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Keith Starosta
08-24-2004, 10:02 AM
Last year, when Hurricane Isabell came roaring through Central Virginia, we...along with thousands of other folks lost power for several days. We're on a sump pump system here, so when that puppy lost its juice, the water started rising. Long story short, after several hours of trying to keep up with bailing, I was just too exhausted, and we ended up with about 10" of water in the basement. Many personal Items were lost.....including some antique furniture. I told myself that wasn't ever going to happen again and that as soon as they were re-stocked, I was buying a good generator.

Well, Hurricane Charlie opened my eyes to the fact that I still had not made that purchase (we didn't lose power, but the thought was there). So lo and behold......looky what followed me home from the store the other night! It works like a champ, and I have suddenly become even more popular with my neighbors!!! :)

Keith

Kevin Beck
08-24-2004, 10:41 AM
Very nice. We were in the path of Hurricane Charley and were without power from late Friday afternoon when Charley passed through to late Tuesday. I have to say no AC and cold showers really, really does get old quickly. We had 85 MPH sustained winds and gusts to 105. I''ve been through worse several times but many of my neighbors hadn't been through a real hurricane before so they were pretty excited. I lost about 2/3 of the screen from my pool enclosure and a large portion of an oak tree in my back yard.

The local stores (Lowes, Home Depot, etc.) sold hundreds of generators (Utter Guys a local tool store sold 300+). Chainsaws were also hot sellers.

The power is still not completely restored locally though I think they have 95%+ back on.

There are about 20 generators in the Orlando Sentinel classified section this morning. I'm guessing in a few weeks there won't be anything but chainsaws and generators in the tools for sale classification.

It's unbelievable the amount of workers that the power companies have brought in to work on the power outages. They have several staging areas locally with one in a local mall parking lot. There are probably 200+ trucks in the parking lot at any time.

Kevin

Dennis Peacock
08-24-2004, 10:55 AM
You can always time a generator or chainsaw purchase based upon a hurricane or tornado. You don't have to have a weather related issue to be without power! ;) It can be "blue sky" and "great weather" and suddenly your without power....and who knows for how long. Terry Hatfield can testify to that.!!!! :D

Keith Starosta
08-24-2004, 11:15 AM
You can always time a generator or chainsaw purchase based upon a hurricane or tornado. You don't have to have a weather related issue to be without power! ;) It can be "blue sky" and "great weather" and suddenly your without power....and who knows for how long. Terry Hatfield can testify to that.!!!! :D

Exactly!!! Which is why I won't be selling mine anytime soon.

Keith

Chris Padilla
08-24-2004, 12:23 PM
What are general "rules" or "practices" for a permanent or semi-permanent installation/tie-in to an exisiting circuit panel in your home? I've often thought about such a generator but am unclear how to tie it in to existing wiring and such.

Nice purchase, Keith, glad you finally got off the horse (or got on it!) and picked one up.

Rob Russell
08-24-2004, 1:12 PM
What are general "rules" or "practices" for a permanent or semi-permanent installation/tie-in to an exisiting circuit panel in your home? I've often thought about such a generator but am unclear how to tie it in to existing wiring and such.


The "rules" basically involve a transfer switch. The switch could either isolate specific circuits to a small panel fed by the generator or switch the entire panel feed from street power to the generator.

It is not "legal" to flip your main breaker as a disconnect - it needs to be a more formal A-B type switch.

Linemen get fried because of people with generators using them improperly. Not saying you, or anyone at SMC would do this, but there are people who just backfeed their panel through the dryer receptacle without even thinking about where the power is going.

Ralph Barhorst
08-24-2004, 1:18 PM
What are general "rules" or "practices" for a permanent or semi-permanent installation/tie-in to an exisiting circuit panel in your home? I've often thought about such a generator but am unclear how to tie it in to existing wiring and such.

Nice purchase, Keith, glad you finally got off the horse (or got on it!) and picked one up.
You need to check the codes in your area, but in general you need to install a switch that connects the generator (when required) or the electrical line.

The incoming electrical line must be totally disconnected when using the generator. It is very dangerous to your neighbors if you don't disconnect the electrical lines while running the generator. Most of the time it is easier to just run extension cords to the items being powered if you expect the power to be off for only a short time.

That 5600 Watt generator should be capable of running the absolute necessities.

