TexasCHLforum.com

philip964 wrote: ↑Tue Mar 02, 2021 9:25 am https://www.fox26houston.com/news/diy-p ... on-of-cost

Whole house generator at a fraction of the cost.

12kw is NOT a whole house generator, unless you have a gas furnace, gas water heater, gas stove, gas dryer.... and in summer, with two AC units, you would need all of that just to run those alone....

mrvmax wrote: ↑Sun Feb 28, 2021 7:56 am This one looks promising, I need to find out if Texas New Mexico Power will allow them: https://www.homedepot.com/p/GenerLink-4 ... /301962200

This one is for 50 amps, so you would need a large generator with a 50 amp outlet Oran adapter to convert from a 14-50 plug to a 14-30 plug.

Pawpaw wrote: ↑Sat Feb 27, 2021 8:27 pm I stumbled across a video today that might help someone out.

I tried to get approval to trial one of these with one of the rural electric co-ops and their engineer wouldn’t even talk to me, though many others actually sell them theirselves. I am a State and local licensed Master Electrician and am on the city electrical board

One thing to remember is you will still be limited to a maximum of 30 amps (7200 watts) with this device and a portable generator, so you can run a well pump by itself, or a water heater all alone, snd you would have very little spare capacity to run anything else if one of those was in use.

mrvmax wrote: ↑Fri Feb 26, 2021 1:18 pm

TxRVer wrote: ↑Fri Feb 26, 2021 12:59 pm

mrvmax wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 11:19 pm

TxRVer wrote: ↑Wed Feb 24, 2021 1:42 pm I'm thinking the 22kw Generac at around $5000 is not a bad deal. Right now they have a deal for two extra years of warranty for a total of 7. Installation is shown to be $2000. Does anyone know if they ever have an installation special?

I got two quotes last year for a whole house propane gen and they were both at 12k installed. If you can get it for 7k that's a bargain.

Until I checked the other day, I was under the impression (from previous searches) a whole house generator would cost $10k. Have prices come down, or what?

If they have let me know, I checked when they were not particularly busy and checked with two different places (I actually requested quotes from two more local places but they did not answer me until several weeks later so I ignored them). I really never expected that much, I thought maybe $3500 for the gen and another 3k to install. Boy I was way off.

You weren’t that far off. If you see above, $5000 for gen and $2000 for install, you were only $500 low. On install, it really depends on where they can install the transfer switch and the run from the meter or disconnect to the panel. However, copper prices are skyrocketing again, as well as the cost of PVC electrical conduit, so I would expect a increase in installation costs soon if nor already.

puma guy wrote: ↑Sun Feb 21, 2021 12:45 pm I have my Generac XT8000E (8KW running/10KW starting) back fed to my breaker panel. We have a gas furnace in the central air unit w/ a 1HP fan motor that ran constantly and I it energized first. I had our entire 5 B/R house on it. Two refrigerators, two freezers, all rooms w/ led light bulbs (I still admonished everyone to turn off light when leaving a room), electric stove - used one large burner. Couldn't use the oven. I had two 1500W heaters running as well. The generator breaker tripped the first night about 2AM. I discovered what happened when I tripped all the panel breakers and turned them one on at a time until the gen tripped again. It was the very last 120 V breaker I energized that had a 2HP air compressor on the circuit. I leave it turned on and it leaked down and was trying to start. I just left that breaker tripped. I was surprised how long the gen ran between fill ups. It has a 7.5 gallon capacity, but I only fill it with 5 gallons of ethanol free stabilized gasoline in it.

You have conquered the challenge with smaller portable generators set up for temporary use. ‘Load balancing’ is necessary to not exceed the available wattage (amperage) of your gen set. Bringing individual circuits on one at a time will keep you from throwing a large surge to your generator and keep it from tripping. Large resistive element items like heaters, coffee makers, hair dryers, etc are the large current draw items that will cause you trouble when brought online.

It surprising how much of a house that can be kept operational with a portable generator during an outage. One thing that can really help during an outage as well as every day with your bill is to replace incandescent and CFL (curly-que) bulbs with LED. A 60 watt equivalent LED bulb uses only 8 watts compared to the 60 of the incandescent. Additionally, you can choose the color temperature, or Kelvin, the light emits. I like daylight (5k) for kitchens, utility and laundry rooms, and garages. 4K bright white for bathrooms and 3k for living/family rooms and bedrooms where a ‘warmer’ light is more my liking.

Chemist45 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 8:29 pm Carlson1 asked

Has anyone checked into or own a Generac Generator? I was wondering how elk they worked and what the cost might be for a small house.

I have a Generac 20KW that runs on propane. Its about 5 years old and has only been used a few hours here and there until this past week.
It does a self test every week and I have a 250 gal propane tank in the ground.
This past week, it ran from Monday morning until Wednesday at 5:30. It shut itself off twice when we got power back for short periods.
I got the automatic transfer switch, so I don't have to do a thing.
This generator was worth every dollar I paid for it.
5 years ago, Mrs Chemist gave me a little grief about the cost.
2 days ago she thanked me for buying it.

A whole-home auto start generator with a automatic transfer switch is optimum for situations like this snowmagedon. In Texas, it’s probably more likely it would be used during a power outage from a severe storm or tornado, If you have natural gas available, it’s even better than a propane model. A 22kw is enough to run most all electric homes. With natural gas you can go with a smaller unit. A smart transfer switch will prioritize your items in the home and take non-essential items off line if a higher priority item like water heater or heat strips need to be utilized.

A reputable electric contractor can evaluate your needs and properly size a unit for your home. Well worth the money if you can afford the initial expense.

Daddio-on-patio wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 7:45 pm

Take Down Sicko wrote: ↑Fri Feb 19, 2021 4:44 pm You guys are pros at this generator stuff. I wouldn't know how to wire up the home heating system to one. Is it hard to repair or replace the carb in one of those things?

You have options to connect to your fuse panel to run your home with a portable that are legal and within code. This is my method. Only thing he's missing is the interlock on the panel.

As a Master Electrician, I will only wire a back feed breaker if I install an interlock. I even have them in my panels. It’s just too easy to get out of sync if your tired in the middle of the night or in a hurry and end up forgetting to open the main breaker(s).

Personally, unless someone is a little savvy on electric, I prefer to install a transfer switch of some sort. Much simpler for the homeowner.