Back up generators for home

[jrsharp21]

Does anyone have any suggestions on generators?

I live in the Houston area, and we just had the hurricane come through that knocked out power to over 2.5 million customers. Luckily we live in a community that has the electricity lines buried underground. Easier to fix than the exposed lines where trees fell on them. We were without power for about 2 days. There are still many people in the city and greater Houston area without power. With that said, it looks like it is going to be an active hurricane season and I think we are now convinced we need to get some type of generator for our house. I have been looking at generators online at Costco. Once they have had time to restock, may try to go pick one up in store. Heck, I guess I could even order online if needed.

 

[kdonnel]

Buy one that will run on propane.

Unless you regularly run a gas generator it will not work when you need it because the gas will have turned to gel in the carburetor and the gas will deteriorate in the gas tank and turn into a varnish.

If you don't buy one that runs on propane or natural gas make sure you run the generator monthly and change out the gas every 3 months.

 

[CGB]

We were without power for a week about 14 years ago after having just bought a side of beef. Thankfully, our in-laws (who we bought the beef from) showed up with their generator for us. Afterwards, we bought a gas-powered generator just for peace of mind. We've used it a couple of times in power outages to keep our fridge/freezer going. We do pull it out every fall when cleaning our leaves up and plug our electric leaf blowers into it. It keeps the gas cycled through it to prevent any problems.

 

[_19disnA]

Even if your power lines are underground, likely they get their power from other transmission lines that are above ground and could be impacted by storms. Smaller, portable generators are good for perhaps keeping your refrigerator/freezer going and some other smaller electrical things like lights. Whole house units are rather expensive insurance that may sit idle for years until there is an outage. Depends on how much you want to spend and what sort of outage you are trying to plan for. Need to look for the appropriate size unit that meets your needs. Many generator websites have calculators where you try to estimate your electrical demands and determine the unit that is right for you.

We have a mid-size generator that an electrician wired into our home circuit panel. Not nearly as expensive as a whole house unit and way more convenient to use instead of running extension cords all over the house to power up your essential needs. Won't run our entire house, but provides sufficient power during temporary outages for the most important electrical items.

Units can run on gas, propane or natural gas. Some run on multiple fuels which makes sense if there is an extended outage and you aren't able to find any additional supplies of gas in your area. There is an additive to put in the gas tank (just like for your lawn mower) as a preservative for when it is in storage or only used infrequently.

 

[bluezy]

Be sure to buy one that is big enough to run all of the things you need to "survive" during an outage. We've had a generator for over 10 year now and probably use it 2-3 times a year at least. We syphon the gas out of it every time we're finished with it and have never had an issue with it starting the next time we used it. Our electrician installed an outdoor inlet for the generator and we also needed to upgrade our electrical panel because we put an addition on our house, so he installed one that makes it very easy to switch over to the generator when we need to. If the power goes out, it takes us about 5-7 minutes to roll out the generator, fill the gas tank, start it up, and flip the switch in the electrical panel so the generator is powering the circuits we want running. We switched to almost all LED lighting in our house many years ago, which means they use very little power and we can run most of the lighting circuits off the generator at the same time, as well as both refrigerators and the freezer, the wifi, 1 TV on each floor, and then we switch out between HVAC and the water pump. Life is much easier during a lengthy power outage when you have a generator. It took a 5 day loss of power after being on the outer edge of a hurricane that pushed us to buy a generator. We had wired for one several years before (after a blizzard when we had a 3 month old baby in the house and the temp dropped to 45 *indoors*) but we never got around to buying the generator. The hurricane finally pushed us over the edge. I wish we had just put in a whole-house generator when we built the house, but the set-up we have now is pretty easy to get up and running...and far less expensive than the whole-house generator would have been.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

If you do invest in one, I'd be curious to hear what you decided.

We contemplated one after Harvey, but gold cold feet after the price rivaled a more modest new car. We were without power for 3+ weeks after Ike, but since I was home longer due to childcare issues, DH didn't really get how miserable it was to be without power. Hence why we've never gotten any kind of generator. He purchased something solar a few years ago but returned it because it didn't work as promised and they couldn't get us the extra solar panels for our needs.

