Got a 100ft 6/3 & 8/1 STOW cord to plug into house, works great
Emergency Power/Storms/Prepping etc
- Thread starter IReallyLikePizza2
- Start date
I've been working on a big spreadsheet with everything I need for any disasters etc, coming along quite well. A lot of math linking back to other cells
After living here for 19 years, finally decided to get a whole-house generator. The tipping point was having to rope-start my propane 3.5kW portable generator several times during the period of my cancer therapy....man, it just about killed my shoulder each time.
Got the 26kW Kohler (below) put in a couple of weeks ago with a 200 Amp ATS. A Kohler model 26RCA, it's propane and air-cooled. It's quiet and quick, is set up to run a fully loaded, scheduled exercise every Monday at 10 AM. An app on my phone alerts me when it kicks in and I can look at its vital stats (status, run-time, oil temp, change exercise schedule, etc.). No regrets.
The beauty is that my manual transfer panel (below) that I installed in 2011 remains in-place and will allow, just as before this install, the connection of the 3.5kW propane portable to the house in case something happens to the 26kW for any reason. The portable powers lights, fans and an outlet or 2 in the master bedroom, master bath, kitchen and living room (no A/C, stove, oven or clothes dryer....nothing 240VAC)...just the bare minimum which includes Internet and the TV.
Got the 26kW Kohler (below) put in a couple of weeks ago with a 200 Amp ATS. A Kohler model 26RCA, it's propane and air-cooled. It's quiet and quick, is set up to run a fully loaded, scheduled exercise every Monday at 10 AM. An app on my phone alerts me when it kicks in and I can look at its vital stats (status, run-time, oil temp, change exercise schedule, etc.). No regrets.
The beauty is that my manual transfer panel (below) that I installed in 2011 remains in-place and will allow, just as before this install, the connection of the 3.5kW propane portable to the house in case something happens to the 26kW for any reason. The portable powers lights, fans and an outlet or 2 in the master bedroom, master bath, kitchen and living room (no A/C, stove, oven or clothes dryer....nothing 240VAC)...just the bare minimum which includes Internet and the TV.
I have a Costco pack of AA batteries for my 2 flashlights and 2 cases of water. holy hell dude.
Very nice install @TonyR !!! Looks super professional, and I love that huge concrete pad
That pad is butted up to the driveway at the side door and garage door. IMO, a thick poured concrete pad is much quieter than the precast plastic ones which seem to broadcast the generator's sound like the paper cone of a speaker.
Yeah, they always become super wonky too after a few years
Concrete is the only way to go IMO
Concrete is the only way to go IMO
BORIStheBLADE
Getting comfortable
Does your house run off Propane or is there a large tank stored next to the generator?
Of course, projects stacked up as I dealt with this cancer. Had my last of 8 IV chemotherapies 2 weeks ago yesterday, went for lower MRI yesterday, will get upper CT scan in 2 weeks. In 3 weeks doc will look at those scans and I'll find out how the rectal tumor is going and where I go from there.
One of those belated projects is a couple of cams, one on either side, to keep an eye on the generator. Since the POTS (land line) is no longer in use and is run into a Leviton panel with punchdown, I cut the conduit down, capped it and will use four of the six twisted pair copper conductors for 2 future cameras (same color code as CAT-5e/6! )....saves from drilling thru masonry. There's a RJ-45 female keystone inside the grey circular PVC box.
One of those belated projects is a couple of cams, one on either side, to keep an eye on the generator. Since the POTS (land line) is no longer in use and is run into a Leviton panel with punchdown, I cut the conduit down, capped it and will use four of the six twisted pair copper conductors for 2 future cameras (same color code as CAT-5e/6! )....saves from drilling thru masonry. There's a RJ-45 female keystone inside the grey circular PVC box.
Yes, there's a 250 gal. propane tank to the right, out of frame, for the house (dual fuel central HVAC and 3 back-up blue flame heaters).
Either my math is bad or there are wildly bogus claims to sell batteries. The BS is just as bad as the political junk.
