Power outage again?? (live, store, propane)

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by Para

Hope the horse is OK.

She's fine..looks like she's picked up some sand in her gut and is now on a one week out of every month metamucil regimen to get the sand to pass through.

[Para]

Originally Posted by mistyriver

She's fine..looks like she's picked up some sand in her gut and is now on a one week out of every month metamucil regimen to get the sand to pass through.

Good to hear.

[oldafretired]

It would be ideal to have a setup like what Sage has but for those who don't, how do you handle the loss of power? My builder is going to install a transfer switch so I can at least hook up a generator and be able to pick the circuits to power like the refrigerator/freezer. I think I will give that a try and see how it works.

[mistyriver]

Originally Posted by oldafretired

It would be ideal to have a setup like what Sage has but for those who don't, how do you handle the loss of power? My builder is going to install a transfer switch so I can at least hook up a generator and be able to pick the circuits to power like the refrigerator/freezer. I think I will give that a try and see how it works.

Another thing to consider is wherhte your well pump will work without power. A generator does come in handy for that.

When we were completely off grid we never even knew when the power went out. It was quite nice.

[aiden_is]

What I'm learning about the current crop of generators is that the tiny motors are ill-designed for 24/7 operation. They have insufficient cooling, incorrectly timed (too high RPM), and require regular maintenance. I'm seriously considering sourcing an older diesel generator that I can put on a trailer and add an inverter and batteries, hook it all to a controller, and have the battery bank power the house. That way I can run the generator only when the batteries need to be charged. This would have the added benefit of allowing me to add solar capacity at some point. Since I'm renting, I'm very cautious about putting any money into a permanent solution.

[oldafretired]

Originally Posted by mistyriver

Another thing to consider is wherhte your well pump will work without power. A generator does come in handy for that.

When we were completely off grid we never even knew when the power went out. It was quite nice.

My lot doesn't have a well so I guess I lucked out there with one less thing to supply power to.

Originally Posted by aiden_is

What I'm learning about the current crop of generators is that the tiny motors are ill-designed for 24/7 operation. They have insufficient cooling, incorrectly timed (too high RPM), and require regular maintenance. I'm seriously considering sourcing an older diesel generator that I can put on a trailer and add an inverter and batteries, hook it all to a controller, and have the battery bank power the house. That way I can run the generator only when the batteries need to be charged. This would have the added benefit of allowing me to add solar capacity at some point. Since I'm renting, I'm very cautious about putting any money into a permanent solution.

My brother has a couple of Honda generators which seem to work well. We ran them all day at the race track and he uses them when he goes camping with his trailer. I don't know how well they would work running 24/7 though but I would hope a power outage wouldn't usually last for over a week.
I was thinking of getting one of their 7000 watt inverter generators so I could power the water heater if the outage last more than a few hours.

[hatin11r]

Originally Posted by Sage of Sagle

We have ours serviced once a year. It's a Generac.

Ours starts itself up every Monday at 10AM and runs for about 5-10 minutes or so I'd say (I forget exactly...I don't even pay attention any more...I just hear it start up now).

Yes, propane price has gone up, but the cost of losing EVERYTHING in our freezer and fridge would cost more. And we have a second freezer in our pantry with stuff we freeze from our garden (from all our tomato crop my wife and daughter make enough marinara and salsa to last us most of the winter, and we have enough frozen berries and other produce to last us a LONG time).

Sage.......just wanted to share a tip I got from an Onan tech. He stated to me it was advisable to put a load on the gen. during the weekly test run. (20 mins. or so) That way you are exercising your motor and the gen. itself, thus giving you a real life example of your systems health/capabilities. Thus I would turn off the electrical service at the pole and use my manual transfer switch and run every component in the house. Even with 2 A/C units,fans,dbl.ovens and so on,the most I pulled was 75 amps. My unit was a Onan 45kw w/a straight 6 Ford engine rated for 239 amps. Always worked well. Your mileage may very....just sharing the info....

[mistyriver]

We had a diesel, but never thought it was really any better than the gas or propane, and it was easier to keep propane so that's what we stayed with. But in the planning stages of going off grid, EVERYONE wants a diesel.

[Clark Fork Fantast]

We're managing with a little generator at our property. We had every intention to get hooked up to Northern Lights, but it turned out it would set us back $7000 for the trench alone. Hmmmm. That would buy us 2 excellent generators...So we'll be off the grid for a while yet...

[aiden_is]

I found a little 5kW Onan gas generator with a trailer I'm going to look into. I think it will make a great foundation for a mobile power plant with batteries. I'm envious of those of you who have the larger units and infrastructure already in place.

Originally Posted by mistyriver

We had a diesel, but never thought it was really any better than the gas or propane, and it was easier to keep propane so that's what we stayed with. But in the planning stages of going off grid, EVERYONE wants a diesel.

I think the lure of diesel is that they can run on just about any kind of fuel like kerosene, etc, so they have a better perceived usability. I have no idea how true that is in practice however.