Portable Generators?

[crazypoohbear]

I am considering purchasing a portable generator (If I can find one in the northeast right now)
Does anyone have recomendations?
Someone at work told me he purchased one for $600.00 but paid another $600.00 to have an electrician hard wire it to the house.
Is this worth it?
I would want a gas one, but how long do the run for?
What utilities can I run off it?
How do I run them?
Do I use extenion cords?
Does the unit go outside or in the garage?
I don't want to be stuck for days again with out power
Thanks for any help.

[JanetMegan]

They can really range in price but you might need one a little bit more expensive if you can afford it, although the $600 wiring to the house sounds expensive...

Here's how mine works-

There is a special cord that runs from the electrical panel into the garage-when you need to run the generator you crank it up (OUTSIDE) and plug the cord into your electrical panel. Now it can't run everything. You can choose certain things to make it power for certain amounts of time-depending on the size of the unit. Mine holds 5 gallons of gas and will run for approx. 8 hours. So make sure you keep plenty of gas on hand in case of a bad storm. I try to keep 25 gallons on hand.

I have two different heat units in my house, electric and gas. It will run the gas unit (as in it just needs to run the starter and blower) but doesn't have enough juice to run the electric heat. For heat I would probably use the fireplace anyways. It would run the water heater, but not much else. I tend to run things like fridge, deep freezer, radio, lights.

I live in the sticks and power lines are above ground (used to be a dirt road until recently.) So if we have a storm it takes a LONG time for the power to come back on. This helps me feel a lot better about it...good luck but I think they can be a very good investment.

[disneymom15]

We have a 3000 watt generator that runs on gas. My husband wheels it to the back yard and runs extension cords thru the back door. We're able to run quite a bit with it (sump, fridge, water heater, furnace, and some lights). Ours is an EU3000 Honda, it's super quiet, (barely hear it run), I highly recommend it.

[disneymom15]

I'm going to send you a PM.

[thrillme]

I don't have a generator myself but...I have several friends that live in the Houston area who were affected for a week by "IKE".

Houston as huge as it is...they were without power for a week. WOW...some of my friends had generators and it really made life a LOT more comfortable. Fortunately that particular time we were "blessed" but a break in the heat which was great because gas was scarce.

If I lived around the coastal areas or in an area that could be without power for a time frame...I'd DEFINATELY invest in one.

Be sure if you keep gas on hand that you replace the gas ever so often...I'm not sure how long it lasts but I know gas can "seperate" after so many months.

[Ed]

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE.....

Be very careful when using portable generators! Every year in Florida, most often following a hurricane or bad tropical storm, we experience many deaths from the carbon monoxide created in the exhaust gasses. I'm amazed (and appalled!) at how many of those cases result from someone running the generator in their garage or enclosed porch because they were afraid that someone would steal it.

If you must rely on a portable generator (and I have first-hand experience with that!), keep the generator as far away from the house as possible, and use a long heavy-duty extension cord to the house. And install battery-powered carbon monoxide detectors in the house, one at a point close to where the extension cord enters the house (usually through a window or under a garage door) and one near sleeping areas. The more, the better!

Also, educate yourselves on the topic of carbon monoxide poisoning - click here (http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/coftsht.html).

Also be careful re-fueling gasoline powered units. Always let it cool down before refueling.

Portable generators address a very real need, but like many other tools, they can - - and WILL - - kill you if not used properly.

[Goofy4TheWorld]

Unfortunately, the most common way to power parts of a home using a portable generator is to backfeed power into your home’s main breaker box. This method is both dangerous and illegal. You could accidentally backfeed power onto a utility wire that a utility lineman thinks is dead, which could result in his/her death. I am no idiot, and realize that more than half of all generator connections are probably made this way, but it is still a bad idea.

If you want the convenience of using you home’s breaker box to select which circuits you want to operate on generator, it can be done both kinda-cheap and easy. Have an electrician install an “Interlock Kit” inside you breaker box, and you can safely and legally feed generator power throughout your house using your home’s existing wiring. All it takes to make it work is an Interlock Kit, an additional breaker placed inside your existing breaker box, and a new “feed” wire ran outside to the point where you want to plug the generator up. I would say that an electrician would be reasonable in charging $600 parts and labor for this job IF your breaker box is close to where the generator is going to be plugged up outside. Could be more if the distance if far away.

[garymacd]

If you have natural gas coming into your home, there are also natural gas powered generators available. We have them in some of our stations. They also have automatic switches that turn them on when power fails and shut them off when power is restored. That can be expensive, but if you run a business from your home, or have medical equipment that requires power, they are invaluable.

Many retailers including several of the big box stores that look after the "home" handyman and offer "lowe"-r prices offer complete standby generator setups complete with enclosures that can be anchored to the ground.

I, too, would like to ask that people be careful when using any fuel-fired appliance in or near their homes. It does not take long for carbon monoxide to build up in your home. There is now a push afoot in Ontario to mandate the use of CO alarms in every residence. They are a very good idea, regardless what some may say about false alarms. Ask any firefighter in the world, "Which would you rather go to: a false alarm or the real thing with an entire family dead from CO poisoning?"

I know the answer.

[DizneyRox]

The preferred way of doing this is with a generator transfer switch. An interlock kit is also OK in many places.

The transfer switch MUST BE RATED FOR YOUR HOUSE POWER SOURCE. So, if you have a 200 amp service coming to your house, you need a 200 AMP transfer switch. I just bought one for around $400 NOT INCLUDING INSTALLATION.

You will need/want an electrician to do the install. You're talking about a lot of power that can/will kill.

The transfer switch has three positions, main power (from the street), off, and generator. It is IMPOSSIBLE to backfeed the street wires with this setup.

And interlock kit in effect causes you to turn off the main breakers to your house and run off another breaker. That breaker must be rated for backfeeding, yada, yada, yada...

The size generator that you need really depends on what you NEED to power. You don't NEED to power all the circuits in your house. Good choices are furnace, stove, fridge, sump pump, well pump, and MAYBE a few lighting circuits. The above will certainly tap out a small 3000 kilowatt generator. Most homes would be better off with a 5500 or higher system. I'm getting a 14,000 and intend on running the entire house. A 14,000 is only about 70amps, but really more than enough.

I would go with a whole house generator that's natural gas/propane fed. Using gasoline will become a pain, not to mention, if it's bad enough that you need to run it for any length of time, chances are the gas stations nearby will be out and unable to replenish your supply. Natural gas would be the best option for most, unless it's not an option at all (for me it's not).

A whole house generator will increase the resale value of your home as well. Right now though, it's not a good time to be looking. Too many folks need them now, so you're bound to pay more than you need to.