OT – recommendations wanted for purchasing a household emergency generator

Ron Beaufort

Lifetime Supporting Member
Join Date
Jul 2002
Location
Charleston, SC
Posts
5,701
Greetings to all ...

I've never owned or needed a household generator – but current conditions have convinced me that now's the time to buy one ... I'd appreciate it if anyone has any specific comments to share (pro or con) about any particular brand or type ...

what I have in mind is connecting the unit to my household refrigerator – and then running it just long enough to keep the temperature down low so that the food doesn't spoil ... specifically, I'm not worried about keeping the generator running constantly – just whenever the refrigerator's thermostat needs a cool-down cycle ... hopefully that will be something like one hour or so – maybe three or four times a day (but OK if it's more than that) ... and I have no desire to power up my whole house ...

ideally I want a portable unit that one or two men could transport in the bed of a pickup truck ... I have several nearby neighbors that I'd like to be able to help out in case of a power failure ... Charleston, SC is pretty much prone to hurricanes – and I've lived through several over the years ... in the past, losing the food in the family refrigerator has always been par for the course – you just deal with it ... but nowadays the question is becoming more about how difficult it's going to be to obtain replacement food supplies ... things are getting kind of hit-or-miss at the supermarkets lately ...

one of my neighbors has a Craftsman unit that he's had for 7 or 8 years – he says he's satisfied with it - so that's the way I'm leaning right now ...

I did a quick Google search for conversion kits to run a gasoline engine on propane – which I'm hoping someone might be able to comment on ... sounds like that might be a good option for some of the emergency situations that I've been thinking about lately ...

anyway ... thanks for any comments you might be able to offer ... stay safe – stay well ...
 
I have a Generac 3500 watt portable unit. I have a small auxiliary panel in my garage run to an outside receptacle to accept the twist lock plug cable from my generator. The panel has just a couple of circuits for use. Bought mine after we lost power for a week. I have used this for about 15 years now.
 
Depends on your needs - but as an old guy who doesn't do a lot of heavy lifting anymore I have a Honda EU2200i generator.

It only uses about a gallon of gas at a time and is about the size of a 5 gallon gas can. As far as generators go - it's pretty portable.

You can get parallel cables and buy a companion for it and run a 30A 120V outlet if you ever find yourself needing the extra power. There are also aftermarket siphon tanks for longer run times if you find the small gas tank too limiting.
 
I Have a Generac generator that powers about 3/4 of the house and kicks on automatically when the electric goes out. Worst part is that it runs on propane which is not cheap right now. The generator was installed when we bought the house.If if had nothng installed I would just buy a small portable generator to run a few things. I would just look for something with a Honda or Kohler engine. It nees to be dependable, you don't need it them often, but when you do, it better work
 
My city block is functionally a disaster area full-time now: about 80 people live in apartments here, and 40 more in tents, cars, and RVs.

My unhoused neighbors almost universally use gasoline-powered generators because they get their fuel by scavenging and siphon from parked cars. In a conventional disaster, there are going to be a lot more abandoned or unused cars then there will be backyard grills or diesel trucks.

They're well into the "beggars can't be choosers" market, and most of the generators are intentionally defaced. But Honda and Generac are probably the most common ones I recognize.

You would think that because many of the RVs are diesel powered that they'd choose that, but the economics of scavenged gasoline prevail because most of the RVs don't run at all. Several of the RVs clearly have the diesel gensets removed, with a Honda chained in their place.

Conversely at my shop we have a v10 Ford-based generator plumbed into the natural gas line with an excellent auto-transfer switch. Our common power outages are vehicle-versus-distribution-pole on the arterial up the hill, or animal-versus-powerline down here along the rail tracks. In the most likely disaster (earthquake) we would be out of NG, but that's not our use case.
 
I know that you want a portable solution, but consider a full house generator with automatic transfer switch.
After multiple power outages in our area, we have installed 16KW Generac full house generator. It can run everything, including AC.
Few things that I don’t like:
- starter runs on 12V car battery and you need to check it time to time, ours failed in 3 years. So this is clear a weakness and error code does not tell you that this is a dead battery.
- very noisy, don’t put near bedroom windows.
 
