Topic: portable gas generator for home

[flybox1]

Let me know what you've got, what you wish you'd done, suggestions, tips, gen-tran ratings..etc.
How many circuits, running wattage?

We typically experience 10-15 days a winter without power due to downed trees, heavy snow...etc.
Furnace & septic are the required systems.  
We are on LPG, so cooking is not an issue.  TV and some lights woud be great.
Thinking an 8000W gen would cover more than we need.  id rather be over than have to worry about overload.  
High voltage scares me  ( sht, my bike electircal still scares me ) so i'll be hiring a electric contractor to install.

Preparing for a wet and cold winter....
thanks

Flybox1

[Kframe]

You said portable in the title, but then spoke of professional installation; I'm confused.
Are you thinking about one of those permanent units that stands outside the home and looks kinda like a central AC unit?
Or something truly portable that you plug into a special 'inlet' in your wiring/fuse-panel when you need it?
-K

[Bob Wessner]

Are you thinking "portable" or one of those automatic standby generators? Considerable difference in price, but we have been experiencing more and more outages of length in recent years. Long winter outages can be problematical.  

[flybox1]

Yes, plugged in.

portable in the sense that its stored inside when not needed, and then rolled outside, plugged in to a recepticle on the outside of the house(which is wired thru the wall to a generator transformer and then wired to the circuits of our house we chose to power) and started.  runs on gas.  
the standby generators, permanently installed outdoors, are $4000+, and automatically come on when an outage is detected.   while ideal, these are just not in the $ cards.

[BobbyR]

I don;t get that many outages but I have had two short ones. My generator is 3000W and it runs my fridge,  freezer and heat. I have natural gas forced hot air heat so that all it is running is the fan and controls.  I made up some suicide cords with double male ends. I also have a few of those compact florescent light bulbs. I throw out the main breaker and backfeed power through two regular outlets in my garage, each once on a different side of my 220 panel. This is not a recommended procedure and probably illegal.

When you talk about outages of more than a day, one thing you may consider is a unit that will run on LP gas. I am looking into converting mine to natural gas or buying a natural gas unit since there is a limit how much gasoline I can store.

[flybox1]

Yeah, thanks Bobby.

worst case....you could siphon from your CB to get a few extra hours of power 

Thought about the instant-on LPG units.  but once you factor in the electrician and gas co installation and permit fees, its almost as much as the hardware. FK!     i shoulda been one!

Im in no way trying to go about this cheap.  yeah, $ is tight, but i know it would cost way more for septic/plumbing repairs if i dont get us some coverage - worst case scenario.
My thought is that a portable gas gennie wired to our panel....is the way to go for right now.
Just hoping someone on the forum has done it this way and can share thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

[demon78]

Flybox if every thing goes well this fall I'm going to put a wood stove in the basment, and use my propane fire place as a back up, next year I'll try for a generator, basically I have to run the pump for our water, a normal sized fridge a mini fridge, an upright freezer and maybe a light or two, it depends when the power goes out if its the dead of winter then all I have to worry about is a 240 volt pump for water, if it's the transition period then I need the fridges etc, we seem to have more trouble in the spring than the dead of winter. Oh yeah we've a gas counter top stove so that's not a problem, so some where between 3500 watts and 5500 watts and I don't need a permanent installation. Any how let us know how it works out for you.
Bill the demon.

[BobbyR]

Yeah, thanks Bobby.

worst case....you could siphon from your CB to get a few extra hours of power 

Thought about the instant-on LPG units.  but once you factor in the electrician and gas co installation and permit fees, its almost as much as the hardware. FK!     i shoulda been one!

Im in no way trying to go about this cheap.  yeah, $ is tight, but i know it would cost way more for septic/plumbing repairs if i dont get us some coverage - worst case scenario.
My thought is that a portable gas gennie wired to our panel....is the way to go for right now.
Just hoping someone on the forum has done it this way and can share thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

Actually there are portable units that will run on LPG which is what I was talking about. The running time running per tankful quoted on these gasoline units are at idle with no load. The longest outage we had was 4 days after a severe ice
storm. That is why I am either going to convert my current model to natural gas or buy a natural gas unit.
I have two fireplaces and I have to tell ya, our ancestors were tough. At 20F the best I could do was 45F in those two rooms. I only suggested you look into an LP unit was for a multi day outage and you have a large Lp tank already.

[Duanob]

"LPG"? "Septic"? Jeez fly, how far out of town do you live?

Remember the windstorm from three years ago? A million people without power around here. We never lost power but everyone surrounding us did. Our neighbors across the street were out for 7 days so we ran a power cord to their house. It was spooky driving by houses and businesses all blacked out. It took days to just get the huge trees off the the streets. If you found a gas station that did have power, the line ups were blocks long because of all the others that didn't.

Some friends of ours east of the mountains have a wired panel on the side of their hopuse, if they lose power they just plug their generator in and start it up, no problem. Keep 10 gallons or so of extra gas with Stabil in it, fresh before every winter and you're good to go.

If you had a 40 mile long power cord I'd let you plug in

[flybox1]

"LPG"? "Septic"? Jeez fly, how far out of town do you live?

