Our electric coop has a program to encourage you to own a backup generator for your home. You pay $5,000 for a whole house generator up front. They help get it installed, it runs off propane. The generator is set up to run during peak times. They said last year generators ran 46 hours. This is during the summer months in the afternoons on the days where it is 100+ outside & people are using massive amounts of power to cool their homes.
In return for you having the generator you get a 25-30% savings off you electric bill each month. We have not yet began living on our property full time, so we don't know how much our electric will run. We already planned on having a whole house generator just for storm purposes (several weeks without power just doesn't appeal to me).
Anyone else have similar programs where they are located?
They also give out free electric hotwater heaters. In return, they put a timer on your hot water heater & it is off for a minumium of 4 hours a day. You just stop by the office pickup your choice, 40, 50 or 80 gal hot water heater, after it is installed they come out & set up the timer for you. Think we are going to get a hot water heater next week. The one we have now is 20 years old, so win win for us!
Anyone see a downside to the program the co-op is running? I want to make sure I have all the pros & cons.
Looks like you would have to pay to have a propane tank installed and hooked up. Take those cost into consideration. What you save on electric may be offset by what you would have to pay for propane.
Added: My electric hot water heater has a timer on it now I set. I've found heating for two hours in the morning lasts me all day - except when the washer is used as I can manually override it. The timer isn't all that expensive and if you have electric experience fairly easy to hook-up.
We already do have a propane tank hooked up, the heat is propane. But yes I did wonder how much propane I would be using to run the generator during peak times. Last time we had the tank filled it was $2 a gal I think.
We already do have a propane tank hooked up, the heat is propane. But yes I did wonder how much propane I would be using to run the generator during peak times. Last time we had the tank filled it was $2 a gal I think.
We have a whole house propane generator that uses about 3 gallons a day. It is hooked directly into the line from the 250 gallon tank to the furnace and hot water tank. Ours has an automatic starter on it that if we are without electricity for two minutes, the generator starts up and doesn't shut off until the electricity has come back on and has leveled out. That is sure better than having to run outside in the dead of winter to start it.
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We already do have a propane tank hooked up, the heat is propane. But yes I did wonder how much propane I would be using to run the generator during peak times. Last time we had the tank filled it was $2 a gal I think.
I have a propane generator for the whole house (20kva). In about 5 hours it will burn 10% of a 250 gallon tank. At that rate you will need to refill it once a month. I don't know what you pay for electricity but it is less than that. If you save 30% to 40% it will be about the same. I would go for it because if the power goes out it will be worth it. I payed $7,000 for mine and the insulation included with a 250 gallon tank.
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Are you sure the generator they will put in will run your A/C unit along with other house elec appliances? It seems that that would take a whole lot of propane to do that. We have the whole house generator. We have it set up to run what we want it to run when we want it to run it. by switching circuits, w we can use it for the downstairs or upstairs separately or run the freezers for a while then the washing machine. We won't ever run everything at once with it. Those are the kinds of questions I would be asking your power company.
I guess it really doesn't matter if you were planning to put your own generator in anyway. I'd still do the math on it.
The specs for a 20kw Generac show 2.9gal/hr for full load. If you assume full load when they are running it, you get 46hrs, 133gallons of LP, or $267/year in fuel costs.
How much is your electric bill? The 25% savings breaks even with an average $89/month electric bill, assuming the $2/gal and 46hrs/year are correct.
Is this a grid tie generator? Are they adding small spot generation capacity, or do they just want you to run your A/C from the generator?
If you use 5years depreciation, then you're spending $1,000/year in addition to the fuel. In that case, your electric bill would have to be $422 to break even. In straight financial calculations, it doesn't make sense. If you want your own backup power supply, then its a decent deal, especially if they only want you to only power your own house when they call for it.
Our Coop doesn't offer a program like this. For peace of mind, I snatch it up in a heartbeat.
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Originally Posted by luvrulz
$5,000 for a generator is horribly expensive. Can you get into the program w/o their generator...? Steep. Very steep.....
You apparently haven't priced whole house generators lately. I did a quick search. The cheapest 20 KWH I found was $4800, but the auto transfer switch was an additional $700.00. Generac 22 KW began at $8,000. So depending on brand, $5000 including the transfer switch and installation is a great deal.
We are pretty happy with our electric co-op and I would be inclined to at least consider such a deal if they offered it but I would have concerns over allowing someone else control my generator or hot water tank and the propane costs dont seem to be going down so you could end up paying more per month.
My highest electric bill during the summer with central AC and keeping the 1600sq ft house at 72º was $111.00 so it would take some time to recoup your investment.
Then again, a whole house generator would be nice. We have a portable generator we manually hook up through a transfer switch and we live in an area where power was out for 2 weeks a couple years ago after an ice storm.
Sounds like your cooperative is close to peak demand in the summer and are trying to offset some power usage. If this is the case the big question, for the board pencil pushers, is how much are your rates going up if they exceed peak demand.
Yep your coop needs help with 'load shaving'.........meaning they are pretty well maxed out when all the AC units are running.
That is not an expensive price tag for the gen and necessary components needed . . .. .. remember they can start it from their office (on a hot summer day)
Yes it is expensive compared to the big box store $299.95 junk.
You gotta know that the utility pencil pushers have done a lot of figuring for this deal so that they DO NOT lose . . . . .For you, you will be getting a good quality gen. that should go well for quite some time.
Thanks for all the info, I imagine we are going to go ahead & plan on getting the generator. We already planned on the purchase, because any major storm will leave us with 2 weeks of no power on average. No the math on running it for 2 weeks straight is awful! I am sure if we were with out power for 2 whole weeks we would run it for a few hours at a time & not let it run non-stop.
We will probally not purchase the unit until the fall, that will give us a couple of months of seeing where our utilities are running, and we would have the generator in place in time for an ice storms.
Our long term plan is to have our house powered mostly on wind, but that is still out of our reach right now.
I'd like to have a whole house generator and if they are including all the installation with that price, I think it is a great deal.
I really like the 25% reduction in the power bill. How long is that reduction guaranteed?
Co-ops are usually non-profit, so the price is probably the best they can do with a bulk purchase. It's probably better than you can do on your own.
I would listen for the generator and turn everything I could off when the generator runs. Then you won't use so much propane. Maybe even change from whole house air conditioning to a window unit for a few hours at peak use time.
You will really enjoy that whole house generator when there are winter storms and the power is off for days.
All the local propane companies around here will give a free tank delivery and set up as long as you purchase all your propane from them. Then there is a small monthly tank rental fee.
riddle me this fuel cell takes the H and combines it with O and where does the N(most of air being sucked in) and C go? must we dismantle them and clean carbon deposits?
but cool 3k to power my home heck i'll pay 10k .. with a 30 year warentee backed with a solid company and inclusive of labor and parts.. now how to make and harvest methane comfortably?