I know that you want a portable solution, but consider a full house generator with automatic transfer switch.
After multiple power outages in our area, we have installed 16KW Generac full house generator. It can run everything, including AC.
Few things that I don’t like:
- starter runs on 12V car battery and you need to check it time to time, ours failed in 3 years. So this is clear a weakness and error code does not tell you that this is a dead battery.
- very noisy, don’t put near bedroom windows.
The transfer switch is very important. This needs to be installed by an electrician. 16KW is definitely enough for a normal house. If you are doing this for a house then listen to Contr_conn. Contr_conn's issue with the battery is an issue. I prefer LiFePO4 battiers. They hold their charge better. Another option is have a solar panel that keeps the batteries topped off.

The other suggestions above are OK for campers. The Honda generator is very quiet but not practical for a house.



I writing this from my truck camper. It has has an automatic transfer switch that switches to my 2500W Propane powered Onan Generator. The generator will power the whole camper easily but it is noisy. The good thing is that propane runs cleaner than gas so there is no need for get a special non-alchohol gas or remember to run the carburetor dry when shutting down. I would definitely look in a generator that will run off of propane.


I have become interested in solar power since I have got my truck camper. If you are interested in solar power then look at the YouTube channel by Will Prowse.


@Ken, it is time to move to a red state. I am not going to stay where I am at now for long. Washington state was OK but not now.
Time to move on.
 
There are some decent dual fuel units out there and it would give you some options in trying times instead of looking to convert. I have looked into Duromax and they appear solid unless others have knowledge different than that. Another thing you might wish to look into are portable power stations. They have their detractors but I think they have come along way recently with multiple charging options and faster charge times than earlier models. Keeping a fridge running as you are suggesting seems easily possible with the right size. Please share what you end up deciding as I and I'm sure others are curious.
 
This spring, I outfitted my cottage (retirement home) with a 22kw Generac running off propane, soon to be natural gas. Plenty of power to run everything. The area suffers from outages because the "grid" is a single miles long feed to a small community surrounding a lake and power outages can easily last more than a couple of days. The unit was on order for about 9 months. Heard recently that lack of transfer switches/relays are holding up new installations. They are a mechanical break-before-make arrangement, very simple but I could see where they won't live for ever.
 
There are battery solutions as well. I built a 'powerwall' from a SOL-ARK inverter and batteries to ride through California PSPS programs. Outback makes another one.
 
Fortunately for me we're mostly hydropower in the Northwest and our distribution system is rugged, so my EV usually has as much range as my wife's gas car if we lose power.

And I've never had someone try to steal my catalytic converter or siphon my gas.

There will definitely be Tesla-siphons in the Blade Runner dystopia. We're doing our best to create that around Lake Union. :)
 
The transfer switch is very important. This needs to be installed by an electrician. 16KW is definitely enough for a normal house. If you are doing this for a house then listen to Contr_conn. Contr_conn's issue with the battery is an issue. I prefer LiFePO4 battiers.
Our generator was installed by the local licensed distributor and they do annual maintenance as well to keep 10 year factory warranty. They also brought licensed plumber to install natural gas line, and gas company installed larger meter and regulator for free.
The battery should be charged during weekly run - 5 minutes.
We also have a cold weather kit that is included oil and battery heaters.
 

Similar Topics

Greetings All, I recently decided to start freelancing in Controls and Automation part time, most of my experience has been with Rockwell...
Replies
2
Views
85
Hi PLC Gurus - I am new to the PLC programming and configuration world (coming into the space after several years in the energy management system...
Replies
1
Views
99
Hi all, I have been working on a project that requires me to measure the current across a 90 VDC motor of a medical device (similar to an...
Replies
26
Views
1,309
Hi Everyone, My company is about to have a meeting to sit down and talk about where we want to head with developing a SCADA and MES system...
Replies
8
Views
848
Have a project coming up which will use a tablet HMI in addition to the two fixed panels. Curious if anyone has a tablet/router/AccessPoint combo...
Replies
13
Views
1,372
Back
Top Bottom