Whole house standby generator

As in, "good for you"?

 

I have a manual 200 amp transfer switch.
I can then use multiple generators depending on the need.
A old Kawasaki 750 watt from my late parents camping days will light up the house and sip fuel.
A 5kw again old, Kohler has no problem running the well, lights, fridges and freezers ect.
A 1200 RPM Wisconsin powered 7.5kw is really quiet and will run on natural gas.
Next in line is a miller trailblazer welder that handles everything including all AC.
If all that fails I have a rather dusty 40kw 3 phase WinCo pto generator.
Basically if we have a shtf moment using the least amount of fuel needed at the time just makes sense.

 

Don't understand your question...Seems like corncob makes everything a pizzing contest and has to win! I call that a bully!

 

Exactly...only in a smart azz way (tone)

 

Again ours starts up daily. Runs somewhere between 5-15 mins.

 

Why?

 

I don't know. I'm not in charge of that stuff. I just handle logging.

 

I maintain some standby equipment (including generators) at work and I don't have anything set up to run more than once per month...and anything more than once per week just seems very excessive to me...but hey, I guess if I worked for a genny dealer, more exercise runs means replacing more worn out parts, sooner or later!
Heck, the local electric utility has some VERY large diesel powered gennys on our property and they don't even run those every day...or even every week.

 

The generator for sure has way more hours in maintenance runs than actual hours run for backup power.

Now you got me wondering. Is it everyday or three or two times a week? I block it out but I swear it's like every morning at like 8:15 or 8:30 it's running. I also don't sit at the office in the parking lot waiting or listening for the generator either.

I will ask some other guys if they paid enough attention to it. I still think it's daily though.

 

Bring it to their attention and point out the waistfullness and then tell them to reward your paycheck with a portion of the cost savings.

 

2.5 hp foundation pump is a pretty potent pump !

 

That's what I said when he first said 2.5...I said, you mean .25 hp? He said nope, 2.5!
At first I thought it overkill, but then I seen the river (literally) that runs through their front yard when it rains hard!

 

Well, that may or may not be helpful in a long-term power outage, and depends on the circumstances. My solar panels produced a whopping 3.5 kwh from December 12 until December 16 because of the heavy overcast and snow cover. So unless I was really mindful and didn't use anything but my pellet stoves (no lights, computers or anything else), or had big enough battery storage system for 4+ days (sized for the whole house - was told that would be another $30k), if I'd had a power outage that would not have worked well for me.

 

I’m trying to understand why someone would need a 20kW system for a typical house. I can understand why with a farm with livestock etc and ton of stuff to run, but a house for a backup.

I was able to rewire my electrical panel and such so that all “emergency circuits” specific lights, refrigeration and freezer, furnace and sump pump could be powered on one leg of the 220 main line.

and then installed a manual switch over on that leg to run it to a 3500 w generator.

a 5 kW generator will power a large RV with 220 v and be able to power two roof top AC as well as an electric water heater and microwave at the same time. And still let you light the thing up like it’s heathrow.

why would a house need 4 times that?

 

Maybe electric heat?
We got by with a 3500w but I got tired of rationing and the Mrs asking if it was ok to flush.
Maine is supposedly the most heavily forested state and we are literally at "the end of the line" as far as the circuit that feeds us. The utility does a great job but they can't cut the trees outside of their ROW. I think we're up to 4 outages for this month, I should tally the hours just for curiosity.
I'm not an electrical engineer but I also got tired of worrying that I was damaging expensive electrical components by under powering them. Obviously I can't hear the well pump, but all of the freezers, refrigerators, appliances sounded "slower" or taxed running on the generator. Then the generator itself, screaming balls to the wall for 10 hours or several days also bothered me (in a damaging the generator way) and that's a $2500+ concern. Couple that with potentially the appliances getting damaged by sub par electrical power, I jumped on the bigger is better or at least an incredible comfort and piece of mind having all the generator I need to operate the house and shop normally.
We're very rural and once I needed to air up a tire to open up the road (snow storm) but the generator wouldn't carry the 220v commercial compressor and having 3 main panels juggling the limited power constantly for even only 10-12 hours is just stupid, never mind 3-4 days.
For $2.50 an hour in these (politically) bassakwards times, or $1.50-1.75 /hr in normal times, I'll take my big generator any day and all day.
Now in the summer, I won't even run the genny until it's a concern for the fridges and freezers unless there's other immediate needs.

 

I watched an install video on a manual transfer switch for a portable generator yesterday. Heck, there's nothing to it!

That'll probably be the route I go and just power stuff like freezer, fridge, furnace, well pump/water treatment/ water heater (notice I didn't say hot water heater) some outlets. some lights.

With the transfer switch being manual, I have the ability to select which ones would be on/off. Such as the power is out for 12 hours or more, I can shut off other selections and turn water heater one.......then off I think the electric water heater would be the highest load.

 

When we built we put in a gentran panel and wired the house for it. We have fridge, heating system, well pump, a random string of outlets and a string of lights around the house, and the freezer powered. Easy install and works fine. I need to go on demand with the wood boiler, backup inverter is short lived and we have always been lucky to not have an outage when we are not home.