Portable Generators

[Take Down Sicko]

Like I said earlier, I have a Ford 11000 watt that works great in an outage. The biggest reason I got a generator is because my wife is on oxygen 24/7. Yes she has the portable cylinders but they are only good for a couple of hours and really too heavy for her to carry around the house. Now, just a couple of months ago, we went with the Indogen that has a rechargeable portable. But it’s only good for 2.5 hours a battery. With the time we were without power along with the large area that had no power, we had nowhere else to go.
We also had just stocked our freezers with a side of beef and a whole hog. I am too old to unload all of that meat into oh, my pickup bed and then back again.
Plus, I was able to pull a cord to my neighbors house and give them heat

Have you had any issues with the Ford generator? I see one advertised at Home Dopey model FG1105OPBE for $1,184.00 thats gas and liquid propane that looks like a pretty good option. How many hours do you have on it if i may ask?

Sorry, I just saw this. No we have not had any issues at all. I have 130 hours on it and have changed the oil once.

Its ok...All is well. I bought a Westinghouse Wgen9500DF a couple of months ago. Haven't had to use it yet. I filled it with oil and ran it for about 15 minutes just to try it out. Everything works just fine.

[RPBrown]

I finally got a generator delivered today. Westinghouse wgen9500df. It runs great on LPG. Havent tried it with gas yet.I bought a can of LPG, two 5 gallon gas cans and stybil additive.Still need a few 10 gauge cords and a few more things.

After the freeze, I installed small shed close to my panel to put the generator and installed a manual transfer switch kit (about $350.00 at Home Depot). I also bought a double tank connection kit so I could have 2 propane tanks. The only down sid is I have to remember to start it every couple of weeks to keep the battery charged.

[ScottDLS]

The wife and I have "completed" our Portable Generator connection project. We used a local electrician.
We started our contacts with the electrician in late April and completed all aspects of the project over last weekend. (It rained a lot in May and the breaker box is on the outside.)

Our starting point was a small 3800 Watt generator that my son and I had used at a deer camp.
It powered the entire camp including bunk house heaters when it was cold and an RV Air Conditioner when it was hot.

When I started looking for an Interlock kit for my breaker box. I discovered that my FPE breaker box was noted for failing breakers and the associated 'issues' that occur when breakers fail to do their job. We decided to replace the box with a Square D box. Replacing the breaker box escalated the project to include Center Point, Permits and inspectors from City of Houston, as well as an electrician. We ended up replacing the Meter housing and weather head to pass inspection.

I 'think' I have the skills to do the generator connection part of this project but since the electrician was here anyway...

Minimum requirements
-an Interlock kit https://www.amazon.com/s?k=interlock+ki ... doa-p_3_13
- a power inlet box
- a 220volt breaker for the box

If you can SAFELY change out a breaker at your mom's house, the interlock kit and power inlet could be a DIY project.

3800 watts is too small to power the Oven, Stove, or Central Air Conditioner (Clothes dryer is gas)
When the power goes off:
- drag out the generator
- turn off the main breaker
- turn off all the 220Volt breakers
- Connect up the generator and start it up
- inform the spouse, Don't use the hair dryer or the microwave.
- when the generators tank is full we have about 7 or 8 hours of power.

We got a real test last Friday night (Less than a week after the electrician finished). A Center Point transformer blew. The first thing I did was to run to the panel and check for smoke, etc. The transformer one house over was smoking.
When the power was still off Saturday morning, I connected the generator for the first time. By lunch time the power was back on. Saturday afternoon, we bought a room AC for the Master bedroom.

The house electricity is not ready for TEOTWAWKI but it is ready for the normal interruptions of service caused by Transformers, Hurricanes, and Ice Storms. A couple of hours up to a couple of weeks.

I have been looking at doing exactly the same setup as you have for use with my 8000watt PowerLand generator. It's a tri-fuel...LP, NG, or gasoline. My gas service and breaker panel are both outside on the same side of the house. 8KW would likely run everything 120v in my house. I have gas heat and also a window AC backup for our bedroom. My central A/C is two 4 ton units, so no way on that without at least a 20KW unit. On the side I'm looking at military surplus diesel primary power generators (MEP-1050 or MEP-804) 15KW units. These are made for full time power and long periods of time. Diesel keeps longer than gasoline and you could theoretically keep a few drums of it around for the zombie apocalypse .