MAKE SURE THE GENERATOR IS WELL VENTILATED. RUN IT OUTSIDE AWAY FROM THE HOUSE. Some people in Florida died because they ran it inside their garage or house.

Keith Starosta
08-24-2004, 1:19 PM
Rob, that is pretty much the exact conversation I was having with the extremely knowledgable sales clerk at Sears. He mentioned the fact that people need to be more careful when connecting a "portable generator" to their main panel. He told me a story about a friend of his who was pretty severly injured while working on the lines behind a neighborhood. It turned out to be a homeowner who had improperly done this work.

I'm thinking about tying this in somehow, but I'm damn-sure not going to do it myself. :D

Keith

Charles McKinley
08-24-2004, 1:46 PM
Hi All,

If you create a "stationary" generator you will also have to make certain provisions to contain "fuel spills" and other regulations. I would check the local codes very carefully before making any permanent back up power installations. For a generator the size of Kieths I would keep it portable and run GOOD (12 gauge or larger) extention cords to the vital appliances (freezer, refridgerator, sump pump.) This also allows you to trade generator time for other things with your neighbors.

The energy forum on Mother Earth News has a lot of knowledgable people on this subject.

Almost forgot: Maintenance- Make sure you run the generator under load at least once every six months or so to keep everything on the eletrical side working properly. Use stabil in the gas or keep it empty and make sure you have gas on hand. (Remembering Murphy was an otimist I would use the stabil route.)

Just my $0.02.

Rob Russell
08-24-2004, 5:14 PM
Your generator is 5600 watts, which is about 45 amps @ 125v. That's enough to run a 'frig, freezer and sump pump, a furnace and a few lights. Maybe a TV.

The way to hook that up is through one of the combination transfer switch/auxilliary panels. These attach to your main breaker panel and wire in as a subpanel. They have space for 6,8,10,12 or so circuit breakers depending on the model you get.

When you run off of the generator, only those circuits wired from the subpanel can be powered. You have a choice of which specific circuits to power by turning breakers in the transfer panel on and off. IOW, you might get a transfer panel that has 10 slots even though your generator can't handle all those circuits. When you switch to gen-power, you switcb over to the gen-panel with the master switch. Then, turn off breakers for everything except those circuits you want on - example 'frig, freezer, sump pump , lights. Say it's dinner time. You kill the frig and freezer and turn on the stove breaker. Cook dinner, although being careful about what you use - say 1 or 2 burners max. Done with dinner? Kill the stove and turn the frig/freezer breakers back on. Tell your daughter her hair dryer becomes MIA untill you get street power back.

These transfer panels have a switch or interlocking breakers that allow you to connect to either street power or the generator, but not both. That means you can't back feed the grid with your generator.

Gen-Tran is one commonly available brand - I've seen them at HD.

Does all of this make sense?

FYI, wiring this is isn't that much more complicated than installing a subpanel. The things are pretty self-contained. I'd do it myself, although would pull a permit and have it inspected.

Rob

Keith Starosta
08-25-2004, 7:30 AM
Thanks for the great information, Rob. I just might do some extra research and save myself some cash. :D

Keith

Tyler Howell
08-25-2004, 8:00 AM
Only worth 2 cents,
Keith if you choose to operate Home electronics and the like be sure to use a surge surpresser. The out put of a lot of Generators is pretty dirty.;)

Kevin Beck
08-25-2004, 11:44 AM
I noticed that Home Depot had the following signs on the door relating to generators:

1) No refunds on generators that have contained gas. Folks "buying" them and using them a few days and bringing them back. As Dennis and Keith noted, you will definitely need it again. Sears is charging a 30% restocking fee to discourage this also.

2) Generators should only be run outdoors.

2 of the 20+ deaths attributed to Charley were a father and son in Lake Wales who died from carbon monoxide poisoning from running a generator inside their home. These were grown men (50+ and 30+) who didn't know better than running a gasoline engine in an enclosed space?????

There have been articles in the local newspapers almost every day about generator safety and isolating the generators from the power lines has been a key issue.

My brother-in-law worked the clean-up of hurricane Frederic in 1979 in the Gulf Shores, Alabama area and they had to be extremely careful with generators feeding back into the transmission lines.

The latest death was a 50+ year old guy who fell out of a tree while trimming limbs over the weekend.

Seems like there are as many deaths after the storm as are caused by the storm. Folks just don't seem to have any common sense about safety.

Kevin