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I'd like our home to be able to be knocked offline for a few days to a week..... This is obviously not a long term solution, really just for the short term.
In doing some research, I see that well pumps draw a lot of power at startup and are 240v single phase which eliminates the cheaper nice Honda EU2000i generators (120v only). While we probably will only use 300 kw/h a month, the short period load will probably require a few thousand watts or more. With an otherwise low load (LED lights, newer fridge, propane fired furnace), what would be the most logical way to keep a house "online" for say 5 days?
The obvious, but perhaps not most efficient ,seems to be the Generac 8kw Guardian (about $2200) hooked up to propane which will burn something like 1 gallon of propane per hour (roughly $72 a day @ $3/gal).
Pros are that it's almost nearly hands off except for adding or changing oil.. This seems to be the #1 most popular standby generator out there, so that makes me feel good about it being relatively reliable . Con is inefficiency although it's not clear how much it'll burn under very low load levels (they advertise 1.5 gal/hour @ 50% load but I'll be at 10% most of the time). I believe this thing will start-up and test itself weekly. And automatically switch over during an outage.
There's a slightly smaller Generac and a slightly smaller Briggs, both less efficient and less popular and louder than the larger one, so I'm not sure those would be considered more suitable.
I'll add one thing.. my parents have the larger version of this and it has held up well. Ran for about 5 days straight with no problems.
Last edited by joe moving; 01-03-2014 at 09:20 AM..
The thing I don't like about those automatic generators like the Generac you're looking at is they're going to run 24/7 and you estimate $72 per day.
Personally, I prefer the stand-alone generators. You fire it up, get your water needs taken care of, let the fridge/freezer run for awhile then shut it down. No need to keep it running all the time, especially when you're asleep. This setup requires some manual intervention and a cache of gas but that doesn't bother me.
You can manually turn off the automatic standby generators if you wanted to. my thought is that i already have a supply of propane, a few hundred gallons that doesn't go bad either (although it'd have to be shared with the furnace if we are not burning wood).
I'd need a pretty big gasoline generator because it would need to be 240v.
"In doing some research, I see that well pumps draw a lot of power at startup and are 240v single phase which eliminates the cheaper nice Honda EU2000i generators (120v only). While we probably will only use 300 kw/h a month, the short period load will probably require a few thousand watts or more. With an otherwise low load (LED lights, newer fridge, propane fired furnace), what would be the most logical way to keep a house "online" for say 5 days?"
Cistern and standpipe. That way you can have 1000 gallons of water available without pumping. We have a cistern that I put in on the slope above the house. If power goes out there is still sufficient pressure to have the water run slowly out of faucets and flush the toilets. We could go two weeks on that amount of water without breaking a sweat.
With a cistern, you can then get a 5KW generator for once a week use to fill the cistern, and use the gas-sipping Honda the rest of the time.
I use a water windmill to pump water to two cisterns that are on higher ground than my house. When I turn on a faucet gravity provides pressure. This requires both sufficient wind and hilly terrain but it works very well if you have it. If you have wind but no hill a manual pump works if the power fails and jet pumps don't require much power. Cisterns are rather shallow.
I use no electricity to bring water into my house.
Have you thought about doing a Honda eu2000 parallel kit? It allows you to use 2 units (master and slave) to run 30amp 240v. So when you need to run "high power", you can use both units, but then shut down the other for the rest of the time. They are both quiet and are fairly miserly on fuel. You can also purchase conversions allowing them to run on propane.
I'm not saying it's the best solution, I'm just pointing it out as an option.
"In doing some research, I see that well pumps draw a lot of power at startup and are 240v single phase which eliminates the cheaper nice Honda EU2000i generators (120v only). While we probably will only use 300 kw/h a month, the short period load will probably require a few thousand watts or more. With an otherwise low load (LED lights, newer fridge, propane fired furnace), what would be the most logical way to keep a house "online" for say 5 days?"
Cistern and standpipe. That way you can have 1000 gallons of water available without pumping. We have a cistern that I put in on the slope above the house. If power goes out there is still sufficient pressure to have the water run slowly out of faucets and flush the toilets. We could go two weeks on that amount of water without breaking a sweat.
With a cistern, you can then get a 5KW generator for once a week use to fill the cistern, and use the gas-sipping Honda the rest of the time.
I used the same solution, though I installed a 2500 gallon cistern. Power or not, we can still flush the toilets or get tap water from the sinks. I have a 4400/5000w generator that will run either the well pump or the water heater, but not both, so I heat a tank of water, then kick on the well pump to take a shower and replenish the cistern at the same time. Heat is wood heat. Backup lighting is a couple Aladdin oil lamps and conventional wall hung oil lamps and candle sconces. My wife has commented that the comfort level of our house doesn't change when the power goes out.
For refrigerator/freezer, TV and computers I have a small camping generator that will run 4.5 hours on a gallon of gas. It also recharges the batteries in the travel trailer when I am off duck hunting.
The big generator has run perhaps 20 hours since I bought it in 1997 on a Harbor Freight closeout for $279. Installing the transfer switch cost more than the generator. Most of that time was one 5 day power outage, plus temp power while I was putting an addition on the barn. The little generator has seen more use, maybe 500 hours, mostly camping. It cost $149 on sale at Coastal Farm. The well pump keeps the cistern full with just a float valve, and a 1/2 hp booster pump on the cistern provides domestic water. With no head to suck, it's rated at 12 gpm.
The wood stove gets used all the time, every winter. We have a heat pump for backup heat, but it never runs in cold weather. I spent far more on energy efficient doors, windows and insulation than I spent on any of the above. On a sunny winter day, the south windows alone will heat the house, and you don't need to have lights on. Double cell honeycomb blinds more than double the energy efficiency of the windows at night.
My advice is to attend to the energy efficiency of the house, which will pay off in comfortable living every day, cooler in the summer, warmer in the winter, and easy to heat in adverse circumstances. Set it up so you don't need a generator except for a couple hours a day. Generators are noisy and expensive.
No, they're mostly underground and below the frost line. I've never seen a cistern above the ground. I know that northern Vermont is very cold but I can't imagine that the ground would freeze much below 48".
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