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So with a new 6 months of winter ahead of us and me as a new home owner i call to you fine folks of CD.
i have a 2 story colonial that i would like to buy a generator for with plans to tie it into my electrical panel. what should i be looking for in terms of size, strengths, etc for the generator and how difficult is it to wire into a transfer switch?
i dont need the whole house to work at every plug but i want to be able to run the major appliances, hvac and some outlets
You should call an electrician or stop by Home Depot or something. We don't know the amperage requirements for any of those systems, but if you want your HVAC to work when the power is out, it's going to be pretty hefty and you'll want to get a quote specific to you and your area.
I know a lot of people come in here looking to ballpark some numbers, but anything anyone else tells you is going to be off from your number, you should just cut to the chase and call an installer.
Are your talking Roll out garage Gasoline Backup generator? or Whole/Partial load NGas powered BU Gen?
He was actually pretty descriptive in that he wants it tied into his electrical panel (ie: not a "roll-out-garage" generator) and that he wants to only be able to run the essential appliances, ie: not the full load. However, there is still more information needed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Penga25
So with a new 6 months of winter ahead of us and me as a new home owner i call to you fine folks of CD.
i have a 2 story colonial that i would like to buy a generator for with plans to tie it into my electrical panel. what should i be looking for in terms of size, strengths, etc for the generator and how difficult is it to wire into a transfer switch?
i dont need the whole house to work at every plug but i want to be able to run the major appliances, hvac and some outlets
First you need to determine what it is you want to power and what the surge (startup) loads are and what the continuous loads are. A Kill-A-Watt is useful for this, but you can also find a lot of this information online. Once you have the total load in watts calculated you can begin sizing the unit. You mentioned wanting to power your central air unit, which is a very large load in and of itself, but you don't mention what kind of heat you have. If you have forced air oil, gas, or propane, you pretty much just need enough power to fire an igniter and run a blower which is not that energy intensive. If you have a boiler, you'll need to run pumps, which usually draw more power than a blower, but not too much. If by chance you have electric heat in the form of baseboards or mini-split units, good luck-you'll need a mini-nuke to handle those loads. How do you heat your water? Again, if it's via electricity that is very large load, as an electric stove would be. Resistance heating consumes A LOT of electricity.
What are the appliances you want to run, and also ask yourself (for example) "Do I really need to be able to run the dishwasher/microwave/washer/dryer during a power outage-even if it lasts a couple of days?" Obviously you'd want to run any refrigeration appliances, but these loads usually aren't too bad. My chest freezer draws less than 100W continuous. I run the following with my 7.8HP/4500W (Continuous) generator:
Fridge/freezer combo
Chest freezer
Two 1/4 HP sump pumps
Wood stove blower
Gas stovetop (the glowbar igniter in the oven is too much of a power hog)
Electric water heater (only one element and only by itself because its such a large load)
I don't run my TV off of the generator because it is not an inverter unit and I don't want to take any chances with the quality/stability of the power produced. Electronics are very sensitive to fluctuations in voltage and frequency whereas motors are not.
With regard to wiring it in yourself you'd better be well schooled in NEC for it to pass inspection-not saying it can't be done, you'll just need to do your homework. If the inspector isn't a total jerk he'll work with you. The easiest way to do it is with an interlock breaker like this one:
Basically it ensures that when the generator breaker is closed (ON) the mains power must be switched open (OFF) and vice versa, which prevents backfeeding to the grid. There's a lot more to this, but Google is your friend as are sites like smokstak.com that are dedicated to this sort of thing.
a 8KwH NGas Powered will run you about $2500 for the unit + about $2-2500 to be installed. Will support Probably 80-90% of your Normal Load,
What it will not do it: Run the AC Compressors, Run the Elec Dryer, Run a Electric Range/Oven or other big Amp 220v Items. If you need them you are going to need bigger unit.
So with a new 6 months of winter ahead of us and me as a new home owner i call to you fine folks of CD.
i have a 2 story colonial that i would like to buy a generator for with plans to tie it into my electrical panel. what should i be looking for in terms of size, strengths, etc for the generator and how difficult is it to wire into a transfer switch?
i dont need the whole house to work at every plug but i want to be able to run the major appliances, hvac and some outlets
Whatever you do, if you're not an experienced electrician do not try to install yourself.
