Natural Gas Whole House Power Backup?

[jwilson56]

I appreciate the comments so far. For me one of the top requirements is for un-attended operation so that if I leave town for a couple weeks in the winter to visit my daughter in Texas I don't have to worry about the power going out and my water pipes freezing. So if it can be wired to run the fridge, some lights and the furnace that would be fine. I am also retired so I have to try and keep the costs down. Of coarse having one installed that could run the AC in the summer would be a plus for the wife. We live in a pretty small house so power requirements are probably a bit lower than some installs.

 

[Ira]

I appreciate the comments so far. For me one of the top requirements is for un-attended operation so that if I leave town for a couple weeks in the winter to visit my daughter in Texas I don't have to worry about the power going out and my water pipes freezing. So if it can be wired to run the fridge, some lights and the furnace that would be fine. I am also retired so I have to try and keep the costs down. Of coarse having one installed that could run the AC in the summer would be a plus for the wife. We live in a pretty small house so power requirements are probably a bit lower than some installs.

I think the biggest problem you will have is that all gensets that I know of, including standby (permanent mounted) need to have the oil changed fairly often if they are running continuously. Usually every 100 or 200 hours. Think about how many miles you would put on your car if you drove it for 200 hours straight at 60 miles an hour (or faster if comparing it to a genset that runs at 3600 rpm instead of 1800 rpm). Granted, the steady rpm operation of a genset isn't as hard on the oil as start/stop variable speed driving is on a car. Oil usage over extended periods is also a concern. I've heard aircooled models burn more oil than liquid cooled, but that may vary widely.

If you get a standby genset, you may be able to work something out with a dealer (or just a regular mechanic if you know one), to come out every few days when it is running for a long power outage to change the oil, depending on what is needed. The other thing that will probably be important for you is the ability to remotely monitor the genset. If you are out of town and it's not running when it should be (i.e., a power outage occured), you want to be notified of it, or at least be able to remotely check on it. Figuring out how to do remote monitoring of my genset is what originally brought me to this forum. Mine doesn't have remote monitoring capability built into it.

 

[Ira]

Hi Ira,

Not looking for a fight at all. My experience has been that most people do not buy ANY generator, nor make any real preparations for disaster situations. I suspect that down in Florida more people take preparation seriously.

I'm a retired commercial electrician. My genset cord is a 50 amp SO cord (4 #6 awg) with a male 240v cord connector which mates with the 240 v output of the generator. The other end is a female which mates with a male 50 amp wall mounted receptacle. Kind of like a reverse range receptacle. This wall mounted receptacle then is connected to one of two 50 amp 2 pole breakers in the emergency panel. These breakers have a cam type mechanism that prevents both from being on simultaneously. There will be no suicides with my installation

I think we both agree there are advantages to portable and fixed generator installs. One big advantage of the permanent install is you don't have to deal with the neighbor who wants to "borrow" your generator for a few hours I gave varioous install options thought before I bought the Honda. I actually could have bought a whole-house Guardian at Home Depot for less than the eu6500. It was my 20 year prior experience with Honda generators that made my final choice for me. Lots of people in my area have all-electric homes. Unless they go with a large fixed generator they aren't going to keep warm in the winter. My parents have a log home with a large fire place. Last winter I had to move them over to my place during a 3 day power outage because they could not get their house above 50 degree with the fireplace. They have virtually NO insulation and cathedral ceilings. Looks great, but not very practical, and they have electric furnace with heat pump.






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I'm not sure from your post exactly what you are doing, but if you have constructed a cord such that one end is plugged into the generator, and the other end is a male end that can be plugged into something like an electric dryer outlet/receptacle...those cords are called "suicide cords"

Generator cords can be crafted so that they are no different than an extension cord. If you use the proper portable generator interlock and components, no one is going to die.

I have a Generac EXL7500. Just last week I backed it out of the garage turned the gas on and it fired right up on gasoline that's about 2 years old.

I ran it for about 15 minutes, shut it off, siphoned the gas out and used the old gas to top off the tank on our car. I got some fresh gas, added some Sta-Bil, and it will be good for another two years of "ready to go". I also run the gas out of the carb after every use.

This work fine for me and the wife can do it without problems. She likes the fact that the generator is electric start or rope start.

Given the caliber of the posts I've read on the CT forums, I would have been surprised if you guys weren't using a safe method. I just wanted to make sure anyone who happened to come across this thread understood the issues in case it wasn't quite clear.

A couple of months ago, I was at the local "hurricane preparation" seminar put on by our county gov't every year at the start of the season. I attended a "genset info" session put on by one of the local dealers. There were probably 25 people there. I listened to him tell the crowd how to build a suicide cord and use it with a dryer outlet. He explained the dangers, and he mentioned interlock kits in passing. Then he commented half-jokingly that "you shouldn't do it that way (using a suicide cord), but everyone does it anyway". I personally know of people that use suicide cords to plug into a dryer outlet without any kind of an interlock kit in place. No matter what I say, they won't change. At least not until after something bad happens.

 

[Kevin L]

I appreciate the comments so far. For me one of the top requirements is for un-attended operation so that if I leave town for a couple weeks in the winter to visit my daughter in Texas I don't have to worry about the power going out and my water pipes freezing. So if it can be wired to run the fridge, some lights and the furnace that would be fine. I am also retired so I have to try and keep the costs down. Of coarse having one installed that could run the AC in the summer would be a plus for the wife. We live in a pretty small house so power requirements are probably a bit lower than some installs.

I think the biggest problem you will have is that all gensets that I know of, including standby (permanent mounted) need to have the oil changed fairly often if they are running continuously. Usually every 100 or 200 hours. Think about how many miles you would put on your car if you drove it for 200 hours straight at 60 miles an hour (or faster if comparing it to a genset that runs at 3600 rpm instead of 1800 rpm). Granted, the steady rpm operation of a genset isn't as hard on the oil as start/stop variable speed driving is on a car. Oil usage over extended periods is also a concern. I've heard aircooled models burn more oil than liquid cooled, but that may vary widely.

If you get a standby genset, you may be able to work something out with a dealer (or just a regular mechanic if you know one), to come out every few days when it is running for a long power outage to change the oil, depending on what is needed. The other thing that will probably be important for you is the ability to remotely monitor the genset. If you are out of town and it's not running when it should be (i.e., a power outage occured), you want to be notified of it, or at least be able to remotely check on it. Figuring out how to do remote monitoring of my genset is what originally brought me to this forum. Mine doesn't have remote monitoring capability built into it.

I had my genset (30KW water-cooled Kohler) serviced a few weeks ago. The authorized service tech said if we get a storm, keep it running as long as you need it, and call him after power's restored. It's not likely that would be for more than a week where I live, so he said I'd be fine. Kohler also just sent around information about an optional oil reservoir that holds a few quarts of oil to replenish any lost through use. These are GM industrial engines, and are built to run and run. I forgot this time, but I do plan to switch to synthetic oil next oil change.

As a side note, I've had the generator installed for 15 months now. It runs for 20 minutes every week for exercise. It has 24 hours on it now, and I just had the propane tank topped off. It only took 33 gallons - with taxes $75. Of course, this was in low or no-load use, but 1.38 gals/hr is far lower than I expected.

Kevin