When the lights go out...

[daveomak]

Supplying our neighbors with power, makes the sound of the generator disappear....

 

[JckDanls 07]

What about gas? I only use my generator 1-2 times per year. I was adding Seafoam additive but that only lasts so long. Right now I drain the gas when I'm done. I try to work out of 1- 6 gallon gas can for lawn mowers, chain saws etc.

Yes.. when I'm done with it I drain the gas out of the tank AND the carb.... leave everything open for a few days to evaporate and dry out.. put drain screw back in carb and put cap back on tank,, good to go 6 months later.. just add gas.. starts first pull...

As far as noise goes.. the DeWalt isn't all that loud.. has a Honda engine not the noisy Briggs....

As for propane... I had a motorhome with a propane genset.. never again.... It went through a tank of gas in less than 12 hrs...

 

[seenred]

About 7 years ago, we had a terrible ice storm here in N.E. Oklahoma.  We heard there were areas where people were without power for up to 3 weeks.  We were out for 10 days.  To make it worse, the temperature never got above 25* during the whole 10 days, and, wouldn't you know it, my house is all-electric with no fire place or wood stove.  We didn't have a generator at the time, so it was a rough couple of weeks.  I vowed we would never go through that again, so that spring I went to Home Depot and bought one.  We've never needed to use it yet, but it is a comfort to know its there when we do need it.

 

[michael ark]

One tip from the school of hard knocks. Is make sure to check the voltage before you send power to your house. My gen one year started makeing 558vac. It fried tv, wii,computer. Luck I caught it before it got the fridge. Make sure you chain up your gen when its running. Theifs around here will start a lawn mower and walk off with your gen.

 

[dcarch]

About 7 years ago, we had a terrible ice storm here in N.E. Oklahoma.  We heard there were areas where people were without power for up to 3 weeks.  We were out for 10 days.  To make it worse, the temperature never got above 25* during the whole 10 days, and, wouldn't you know it, my house is all-electric with no fire place or wood stove.  We didn't have a generator at the time, so it was a rough couple of weeks.  I vowed we would never go through that again, so that spring I went to Home Depot and bought one.  We've never needed to use it yet, but it is a comfort to know its there when we do need it.

Generators cannot not heat your house, if you have electric heat.

dcarch

 

[whittling chip]

Generators cannot not heat your house, if you have electric heat.

dcarch

Portable generators may not be able to heat a house. My 20KW can heat and cool my house with every light on, the dryer running and the oven on broiler. :) The only gas I have is the propane to run the generator.

WC

 

[dward51]

I have 3 generators.

The week after Y2K when the computers did not crash and plunge the world into darkness, Lowes had the 6500 watt Generac generators on sale for $225 to get rid of them.  They had two trailers full in the parking lot and had been selling them for $1,100 before Y2K (which was overpriced so it served them right being stuck with that inventory).  I bought that and one of the kerosene shop heaters also marked down to $70 from $150.  Figured might as well.

Only problem is it was a construction generator and would wake the dead when running.

In 2002 we bought a travel trailer and I dry camped at astronomy fields a lot so I ended up buying two of the Honda EU2000i inverter/generators which were the quietest on the market at the time.  Each output 1,800 watts continuous and was rated for 2,000 watts but you could use a parallel cord kit and combine the output.  The inverter of the 2nd generator would sync to the phase of the 1st one.  So combined I had 33.3 amps of 120v output to run a travel trailer who's main fuse was 30amps.  I could run everything in the trailer.

Ok, back on track with the story....

I found one Honda would run the freezer in the garage and the fridge in the kitchen and still have enough power to fire up the TV and DVD player with no problems.  As to the heat in the winter thing, my furnace is gas and my blower and control board draw about 6 amps at full load so I can use the 2nd Honda to power the furnace and the other freezer/fridge in the basement if it has food in it (it's the overflow fridge and does not always have stuff in it).  My furnace was straight wired into a junction box with romex.  I bought some 12 gauge SJ cable (which is overkill as the original romex was 14 gauge), replaced the romex and capped the junction box with a duplex outlet.  Just added a duplex plug on the end of the SJ cable and I can now unplug the furnace and plug it into a 12 gauge extension cord to the Honda in the yard (chained to my boat).  The Generac is my backup generator but I only run it every 6 months or so just the keep the fuel fresh.

Beauty of the Honda's is in eco-mode they will run about 11-13 hours on right at a gallon of gas each.  So a couple of 5 gallon gas jugs will keep me running quite a while.  Plus being as quiet as they are, more than about 75' away you can't even here them.

Biggest problem in an extended outage is there is no power at the gas station to pump the fuel (why they don't have a generator is beyond me as they could make a killing at supply and demand pricing).  So how do you store large quantities of gasoline?

Here is a tip.....  If we are expecting an ice storm, etc... I make sure to fill the truck and car gas tanks.  In a pinch they are my reserve fuel tanks.  I had to buy a long piece of clear hose to put on one end of my siphon as it was not long enough to go into the tanks.  I've had to dip into them one time since 2002 but it's nice to know you can if you need to.  If I had advance warning of a major storm I could also fill the boat tank for another 75 gallons giving me probably over 200 gallons between all the cars & trucks & boat and portable tanks.

Also *ALWAYS* put Stabil and Seafoam in the gas when it is pumped from the station into a portable tank unless you are certain you will be using it in the next 30 days.  If you have non-alcohol gas available, get that for your portable fuel tanks.  If you are stuck with E-10 like most of us are, make sure you have the blue colored Marine Stabil and not the red.  Also I rotate the fuel my portable tanks at least twice a year. It usually gets burned up in the lawn equipment, but properly treated with Stabil, gas will last 2 years.  Seafoam help reduce carbon formation and will remove any fuel gumming which may have started previously.  Ask anybody who runs marine outboards about this.

 

[whittling chip]

That's great info! Thanks for sharing.

WC