Whole house generators (Orlando, Winter Park, Maitland: HOA, buy, high income)

[chiguy64]

Will be moving to Orlando area soon and working from home, worried about numerous power outages that would interrupt my work from home capabilities. Anyone work from home in Florida and has any suggestions for a generator?

[davephan]

We’re planning to get a whole house generator installed after we buy a home in Florida. It’s not just power needed for the Internet, it’s power needed for everything else, like your lights, refrigerator, freezer, and AC. If you’re on well water, you have no water during the electric outages. If you have a sump pump, that won’t work either, without electrical power, unless you have a battery backup or municipal water powered backup sump pump.

If the electrical outage is wide enough, your Internet provider might be down too. Maybe you could use a hot spot on your cellphone as a back up connection. A couple times when I telecommuted, my Internet service was down, and I had to use my hot spot connection using the cellphone.

If the Internet service provider isn’t reliable enough, you can buy a hardware device that you can feed multiple Internet providers, such as cable Internet and DSL. If one provider is down, the Internet connection seemlessly still works, and the connection has faster speed using multiple internet connections, but then you have to pay for multiple Internet service providers, which is expensive. My Internet service provider was reliable enough, so I didn’t have to go to that extreme to increase the reliability.

But the worst thing about remote working, is the right to work remotely can be taken away by clueless upper management who think that everyone ‘should’ be working from the office. The decision to reduce or end telecommuting might be based on office politics, rather than on solid business logic. If living in Florida is dependent on a remote high income job that is a thousand miles away, you need to have a financial buffer so you can survive financially for many months without income from that remote work, until you can replace that job with another remote job.

[MyITGuy]

I worked from home from Nov 2016 to Oct 2017 which included last years hurricanes and had no power outages, however I did have the portable generator on standby (with interlock kit) in the event it was needed.

As Dave mentioned though, when it comes time to use the generator, other services will likely be failing as well (Internet/Phone/Wireless).

If you still want to pursue it, Generac is widely advertised down here.

[robyncal]

This is good info to know as I will be telecommuting once I move this summer. Are their a selection of internet providers in the greater Olando area (looking at Winter Park, Maitland, Windermere area) Who is the best provider in your opinion?

[MyITGuy]

Originally Posted by robyncal

This is good info to know as I will be telecommuting once I move this summer. Are their a selection of internet providers in the greater Olando area (looking at Winter Park, Maitland, Windermere area) Who is the best provider in your opinion?

Thats a large area, so depending on your area it could be Spectrum/Comcast (Cable Company) or AT&T/Windstream (Phone Company) or FP&L Fiber (Whatever their new name is, not sure if they do residential though)

I personally have Spectrum and haven't had many issues, I went with them mainly due to the speed they offer (100Mbps down/10Mbps up IIRC), however if I could get 1Gbps (I'm serviced by Windstream, and their 1Gbps service isn't in our phase ) then I would consider switching....but then again I hear Spectrum is releasing new plans, so who knows...

[Tominftl]

Whole house generators need to have periodic service. My sister had one and it quit working because she neglected to keep it up....

[FreedomPenguin]

Originally Posted by Tominftl

Whole house generators need to have periodic service. My sister had one and it quit working because she neglected to keep it up....

yearly oil change and filter and plug. the kit cost 10 dollars for most generacs, should have valves adjusted every few years. I service my generator every 2 years, the guy charges me 80 bucks, he supplies all the materials and plug and oil. honestly, its no different than any other appliance, except that it will save your house if you need it

[motordavid]

Our western NC summer mtn home has had a Generac since day one, circa 2001.
Not as high tech as today's versions, but it runs better than my Rolex.

Once a year I change the oil/filter, every few years I have a good gen elec tech give it a once over/new batt.

Shop hard, compare models, (no one ever runs their house with every light/power user on at same time so biggest kWh may not be best), and it will save your bacon, literally and figuratively. Our remote mtn location means ours is on regularly, though the air cooled engine aspect means it will not run indefinitely without an auto shut down cooling period.

As a poster mentioned, when the c rap really hits the fan storm wise, the gen will cover your fannies, but other services may be suspect.
My 50Cts...
GL, mD

[davephan]

Originally Posted by motordavid

Our remote mtn location means ours is on regularly, though the air cooled engine aspect means it will not run indefinitely without an auto shut down cooling period.
GL, mD

That’s an interesting fact that I didn’t know about the air cooled electric generators. I didn’t know that the air cooled electric generator couldn’t run continuously, if they need to periodically cool down. I haven’t started researching which electric generator I will eventually purchase. I think that the liquid cooled electric generators cost significantly more than air cooled models, like double the cost. I thought the main difference was the liquid cooled electric generators are much quieter. An air cooled electric generator being noisy like an air cooled lawn tractor and the liquid cooled electric generator relatively quiet, like a car engine. I would want the electric generator to be able to run continuously for many days.

Another factor is the fuel source for the electric generator. Some homes we walked through in Florida had natural gas, others didn’t. Having natural gas available would eliminate the need for a large propane tank, and be would be an endless fuel source, as long as you could afford the natural gas bill, and if the natural gas flow isn’t stopped by the natural disaster that causing the major power outage event.

[motordavid]

^ Yes, our very old/lower tech Generac will do the auto shut down after ~ 8-9 hrs of being on, for ~30-45 mins, and then automatically come back on, if elec utility power is still off...our Mtn Home is frequently severely impacted by the 'arms' and remnants of many hurricanes, so we have had to live through 100+ mph winds and huge sideways rains on our 5,000 ft ridge, and have had to rely on our gen to run on/off for a few days, several times.

As to whether the current higher tech air cooled engines do that, I do not know.

A neighbor has an old diesel Generac, and that sumbi tch will run 24/7 forever, if he has enough diesel fuel.

Our 17+ yr old Gen runs on propane, as we have a 1000 gal 'submarine' tank nearly buried on side of long driveway.

Nat Gas would be the preferred fuel source, and some/many FL homes will have that option.

A propane tank may be a 'hard sell' or will have to pass muster in many HOA communities.

My point is our Gen runs very well, is really low maintenance, comes on/then shuts off seamlessly during our many power out hiccups at our very unsuburban mtn home location, and it is a strong consideration point for a full time FL homeowner, imo.

A whole house gen is not inexpensive, and requires some careful consideration and a good fuel source...a gas powered portable Honda gen will run most of 'what is needed' in smaller house, but the cans of gasoline being stored/ready is a consideration.

Not selling or pitching the brand or even the need for one; ours simply works well for our non-suburban mountain home situ, and a few full time neighbors here at our Escape Winter community have had gens installed lately, post Irma.
GL, mD