Generators. A fascinating subject, especially if one does the research to understanding the power requirements of your home, i.e., just how many watts do I need anyway to power my home? This is but one question of many you could ask and says nothing of the social/political ramifications, for there are forces in the world that do not want you to be self sufficient. In this thesis I will try to tackle some of them.
First and foremost, I will not try to determine how many watts or the type of generator you might need. If I were, it’d be like me picking a mate for you and there are simply too many tastes to do that properly. Generally I will talk about many aspects of the thinking and get you on the right road.
One thing before we get started, safety and common sense are needed to keep you and your family members alive while using a generator. They must never be run indoors! To say nothing of the danger of handling gasoline, there are other dangers as well, so beware!
We need to determine whether we are going to provide generated electricity for short term or long term outages. Short term being may be from a few hours to two weeks. A call to your electric company, at the time of the outage, usually fields a phone message to the estimated reconnect time. This usually occurs when a storm goes through or a tree falls over one of the power lines that supply your neighborhood. Long term, could be described as more than a month to infinity. And infinity is possible. As this is a Preparedness Fair that I am writing for, and we live in the times of a terrorist threat, let’s just err on the safe side and become PREPARED! Short term, long term, according to your needs, your budget, and it’s your call.
Now, let’s consider the most important fact of all. In my opinion, put this in the front of your mind while researching all of your requirements: A Home Generator is only as good as the Fuel Source, i.e., type and amount.
Modern gasoline fuels start to break down and deteriorate within days or weeks after they are made. Broken-down gasoline can gum-up carburetors and worse, make the generator useless. Of course any automotive parts supplier can sell you inexpensive gasoline stabilizers and they will usually extend the life of gasoline for a year or so. Keep in mind, you cannot just keep re-stabilizing your stash of gas and expect positive results.
Diesel generators and their fuel fair far better. Diesel fuel can be stabilized for extended use and they last much longer than gasoline, but like gasoline it does have a shelf life. Un-stabilized shelf life for gasoline is generally 6 months to a year and diesel shelf life can be up to a couple of years. Properly stabilized and stored fuels can increase this time, somewhat. This is all “kinda-sorta,” because conditions vary and your results may be different, but not by much.
The start-up cost for a diesel generator is much more costly than gasoline generators. Whereas a decent gasoline generator will last maybe a year or two with constant use (purchase price $500-$2000 and more) and a good diesel generator will survive fifteen-twenty years of continuous use (good ones start in the $5000).
Of course, for any generator you will need a large supply oil filters and multi-viscosity oil for the crank case, and spare parts - the kind that wear out with normal use. They are usually inexpensive and easy to install. As a side consideration, these things are very thirsty and if you don’t want to go outside twice a night to refill the supply tank, some kind of external tanking is a must. The gas tanks on most commercial generators run, under load, for anywhere from 2-4 hrs on their supplied tank. Models with larger tanks can be bought, but an eight hour run is fairly rare to purchase. The good news is that you can, with a modicum of skill rig up a better tank system, checking the oil at least twice in a 24hr period.
For my money, I like propane fuel. Propane has an indefinite shelf life. You can get external tanks delivered, up to 2000 pounds, without permits. They burn incredibly clean, thus extending the life of the generator engine. With multiple tanks and watching your total wattage burn carefully and a supply of engine/generator wear parts, a ten+ year supply of energy is not only possible, but doable. Best of all, propane can run a properly setup diesel generator as well. I know of one propane generator running a hunt camp/lodge, which has been running continually, except for normal maintenance shutdowns, for some 35+ years now. Again, start-up cost for such a generation machine is considerable and much less money can keep you comfortable, until you either run out of fuel or the generator breaks down.
It’s really quite simple to determine how many watts you may need and at the end of this thesis you will find some very helpful Internet calculators to do it with.
Yes, you could get by with a 1500-watt generator. It won’t run your furnace (1/2hp furnace motor will surge 2300 watts at start-up, and continuously run on 875 watts), but it would run your refrigerator and many lights. After the fridge gets cold you could unplug the fridge and plug in the Freezer or run the freezer at night. By jockeying things around, one can get by on a much smaller output generator. In a total short term power outage you could even get by with one of those 500-watt portable generators, turning out the light in one room before going to the next.
When calculating your needs, keep in mind that for a furnace surge, you’ll need a 2500-watt Generator (this is a little more than what we need in the above example of 2300 watts) for start up. After the motor gets going you’ll only need 875 watts, leaving 1625 watts (2500w-875w=1625w) to do other work. A good strategy in this circumstance and an overall thinking process for the use of these useful machines goes like this: If you need the furnace for an extended period, then use the generator to start up the furnace ONLY, then engage the summer switch so the fan keeps blowing constantly, never turning off until you disengage it. The furnace fan is the major source for the surge. If you incorporate this thinking into your generator use, then in this example you’ll have that nearly 1625 watts left over for other usage. I say nearly 1625w, because there is some power that is used to run the other parts of the furnace and if you exceed the rated watts of the generator, you’re going to pop a fuse on the generator itself. Keep lots of fuses around while you are learning how to use your generator in an actual power outage.
In short order you will learn which appliances you can run and when.
In these times you never know when a Katrina lays in store to make your life interesting.
Do be not discouraged, do a little homework, use the Internet, and become PREPARED!!
https://www.ch.cutler-hammer.com/generatorCalc/wattshow.jsp
http://www.homegeneratorsystems.com/buying_guide/select/
http://www.kohlerpower.com/residential/solutions/sizingcalculator.htm?sectionNumber=13561&nodeNumber=1&contentNumber=103
- Tim LeGendre, Lapeer, MI
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