Do you keep emergency supplies at home in case of a disaster?
We have a few weeks of food in the freezer and pantry that is just stuff we regularly use, 10-12 gallons of drinking water, plus a couple cases of small bottles of water. We have a generator and gas for it, plenty of wood for the fireplace, 3 twenty pound propane tanks for the grill and a small camp stove. I’m not too worried about natural disasters where we live.
I haven’t been great about that, but it’s on the to do. Generator and fuel for it are at the top of the list.
I got my generator as an anniversary gift from my company and haven’t used it yet. I think we’ve lost power 2 or three times over the last 20 years and the longest outage was maybe 7 or 8 hours. I’d rather have it and not need it just in case.
Have you tested it? I’m curious for feedback from whatever people are using.
Currently don’t know what to shop for other than the wild west of googling, retailer website reviews, etc.
Thus is the one I have, I know a couple people that have the same one and they say it works great.
I have not tested it, it’s still in the box, it will take 10 minutes to set up. The problem with generators is you have to run them every couple months and put a load on it. A lot of people buy generators set them up and they sit for a couple years and won’t start when you need it.
If I were to get one, would be a gas/propane unit. Have to be careful with the gas. After a period of time, gas may get stale and will gum up the carburetor. Fuel stabilizer should help or stop this from happening.
They make duel fuel generators, gas and propane. I would have bought one of those but I got my gas generator free.
Wife’s sister lives in an area that is prone to electricity outages. They got a whole house natural gas powered generator that is tied into their house’s breaker box. It kicks in within a few seconds of the electricity outage and shuts down when the electricity is restored. They love it.
That’s the way to go, but they’re pretty expensive and need routine maintenance. A guy at work has one, I think it was around $7,000 with installation, he said it runs for a few minutes every month automatically to make sure it’s working properly.
This is true but the most damage to the carburetor will come from ethanol based fuels. Stay away from E10 E15 from any small engine with carburetor.
Storing gas and keeping it fresh is a real PITA. The best method is to rotate stock frequently. Have stored gas cans and use them every 3-6 months in your car and buy fresh gas.
One thing that I have noticed in the past 10 years or so[maybe longer], if there is a power outage, power is restored a lot quicker. This is due in part, to repair trucks from electric companies may come from a thousand miles away.
There are tons of options.
Diesel generators are good because the fuel does not got bad as fast. The downside to my diesel generator is it will not start in below zero temperatures. Mine is a old commercial light tower and weighs about 600 pounds and is mounted on a trailer with a 80 gallon tank. It would run for about 160 hours continuously before needing fuel and oil change. I ran my whole house on this for 5 days.
Propane generators are great because propane will never go bad. Natural gas is good because it is way cheaper to operate than propane.
Sizing the generator is important. Too big and you waste fuel. Too small and you limit yourself on power. During disaster, minimizing your trips for refueling is important.
I have a 6000 watt diesel generator. It will run everything in my house but the central AC. It only uses about 1/2 gallon per hour.
I also have a 11000 watt welder/generator combo. This will power my whole house including AC. This was a multi purpose buy so it gets used more for the welder than it does for the generator. It is thirsty and can drink a gallon per hour. The other downside is it weights about 600 pounds and is not easily moveable.
I had a briggs 6500 portable that worked until I loaned it out. It worked fine and it is the same size that my dad uses for his house. It would consume about 1/2 gallon per hour.
I plan to buy a predator 3500 invertor for my camper. I have heard plenty of good things.
Propane is the way to go but will be insanely expensive to run if your relying on the 20# refill tanks. You get mega ripped off on those exchange tanks. I refill my own tanks off my larger propane tanks. There is now only 15# in those tanks and that is only 3.5 gallons of propane. Since propane is not as energy dense, it really equates to 2.75 gallons of gasoline. You are effectively paying $7.25 per gasoline gallon equivalent. If you have large home tanks it is way cheaper and typically cost less than gasoline.
The natural gas ones are great if you have access to natural gas. In the crazy unlikely situation where the river erodes the natural gas lines, it will not do you any good. These can be easily converted to propane.
First is to know what you really need. During emergency do you want to have full access to central air and clothes dryer, you are going to need a big one. If you can do without these, you can easily get by on 6000 watts. My parents use the 6500 briggs. It is too small to run their central AC. It can power the blower for their gas furnace but not the AC. They bought a small 110v window AC that they used when they lost power for a week.
Yes this is exactly what I want to avoid. Dropping hundreds of dollars for a piece of equipment that turns out to be a big paperweight when I need it.
I’m impressed at how thoroughly you’ve thought this through.
To avoid this issue, drain the remaining gas out after you use it. Start the generator and let the carburetor float bowl run dry or open the bowl drain screw and drain it out. Don’t do this process inside your garage or shop and don’t do it when the engine is hot.
One more thing people often overlook with generators is oil changes. The small ones recommend oil changes every 50 hours or run time. Yes this is every other day of continious running. Make sure you make it easy to access because you don’t want to do this in the freezing cold and in the dark. I’ve been there and done that. I installed a ball valve on the drain so it was easy to do. Have several quarts of oil on hand.
The other key is making sure you have your hookup cable ready. You really should have an electrician install a input and switch assuming it is not a fancy automatic thing. I finally installed the correct connection on my house. I have always done it a sketchy way. I also bought a 100’ generator extension cord so during terrible weather I don’t have to get my generator close to the plug in port. When bad weather happens, the generators sell out quick but so do the electrical connections that most generators use.
