Thinking about putting in a whole house generator.

[CSORuger]

Our Sun has been very active with sun spots, that could erupt into Solor Flairs. If the flair erupt in the direction of the Earth and is a large flair it could take out the Electrical Grid.
Monster Sunspot To Unleash Powerful Solar Flares : Discovery News

So, last week we contacted a company to put in a whole house generator.
It would set outside and run on Natural Gas. Cost for a unit to run just the Essentials, frig. freezer, well, sump pump, medical unites in our home would run in cost about $4000. and one that would run everything including the AC/and heat (heat the home in winter) would run about $7000. We are thinking about the larger unit. Yearly maintenance would be about $150. To change the oil and check over, just like you would do on your furnace. Warranty on labor one year, equipment two years.

The system is called a Generac. 15x20 KW

15-20kW Home Standby Generators

I beleve we are doing the right think by spending this amount of funds.
What do you think? What type of system have you thought about or have?

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

If you have the money... Go for it.

If you can, look into a Tri-Fuel generator (Diesel, Propane, Natural Gas)

I'd love to at least have a NG generator for our home. Maybe one day...

 

[CSORuger]

If you have the money... Go for it.

If you can, look into a Tri-Fuel generator (Diesel, Propane, Natural Gas)

I'd love to at least have a NG generator for our home. Maybe one day...

The company that would put this in said, it could be retuned to propane, they feel that the natural gas is better, the unit comes with a pressure monitoring system, just in case the pressure drops it would adjust the out put. Will look into the system you posted, thanks.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

The company that would put this in said, it could be retuned to propane, they feel that the natural gas is better, the unit comes with a pressure monitoring system, just in case the pressure drops it would adjust the out put. Will look into the system you posted, thanks.

The tri-fuel systems don't need any conversion - that's the beauty of them.

If you had access to all 3 fuels at once, you could, if you wanted, switch operation between them all. I'm not sure, but that would probably also mean a temporary disruption in power supply while fuel is changed.

-J-

 

[eldirector]

We have been looking at a very similar generator for our place. We lose power now and then, sometimes for a few days, and my wife would like as little interruption as possible. Our plan is to only power essentials such as the fridge, freezer, well, sump, and one or two other circuits. Heat would be from a wood stove, and A/C is just a convenience for us.

The attractions for NG over some other fuels (like gas/diesel) is:
- our very stable NG supply (it is never once gone out for us or anyone in the neighborhood)
- No need to re-fuel ever X hours
- With auto-start and an auto-switch, my wife doesn't have to manually start/switch if she is home alone (actually, we don't even have to be home)
- all of our other appliances are gas (dryer, water heater, and furnace), so NG just seems logical right now.

That's my logic, anyway! It will be a while yet before we pull the trigger. Lots of other projects ahead of this one.

 

[jason867]

if we have a solar flare big enough to wipe out the eletrical grid, won't we have to worry about our homes electrical stuff too?

 

[HighStrung]

I would have put one of these types in if we were planning to stay in our current home much longer. Up until now we've got a 3500w gas powered that we'll use if/when we ever need it. But as soon as we relocate to our next place, a tri-fuel genny will be on the way. If we could've afforded one at the time we bought our current generator, we would've went ahead and bought the the tri-fuel anyway.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

(Another point....don't worry about solar flares)

 

[blamecharles]

Our company installs generator systems, contact me if you have any questions. Generac is one of the companies they use, i would need to get with electrical and see the other brands.

 

[aronhubbard]

Generac is good. One of the industrial sized ones runs our data center for backup power, and it runs like a champ. The only thing I can say is make sure the company installing it knows their stuff. We had an idiot apparently install and set it up at first and it gave us tons of grief and was unreliable and even damaging to our gear until we got a second guy out there to sort everything out.

Pretty basic advice for any project like this, but ask for multiple references!!

As far as worrying about solar flares, my understanding is that a big one can fry transformers, and we don't have a strategic stock pile nor capacity to spin up factories to meet demand if we experienced a nationwide loss. The wiring on the lines and in your home would be fine, but you might be without power for weeks or months waiting for the power companies to catch up.

 

[snorko]

If the national grid went down, how long would pressure be maintained in the pipelines? Maybe consider having the parts on hand for propane conversion and a tank too?

