Advice on a Generator

[so lucky]

I just about have DH convinced that we need a generator for the house, for power outages. It doesn't have to run everything...just keep the fridge, freezer, and heat going. And a few lights. (and not all of these at once, of course)
What are your suggestions for the most economical, least trouble, way to go?

 

[Ridgerunner]

There are two loads you need to worry about, start-up load and what it takes to keep things running. You need to find the maximum for both of these before you can size your generator. Look for what might start up at the same time. My big load was the electric water heater and I'd keep it by itself. My heat would be a propane fireplace but there is a small load from that due to the fan. Negligible. if you need 220 in addition to 110 make sure the generator has a connection for that. Depending on how often you open them, the freezer and fridge don't need to run that much.

Talking to an electrician, he said that most people tie it into their main breaker box feed and just use the breakers to determine what is running when. You need to make sure that cannot feed back into the power lines so you don't electrocute anyone working on the lines but an electrician can do that. The least trouble way, once it is set up, is to just use breakers instead of running extension cords. Of course you need to know what is on each breaker.

Of course I didn't do it that way. I plan to run an extension cord to whatever I want to run. The kicker in this is that my water heater does not have a standard plug, it's this fancy 4-prong thing and I did not have a similar plug-in on the generator. I bought an extension cord that had the right plug on one end and cut the other one off and replaced it with what I needed. I had an electrician look at it later and he said it's not legal but it will work.

 

[Smart Red]

No personal experience with generators other than a small one DS used, but they are made right here in South-est, central-est Wisconsin. This is the brand, Generac, used in a "THIS OLD HOUSE" rebuild and also in a PBS program out of Minnesota called "HOME TIME"
‎
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[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

well, once you get it you probably won't get to using it since nothing too serious would happen!you probably know the saying: if you need it you can't find it, when you have it you won't need it.

my dad hardly uses his except every few years. on Thanks Giving 2014 was the last time he used it. we had Thanks Giving dinner at my parents that year and they had a combination of running the generator most of the day to cook some of the meal using the stove/oven (gas but it still had electrical components it needed to run), and using their smoker/grill. the last time the generator was used was 2008 during the ice storms. my parents went without power for 3 days. i only had a few hours out at our old house (we lived across from public works dept), my sister survived for 2 weeks! sister was the one using it the most that time. once my parents were done with it, it traveled down to my sister's till they got power back.

as much as i would like to get one for this house for an emergency i know we wouldn't be without power for too long since my street is on the same area of grid as the hospital that is just outside my neighborhood. i can walk about 1000' to their parking lot & front door. when my FIL was alive he would only be without for a few hours at the most.

 

[so lucky]

We have a natural gas furnace but electrical blower, and gas water heater, no electricity needed there. Water is county, so no electricity needed for hot water.
We also have a gas fireplace which would heat the whole house, but it is a "no vent" and makes us sick to use. Haven't had it on in 3 years. My bad; I'm the one who wanted it.

 

[seedcorn]

Living n country, I use inverter as back up for furnace only. Agree with Ridge.

To run my furnace it takes 1800-2000 watts. I had them put a switch in that makes it line, nothing or generator. If you don't when line comes back on, not good!

1). How many watts do you need?
2). Generator vs inverter. Inverters are more expensive but give you clean electric vs generator cheaper but you get spikes that can take out electric motors.
3). How much convience do you want? There are companies that will install a unit that comes on when electric goes off gauged to what you want to run. Really not that expensive if you lan on living there awhile.

 

[canesisters]

I don't have much to offer other than what I've personally got.
When we put the house in, hubby had the breaker box wired to a cutoff switch outside. There is a cord coiled up out there that plugs into the generator. The only things that can be powered once the cutoff is engaged are: the fan etc. for the propane furnace, the outlet that the fridge is plugged into, the well pump, 2 outlets in the den (lamp & TV), and (I think) the hot water heater. And all of those can be turned off or on using the breakers.
At first, I had no reason to use it. Then, the generator that was bought just for that purpose died. Skip several years of miserable, days-long power outages and here we are with winter storm Jonas on the way. I went out and bought another generator. The original one was a 7500watt - this one is an 8000watt.
I hope that I never have to find out just how well the system works.
(but I know me and I will probably be hooking it up sometime this summer just to see)

 

[seedcorn]

Cane, assume the cut off stops the line from feeding the house? Never want both lines hot.

 

[canesisters]

That's what I understand. I'm either on the power company or the generator.

 

[Nyboy]

It seemed like power failure happened all the time before I got a generator. Bought a used one on CL only had to use once for a short time. Harbor freight had a very small one for $100 for like tailgating. I bought one just for phone at work, have not used in 2 years still in box.