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I'd like to buy a generator to have for a potential power outage, mainly during a hurricane. I see several in Harbor Freight and I don't know how to choose one. I have looked at their 3500 Watt Super Quiet Inverter Generator and their 8750 Max Starting Watt Max Starting Gas Powered Generator. If I want to power a full-size kitchen refrigerator, a small box freezer, a portable room air conditioner and perhaps a stove at dinner time. Any thoughts or ideas to help me with this decision?
I've been pondering generators too. I want the one I buy to be backed by a local dealer for parts, repairs, warranty, ect..
Here in Venice, there's a Honda Power dealer called Southern Honda on Tamiami Trail (aka us41).
I saw on their web site that they sell a EU7000is that is the most powerful home back-up generator they sell, and you can even pair 2 of them together. I need to find out if they stock them, or if I have to order them. I'm guessing order, and wait a week to get it.
They are ~$4,500/each, so I wont likely buy 2 of them, just 1. I need to go by there and make sure they can do repairs, warranty work, and sell me parts, and determine lead time to acquire.
I also want to buy a wagon frame that will allow me to deploy it, and move it around myself w/o hurting myself trying to lift the darned thing. It must weight 100+ pounds. Also, need to find a way to lock it up when deployed outside so it doesn't get stolen in the middle of the night.
I'll also need Ten 5 gallon cans, and a syphon to safely remove the gas from a car into the cans after the gas in the cans is used up. I know to put stay-bil in the gas too, and after each Hurricane season ends, put the gas in the car so it wont go bad.
I saw some of those 5 gallon gas cans at a farm supply place, I think it was Tractor Supply.
This EU7000is wont run a home HVAC system, so I need to find a portable AC unit to cool 1 small bedroom. I wonder if Mitsubishi makes any that do not need to be vented to outside? I have not researched that yet. Anyone know?
I was also thinking of buying 3 dehumidifiers, one for each section of our home. Taking the moisture out of the air makes it feel cooler, and stops mold from growing. I already have several fans and plenty of outdoor 3 prong indoor/outdoor extension cords.
The EU7000is should burn 5 gallons/day, so my Ten gas cans lasts 10 days, then 10 gallons of gas from the car is another 2 days. I'd leave 8 gallons in the cars' gas tank to get me to Southern GA in case the electricty isn't restored by day 13, or the gas stations are not up and running with gas supplies by the 13th day. I also have a 2 gallon gas tank I keep filled for the lawnmower, so I'd take that along if I needed to bug out of here. The 8 gallons left in the car plus the 2 gallons in the smaller can gets me to Atlanta, where I have places to stay.
A few neighbors have the Generac whole house generators hooked up to their electrical panel in the garage, but I'm trying to avoid a $15,000 investment. I guess those run off natural gas??? How do we know if the natural gas lines will remain operational? If the storm is really bad, I'm thinking the utility company turns off the natural gas for safety's sake...no?
Portables are OK, but storing the portable and esp enough gasoline is a problem...
If one has nat gas line into home, a Generac/similar brand is the way to go, in my experience.
And, they are not "$15,000". We just had our 18 yr old low tech original Generac replaced, as it had done its job for those 18 yrs, here at our Mtn home.
The new replacement was $6Gs and 22Kw vs the ~12 Kw we had since day 1 at this house. Fwiw, our mtn house & gen runs on propane as we don't have gas.
We have not/will not do a gen at our EscapeWinter house as it is really part time and we did not elect the nat gas hookup...
No idea on cost to tie into nat gas if one's community has it, after the fact. And, a propane tank will probably not pass the ARC in most communities.
Not anti-portables, but they come with some hoops to jump through, though a whole house Gen requires nat or propane, but the cost of a Gen is not exorbitant; if I were living there full time I would have one. ~ A third of our community SFHs have them, esp post Irma.
GL, mD
I'd like to buy a generator to have for a potential power outage, mainly during a hurricane. I see several in Harbor Freight and I don't know how to choose one. I have looked at their 3500 Watt Super Quiet Inverter Generator and their 8750 Max Starting Watt Max Starting Gas Powered Generator. If I want to power a full-size kitchen refrigerator, a small box freezer, a portable room air conditioner and perhaps a stove at dinner time. Any thoughts or ideas to help me with this decision?
Neither of these portable generators would run an electric stove. Just an FYI, you can convert amperage to wattage by using the formula V x A = Watts. Electric stove 50a, 240v = 12,000watts.
2 friends just paid just under $15,000/each earlier this year for their Generac whole house generators here in the Venice area. That included the generator, the required cement pad they had to be installed upon, permits, wiring them up to the circuit board, and installing a switch that automaticaly turns on the generator if the homes electricity goes out, and installation labor for a licensed electrician. These homes are ~2,600 sq ft.. That is the cost here in Sarasota County Florida. How do they know the natural gas will work after a bad storm hits? Our HOA will not permit a propane tank to be burried in the ground here.
I just returned from South County Honda in Venice. They sell the EU7000is for $4,300, plus $35 delivery charge, plus tax. The unit weighs 260 pounds, so I'd just pay them to deliver it. It has 2 wheels on 1 side, and wheel barrow like handles on the opposite side to lift it up onto the wheels, so I could deploy it myself.
They have some on the shelf, along with various different smaller less costly ones, and the high Dollar larger commercial grade units. The EU7000is is the most powerful generator in their "run-quiet" residential series. He told me it would run everything in our home except the HVAC. I'd buy a portable AC unit for 1 small room, fans, and a dehumidifier to offset the loss of the HVAC system.
