Whole House Power with a Portable Generator

[Art]

Well, I bit the bullet and had my completely out dated breaker box and meter box replaced with new equipment. While I was at it I had it set up to run my whole house off a 30 watt cable from my 6250 running watt portable generator. I think the electrician did a fine job my new box has a surge protector installed and he installed a simple interlock kit to handle the power transfer. I tested it out and it worked fine. The only problem I encountered was attaching the twist lock cable head to the house outlet if I had attached it to the generator first. The cable is very stiff, the house plug faces down at a bit of an awkward angle which makes it hard to lock the cable plug in. Plugging into the house first solved this problem.

I insisted that the work be done to code. The city inspector was at my place while they were installing my interlock plate that took almost two weeks to get in :icon_e_surprised:. Even better, the contractor was the low bid over his competitors by a lot. I am reluctant to take a low bid but this guys reviews were so good I took a chance and hopefully all will be well.

I'm not going to run A/C off of it and portable generator can be bad mojo for anything with a micro processor but hopefully my days of running extension cords into my house in extended power outages are over.

Our daughter intends to mount solar panels on her house with Tesla Batteries for a backup. I understand one Tesla battery is good for one day without power if you only use it for the essentials. Of course her solar panels should provide power in the daytime for her minimal requirements extending the time her batteries would be able to power up her first floor.

[Major Tom]

Congrats in store! My neighbor has a whole house generator. When storms knock out our power, his house is the only one lit up!

[S.A. Boggs]

Our electrician will be back in early June [had heart surgery] and is doing the same thing for us. I have a 9375 dual fuel [followed Ken's advice] for our house. I can handle window A/C with not an issue and we already have switched to LED lights all around. The only exception to the lights is our Aladdin lamps which we dearly love.
Our propane people are installing a 100 gallon tank for the generator and I still have several 20 lb. ones that I also use for cooking in the outdoor kitchen. Counting on the power company is not always a good idea anymore.:icon_redface::eusa_shhh:
Sam

[lyman]

my electrician (brother) is supposed to install a dryer plug on my house to plug in the Generator (9000/11250) into when we get outages,

currently when needed we just do drop cords to the fridge, and a few lights,

[kj47]

I have a Kohler 5200 watt portabil for our small home. We have propane heat & a pellet stove which supplies most of the heat. 2 bags a day in the dead of winter.t, Art I know it cost a lot of money but you will never look back.

[Johnny P]

To S. A. Boggs,

Glad someone else appreciates the Aladdin lamps. Had about 30 at one time, but thinned them down. This was always my favorite, a ruby red beehive with all original parts. Chimney is Pyrex.

https://i.postimg.cc/9XS56mzy/AlladRR.jpg

[m1ashooter]

Hi Art

Who did you use? I was going to go whole house but the install time is way off and with prices going up I'm hesitant to pull the trigger.

[Art]

Hi Art

Who did you use? I was going to go whole house but the install time is way off and with prices going up I'm hesitant to pull the trigger.

PM sent

[togor]

my electrician (brother) is supposed to install a dryer plug on my house to plug in the Generator (9000/11250) into when we get outages,

currently when needed we just do drop cords to the fridge, and a few lights,

Mine is a "suicide" cord (male prongs both ends) that plugs into the dryer outlet as a 30A alternate main. Cutover is manual, at the box. Always have the electrical connection firmly established (including earth ground) at the generator before yanking on the starter rope.

[jjrothWA]

Have a Generator since 1997, [ice storm in SE Mi], it's a 5Kw, peaking 6550 if needed], can run the well [60ft deep], gas furnace and kitchen outlets and stove, with no problem.

Presently looking for a auxiliary carburetor to be able to use, Nat. Gas, Propane for alternatives.

[S.A. Boggs]

Mine is a "suicide" cord (male prongs both ends) that plugs into the dryer outlet as a 30A alternate main. Cutover is manual, at the box. Always have the electrical connection firmly established (including earth ground) at the generator before yanking on the starter rope.

How about a picture of your generator set up Togey.
Sam

[Art]

Mine is a "suicide" cord (male prongs both ends) that plugs into the dryer outlet as a 30A alternate main. Cutover is manual, at the box. Always have the electrical connection firmly established (including earth ground) at the generator before yanking on the starter rope.


It isn't called a "suicide cord" for nothing. Coming into contact with exposed "hot" double male cord prongs can result in a very bad day. Remember you will be backfeeding your house which makes it doubly important to turn off that main breaker. Togor is correct; follow protocol to the letter if you use this set up. If you zap a lineman using this method you will be legally liable.

