generator question 3200 v. 6000 watt.....

If I was willing to invest the $$ I am sure that I would be very contented with some of these aformentioned systems, but as it is I am satified with mine. I only use it a few days a year when a hurricane passes thru or when I need to run a power tool at a remote site. It is a cheap coleman 3000 watt (surge) and it will run my fridge and freezer and a few lights or fans. A gallon of gas will run about 4 hrs, I usually run it a few hrs in the morning and a few in the evening to keep my food from spoiling which is my primary concern. If one needs more power for comfort or nessessity I am all for buying all you can. Since my needs are simple, and gas hard to get after a hurricane it works well for me and doesn't break the bank. After Gustov we were without power for a week and my freezer stayed frozen and fridge cold for about 20 gallons of gas. In contrast a relative of a friend has a propane fueled Generator to power his entire house and shop as well as neighbors and his comfort cost him $1100 in fuel for roughly 10-12 days of comfort. He can afford it and was not put out by the expense of installation or operation and I'm sure he is as pleased with his setup as I am mine. The whole point of this long post is that as long as person is acheiving what they need to, it is not nessessary to spend enough to buy a small car. I do not, BTW, expect it to power everything at my house indefinately at my normal day to day comfort level. My 2 cents (or less).

I read all the generator threads with interest, but now I have a no nonsense question.

Here is my situation and I'm looking for a recommendation:
I live in a flood zone, river edge on a tidally influenced river in Norfolk. We get pass bys on hurricanes. During Isabel, we got a hit and were out of power where I live for 2 weeks. My house was built after Isabel, but if Isabel came again, my garage and bottom floor would get some temporary flooding.

I have lighting (solar, windup, kero, oil, candles) set. All I would need is something to keep the refrig and freezer going for long enough to use it all and chargers for phones. Maybe a fan since it will surely be over 100 and 99% humid too. I don't want to store a bunch of gas here. Minimal amounts.

What, specifically, would you recommend for a generator? I don't want to spend a fortune for what amounts to a few hundred bucks worth of stuff in the freezer and I could charge my phone in my car. There are just so many but some reviews say that they quit after just a few hours of use.

Thanks for any info!

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Christy
Growing Human
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dh did our research....we are almost 60 years old and have never owned a generator before......but we were without power over 5 days with the late January 2009 ice storm and we have since reconsidered that idea. We borrowed a generator, a noisy one at that, for those 5 days. Last month we bought a new Honda 3000 watt inverter home generator. We paid about $2000 for it from a Honda dealer.

http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/p...erteradvantage

all we intend to hook up to it when the power goes out is a 10 cf freezer, a 15 cf freezer, our refrigerator, the computers and our battery chargers.

Countryside Magazine has two articles on home generators in the May/June 2009 issue.

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..............how much are you willing too spend ? Say you've got $7500 , you could purchase a 11kw Kubota diesel for $6100 . Transfer switch wired for auto changeover would run about 500 to 700 , then a 200 gallon diesel tank figure another 200 to 400 . Diesel if treated will last for up to 3 years with no problem .
.............Now , understand , you'd want a window unit in the main area's of the house as well as bedrooms . You don't run them ALL at the same time , run 3 or 4 in the rooms you frequent during the power outage ; the 11 kw unit will run several winow units , ceiling fans , water well , fridge\freezer and other small appliances ! Put the genset UP , above the water level , out of harms way and it'll sit there and provide power for weeks on end as long as you can provide diesel . , fordy

Fordy,

Uhhh, thanks for the very thorough answer but I think I'll go with a smaller unit that will just run my freezer for a week or so. I can deal with being uncomfortable, but I'm not paying a fortune for a home system in a house I'm selling in 1.5 years. New house is going to have solar and wind for backup.

I'm specificially looking for a reliable, but low wattage generator that I can forget about except to test run them twice a year, only may need in an emergency once in 5 years and can keep a single 10 gallon gas can for so my freezer goods don't go bad before we can grill them all.

Hot, sweaty...okay, maybe a floor fan since we'll all be sleeping in one room anyway. No AC units in windows at all. They'd just wind up on the ground in a hurricane anyway.

Thanks again, fordy.

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Christy
Growing Human
http://growinghuman.blogspot.com

When wearing narrow lenses of hate and ignorance, is it any wonder one finds it difficult to see clearly? - Me

We run our generator mainly to charge our battery bank, 5-7 hours per day. I put over 1700 hours of run time on a $400 Champion genny, and the only problem is the pullstart cord broke!

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I like your set of requirements. Realistic and simple. You don't need to spend thousands of dollars on a generator to save your food. It sounds like you have decided you don't need to run a whole house air conditioner and live like you still had power during the emergency.

I would agree with goatsareus. The Honda inverter generators are a very good choice. I would say you want to get as small a generator as you can get away with. The smaller the engine, the better the fuel economy. For the Honda inverter generators, just idleing takes .17gph, .07gph, and .7gph for the EU3000iSA, EU2000iA, and EU1000iA. People have said the generators start having problems at 2000+ hours of runtime. Thats almost 12 weeks of constant running.

I would say go with the EU2000iA. The fridge and freezer will run fine on that, and you'll have power left over for charging, lights, and maybe a small window airconditioner (5000btu). One weeks constant running will take 42 gallons at full load (1500watts). Just running with minimal load will take 12 gallons. You don't need to run the thing 24/7, however.

As long as you are willing to live with some extension cords running through the house, you don't even need a transfer switch. Some will argue that this isn't automated, but you've just saved $5000+ for a bit of inconvenience.

One suggestion I have is to put Stabil in your gas, and then store it in a light and air proof can. NOT plastic. A good screw top metal can is good. Take a look at this thread to find out about auxiliary tanks for the generator.

Michael

Forgot to mention Onan RV generators. We picked up a 4kw used and fairly old generator for about $300 a couple of years ago. 1800rpm, fairly quite, if I would fix the muffler correctly. 2 cylinder air cooled. One like it is on ebay now.

If you're willing to do a bit of checking, and get one of these working properly (if it doesn't come that way) you will have a decent generator. These things have remote start capabilities. Some are tri-fueled, so you could run on propane as well as gas. You can even add an autostart to them.

Michael

Here's an out of the box idea... Do you need a generator, or just enough power to run the water pump? How much power does the pump need? My suggestion is to get a UPS that is sized correctly to power the pump, and add enough batteries to get the run time you need.

If you find out what the max run time is, size the battery backup for that, then you can get away with a manual generator system. I was thinking about this, and was wondering how long the fire lasts in the boiler? You need the pump to run long enough to last between stokings.

I guess by now people can figure out where I stand on the money:convenience vs. cheap:manual intervention decision. Ok, last post to this thread for now...

Michael

Most of the big box stores sell 5500 watt with a surge at 8000watts. That is enough to basiclly run the whole house minus the hotwater heater and the a/c. I have mine wired into the main panel box for the house. When the power goes off I go outside turn the main disconect off.(this keeps it from backfeeding the grid, which could cause problems for the electric co. if they are working on the lines) I also turn off the breaker for the A/C and the hotwater heater. Then I crank up the genset. It will run my well pump and everything else in the house without a problem. If we find that the power is going to be off for an extended period I can trun off all the other breakers and turn on the hotwater heater for a few hrs to heat up the water to take a shower. This is an inexpensive system that would serve alot of peoples needs. JMHO