Managed Whole House backup Generator
Central79
11 years ago
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brickeyee
11 years agoAnnie Deighnaugh
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Back-up generator selection questions
Comments (20)The tank is buried in a hole that is at least 2 feet wider and 2 feet longer than the tank. The hole is deep enough that only the piping stack shows when filled in, probably putting the top of the tank at least a foot under. The bottom of the hole has to be deep enough that it can be backfilled with rock-free sand. The entire tank is eventually filled in with filtered sand. In areas subject to flood or high ground water level, a concrete pad is poured into the bottom of the hole and the tank is chained to it so the tank won't rise out of the ground. The underground tanks are epoxy painted, and electrically bonded to a bag of magnesium to act as a sacrificial corrosion element. Your propane dealer should have means to test this periodically for efficacy. Put the bag in a location near the propane tank where it can be dug up without much risk to the tank. It should be at least as deep as the bottom of the tank, and watered in before the tank space is filled. (Be sure that the bag is removed from its shipping box before placement.) I don't recall hearing a tank lifetime value, but the magnesium will have to be replaced periodically depending on soil moisture, acidity, and other factors. Your local propane dealer should provide information. In addition to the tank hole, you also have to trench to the generator pad, and trench from the generator to the transfer switch. Don't put the generator next to the house, and ensure that it has total "air rights" above it. According to my town's fire code inspector who was once a fireman, generator fires are quite spectacular. Don't skimp on the power feed conductors; you don't want to waste some of your power heating the ground. Large conductors are not limp. Use 2-inch PVC conduit for the power feed from the generator to make wire pulling easy. Use an expansion joint at each end above ground. The control wiring conduit can be smaller. Most of the detail you will leave to your electrician unless you are qualified yourself, and in that case you will have means to find out. kas...See MoreBack-up Generator for the home
Comments (4)I'm aware of two basic types -- Gasoline-powered, and natural gas-powered. In general: - The gasoline-powered generators are portable, lower power (can't supply power to as many appliances) and are lower cost -- $400-800 or so depending on power. You also need to be able to get gas to run them, so if electricity's out for a long time over a large area, you could run out of luck when you run out of gas. When a prolonged power outage hits, you drag out the generator, fill it with gas, power it up, and plug extension cords into it. In general, they're also noisy and need to be turned off every few hours to cool down. - The natural gas generators I've seen are designed to be whole-house (or nearly whole-house) replacement power sources that get hooked up to the home's natural gas line and come on automatically near-instantaneously with any power outage. They need to be installed and hooked up by a professional, and home power uses are routed through the generator at the whole-circuit level. Unlike gasoline units, natural gas-powered units are quiet, and are supposed to offer an even enough power supply to operate computers without damaging them. I believe they run around $5,000 installed for a whole-house unit, slightly less for a smaller unit, and slightly more for more powerful ones. There was some speculation that natural-gas units might improve a home's resale value, but I'm not betting on it, except in the most hurricane-prone areas....See MoreBack-Up Generator
Comments (12)petey, after rereading my post i need to clarify a couple things. i don't take your comment as a slam, i think it was the way my post was worded. i hardly have a mini mansion. it is a 30 year old all electric house with 2 HVAC systems. it is not unusual at peak usuage during the summer for me to use 200+KWH a day. last winter i would sometimes even see 300+kwh due to the 2 heaters both having 19.2kw heat srips in them. run both of those at once, and 30kw genny ain't gonna cut it! but with a 30kw i could run one at a time to heat an area of the house, then turn that one off and run the other for a bit. i could run both AC units, but not heat. my post may have sounded like i HAD to have a bigger unit. in truth, if i wanted to run the whole house i would. the unit i have now does just fine, other than if we had an extended outage during the heat of summer i would have to do soemthing else. no way you can stay in an unairconditioned house here during August. i would not even have the genny if it were not given to me. i hardly have the money to buy one, too many other more pressing repairs at home take the money first!...See MoreWhole home generator
Comments (55)A buddy of mine is using a micro hydro for backup power. When their power goes out he opens up the gates on a holding pond. The flow drives the hydro and powers his house and studio. He can get about 30 hrs from it before the pond gets down too low. I'm not sure if he's using a Turbulent system or not. He says that overall it's not overly efficient because it uses a lot more power to refill the holding pond than it generates but it's worked well for him. He's slowly deploying more solar so hopes that will take him mostly off-grid in a year or two. Yes, your buddy definitely has a problem... ETA: Do whatever you want, you have obviously picked your side in this debate and are out to discredit other sides. The problem being that your argument is largely selective and tangential. Saving generators from landfills with batteries... Great job, since the environmental impact of battery production is exponentially worse for the environment than almost any other product you might use in your home. Every pound of battery produces about 450 pounds of toxic materials just in the mining process, while production into batteries produces more than double that. Photovoltaic cell production is nearly as bad. If you want to be off grid, just because you don't want to deal with the power company that is fine. But if you are doing these things to be green, then putting micro-hydro generators on ponds that are not fed by natural streams is destructive and silly. Powerwalls and poorly utilized micro-hydro generators, like many other green technologies, are too often done because people want to show off their green toys....See More8mpg
11 years agobrickeyee
11 years agoAnnie Deighnaugh
11 years agobrickeyee
11 years agomcclelland
11 years agobrickeyee
11 years agomcclelland
11 years agoCentral79
11 years agomainecoonkitty
11 years agomcclelland
11 years agobrickeyee
11 years agovirgilcarter
11 years agokcinkc71
11 years agoarebella
11 years agovirgilcarter
11 years ago8mpg
11 years agoCentral79
11 years ago8mpg
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11 years agoallison0704
11 years ago
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