That "whopping" 24,000 Wh figure is of course normally called 24 KWh. Extrapolating that from 2 weeks to a month says that the "average" household uses about 50 KWh of electricity per month, which is laughable. IMO a lower than average household might get by with 500 KWh per month assuming no air conditioner, heat pump, or resistance heat usage. Bottom line, they say 100% of average household supply, and I say 10% of below average household supply. A wee bit of a difference.
Heck, just a modest 75 watt camera system on its own will run this thing fully out in 13 days. 24,000 Wh/75 watts = 320 hours = 13-1/3 days.
I fear that a lot of non-technical people are going to spend a lot of money and be sorely disappointed.
Additionally, the article intro says:
He talked about it charging an iphone, running a mini fridge, and a few other devices, but not a peep about keeping his home running.
And for the final insult:
Some of the comments nailed it:
This portable battery station can power your home for two weeks - but here's its real best feature
That "whopping" 24,000 Wh figure is of course normally called 24 KWh. Extrapolating that from 2 weeks to a month says that the "average" household uses about 50 KWh of electricity per month, which is laughable. IMO a lower than average household might get by with 500 KWh per month assuming no air conditioner, heat pump, or resistance heat usage. Bottom line, they say 100% of average household supply, and I say 10% of below average household supply. A wee bit of a difference.
Heck, just a modest 75 watt camera system on its own will run this thing fully out in 13 days. 24,000 Wh/75 watts = 320 hours = 13-1/3 days.
I fear that a lot of non-technical people are going to spend a lot of money and be sorely disappointed.
Additionally, the article intro says:
He talked about it charging an iphone, running a mini fridge, and a few other devices, but not a peep about keeping his home running.
And for the final insult:
Some of the comments nailed it:
This portable battery station can power your home for two weeks - but here's its real best feature
Yeah, even Tesla PowerWalls and other big dollar home batteries pull the same stunts, its like they cherry pick the lowest usage house on the planet
I got told by a sales rep a single power wall could power my house for 5 days. They are 13kwh, and I use around 80kwh on a typical day here in Houston...
I got told by a sales rep a single power wall could power my house for 5 days. They are 13kwh, and I use around 80kwh on a typical day here in Houston...
yes, but you don't tend to buy a powerwallfor backup power.....it's normally bought in conjunction with a solar system.....with while the battery is only 13kwh - you're generating power all day that you consume, with the battery just for sunset to sunrise.
Also curious all you guys buying honking great big generators - how to they compare in price to a whole house solar with 1 or 2 battery backups? and generate your own power?
I did the math. Using Enphase 10's I'd need to get 4 of them ($60,000 to $80,000 total cost) to make it ONE NIGHT during a worst case situation with hot humid weather, and I'd have to hope it was sunny the next day, and they would need to be 100% before hand also
Currently, I don't see the benefit of home batteries from a cost perspective
The one benefit I do like is that I could integrate my generator, and if it is sunny all the time, no need to run, and then on cloudy days the generator could run, during an outage. That would drastically extend the amount of time you could run off grid. But, what situation is that really?
I guess there's no harm in a generator for your emergency supply, but you'd add solar + a battery just to reduce your reliance on the power grid - ie against rising costs. So it would (hopefully) reduce your utilities costs most of the time, and then you can feed your battery/house during an outage via solar + generator.
I don't think the math works out. So lets say I spend the $80K, I will still sometimes need to import power, so my bill would never be truly zero dollars, but mostly would be
But, then I have a loan payment on an $80,000 battery system. Lets say it saves me $120/month in utility costs (Very high estimate, as my bill is never that much currently with solar), it would take 666 months to break even, which is 55 years
I think the ONLY way batteries make sense right now is DIY
Lets half the battery cost, and more than double the savings, so I paid $40K and saved $300/month. Well now it takes 133 months to break even, which is still 11 years. Well, how long are these batteries realistically going to last? Probably about 15-20 years TOPS I assume, so is there even a benefit?
FWIW, I'd LOVE to have batteries on my house just because they are cool, but I have other big ticket items I want to buy first (Like a metal roof!)
80k seems very high. I was look at at 40k systems in NZD - which would be 20k USD. I use about 30kw a day (plus natural gas at the moment which I'd want to transition off)
Specs on the system?
We probably use a lot more power than you do, being in a tropical climate using AC nearly 24/7 for 10 or more months of the year