 

[churchmouse]

If the national grid went down, how long would pressure be maintained in the pipelines? Maybe consider having the parts on hand for propane conversion and a tank too?

The natural gas supply in Indy used to be manually delivered from the big holding silo at the coke facility on the near south east side. That has been shut down and everything is "Pumped" now. It is reliant on the power grid to move the gas so any big failure would put the pipeline on the Genny back-ups and they will only run as long as the diesel holds out and then it is "No Joy"
A natural gas only genny is very convenient but only for local or short term power outages. In a serious SHTF scenario all you would have is a very nice boat anchor. Get a tri-fuel unit. Store some gas in proper containers with sta-bil and get a few propane tanks. With any luck you will never need them.

 

[KLB]

We just had one of the 20kw(18kw on NG) Generacs with an Automatic Transfer Switch installed a month ago. We did not want to go through and decide what to run and what to do without in a power outage. Plus we live in the country so we have a Well pump, sewage pump, sump pump, etc. No power means we are in deep

 

[churchmouse]

We just had one of the 20kw(18kw on NG) Generacs with an Automatic Transfer Switch installed a month ago. We did not want to go through and decide what to run and what to do without in a power outage. Plus we live in the country so we have a Well pump, sewage pump, sump pump, etc. No power means we are in deep

So it is a multi fuel unit??????????????

 

[melensdad]

If you have the money... Go for it.

If you can, look into a Tri-Fuel generator (Diesel, Propane, Natural Gas

The Tri-Fuel generators are typically GASOLINE, Propane and Natural Gas.

That is what I have, mine is a 12,000 watt unit. If I had to do it all over again I'd opt for an industrial version of a car motor spinning at 1800 RPMs instead of the more common 3600 RPM unit I have. Much quieter, also much longer lifespan.


Typically the units are "rated" for output based on GASOLINE and if you run it off of Propane the output will be reduced by 8 to 10%. Run it on Natural Gas and it will be downrated another 8 to 10%. Plan accordingly.

 

[jbhummer2]

I have a Kohler whole house one and love it. I have talked with several people in the generator business and they said the power is more "stable" as it wont fluctuate as much. Also from personal experience I work at a place with a generac one that has failed multiple times when needed and it would not turn on automatically. Kohler will have power on in 10 seconds and the Generac is 20 seconds. Plus if you have a Kohler installer do the install it has a much better warranty. I know an electrician and he used to sell generac and he put a kohler in at his own home. so I took that as a sign too. My parents have a portable Generac and it has been great! It has gotten us by many times without any problem. just my two cents worth.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

The Tri-Fuel generators are typically GASOLINE, Propane and Natural Gas.

That is what I have, mine is a 12,000 watt unit. If I had to do it all over again I'd opt for an industrial version of a car motor spinning at 1800 RPMs instead of the more common 3600 RPM unit I have. Much quieter, also much longer lifespan.


Typically the units are "rated" for output based on GASOLINE and if you run it off of Propane the output will be reduced by 8 to 10%. Run it on Natural Gas and it will be downrated another 8 to 10%. Plan accordingly.

Thanks for the correction, melensdad.

I ALMOST put "gasoline" on there but chose diesel instead.

Makes complete & total sense, too, for it to be gas. Spark plugs vs glow plugs!

A diesel generator would have glow plugs and wouldn't be able to convert over to other fuels that need a spark.

Silly me.

-J-

 

[CSORuger]

A BIG thank you to everyone's input. There is more to this than I was thinking about. Will follow up on all the items talked about, and will let you know what we came up with and installed.

Again thanks!

 

[eldirector]

The natural gas supply in Indy used to be manually delivered from the big holding silo at the coke facility on the near south east side. That has been shut down and everything is "Pumped" now. It is reliant on the power grid to move the gas so any big failure would put the pipeline on the Genny back-ups and they will only run as long as the diesel holds out and then it is "No Joy"

For some reason, I thought the backup generators ran on the NG that they were pumping. If so, they would run until the NG source ran dry.

 

[churchmouse]

For some reason, I thought the backup generators ran on the NG that they were pumping. If so, they would run until the NG source ran dry.

Some yes and some no. Depends on the outfit. We get most of our NG from a pipeline. As with anything the supply is not endless. Without managing the flow it would dry up.