Portable Generators

Fyrtwuck · Nov 17, 2019

How would I know what power output I would need for a generator to run things in my house if I lost electricity?

Central heat/air
Lights
Refrigerator
Freezer
Stove
Tv
Internet

Ive been looking at portable units, but lots of considerations on size and type. Or, would a permanently installed automatic activated unit be better? Size and type? Plus an electrician would have to do the hook ups.

Snattlerake · Nov 17, 2019

Call an electrician. I used Faith Electric out of Edmond. They installed my whole house Generac. It's a 15KW. It runs the entire house and has worked flawlessly. They have financing too.

http://www.faithelectric.com/

MacFromOK · Nov 17, 2019

I assume your electric bill shows KWH usage. With a little math, that should give you a general idea.

It will vary month to month though, so check one where your bill is high.

Just a thought. :drunk2:

Shadowrider · Nov 17, 2019

Snattlerake said:
Call an electrician. I used Faith Electric out of Edmond. They installed my whole house Generac. It's a 15KW. It runs the entire house and has worked flawlessly. They have financing too.

http://www.faithelectric.com/

This is who my mom used.

O/P you can go through your house and look at the appliances you want to run. They'll all have a tag so that you can add up the load. That's what I did, then Faith came out and came up with about the same thing. My mom only needed a 14kw. This runs her central air (by far the biggest load), her built in oven, her electric range, lights, fridge, freezer, pretty much all of it and it's enough that she can run them all at once. The switch will "phase" circuits over a couple of minutes to not start all that load up at once and choke the genset.

Google up calculating your electrical load, there's tons of info that will show you how to get it right.

Perplexed · Nov 17, 2019

You need to think on several things. One, how often do you lose power? Two, would the higher cost of a permanent setup offset what benefit you’d derive from it as opposed to a portable generator? Three, do you anticipate being without power for more than a couple days, on a regular basis?

The contents of a fridge can keep for 24-48 hours, depending on how often you open the door in the meantime. A freezer’s contents can keep a day or two longer.

The biggest draw on a generator will probably be the starting up of the AC. The stove will require quite a bit of “oomph” depending on how hot you crank it up. The fridge and freezer, a bit less. If your furnace is gas, the blower will be the component needing power, and it’s not much of a demand usually (last winter when the power went out, I ran the furnace blower off a 2K portable generator with plenty of power to spare).

How many of the amenities can you do without for a couple days?

Snattlerake · Nov 17, 2019

Anticipate 30 days without power during that last ice storm in 2003. Being on a farm, we were very low on the list minus hospitals and nursing homes.

Having to fill up the generator every 5 to 6 hours even during the night just to keep freezer and fridge and a space heater going.

Stephen · Nov 20, 2019

Fyrtwuck said:
How would I know what power output I would need for a generator to run things in my house if I lost electricity?

Central heat/air
Lights
Refrigerator
Freezer
Stove
Tv
Internet

Ive been looking at portable units, but lots of considerations on size and type. Or, would a permanently installed automatic activated unit be better? Size and type? Plus an electrician would have to do the hook ups.

How big is the A/C? I made one myself with only 12000W running on natural gas, I can run the 3500sf house with it, run everything even one of my smaller central A/C (3.5 tons) the only thing it couldn’t run is my 5 tons.
Any questions just ask, I am “retired”, and have all of time in the world.

BadJeep · Nov 22, 2019

look up a kill-a-watt. you can use it to measure certain plug in appliances, unless you borrow the line out of the electric box. I am basically off grid with solar, but I do rely on generators also. I have a zone a/c running almost 24/7 when needed, off of my battery banks and a inverter, but I so also run the main a/c off of a generator, keep in mind when choosing you may need a 220v generator for the a/c. the smaller things mentioned would be fairly easy to run. if you have a electric stove, you would need a healthy size 220v generator, but if it is gas or propane it would not need to be vary large, big enough to run the clock ect on it.. My larger generator is a dual fuel champion and I do susggesting a dual fuel. makes it nice to have power when you need it, just in case the gasoline runs out, turn on the propane and continue life. My smaller generator is a inverter based 3400 champion, very quiet operation and it has a remote start key fob, so when I need to run the microwave, toaster or convection oven just push the button and it's running. You may be able to run a RV style transfer switch and hard wire that into the fuse panel to run it to selective outlets.

if you have any direct questions you are welcome to ask me, I have been around them with my rv for a few years.

CHenry · Nov 22, 2019

MacFromOK said:
I assume your electric bill shows KWH usage. With a little math, that should give you a general idea.

It will vary month to month though, so check one where your bill is high.

Just a thought.

Thats not a measure of daily needed amperage at all.

BobbyV · Nov 22, 2019

Snattlerake said:
Call an electrician. I used Faith Electric out of Edmond. They installed my whole house Generac. It's a 15KW. It runs the entire house and has worked flawlessly. They have financing too.

http://www.faithelectric.com/

I bet that automatic switch over is nice . . .

I've debated about getting a whole house setup like that when we eventually move to our retirement spot.

Portable Generators

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Perplexed

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Snattlerake

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Stephen

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BadJeep

Marksman

CHenry

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BobbyV

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