[tomneal]

I live 2 blocks outside the 610 loop in Houston. I don't think our house would withstand the zombie apocalypse. I have more modest goals.

[howdy]

I bought a Firman Tri Power 9400 watt generator (Costco on sale $799). It will run on gas, propane or natural gas. I had an electrician wire my house and a plumber hook up the quick connect natural gas fitting. Total expenditure of around $1400. I have 7 20# propane tanks that I collected every time someone throws away an old BBQ pit. Sam's has a swap out that does not involve any employee contact. I also have a 450 watt generator that I used during the freeze. It kept my refrigerators cold, powered a small heater and would power a coffee pot or small microwave. You must have spare oil. My small generator shut down after about 25 hours of continuous running. It was low on oil. If you have to run a generator for a week you will need several quarts of oil.

[ScottDLS]

I live 2 blocks outside the 610 loop in Houston. I don't think our house would withstand the zombie apocalypse. I have more modest goals.

Yeah that's definitely major surge path for hordes of the (un)dead. It would be better to be farther up toward Conroe or maybe even a little South of Huntsville, some miles off of I-45. Zombie migration patterns typically follow interstates...

[philip964]

https://freebeacon.com/energy/not-just- ... enerators/

Get them while you can.

New Brandon rule would outlaw 95% of portable gas generators.

[Grayling813]

https://freebeacon.com/energy/not-just- ... enerators/

Get them while you can.

New Brandon rule would outlaw 95% of portable gas generators.

Yet another push by the PTB to destroy the country.

[powerboatr]

we put a GENERLINK system and now have a 12,500 watt portable that will run on LP or gasoline
the generlink will allow up to 45 amps of 220 to be pushed to house main panel and is installed at the meter base under your current meter
our coop approves of this transfer switch

[Grayling813]

Reviewed this topic tonight as we sweat in the hot dark house. Supposed to get power back by 11:30pm. I get the feeling the wife is going to be conducive to discussing a generator purchase. The area her office is located had outage a couple of hours this afternoon, so she was really mad when we lost power at home.

[philip964]

This is probably one of the best threads on the forum.

Pretty much everything you need to know is here.

I saw the multi fuel generator at Costco.

I’m still not ready to go for it yet. Like my first gun, just can’t decide.

I’ll probably wait till they’re about to be outlawed and then have to pay a pretty penny.

[Mel]

We must mandate all back-up generators to be electric.......For the children of course!

[2farnorth]

After going 6 days without commercial power in the spring of 2020 we purchased a Generac 18kw natural gas unit. It will power the whole house as long as we don't operate the electric oven when both AC units are running. 2200Kw units were unavailable for the foreseeable future according to the dealer.

During the outage we operated with a portable 3300 watt generator. It was only enough to power the refrigerators(2), freezer, couple lights ,and a recharge station. No heat except for a gas log fire place. Had to put 4 +/- gal of gas in three times a day. Was sure glad I had it though. We would have lost a lot of food without it.

Our power line was the last one repaired due to access problems. They had to clear a path through the city park to the broken pole and the trees laying on the line Required removing some of the city's chain link fence and trees
Another big wind like that one would likely drop some more 100= foot trees onto the line again.

The only thing I would do different would be to shop the Generac installation. The cost was $12k. 1/3 of which was installation.

[powerboatr]

we finally got the 100 gallon propane tank MOVED to the front of the house and plumber for the westinghouse
so now we can stop storing gasoline and use the generator on propane.

funny part...since we got all the gear set up...power has stopped the flickering

[Rafe]

We must mandate all back-up generators to be electric.......For the children of course!

I've used CRISPR to genetically engineer hamsters so that they're the size of English Mastiffs. My heaviest comes in at 192 pounds. I've built five giant hamster wheels to their scale and have them in the backyard. Those suckers can generate a fair amount of electricity.

Oh. Wait. It's 105° today with no end in sight of the heat wave and no rain. Dang. Should have thought of that. How do you dispose of a 190-pound hamster that dies of heat stroke...

(I'd put a joker emoji here, but this heat is no joke. Is gettin' me worried.)