Whole House Generators

[Chuck]

As a paramedic I have been in many disaster zones. When not doing medical stuff I often look at logistical support for the teams. I have noticed several things.

Most of the generators are multi fuel. One never knows what kind of fuel will be available. Most run on diesel and some of the generators at the heliports can run on jet fuel in emergencies. The second thing is that rarely, very rarely are the generators putting out even close to maximum power. On one fire I kept an eye on one generator and the only time it was even near capacity was when the crews came in for showers and laundry. The water heaters were dual powered with propane and electricity. The most constant demand was lights and communications. Heating of air was not an issue since it was summertime.

The problem with generators is that they have to be run monthly to keep the fuel fresh or they won’t work when they need too. Gas is by far the worst. If you want to keep a gas generator in tip top shape you have to shut off the gas and run it dry to prevent the gas from evaporating and leaving the additives that will gum up the works. We have to deal with this on our quads every spring and even though we emptied the gas line it still got gummed up, just not as bad. Hospitals have to run their generators and test them monthly in my state. These are monsters and take up whole buildings. All of them are diesel and have very large fuel tanks. Hospitals actually have separate circuits for generation power which are the red colored plugs you see. Those plugs work on grid power and generator power. The others only work on grid power.

Then there is the cost factor. How often does your power go out? Our power goes out once a year. For about 30 minutes, most of the time much less. The longest was about 4 hours and that is a once a decade event. Is spending all that time and money to have electricity for 30 minutes per year worth the cost? This is of course a very personal decision based on time and finances and location for the generator. It is preferable to have underground wiring to prevent damage in an ice storm or branches/trees down.

Then there is the grid tie protection which protects line workers from dying from your generator. Those regulations vary from state to state and have to be inspected and approved. My solar and wind had to have the power company and state approve the connection to the grid. Of course you are not going to power the grid but the generator will supply current up to the panel and has to be protected from leaving your system.

My vacation home is in the middle of nowhere with the nearest large town 90 miles away. I have very stable electricity and have only had one semi serious outage in 25 years and that was only an intermittent half phase. A generator for me is not worth the money and time. Plus I have my solar and wind which will supply power for lights and very limited heat (if we have sun and wind and generally we have one or the other and often times both).

As with all disasters increase your survival by having as many options as possible. Multi fuel gives you those options. Quad fuel generators are pretty expensive. The cheapest I have found are gas, natural gas, propane. I don’t like gas and prefer diesel as it is not as volatile as gas and is unlikely to explode. My choice would be diesel, NG and propane for tri fuel.

There are other options for things like lights and heat. If you already have NG then use that for heat. For lights I have Ryobi tools and have several different lighting options several of which will last for days per 4Ah battery. I have several 9Ah batteries and those will provide lots of light and will charge phones. You can also get a simple propane catalytic heater that will heat your house a long time with one 5 galloon tank.

Chuck



> On Feb 3, 2022, at 8:15 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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