They provide parts, service, and warranty support. The warranty is 3 years, but he says they last a very long time, and require very little maintenance other than keeping the battery charged. They can install a battery trickle charge kit for $50 so you can plug it into an outlet in your garage. Even if the battery fails, it has a pull start chord like a lawnmower.
Sure, I'd have to pay sales tax if I buy it from this dealer versus the internet, but I want the after the sales support the dealer provides, so I'd likely buy from him (Shawn) and pay the sales tax to have that support. I have not had good luck getting ANY type service after the sale on the phone or via email on anything I've bought. I prefer face to face. I've also heard when you buy on the Internet, the units get damaged in transport, and you may not know it until its too late. I don't need that grief.
We have gas oven and cook tops, not electric. I'm going to keep a 2nd back-up propane tank for my outdoor gas grill so I can cook everything outside on the Lanai if we lost power.
I'm in a new area where the power lines are underground, and we didn't lose power during Irma, so that is a good sign. I realize Irma wasn't even a Hurricane when it hit Sarasota County, so spare me the lecture. Many around here did lose power durng Irma when tree limbs fell onto power lines. I realize a cat 4 or 5 direct hit is a whole other discussion, so again, spare me the lecture.
My Father has rode out several Cat 3's in Florida. He won't evacuate unless its a cat 4 or 5. Our home is rated at 160 mph, and is 8 miles inland with no large trees near the structure, so I'm taking his advice. Cat 3 I stay, Cat 4, or 5, I leave.
I'm leaning towards buying the Honda $4,300 unit w/ the trickle charger installed. I'll wait a few days to see what other posters have to say. This is my first Generator purchase, and I'm sure there are others out there who have been down this road before that I can learn from.
Used a portable gas generator for 7 days of power outage after Irma. Have a backup window AC unit which was just as important as the generator. Mostly lived in one area of the home that had the window AC unit, which was powered by the generator. Also plugged fridge and freezer and PCs into the generator. Was enough to get by after the storm and work from home during the power outage.
It was a hassle to head to the gas station to fill up gas cans approx every 1.5 days. Then fill up the generator with gas on a regular basis. Many people were at the gas stations filling up gas cans for generators.
Would rather deal with a propane (or nat'l gas) generator versus a gasoline generator, given the choice. But a gas portable generator was better than no generator. That's for sure. Was lucky that gasoline was available at some stations in the beginning. More and more stations had gasoline as the days passed.
We just installed a Generac generator in our home a few weeks ago. Also, a 500 gallon propane tank, since we do not have natural gas. We purchased the generator at Lowe's. It was $8,000 installed, including the cement pad, permits, connection to the electric panel, etc. If you have a Lowe's credit card, the generator is 24 months, same as cash. The propane tank was $4,000 installed and connected to the generator. So $12,000 total.
We had a portable Honda generator when we lived in South Florida. It sat on a cart so we could drag it outside to run it. The problem with it was it did not run the entire house. It ran the the refrigerator, the freezer in the garage, the lights and the ceiling fans. It did not run the AC, the stove or microwave. We had a portable AC that we could move from room to room and cheap $30 microwave for heating things up. You also need to invest in carbon monoxide detectors with this type of generator. They are also extremely noisy. The other major problem is storing the cans of gasoline. Do you want to keep them in the garage? Outside in the sun? On your property? We wound up storing them in our backyard under some bushes in the shade. The other major problem was refilling the gas cans and dealing with the long lines at the gas station and many gas stations running out of gas. Also, you will burn through all of your gasoline if you run the portable generator 24/7.
We had some pretty strong hurricanes in South Florida and were sometimes without power for several weeks, so we had to deal with constant trips to the gas station to refill the gas cans. It definitely was a pain!
We were without power for 4 days with Hurricane Irma. Now that we are older, it is more difficult to dealing with the portable generator, so we decided to have the Generac installed. Of course, since we now have the Generac, it is insurance that we'll never have another hurricane in this area again!
We thought about getting a generator but waited too late.
We called a motel near by LWR and stayed there for 3 days. They had back up generators when the power went out but power was only out a few times for less than an hour.
It wasn't that expensive, I think we paid about $90.00 a night for three of us. Two King beds, AC, satellite TV (not great) but was a lot better than staying in our house. Plus, they apparently allowed animals, a lot of people had cats and dogs.
We actually had fun and it made the three days go fast.
I'm afraid of spending all that money for the natural gas Generac, and then potentially have the natural gas supply cut off for safety reasons. If its a bad enough storm to do structural damage to homes and commercial buildings nearby, I'm sure the gas company would cut off the natural gas supply.
When we lived in South Florida, we were 9 blocks from the ocean. There was no way in he$$ that we were going to wait out a bad storm at home. We shuttered up the house and left. I don't care how well built your house is, a Cat. 2 or 3 can do major damage. We had a tree fall on our house in Katrina and lost our birdcage in Wilma, and they were only Cat. 1 storms when they hit Miami. But living with the aftermath of not having electricity for 1-3 weeks was very difficult given the heat and humidity, so we were very glad to have the portable generator.
The problem with evacuating to a hotel is that you never know when the storm is coming directly towards you until it is too late to do anything. Hurricane Andrew was not headed towards Miami, but Broward County. It turned at the last minute and South Dade became ground zero. The eye of the storm went through my neighborhood in Pinecrest, about a half hour north of Homestead, causing mass destruction. By the time we knew where the hurricane was headed, it was too late to get a hotel room anywhere. So you cannot count on that to save you when the power goes out.
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