. Actually that totals a little less than $3700. Sorry you missed the sale.By the way, the current catalog price on that same unit is $3137 including the transfer switch.

quote:

Originally posted by Gene Hillman:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by Gene Hillman:
I yield to no man in my "thriftyness". I got an 11000 watt whole house Generac with automatic operation for a total installed price of $3700. I have a propane furnace and a basement so I don't want to feed a 22000 watt unit to run air conditioning which I would never use during a power outage anyway.

That's some ninja level frugality there considering the generator costs $3,200 and ATS is $700. That means gas man and electrician paid you $200 for the pleasure of installing your equipment and the county was handing out free permits that day.

Actually a year and a half ago when I bought it the sale price was $2900 including the transfer switch. I live in the sticks so there is no county permit. The electrician did the hook-up for $450 and my long standing propane salesman did the gas for $0. I did buy an automobile battery and a base for about $125 and that was it. Actually that totals a little less than $3700. Sorry you missed the sale.By the way, the current catalog price on that same unit is $3137 including the transfer switch.

Missed that the $3,200 one comes with ATS. That's still thousands less than you'd pay here.

I'm having the largest air cooled Kohler installed in less than 10 days. 811 has already been called, some paint & stakes are up, and in a few days the slab will be poured.

Instead of installing a liquid cooled generator (more up front cost and more annual maintenance cost), I'm having load shedding installed in the transfer switch so it'll lock out my dryer first, my double oven second, and the 2nd AC (side of house with guest bedrooms and my office) third. I shouldn't have to shed loads since I'm a power miser, but the calcs say I could be 2 kw short if turned enough stuff on at once (something women & friends would do, but I wouldn't).

Only lost power for 2 or 3 hours during Hurricane Harvey, but since then the power here has become real unstable due to doubling the size of the neighborhood.

I'm probably going to regret saying this....

I have lived in the same house since 1973 and only once has power been off more than 5 hours. That was a number of years ago when most of the midwest to east lost power.

Every time a thread comes along like this I think....mmmmm maybe I should consider but even during winter ice storms no electric issues.

Probably this winter I will regret posting this.

^
If this is something someone needs, they know it.

quote:

Originally posted by Vanwall:
I'm probably going to regret saying this....

I have lived in the same house since 1973 and only once has power been off more than 5 hours. That was a number of years ago when most of the midwest to east lost power.

Every time a thread comes along like this I think....mmmmm maybe I should consider but even during winter ice storms no electric issues.

Probably this winter I will regret posting this.

As someone who can buy the stuff at a discount and install it for free I don't own one. Sold and serviced them for years. Customers would ask me about my set up, and I'd have to explain I don't need one. I live right near sub station if my power goes it's restored within 8 hours.

I've thought many times of getting one just in case. But I don't have a large shed and no garage, so storage would be one issue. I've also thought about one for if shit hits the fan, but I have no ability to store very much gas and where do I buy it if SHTF?

I've thought about the tiny Honda inverter units and having it for furnace and fridge only.

I don’t even think about hooking up until the power has been out 12 hours. Perhaps folks should use the time as a moment to consider their TEOTWAWKI prepardness.

Same thing happened to me Friday a week. Neighborhood power goes out at 11 pm in a strong storm. Several tornadoes nearby. I figured we'd be w/out for a while so about 8 am Sat I got out my 30 year old Honda 1000 watt generator. Fired up 1st pull. Made pot of coffee then plugged in frig. 30 minutes later power comes on. Great insurance policy.