Standby/Backup Generators

[SB]

10-4, Rowdy. That makes sense.

[southdeltan]

That is probably more than you asked for.

Not at all. Great info, typical DS. I totally agree with Diesel - there are tanks of it all over the Delta.

My question is how many kw does the typical 1500-ish square feet home use. I think I have a 3 ton heat pump and am (unfortunately) all electric at the moment (hot water, stove/oven).

I do have a fireplace but it's basic old fashioned and 90% of the heat goes out the chimney. I need to get an insert or gas logs but it ain't in the finances right now. I'll put in a gas stove when I do that. Plan to keep the electric HW heater til it dies and likely replace with tankless.

[MudHog]

That is probably more than you asked for.

Not at all. Great info, typical DS. I totally agree with Diesel - there are tanks of it all over the Delta.

My question is how many kw does the typical 1500-ish square feet home use. I think I have a 3 ton heat pump and am (unfortunately) all electric at the moment (hot water, stove/oven).

I do have a fireplace but it's basic old fashioned and 90% of the heat goes out the chimney. I need to get an insert or gas logs but it ain't in the finances right now. I'll put in a gas stove when I do that. Plan to keep the electric HW heater til it dies and likely replace with tankless.

Consumption varies and you could do many different routes. A true "whole house" generator is very large if you intend to live on standby power as if you were on grid power. An example would be general service into a residence is 200 amps, so your generator would need to be sized for 200A. THAT is a BIG generator. Another option is to look at the breakers for you A/C, stove, and Furnace. For me, my main concern is hurricanes, so I need A/C more than I need heat. In your case, you may be more concerned about power loss during the winter so heat is more of a concern. Look at the breakers and see what size breaker is running that item. Then look at generators. The breaker will be amp, so amps times volts equals watts (generators are sized as watts). Example: 30 amps on 220 volts is (30*220) 6600 watts.


What I do, and most people do, is select what you want to run at what time so I can have a smaller generator. My generator is big enough to start and run my a/c, but is not big enough to run my furnace. I can operate the stove, but have to turn other items off. A typical generator installation will have the generator wired into certain circuits in the home. Lights, wall outlets, and select appliances. The benefit of that is you don't have to worry about manually turning breakers on or off within the breaker box. I don't mind doing that, so I simply turn breakers on and off. Example, I don't need the water heater running 24/7, so I have it off and turn it on only when we shower. For freezers, they stay cold as long as they aren't opened, so I leave then off and run for a couple hours a day just to stay cold. All of that allows me to have a much smaller generator.


On your fireplace, can you install a damper on the chimney? If you have that much heat going out the chimney, then you have to much of a draft. Draft is the heat rising drawing in cold air into the fire. You want just enough draft to have a clean burning fire. Any draft above that and your losing heat out the chimney like you mentioned.

[southdeltan]

I believe it has one. I probably just don't know how to adjust it right. The wife doesn't like a fire, allergies and whatnot.

[ScottBrown]

Nice post Mudhog. How did you connect your generator to your electirical box? I have read of several ways and it seems that the transfer switch is the most popular.

[MudHog]

Nice post Mudhog. How did you connect your generator to your electirical box? I have read of several ways and it seems that the transfer switch is the most popular.

Thanks. The National Electrical Code (NEC) refers to "hands of motion" when it comes to transferring power and only one (1) hand of motion is allowed by code. A manual transfer or auto transfer switch meets NEC as there is only one hand of motion to transfer power. I personally have mine backfeeding my panel in my home which is a secondary panel to my service entrance. This gives me two (2) 200A breakers I can turn off to prevent backfeeding to the grid. Right now my generator is on a trailer and I bring it to my house when needed, but I do have plans to hard wire it and then I will go with a transfer switch. I have a plug under my house that I plug my generator cord into and a generator breaker in my panel. I use the breakers to control what I want to run as I do not have enough kw to run my entire house. I only have enough to start/run my central a/c. Although the auto transfer with auto start is nice, I don't want my generator running for every little power outage. We tend to get an outage during a blue bird sky fairly often. For that reason, I will go with a manual transfer switch when I do my permanent install.


There is a panel "interlock" available which takes a standard 200A panel and adds an interlock plate to the generator breaker. This plate forces only one of the main or generator breakers to be on at one time. One must be off before the plate can slide to turn the other breaker on. Here is a picture of one:




The problem with people and generators is the backfeeding to the grid which could injure or kill a lineman. That said, there would be multiple homes during an outage with appliances still on to where even a small 25kw generator would bog down and shutoff. The problem is real, but unlikely to occur (has occurred in the past though).

[simplepeddler]

some pretty good info here......

I can assure of this, I have a 20KW hard wired with the auto transder switch and it is VERY nice.....I am in the electrical supply business. When a storm hits, I have to be in the office.

I simple do not want my wife having to worry about having gas, hooking things up and the like.

home is 2600 living, with gas heat, hot water heater and stove. A 3 ton and a 2 ton unit.

Mine has never failed to run the entire house with whatever demand I put on it.
I can run my pool pump if I need to as well.

[JLT]

I have a 20kw hard wired as well. Mine runs on propane and I have a 1000 gallon tank. No idea how long it would run, but it will be better than nothing. I would only run necessities in the event of another Katrina like disaster.

[RebelYelp]

We sell / install (and I personally have) Generac. Absolutely zero complaints out of them, from price to install to service.