Whole House Generators

[Mark Griffiths]

Hi Jerry,

I had a 12K Onan generator powered by natural gas.  These days you
probably want 15K+.  I went with natural gas because we had service.  We
went without power after an ice storm for more than three days, and the NG
supply was not interrupted.  The outage was localized to our and
surrounding neighborhoods (lots of trees), so the NG pumps were probably
not affected.

Propane is probably a better option as it produces more power than NG and
is onsite.  It is more expensive than NG, and will be dependent upon the
amount you have onsite.

Choose the size of your generator based upon what you want to run - I had
no problems with my 12K running all lights/TVs/computers, furnace (NG),
power vent hot water heater (NG), and two refrigerator/freezers. Cooking
was with a natural gas stove and oven.

I had an automatic switch installed with the generator that would exercise
on a schedule and automatically switch to power line/generator, depending
upon the situation. Great for when you are not home.  I did not have to
cycle any use, but did give the generator a rest once a day to check oil
during the long outage.  If your appliances are mostly electric, or you
want to run A/C, you will need a bigger generator.

Mark

On Thu, Feb 3, 2022 at 11:15 AM Jerry — MacSolutions <jerry at stlmacguy.com>
wrote:

> We’re having a snowstorm here in St Louis.  Nothing crazy but about eight
> inches of snow is expected to fall by today.  To our south however, the
> region had freezing rain and sleet.  The power lines are  coming down in
> the rural areas and causing major blackouts.
>
> We’re toyed with the idea of a natural gas, whole house generator and
> really don’t do more than look at prices.  But this time we’re discussing
> things with a little more depth.
>
> If I may, I’d like to ask a few questions from those of you who have “made
> the plunge.”
>
>    - What type of fuel did you choose for your generator and why?
>    - Do you limit your activities and lighting while the generator is
>    being used?  Can you detect the generator is being used and set a pseudo in
>    XTension to change the behavior of your home’s electrical use?  Does it
>    even matter?
>    - If you’re ever in a disaster area, do you think that the fuel supply
>    will be unavailable?  Will liquid fuel be tough to find?  Will the natural
>    gas supply be interrupted by the plant going offline?
>
> Thx!
> —Jerry
>
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