Picking the perfect generator?

[Jason Freeland]

How is everyone connecting the generator/convertor to your house? To individual appliances, breaker box or at the meter?

I have a transfer switch that connects the 50 amp output of the generator to my breaker box. You have to manually flip the line power off to engage the transfer, for safety.

 

[Master Carper]

How is everyone connecting the generator/convertor to your house? To individual appliances, breaker box or at the meter?

I use short and heavy extension cords for the microwave, stove and refrigerator. The generator stays out on the front porch and out of the weather.

 

[Timmy59]

I have a transfer switch that connects the 50 amp output of the generator to my breaker box. You have to manually flip the line power off to engage the transfer, for safety.

Ditto, only 30 amp.

 

[PBramble]

I kill the main and back feed through receptacles. I know that's frowned upon because "linemen get killed by generators" but if you hook up and leave the main open, your neighbors will kill your genset faster with the draw on it.

 

[SoonerP226]

I have not heard any quiet generators yet .. Not any that will run a capacitor start appliance.

But I do have an inverter that carries on when I need electricity.
My son ran his house for 2 weeks in Moore after the last tornado and all he did was use 1 battery of mine that the inverter was hooked to and
run jumper cables to a Ford Festiva.
When the thing kicked off from low battery he would go start the car and it idled and charged it all back up.

It is 2000 watt continuous and 4000 peak.. he only ran 1 leg and it ran the fridge and fish tank and his gas furnace blower
and ran the TV and his video gaming system and living room and kitchen lights.

I had a friend that was cutting 2x4 boards with a 1000 watt honda generator and a circular saw.
That saw started out well and 1/4 way into the 2x4 it bogged down and the Honda revved up but it was still bogged down barely cutting.

I had that inverter in the back of my van hooked up.
I ran over 150 feet of extension cord to his saw and said plug this into the saw.
He did and it cut like it was plugged into a house.

Him and all his friends stopped and looked at me and followed that cord to the van and said it's not running!!!
Nope it is battery powered.

He went out and got one of those as did a couple of his buddies.
was $189 at harbor freight .

I have had mine since 2000 and it still works just fine.
I ran a window unit with it in my van and I have ran a 1/2" drill with a 3 foot drill bit drilling through rail road ties at
the same time using a chop saw to cut bundles of rebar.

2 high load tools going at the same time and not even a whimper from it.

Now i have thought I need to convert one of my push mower engines over to charge duty by attaching a pulley where the blade goes
and run it to power a GM alternator that will charge a battery.

I seen a guy at lock 16 near Gore running a setup like that and powered his halogen lights and other stuff.

He fished there often and always had that setup going.

You can put a really big muffler on a push mower and make it pretty quiet.

FWIW, our vehicles at work run racks of equipment. For years, we used Cummins-Onan gas gennies (4KW, IIRC) to provide the electricity, and we had lots of trouble with them (to be fair, we were putting far more hours on them than they were intended to run). We started replacing them with inverters, and have had a lot less trouble.

 

[16colt]

Here’s mine, purchased through Amazon. Maybe not the best, but hopefully it will work when needed. I have it set up in my shop and have a pig tail that I feed it back into my 220 outlet that I use for my welding machine - turning the breaker off at the house of course. I plan to pipe the exhaust through the wall. Haven’t done that yet though.
I wanted a Generac - just couldn’t justify the cost in my mind at the current time.

 

[OK Corgi Rancher]

Here’s mine, purchased through Amazon. Maybe not the best, but hopefully it will work when needed. I have it set up in my shop and have a pig tail that I feed it back into my 220 outlet that I use for my welding machine - turning the breaker off at the house of course. I plan to pipe the exhaust through the wall. Haven’t done that yet though.
I wanted a Generac - just couldn’t justify the cost in my mind at the current time.

Figured I'd resurrect this thread since storm season is upon us...

I wanted a whole-house standby Generac. I just didn't want to pay for it. Mostly because I can't!

I'd been looking at the Westinghouse WGen12000DF...runs on propane or gasoline and it provides "clean" electricity so it won't hurt sensitive electronics. But, I read so many bad reviews about Westinghouse customer service it kinda scared me away from it. And the DuroMax units seem good...but the THD rating is too high for my tastes. And I can't afford a big inverter generator.

So I went with this Generac portable I found at Costco last week...just delivered yesterday. It should have enough juice to power the essentials. It's gasoline only, but it's less than 5% THD and it's fuel injected. I already have the panel lockout kit. I still need to get a cord and wire up a 30A outlet. I was worried about where to put the breaker because my panel is completely full...even the available 15A and 20A outlets that could be replaced with tandems...already are! But then I realized we're replacing the electric kitchen range with a propane range, so...instant spot for the generator breaker.

 

[Timmy59]

If you have the $$ to work with ya might give solar generator a thought.