Archived from the Tools In Action forum (Pub Talk). This thread is read-only.
They had to fix some damage from last sundays storm and to do it they had to turn our power off for a day and a 1/2. Two weeks ago my cable service took a crap :/. It’s not my month regarding utilities.
Sucks. Sorry to hear that DR.
I need a generator except it’s hard to justify getting one power here is pretty reliable. We might lose power once a year if that. If I did get a generator I want to have enough power and set up so I can power up the house so I need an electrical panel interlock and outdoor 50 amp outlet.
The power is reliable here too but we still have a 5kw generator. We have some storms occasionally that can take out the power for a few days at a time. It can power the lights and a major appliance (fridge, dryer, ac). My grandpa has a 10kw one and it can power their whole house and his shop as well (either welder or air compressor). An 8kw to 10kw should be big enough for your needs.
I just wish I was more comfortable with working in the panel and 220 power because I would toss in a exterior generator powerimput. Its not that complicated doing that and the interlock from the diagrams and youtube videos.
Ours just plugs into an outlet and it feeds to the whole building
I am in the same boat. Our power is reliable, but have lost food in the fridge twice in the last five years. I had a generator and dumped it because i was tired of moving it around, starting it and storing it. I have a one car garage, which i can’t park in. The generator takes up to much room. I was thinking about getting an inverter just for the fridge.
Someone should invent a generator that fits between two studs. Then have a nice cover grill.
For some one like you Eric it might be worth it to build a small generator doghouse it serves two purposes it keeps the noise down when you run it and provides a place to store it when you don’t need I seen a few guys on youtube and websites that have done it. They also have added larger mufflers to help with the noise too. The other thing is fuel storage gas is a pain in the ass with the gas powered generators fuel goes bad way too easy and with the time between outages being years it’s such a pain Diesel, natural gas and propane are better options. What sucked was the temp took a nose dive and it got cold around here in the 20’s and not being able to run the furnace was a huge problem can’t even use the stove to heat the house because of the electronic ignition they use now. It got into the 50’s inside the house power outages are so much easier to deal with in the summer this outage was BS our electric company needs to replace worn out utility poles they are not replacing them often enough they only have a live span of a bout 50 years and these ones are pushing 60 or so they are just super dry rotted out by now.
We just run the gas completely out of the tank. The gas can’t go bad if there isn’t any.