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Thanks for sharing this. I do now own a generator, but just copied and pasted this in an email to myslef to save for the next 25 years in case I ever need it!
I hope you have a good file archive system in place with backups to reference 25 years from now.
Do we really need heat here during an outage? I mean it'd be nice and all but I don't think it's a necessity.
Not to be that guy, but we had a week long power outage "up north" in the winter with no heat. We stayed in the house, it was cold - got down to 45 degrees in the house I think. It sucked, but we let a faucet drip and lit lots of candles and made the best of it.
I suppose if money is no issue then sure, but it seems crazy to me to spend that kind of dough for something so low risk.
My only anecdotal information for an extended power outage where heat would have been nice was the ice storm of Dec 2002. Power went out for a week, temp dropped to I think 37 inside my house in Durham (it was really cold after the storm). I had a pregnant wife and an almost 2 year old at the time. We spent days at my in-laws because they had gas logs to warm their living room (and their power came back on days before ours did). I don't think we lost any food as it was cold in the house and we cooked some stuff right away. We also weren't as dependent on electronics then as we are now.
Cheaper to go to friends house who has power, hotel, or just live with it for a few hours or days.
Not to argue, but that's not "cheap" if you loose everything in your fridge and (in my case) spare fridge and freezer. That alone could pay for a generator in one use.
Hotel is another expense that probably would pay for a generator in about 3-nights at a local Hampton Inn quality hotel. (Granted, the free breakfast offsets some of that. )
But I mostly agree with your point. Just in that a modest generator will cover the essentials. For MOST OF US, a whole-house solution is more than is needed. (And kudos to anyone who has it and enjoys it. I'm not judging. Just saying that to cover the basics, a $500-$750 generator will do that, will be cheaper than losing power for multiple days in terms of loss of food, as well as added expenses.)
We will be getting a whole house generator at the house we purchased in August. We are in a more rural area and have more power outages than the urban areas do, overall. Plus we are on a well, so no power = no water. I had not problem making it through the ice storm of 2002 because we had a wood burning fireplace and were on city water. I have a gas fireplace now, but the whole no water thing is a total PITA. We lived in the mountains for 3 years and had a whole house generator up there. Unfortunately, we also were on a shared well. We lost power regularly, sometimes for 24 hours, sometimes for a few days. The longest was 4 days after a 15" snowfall. I was able to melt snow on the stove and then put it in the tub so I could give the dogs water and put water in the sink to rinse dishes. Not having water is the biggest issue for me, though losing the food in my fridge and freezers would also be a big bummer.
The recent unfortunate events in Moore County have me rethinking my stance on generators in general.
My home is not serviced by a natural gas provider and Dominion quoted me $10k+ to run lines to the house if I am not able to find at least 2 other neighbors wanting natural gas AND to convert their HVAC or other major appliances to natural gas. Because of this, I previously determined that I would be better off (financially) letting food in the fridge and freezer go bad in the event of a winter weather extended outage rather than pay nearly $20k for natural gas lines, 14kw Generac standby generator, installation costs, etc.
It looks like I have the following options, I'd like to know your thoughts and/or experiences on them:
1. Cheapest -- 12,500 watt peak power generator for $1250, either run extension cords indoors or backfeed into 50A 240V outlet in garage (dangerous, trying to avoid this at all costs)
2. 12,500 watt peak power generator, have electrician install transfer switch and interlock etc (maybe $4000 total, not sure on exact costs)
3. Tesla powerwall or LG whole house battery backup for around $10-12k installed
I'm leaning towards option #2 but I'm not sure if this will be worth the costs and hassles involved. At the same time, my area frequently experiences short power outages during thunderstorms and was out for nearly 24 hours during the tropical storm earlier this year. A major winter weather event or a catastrophe like that in Moore County could have the neighborhood out of power for a week or more so I am definitely giving this some thought...
No need to backfeed (1.).
We went with 2.)
which is, as you mentioned, You could have an electrician install a transfer switch "aka, sub panel" next to your main breakers. AND WE DID THE FOLLOWING***Did not go the full, have standby geney installed on a slab, etc as you seem to mention here.
The electrician can, for a portable generator, install a large 120/or 240 plug on the side of your house near the breaker box, and you can then run a special heavy duty extension cord from the clothes dryer circular prongs-looking plug on the generator, into the special installed in-let plug on the side of your house. All geneys have this plug--- it's much larger than the duplex 3 prong 110 outlets on the generator that look like normal household outlets. This special plug is twist lock too. The special extension cord has these weird half circle shaped prongs on the female and male ends---House plug and geney plug in respectively. This gets rid of any need to run multiple extension cords into a door or window. And the sub panel takes those fed circuits you choose (fridge, microwave, HVAC, lights, TV/router, basement freezer, whatever) off the main service feed, so there's no chance of backfeeding the main powerline that runs into your house and injuring or killing line workers who are trying to restore the power. We just run a little 4500 watt putt putt portable generator into the transfer switch/subpanel and it powers our water pump well (we;re rural) and microwave and fridge and stuff. But you mentioned a much large 240 geney which totally works. More creature comforts. We have a basement so push comes to shove were down there if AC is out a long time in August, or HVAC furnace is out in Febriary. We can run a space heater off the small geney. It costs $$ to have a certified electrician install the sub panel but it was worth it for us.
Option 2 is the way to go. I put in a 12500 watt Champion, dual fuel unit about 6 months ago. If you are comfortable working with electricity, installing a transfer switch is not a difficult thing to do. If you go the electrician route, make sure to get several quotes....I had quotes for installing the transfer switch that were over 3k. (the switch itself was less than $600). I found a licensed electrician to do it for $500 labor and I furnished the switch.
I would actually do an interlock over a transfer switch, assuming you have the room in the panel. With a transfer switch you need to choose in advance which circuits you want to power. With an interlock, you can just turn them off and on as you want them.
It's also cheaper - it's literally a piece of metal and an additional breaker. It's a to-code way of backfeeding your existing breakers.
Those big generators use a LOT of fuel. I mean a LOT. If a hurricane hits and the power is out for a week, you may not be able to get fuel. Use one as means to get by
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