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John Terefenko
03-14-2010, 12:44 AM
Well we are having a major, major rain storm here on the east coast. I have said thios from time to time but this storm has push me over the top. I want to get a back up generator and no I am not talking a whole house generator. Just something to keep some lights on and the sump pump running in times like these. I am looking for good brands and a good size. It would be nice to get one that doesn't rock the house either when it runs. Any thoughts???? Thanks.

Mike Archambeau
03-14-2010, 6:55 AM
John;

I bought a portable standby generator for my home about 7 years ago.

I wanted to run my well pump, boiler, refridgerator, etc. I went with a unit like this: http://www.cumminsonan.com/portable/products/standby/compare?gensetId=104&detail=true

You will need a tansfer switch. The transfer switch ensures that you do not send power to the grid where you could electrcute the very person who is working to restore your line power!

If you think you are going to be home when the power goes out, then you can make the transfer switch manual. All you do is throw a breaker on your transfer switch and then fire up the generator.

We have had to endure several days without line power during the 9 years I have lived in CT. But we fire up the generator, take our showers, flush our toilets, and let the refrigerator get its cool, then turn off the generator for a while.

Being portable means it is mobile, like a wheel barrel, so you can use it in other places, or take it with you if you move.

Makes sense to buy a good reliable one, after all it needs to work each and everytime or else you are no better off. Also need to think about keeping some fuel for the generator. My unit burns one gallon per hour at full load, and would run about 15 hours at half load. But there is no need to run this thing continously unless you are pumping water out of a wet basement.

I spent about 2 thousand dollars for my Onan generator, 500 dollars for a transfer switch, and about half a day running the wiring from my main panel to the trasfer switch. My setup is easy to use, and my bride knows how to use it if I am not home.

BTW my Onan uses a 14 hp motor, with electric start (battery of course) and is good for 5500 watts.

Honda makes a very nice generator too. But I found them to be pricey compared to the Onan, and the EMTs I talked too were all using Onan.

Hope this helps.

Myk Rian
03-14-2010, 9:50 AM
I have a 4400 watt peak unit. Does the well, fridge, furnace, couple lights, a tv, and the computer easily.
You need a transfer switch on the 220 volt to keep from electrocuting people down-line.

Joe Pelonio
03-14-2010, 10:03 AM
With our storm outages running 1-3 times a year and the need for occasional outdoor installation work with no power, I have managed just fine with a 5000 watt Generac. I got a great deal on it from a local rental company that had bought a bunch more than they needed to get a quantity wholesale price so it was new but discounted. I usually run the furnace (Gas, just for the fan) either the fridge or freezer (an hour each) and a few lights plus TV and cable box. It is pretty loud at 10HP so I keep it off 10pm-7am. From what I have seen Honda though more expensive makes the quietest one.

Keith Outten
03-14-2010, 10:22 AM
John,

Last year we needed a new generator and I decided the for me the best bang for the buck was to purchase a welder/generator. Now I have both a welder for my sign business and an 11,000 watt generator to keep SawMill Creek up online when we lose power for extended periods. I purchased a small inexpensive trailer for the Bobcat 250 so I could use it at remote sites for welding sign hangers, lighting and run electric tools and equipment. I park it in my barn and I have just purchased the wire to run underground to the shop. Once that is done I can purchase the transfer switch and other Stuff I need to make it a simple task to power up all the necessities.

Here is a picture of the new rig, I made a wooden pad from cedar, coated it with black undercoating, to go under the welder to isolate noise and vibration from the metal trailer frame.
.

John Terefenko
03-14-2010, 10:43 AM
John;

I bought a portable standby generator for my home about 7 years ago.

I wanted to run my well pump, boiler, refridgerator, etc. I went with a unit like this: http://www.cumminsonan.com/portable/products/standby/compare?gensetId=104&detail=true

You will need a tansfer switch. The transfer switch ensures that you do not send power to the grid where you could electrcute the very person who is working to restore your line power!

If you think you are going to be home when the power goes out, then you can make the transfer switch manual. All you do is throw a breaker on your transfer switch and then fire up the generator.

We have had to endure several days without line power during the 9 years I have lived in CT. But we fire up the generator, take our showers, flush our toilets, and let the refrigerator get its cool, then turn off the generator for a while.

Being portable means it is mobile, like a wheel barrel, so you can use it in other places, or take it with you if you move.

Makes sense to buy a good reliable one, after all it needs to work each and everytime or else you are no better off. Also need to think about keeping some fuel for the generator. My unit burns one gallon per hour at full load, and would run about 15 hours at half load. But there is no need to run this thing continously unless you are pumping water out of a wet basement.

I spent about 2 thousand dollars for my Onan generator, 500 dollars for a transfer switch, and about half a day running the wiring from my main panel to the trasfer switch. My setup is easy to use, and my bride knows how to use it if I am not home.

BTW my Onan uses a 14 hp motor, with electric start (battery of course) and is good for 5500 watts.

Honda makes a very nice generator too. But I found them to be pricey compared to the Onan, and the EMTs I talked too were all using Onan.

Hope this helps.




That looks like a nice unit Mike. Is it very noisy???

David G Baker
03-14-2010, 11:24 AM
I have a Honda inverter type generator that puts out around 6500 watts. It is so quiet that I can just barely hear it when inside of my house. It cost me around $3000. It is portable. The thing I have found about portable generators is to have all of the connections out of the weather because in most cases the need for a generator arises during nasty weather. I did not do that so on the coldest day of the year we lost power and I am outside in -4 degrees walking through 2 feet of snow stringing a 50 foot wire from my garage to the plug in at 2:00AM. ( I will take care of this error soon) We lost power the night before last at 11:00 PM during a rain storm. I decided that I was not going out in the rain and set up the generator. If I had it to do all over again I would probably get a whole house generator that had an auto start set up.

