Generators

[Lakenut]

With winter weather on the horizon....school me on portable generators. What would I need to run the furnace on a 2500 sq ft house? Hate to sound like the gullible sheep that is scared by the latest forecast....just at a place where I can afford one for whenever I need it...be it next week or next year.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Okie4570]

Are you total electric, heat pump? Or gas with an electric fan?

We're total electric with a heat pump, and my 16k PTO gen will run it fine, but can't run the hot water heater and well at the same time as the heater. Have to switch a few breakers every once in a while so not too big of a deal. If I have to run another week on that thing this year, I'm setting a propane tank and a 22k on demand generator. Last years ice and tornadoes about did me in.

 

[tRidiot]

Assuming gas heat with electric blower, right?

My house is similar, looking in the 6k-10k range should get you in the ballpark. I just got one that is just under 6k. Wiring it into the house panel can be a pretty big expense, too... we just replaced our entire panel box with a bigger, better one and at the same time wired in to have the genny plugged in outside.

 

[Lakenut]

Sorry...gas heat, electric blower. Gas hot water....

 

[Hobbes]

Surge load from starting the blower motor is your main obstacle to overcome.
The locked rotor load on a furnace blower motor is roughly 3 to 4 times the running load.

The way to make sure is to get up there and get vital information from the furnace.

If it shows the starting and running load then you can go from there.
Otherwise, you can get the running load and multiply by 4 and use that as your surge watt rating.

 

[Shadowrider]

Sorry...gas heat, electric blower. Gas hot water....

That saves you a lot on genset need. I'm setup the same way. I have a 5500 watt Coleman. I've ran a medium size chest freezer, large fridge, TV, couple of cell phone chargers, a fan and several lamps all at the same time on mine.

My mom is also on gas heat and hot water and has a Generac standby. 14KW will run her 220V electric oven, glass cooktop, central AC (3 ton), TVs, computer and lights. When you have gas heat it takes a bunch of load off your electrical needs.

 

[Lakenut]

What about hooking the unit into my house? What's the best...safest way to do so?

 

[BReeves]

I have a 5500 watt portable that will run our house in an emergency, furnace blower, refrigerator lights and TV. Bought it before the big rush when they were predicting an ice storm several years ago. That ice storm never happened but it sure came in handy a couple years later when one did happen and we were without electricity for 4 days.

The way I hook my generator up is not the right way so don't follow my example. We have an outside breaker box the feeds everything on the property. I simply added another dual breaker that I hook the generator to. Flip the main to disconnect us from the line then fire up the generator. They make a special lock out that won't allow you to flip the generator breaker on if the main has not been flipped off. I just make sure I have the main flipped off before starting the generator and flipping the generator breaker.

 

[Hoov]

I bought one off fleaBay for $700 delivered to my door. 10K. Uses propane or gas. Had it hooked to the house. Runs the entire house.

 

[Perplexed]

Is your blower motor hard-wired into the house circuitry? Mine has a regular plug that goes into a wall outlet in the furnace closet, so if the power goes "pft" I can run an extension cord from the generator outside into the closet and plug the blower into that. Works well, and I've managed to run it off a Honda EU2000i generator, though I usually save that for the TV and use a portable 7K generator instead.