[Vern Humphrey]

I have a 48KW Generac propane generator -- runs the whole house, including heating and air conditioning.

I live way to hell and gone back in the hills, and I'm an old Arkansas boy -- I know all about ice storms and power outages. When I built this house, I put in a fully-finished basement with a wood burning stove. For power outages, the wife and I would move down to the basement. We had a generator to keep the freezer from thawing. One year, we spent a total of 30 days and nights in the basement. It was an adventure!

But a while back, with my wife in such poor health, I sprang for the big backup generator.

[jcg&jmbfan]

I have a 48KW Generac propane generator -- runs the whole house, including heating and air conditioning.

I live way to hell and gone back in the hills, and I'm an old Arkansas boy -- I know all about ice storms and power outages. When I built this house, I put in a fully-finished basement with a wood burning stove. For power outages, the wife and I would move down to the basement. We had a generator to keep the freezer from thawing. One year, we spent a total of 30 days and nights in the basement. It was an adventure!

But a while back, with my wife in such poor health, I sprang for the big backup generator.

48KW? How big is the propane tank? Wondering how long of a run time you have.....

[lyman]

48KW? How big is the propane tank? Wondering how long of a run time you have.....

page 3 for fuel consumption

https://www.generac.com/generaccorporate/media/library/content/all-products/generators/resi-comm/protector/rg048-rg060-rg080-spec-sheet-a0000373704-rev-e_5.pdf

[PWC]

Watch

[Shrapnel]

I have a 48KW Generac propane generator -- runs the whole house, including heating and air conditioning.

I live way to hell and gone back in the hills, and I'm an old Arkansas boy -- I know all about ice storms and power outages. When I built this house, I put in a fully-finished basement with a wood burning stove. For power outages, the wife and I would move down to the basement. We had a generator to keep the freezer from thawing. One year, we spent a total of 30 days and nights in the basement. It was an adventure!

But a while back, with my wife in such poor health, I sprang for the big backup generator.

48KW is a bit of overkill. How your house is set up with it?s breaker box and how you integrate the generator to the house is what is really important.

We put a Generac 10KW generator on our house, hooked up to natural gas. Propane will run out sooner than natural gas, so it is best to use NG if it is available.

The 10KW generator has a maximum output of 50 amps, so that does limit what you can run your house on and how many circuits your house can handle. We have 8 circuits and the 10KW generator will run the entire house other than the drier and electric range.

Plug ins and portable generators are better than nothing, but not much. If you have ever experienced a real power outage, you will understand the importance of an integrated system with a big enough generator to live as comfortable as you do with no power outage.

[Art]

48KW is a bit of overkill. How your house is set up with it?s breaker box and how you integrate the generator to the house is what is really important.

We put a Generac 10KW generator on our house, hooked up to natural gas. Propane will run out sooner than natural gas, so it is best to use NG if it is available.

The 10KW generator has a maximum output of 50 amps, so that does limit what you can run your house on and how many circuits your house can handle. We have 8 circuits and the 10KW generator will run the entire house other than the drier and electric range.

Plug ins and portable generators are better than nothing, but not much. If you have ever experienced a real power outage, you will understand the importance of an integrated system with a big enough generator to live as comfortable as you do with no power outage.

You are correct. The no mess no fuss no bother solution is a whole house set up that totally eliminates the inconvenience of power outages but peoples individual requirements vary as well as the amount they're willing to spend. Our cost, excluding the breaker and meter boxes which we were going to buy anyway, was $850.00 for the electrical work and about $650.00 for the replacement generator, $1,500.00 drive out for our current plug in set up.

Of course it all depends on the original purpose of the generator was. In our first hurricane after returning to Houston we lost hundreds of dollars worth of food. Compounding the loss of the food was the mess of disposing of it. Our old 4,500/3,800 watt generator was bought only to keep the refrigerator and freezer cold we could also plug in the TV or some individual lights. This of course involved juggling extension cords.

Our house also has 10 circuits that would be powered by the current set up. That excludes the dryer and the A/C - central heat.

We anticipated some sort of whole house set up when we decided to replace our completely outdated breaker box (and ageing generator.) The set up we now have in addition to ending the need for juggling extension cords, when running will also keep the lights on as well as the TVs. We have a gas appliance house so we would be able to cook on our gas range. Our hot water heater is also gas but I doubt we'd take a bunch of hot showers. For those purposes our 7,500/6,250 watt 30 amp generator should work just fine. Again, we would only be running it 4-6 hours a day during real emergencies. On hand fuel should last 8-9 days before I'd have to go on a gas hunt. We'd just have a lot more stuff functional with less hassel during that time.