Mike Archambeau
03-14-2010, 11:38 AM
That looks like a nice unit Mike. Is it very noisy???

John;

The db rating is 76 dbs at a distance of about 15 feet. You would not want to stand right next to it while it is running. But from a distance you just hear a typical internal cumbustion engine running, not unlike a lawnmower being used by a neighbor. I know that honda makes a really quiet one that can be used on a movie set. But then you are into water cooled, fully enclosed units with a major price tag.

Onan makes nice equipment. You should check out Northern Tool as well: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/category_generators

Mike Sheppard
03-14-2010, 1:13 PM
We have a 5000 watt, after dragging it to house and running cords all over, I put a plug in the barn (shop) and run it from there. I pull the meter and can run most of house. We seem to have a lot of power outages here, about 6 to 8 a year and some last for days. DTE does not like pulling the meter, I told not to have outages and I will not do it.
Mike

Dave Johnson29
03-14-2010, 1:36 PM
Hi John,

If you only need it for stand by my suggestions is buy cheap. I have a Coleman 6500/5500 Watt that I bought for about $350 from Home Depot about 1998. I get about 20 outages a year and at least 6 of those will be 6+ hours. I drag the generator out after 5 hours. Harbor Freight have one for under 400-bucks.

I run extension leads to the important stuff like fridge freezer and computers. And at night a few lights, DVD player and TV set. I keep thinking about putting in a panel switch but the optimist in me hopes that the frequency of outages will decrease.

I have Uninterruptable Power Supplies on the computers. They hold through most outages for around 30 minutes. Beeping drives me crazy.

The point with the generator is it has probably only run for a hundred hours or less and is still pretty much like new. I use a squirt of spray-start and haul the cord for first time starts every time. I see no sense in tying up big bucks in a $2000 Honda one like my neighbor has.

Matt Meiser
03-14-2010, 3:19 PM
I agree on a relatively cheap one. We've got a 5500W Generac with a B&S engine from Home Depot that we've had for 8 years now. I pull it out when we are out for more than a couple hours. I do not run electronics on it anymore because we've had 2 UPS's and a microwave go bad not too long after running on generator. Maybe coincidence since it wasn't right away but a few days or weeks in each case. But it keeps the fridge, freezer, well, sump pump, furnace, etc going.

We bought it when an ice storm took out our power and the utility's phone system gave us an estimated time of restoration of 7 days. My shopping around consisted of finding one in stock and begging the Home Depot manager to hold it until I got there (I used the pregnant wife as an excuse to soften him up.) When I arrived he was quite literally sitting on it for me. It ran for 4 days straight. We even did a couple loads of laundry, but shut off everything but the well and washer/dryer (gas dryer) when doing so. The following summer was the Big Blackout and we used it a couple days then too. It can easily run our whole camper in addition to the fridge/freezer/well/sump so we can have AC out there in sweltering heat.

I pull it out each spring and summer and run it for a 1/2 hour or so with a lamp plugged into each phase to keep it up. I've heard if you don't use it under load it can demagnetize? It sure doesn't hurt so... I keep the tank completely full with Stabil in the gas. It starts by the 3rd pull even after sitting a while, usually on the 1st or second. I also use Mobil 1 oil and added an hour meter from Sears.

I also bought a little 650W baby Honda this past summer that is electronics-safe, but its main purpose is so the wife will agree to go camping away from an RV park. In an extended outage I'll probably use to run my laptop and network gear to work from home.

It looks like the odds are good that we'll get natural gas this summer based on a phone call I had Friday. Eventually we may look at a NG standby generator if that happens.

tyler mckee
03-14-2010, 5:13 PM
Have a honeywell 7500 watt for work, honda motor, electric start, right around $1000. Only thing i don't like is no auto idle, but if you want to for keeping lights and the fridge on i don't think that would matter too much as it would always be drawing anyways. has under 30 hours of use so i can't tell how it will hold up in the long run.

Scott T Smith
03-15-2010, 9:10 PM
I have 7 generators here on the farm, ranging from 4500 watt up to 225KW. Propane, Diesel, Gasoline models (although most are diesel).

Cummins Onan is a good brand - three of my gensets are Onan. One is a 5KW set up on an automatic transfer switch to keep the critical circuits in the house on (and the well pump). No problem with computers or TV's being fried either. My longest run time was 3-1/2 days solid with it.

Kohler also makes a very good generator.

Northern Tool has some pretty good deals on their own brands.

One of my units is a miller welder model, similar to Keith's.

Propane (or natural gas) is nice because you don't have to worry about fuel going bad. The downside is that it's difficult to refill a propane tank during an extended outage.

Let me know if you have further questions, and I'll be glad to share my thoughts.

Scott

Rod Sheridan
03-16-2010, 8:29 AM
Generators come in two flavours, those meant for portable use (neutral bonded to ground) or for stationary use (neutral floating).

If you have a stationary type, a 2 pole transfer switch is all you need, since the nutral won't be bonded to ground at 2 locations.

If you have a portable generator with the neutral bonded to ground (most common type) you need a 3 pole transfer switch that transfers the neutral so that it remains bonded to ground at one point only.

Obviously the portable type of generator is far more common, since you're expected to simply put it on the ground, hook up a ground connection and use it to run portable electric tools.

The stationary type will have a label stating "neutral floating" or something similar.

Regards, Rod.