power out, backup generator, propane/gas/diesel

[Jed Eckert]

I think there's some pretty handy people on this forum. We live in a place where the power goes out for up to a week at a time. No its not a third world country, but its starting to look like that. But we're here... Looking for a house generator that goes on automatically when the power cuts out. Anyone have experience with this?
Propane: easy delivery of propane, cheaper generator to buy, but I am not sure how long these generators are expected to last.
Diesel:expensive to buy, supposedly pretty efficient, more difficult fuel delivery. But my truck runs on it too, which is good.

If propane generators last many years and could run for a week, it looks like the cheapest option.
Thoughts?
Thanks in advance

 

[keithcandler]

Generac is the way to go. Automatic sensor starts generator when needed. This kind of option with great life on the engine and components is not cheap, but it is reliable.

Houses on the lake in our area are remote in places. I checked with the electric and gas companies for referral and reliability. I also called their referral on repairs, and they are not frequent. Often Squirrels, dirt dobblers, fire ants get into electronics and are the most often cause of a repair.

 

[keithcandler]

https://www.electricgeneratorsdirec...8a229ac02d944c0&utm_content=Generac Generator

 

[CVCOBRA1]

Don't forget to price in a disconnect. When your generator kicks in you don't want the electricity to backfeed into your main power line. Linemen don't like working on lines with juice in them thinking they are dead.

 

[26Reload]

My brother once wired a house for power outages...way out in the country....
None of the electric lines from power company were hooked up to the generator...all generator specific plugs were so marked and were readily accessible to all appliances in the kitchen and select throughout the house for specific lighting and a specific for a water pump from the holding tank to serve water to the kitchen and bathrooms......
I believe the generator was propane.....
And of course not all power was to be used fully at one time...still gotta be wise to conserve power use from a generator....
I once had power out with an elk in the freezer....
5 days without power...getting to close for comfort...
Purchased a Yamaha 2000 gas inverter....built a plug in wire to the generator and an outlet for outside of house....
Installed three plugins inside house...one near freezer two in living room....charged phones and ran tv with DVDs...man can only live without tv so long.......
Powerlines were cleared and reset 4 days later.....

 

[KyCarl]

My best friend in Tampa has one. His wife a nurse worked midnight's and needed the AC to sleep and the freezers too! Hurricanes! Theirs is wired in and self starts runs on propane. It's pretty slick!

 

[Mercracing]

We will likely be getting one this spring. A NG one since that's what we have at the house. A whole home probably isn't in the cards but a mostly whole home one will be. Generac for sure.

 

[Buck3]

One thing to watch out for is the fuel burn, my in laws have a generac wired into the house on a automatic transfer switch. They started to use a honda 3,000 watt and extension cords, because of how much propane it used.

Other then that as long as it was set to test run once a week it was fine. If you turned it off the battery was always dead when you needed it.

 

[KyCarl]

They use fuel! My friend has a big tank. I think it's 500 Gal.?
Not grill size or those 100 pound ones. A big horizontal one. This is out behind the garage.

 

[Antonio m]

I installed one for a neighbor, primarily to activate sump pumps during power outages and high water times. It was natural gas fired.I recall it was costly.
The only one I had ever seen, it activated on power outage

 

[Highvoltage]

I am a lineman for a living, propane/natural gas is the best bet but they use a tremendous amount of fuel. My advice is to run for a few hrs and turn off. Continue this method. People freak about freezers and fridges when the power is out. Food will last for days if you don't continue to look in them and let the cold air out. They have an automatic transfer switch so when the power is off they automatically switch over. Lineman don't care about generators because we ground primary voltage lines before handling them to eliminate differences in potential. Best wishes...

 

[flashhole]

I went with a Generac portable that runs on gasoline. I set up a simple feed to my main breaker box and use a 50 ft cable to keep it away from the house. I set it on a pallet and can carry it anywhere on the farm with my tractor. 10K watts runs my entire house including the well. There are some good gasoline stabilizers on the market that enable long term fuel storage.

 

[Rhino Hunter]

My dad will be 80 in January and lives by himself in a cabin in the woods in Michigan's U.P. He's about 1-1/2 miles from the nearest dirt road. He does have electricity but when it goes out he's one of the last ones for it to go back on. He has a large back up generator that I believe is gas powered. He starts it and the plugs it into a large outlet that he wired into the garage, and it'll power everything he has. He's got a little Grizzly Adams in him.

 

[CUTTER1]

Buy a commercial Gererac (not the air cooled home units) and never look back. I have never lived in a house that I didn't have a backup generator! The cell phone towers around the country have more commercial Generac generators than all other brands combined!
Propane is very clean and not hard on motors! My main house is in mountainous country and a generator is a must! I have a 500 gal header tank connected to the large storage tank I use for the house and out buildings. 42kw is about 30% bigger than I need but makes it very efficient at lower power demands.