Generator

[brianlg31]

Well guess I need to start thinking about getting a generator. Out power keeps going out from the ice. With Macie being in a hospital air bed it keeps deflating. Lasso her food pump will only last about 12 hours on a charge. The hospital tilde is to be sure and let the power company know that we have a medical patient at the house and they are suppose to make sure we don't go very long without power. We did, even had to get a Dr note to have on file. I called this morning when it first went out. The lady didn't seem to be to worried about us "needing" power at all. So guess I need to start researching generators. We have gas heat so we're good there. Just really need one to power Macie's room, bed, feed pump maybe TV (not a necessity but she enjoys it). Is there a way to plug it in to her outlets? Or would you just run a extension cord? Like I said I thought we were good so never really thought about it. We have power now so no hurry. Macie actually got to lay in our bed with us this morning.

Brian

[quackerback]

you can make a cord to plug into her outlets. just make sure to turn her breaker off and the main breaker. dont want the power back feeding into main line.

[BrianL]

ALWAYS turn off the MAIN breaker before using any generator!

You can probably run that on a small generator. I can run my house on a Honda 2000, since I have it setup correctly in my breaker box. I have all my required stuff on one pole of the breaker box. In those areas I only have low watt bulbs. I have gas heat and cooktop. I shut off all unnecessary breakers.

I run the fridge, lights in living, bedroom, and master bath, tankless water heater, TV and TV equipment closet, and septic system. Those champion 3500 would do what you need, if you avoid high use appliances like hair dryer, microwave, coffee pot, electric heaters, deep freeze, etc.

I can run close to 12 hours on one tank of fuel with my Honda. That is 1 gallon of fuel!!!! Many of the cheaper generators use 5X that much fuel. at a savings of $15 every 12 hours it doesn't take long to add up to some serious cash. I was out 7 days this last round. that adds up to $210 more fuel cost in a week. I also have a Honda 5000 welder generator but I rarely hook it up. Only if the wife wants to use the hair dryer or something.

[systemnt]

Spend the extra couple grand and do it right... get a real house generator that will let you run all the equipment you need to... and will do it automatically with the switch.
Even the lower end units like Generac will do 1000 times better than a little 5000- gas pull-started generator.

You may not always be there to get the pull-start generator rigged up, and mains shut off, etc.

[BrianL]

Spend the extra couple grand and do it right... get a real house generator that will let you run all the equipment you need to... and will do it automatically with the switch.
Even the lower end units like Generac will do 1000 times better than a little 5000- gas pull-started generator.

You may not always be there to get the pull-start generator rigged up, and mains shut off, etc.

Those are nice but come at a high cost to install and operate. Most burn between 1.8-2.5 gallons of LP per hour. At $2.65/gallon that will add up in a hurry. But they are nice.

OH and my welder is a 4000 not 5000. Too late to correct..

[Top Dog]

Best to go with a standby generator with automatic transfer switch. With load management you will be able to run your needed equipment. Probably for less than 10k, 20kw generator, ( air cooled) if you can go 27kw (liquid cooled)
I would suggest Generator power systems in Spring TX largest installer in the State and they install in all areas. Highly recommended installer.

[brianlg31]

Thanks for the responses. I'll start doing some research.

Brian