 
So far out, we got no streetlights, no comcast, deer, bear, bobcat, porcupine, racoon and opossum!!!
10 miles due east of Snohomish to be more precise.
yeah...we were w/o power for 4 days.  stayed with my parents.
typically its not the snow that does it.  its the rainy/windy October/novembers.  lots of oldgrowth out by us.  when the ground is saturated, and the wind blows....we're F'd!  its a given.
2 winters ago...we got heavy snow.  we never lost power, but many did.  couldnt even make it to town.  got down to 9deg one night.
we had 5' snowdrifts in our backyard.
shoveled and de-iced the driveway every day.  just in case i got called in to work.
snow'd a foot on xmas day. kids had a blast.
the slushy meltoff was worse than the snow.
then, last year....nothing.  not even a trace of snow. WTF

not taking any more chances.

[BobbyR]

If you can afford a Generator that can use your LPG you only need a simple hose hook up. 5 gallons of gas will not last very long under load. Trust me i know. You have been talking days.

[flybox1]

Yeah, worst has been 6 days about 5 years ago
we've got (2) 250 gal LPG tanks, topped off each month, and 3-4 20lb bbq tanks
Thanks for the direction Bobby!

[scottly]

As far as the generator, go for a two-cylinder, 1800 RPM unit. The single cylinder 3600 RPM units don't hold up well under continuous duty, and tend to be noisy. Onan (top-notch) and Kohler (good) 5-7 KW generators were commonly used in RVs. I would look for one of those. I think both companies sold LPG versions. BTW, any gas generator can be converted to LPG.

[333]

LPG and CNG conversions are available for just about any engine, and certainly the only way to go.  But you will spend the money, between that and PROPERLY wiring it into your home.

[seaweb11]

Our power goes off quite a few times every winter during winter wind storms. I have always relied on My HONDA 1000 Inverter
I have had it for over 10 years and it still runs like a champ.  Gives me some light, computer hook up, TV/DVD and will run the freezer if nothing else is on

Everyone should have one of these.

I just Googled it and found they can run off of propane as well
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOBR-4nRbFw

[Stev-o]

You're gonna want power for your refrigerator too.

[seaweb11]

Dude......It's winter   Seriously though, it's winter

If you don't leave the door open it will stay cool for 36- 48 hrs easy.

[demon78]

Yeah Seaweb as an old appliance tech I used to tell people if their freezer or fridge died. they were good for at least 24-36 hours and if it was winter more like 48, seems to me if you had a generator that would handle the starts current of your heaviest load you could run your water pump if you had to flush, then switch it off, start the fridge or freezer let it run for a while, the major problem would be if you had a sump pump that needed to run continuously, then you have to up the wattage.
Bill the demon.

[Bob Wessner]

Interesting thread. We have had some outages of length. I've always been a bit leery of gasoline powered generators for the reasons mentioned. You need to keep a fair amount of gas handy. One outage a few years back (the northeast blackout) even gas stations were without power so getting more was out of the question. How you est. the run time on, say a 20 lb. propane tank, for one these that will run on such fuel? I know they list the cf per hour, but not sure how you equate that to the volume in a 20 lb. tank.

[BobbyR]

Interesting thread. We have had some outages of length. I've always been a bit leery of gasoline powered generators for the reasons mentioned. You need to keep a fair amount of gas handy. One outage a few years back (the northeast blackout) even gas stations were without power so getting more was out of the question. How you est. the run time on, say a 20 lb. propane tank, for one these that will run on such fuel? I know they list the cf per hour, but not sure how you equate that to the volume in a 20 lb. tank.

I have been thinking about this a lot Bob. I have NG in the house for heating, water heater, stove, clothes dryer, and even my BBQ. I have Town water so I have no pump to run Even here just outside NYC we can get outages of several days. Parts of NYC have it worse than we do sometimes.

My interest in using NG is that is is an available fuel I have coming to the house. If I were using heating oil, I would probably invest in a Diesel unit since I could get fuel from my fuel tank.

My present one is a cheap China unit 5HP 3000W unit. During a blackout I was able to run the heat, the freezer and fridge. I bought a few of those compact florescent bulbs so we can have some lights.

I have some Kerosene heaters I use in the Garage, and used them once in the house, but they stink up the place a bit.
The first time we used it, it made living so much more normal.

[Bob Wessner]

We have natural gas also, I just wasn't sure what the options/regs were for a temp. hook-up to a unit like these, hence the question about 20 lb. propane tank and how long it might run one of these units. Unfortunately, last time we needed the hot water tank replaced, I was faced with two options pull a new liner up the chimney (we already had one, but it was a three inch line and code had since changed to 4 inches) think more $$ or, vent it out the side, like the furnace, but that requireg a positive venting fan... soo .. if we lose power for any length of time, we also lose hot water. 

[333]

The research I've done into this indicates there are differences between LPG and CNG, in that there are different kits to convert small engines.  So you can't just disconnect from natural gas and hook up propane.  I've been putting off converting mine to CNG until I could afford to plumb a gas line for the generator and a BBQ.  But it's now been 5 years, and I still can't afford it(2K +/-).  But now I'm wondering how long my generator would run off a 20lb bottle of LPG.

[BobbyR]

333 it seems a 3000w would use about 1.5 lbs of propane at 50% load. I hooked up my BBQ and it was not that expensive. I was wonder where I can get a decent kit. I saw some on the web, but they seemed overpriced for a jet and a hose. 

[Bob Wessner]

Bob, you,re say 1.5  lbs/hr @ 50% load? Not too bad. It's easier to keep that around than gasoline.

[BobbyR]

Bob, you,re say 1.5  lbs/hr @ 50% load? Not too bad. It's easier to keep that around than gasoline.

This may clear it up and then again maybe not. http://www.propane-generators.com/propane_usage.htm