Here is a good place to start for figuring out what size generator you want to buy.
I am no longer in the business so I have nothing to sell, just figure out what you need and get a qualified and preferably a licensed electrician to do the installation.
A friend of a buddy who helped somebody else is not a qualified installer.
thanks for the info so far. doing a little research it seems i will want somewhere around a 6-7000W generator and i do want this to be a roll-out but i (my FIL or a certified electrician, my FIL in convinced he knows all but i will deflect his help if i can help it) will be tying it into my electrical panel with the intent to run
Fridge/freezer combo x2
Chest freezer x2
Two 1/4 HP sump pumps
Gas stovetop
Gas water heater and furnace fan
thats really it, i dont need entertainment options just the essentials since i have 2 babies in the home too, i'm not too worried about summer outages and not being able to run my AC, the family can sweat a little
I DO want to be able to run my fios internet though... any issues there?
I DO want to be able to run my fios internet though... any issues there?
Yes, that depends entirely on how large the outage is. If it's just your house, the local switches will be able to send the signal out. If it's your town or neighborhood you can't be certain it will work. That's a system "by others" and you have no hope of knowing what they're running on their local backup power. They may only shunt power to the phone side of things and not run their internet.
Either way you'll want their backup battery plugged into your generator system if the outage lasts a few days.
Also, consider adding your sump pump. Hurricanes have a bad habit of bringing rain with their power outages.
thanks for the info so far. doing a little research it seems i will want somewhere around a 6-7000W generator and i do want this to be a roll-out but i (my FIL or a certified electrician, my FIL in convinced he knows all but i will deflect his help if i can help it) will be tying it into my electrical panel
Then basically what you need is this:
The inlet plug on the house is connected to the breaker panel via appropriately sized four wire cable. The cable is connected to the box via a generator breaker (30-50 amps depending on the rated output of the generator and/or NEC). The breaker is regulated by an interlock that only allows it to be closed when mains power is turned off. The inlet plug is a male end which serves two purposes, first so that no one tries to plug a 220V appliance like a welder into it, and second, so that the house end of your generator cord has a safe female end, rather than a "suicide cord" (male plug end which would be extremely dangerous when energized while not connected). When the power goes out, you do the following:
Turn off main breaker
Move interlock
Turn on generator breaker
Switch off all other circuits
Roll out generator
Connect generator to house
Start generator
Begin switching on needed circuits one at a time paying attention to the load
Quote:
Originally Posted by Penga25
Fridge/freezer combo x2
Chest freezer x2
Two 1/4 HP sump pumps
Gas stovetop
Gas water heater and furnace fan
thats really it, i dont need entertainment options just the essentials since i have 2 babies in the home too, i'm not too worried about summer outages and not being able to run my AC, the family can sweat a little
I'm going to guess you would be fine with 6000W tops, but you'll need to verify. Also pay careful attention to the generator rating-surge vs. continuous and make sure you're getting something that can handle your continuous load. As I said before, I'm running a very similar load with 4800W continuous with no issue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Penga25
I DO want to be able to run my fios internet though... any issues there?
I've run my modem/router off of the generator because if they were to get fried they're not that expensive to replace. My 60" flat panel on the other hand, not so much That said, I've never had a problem thus far. I charge my phone via the car and have thought about getting a small inverter so that I can charge the laptop from it as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jaymoney
Yes, that depends entirely on how large the outage is. If it's just your house, the local switches will be able to send the signal out. If it's your town or neighborhood you can't be certain it will work. That's a system "by others" and you have no hope of knowing what they're running on their local backup power. They may only shunt power to the phone side of things and not run their internet.
I have copper line DSL and only lost the internet very briefly during Sandy even though power was down for seven days. Never lost the internet any other time, but again, that's regular old telephone lines, not fiber.
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That said, I've never had a problem thus far. I charge my phone via the car and have thought about getting a small inverter so that I can charge the laptop from it as well.
