Anyone have a standby generator at the house?

[Steve H]

so why dont people get 220volt gens

Whole house generators are. Unless you are doing something sketchy.

 

[rc4u]

so i'm not the only wakes uo up at mid AM

 

[Steve H]

so i'm not the only wakes uo up at mid AM

Haha! Nope! I've been up since 2.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

During the Covid lock down the kids were doing their school finals online that involved all day and late into the evening of zoom interaction with the school.
Pow! Edison cut us off and we were dead in the water no electricity.

Our youngest rolled out the generator, plugged it in and was back in class in minutes.
This time over 30 hours the power company shut us off.

Wife nurse gets off a 12 hour all nighter shift at work, gets home, then does a serious 5 hour zoom meeting with her hospital. Reliable electricity is essential.



Public outcry has recently triggered fewer power company cut offs.

These Harbor Freight 3500s are another cheap way out. They burn about a pint of gasoline an hour. You can parallel two together with a Firman 50 amp outlet kit:

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

so i'm not the only wakes uo up at mid AM

We have a stack of Starbucks gift cards family and friends give us. Wife doesn't drink coffee so I use them.
Starbucks coffee is bitter tasting to me but the price is right, free.
A couple Starbucks locations open at 3 AM here and one is 24 hours.
So in the middle of the night the dog and I roll through.

I get a cappuccino.
Dog gets a Puppaccino:


A Cattaccino:

 

[chilerelleno]

I live on the Gulf Coast, and our area is one of the most lightning prone in North America, mix in tornadoes and hurricanes and you bet your arse I've a gen-set ready to takeover for emergencies.

 

[henriklehmann56]

I definitely should get one. Sometimes I work and the desktop pc turns off. That is emarasing

 

[retfr8flyr]

I live in VA and in my area we get outages frequently, so I have a 17KW propane powered, I have a 500 gal buried tank for the house heating, Generac generator set up to power most of my house during a power failure. I can't imagine living without it and highly recommend having backup power for your house.

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

I live in VA and in my area we get outages frequently, so I have a 17KW propane powered, I have a 500 gal buried tank for the house heating, Generac generator set up to power most of my house during a power failure. I can't imagine living without it and highly recommend having backup power for your house.

In California their is a bill moving through Sacramento to ban home generators.

 

[rc4u]

wow 17 thousand watt gen. ya got a good one , 24kw gets ya 200 amps in 120.

I live in VA and in my area we get outages frequently, so I have a 17KW propane powered, I have a 500 gal buried tank for the house heating, Generac generator set up to power most of my house during a power failure. I can't imagine living without it and highly recommend having backup power for your house.

 

[clifish]

I converted my generator to run on natural gas, no worries about bad gas in the carb. I got a tri-fuel conversion from US carburetor and it can be set up to run on gas, propane or natural gas.

Generator Conversion Kits to Propane and Natural Gas.

Generator conversion kits to propane, lp gas and natural gas for most gasoline generators and engines.

www.uscarb.com

 

[HalfSmoked]

For sure I have a gen system and a total in coming disconnect.
Safety first and no one gets hurt.

Warren

 

[Smoke-Chem BBQ]

In California their is a bill moving through Sacramento to ban home generators.

That seems dumb, even by California government standards.

 

[retfr8flyr]

I would believe anything coming from CA these days.

 

[SmokinAl]

We have A 22KW Generac, whole house generator & a 500 gallon propane tank buried in the yard. It was expensive but will run for a couple of weeks without refilling the propane tank.
Al

 

[HalfSmoked]

Dive Bar Casanova Thanks for the like I appreciate it.

Warren

 

[Dive Bar Casanova]

We have A 22KW Generac, whole house generator & a 500 gallon propane tank buried in the yard. It was expensive but will run for a couple of weeks without refilling the propane tank.
Al

Nice!

 

[martin1950]

I was "T n D" lineman in California back in the 80's. Our 1st thing to do on an outage was to patrol and listen for a jenny's running, then we would pulled their meters. We were tired of losing linemen to backfeed.

 

[SmokinAl]

I was "T n D" lineman in California back in the 80's. Our 1st thing to do on an outage was to patrol and listen for a jenny's running, then we would pulled their meters. We were tired of losing linemen to backfeed.

As soon as the electricity goes out, my generator waits about 5 seconds, then starts up & the transfer switch disconnects from the power grid. When the power comes back on, the transfer switch turns the generator turns off, and transfers back to the power grid.
Al

 

[Steve H]

As soon as the electricity goes out, my generator waits about 5 seconds, then starts up & the transfer switch disconnects from the power grid. When the power comes back on, the transfer switch turns the generator turns off, and transfers back to the power grid.
Al

Yup, that's how they're supposed to work. Some, however, don't want to pay for the pricy transfer gear. And do stupid things.