We are some of the million+ that still have not had our power restored. We decided to get a hotel room, but had to go a ways to find something with power and rooms available. I consider us lucky, since many of our neighbors had trees fall on their homes. Still, power would be nice...since our chainsaw and yard tools are all electric. I wasn't planning on tackling the neighbor's tree in our backyard without their assistance, but the big limbs blocking our front door should be simple once we get power to use the saw. As it was, I drove from Kingwood to Dayton the other day to find gas.

In any event, I'll be curious to hear what you decide. Glad at least some people are getting their power restored. Hopefully we'll be soon. We're in a light green spot on that convoluted Centerpoint map.

 

[Cybertruck]

Back in the early 2000s I purchased a whole house generator for my parents. They lost power a couple times a year. During one storm event that hit their region hard they were without power for a week. I purchased a Generac with transfer switch (was a model close out deal). The unit was propane. I had 2 propane tanks which I purchased not leased. That was something I did not anticipate. I only found 2 places willing to sale me propane tanks (everyone wants to lease them and lock you into expensive propane refills). The unit ran every Sunday for period of time. In outage it the system automatically turned on. Lights out for a few seconds (clocks will flash and internet will go out). For the internet I installed a small battery backup UPS I got from Amazon to avoid that restart. Oil and filter change at regular intervals required. I also purchased an electric battery wrap that kept the battery from freezer. It was worth the investment for peace of mind epically as they got older. Once my father passed I moved my mother in with us. In the 10 years they live there just maintenance. No mechanical issues.

I currently live in Florida (4 years in August) and thought about a generator when we first move in. Interesting enough we only lost power about 5 times so far. Every time has been when it is bright and sunny. Never during a storm not complaining at all just funny. Longest outage has been 2 hours (again a sunny day). I have no current plans for generator. Only 2 neighbors in my development have them. Need permission from the HOA but they are allowed.

 

[jrsharp21]

If you do invest in one, I'd be curious to hear what you decided.

We contemplated one after Harvey, but gold cold feet after the price rivaled a more modest new car. We were without power for 3+ weeks after Ike, but since I was home longer due to childcare issues, DH didn't really get how miserable it was to be without power. Hence why we've never gotten any kind of generator. He purchased something solar a few years ago but returned it because it didn't work as promised and they couldn't get us the extra solar panels for our needs.

We are some of the million+ that still have not had our power restored. We decided to get a hotel room, but had to go a ways to find something with power and rooms available. I consider us lucky, since many of our neighbors had trees fall on their homes. Still, power would be nice...since our chainsaw and yard tools are all electric. I wasn't planning on tackling the neighbor's tree in our backyard without their assistance, but the big limbs blocking our front door should be simple once we get power to use the saw. As it was, I drove from Kingwood to Dayton the other day to find gas.

In any event, I'll be curious to hear what you decide. Glad at least some people are getting their power restored. Hopefully we'll be soon. We're in a light green spot on that convoluted Centerpoint map.

Sorry to hear you guys don't have power yet. I am in The Woodlands and we have Entergy. I think not being on Centerpoint is part of the reason we had our power back up so soon.

I know of some people who drove to Dayton also to go get gas. Once the power came back in The Woodlands, gas was available, but you did have to wait a little bit at some stations. My son was able to pull up to a station late afternoon yesterday and pump with no wait.

Given that it looks like we are going to have an active hurricane season, definitely want to pick up a generator before the next storm.

 

[AussieFan8]

We recently bought a solar generator which you can also plug in to charge so it's ready to go when the power goes out. It was a bit pricey but it's amazing - no reliance on gas and it's not loud like a gas generator. I love the versatility of it. We can run anything in the house except the air conditioner with the system we have. I'm considering getting a portable a/c to keep one room cool to sleep in.

 

[jrsharp21]

Be sure to buy one that is big enough to run all of the things you need to "survive" during an outage. We've had a generator for over 10 year now and probably use it 2-3 times a year at least. We syphon the gas out of it every time we're finished with it and have never had an issue with it starting the next time we used it. Our electrician put in an outdoor inlet for the generator and we also needed to upgrade our electrical panel because we put an addition on our house, so he installed one that makes it very easy to switch over to the generator when we need to. If the power goes out, it takes us about 5-7 minutes to roll out the generator, fill the gas tank, start it up, and flip the switch in the electrical panel so the generator is powering the circuits we want running. We switched to almost all LED lighting in our house, which means we can run most of the lighting circuits off the generator, as well as both refrigerators and the freezer, the wifi, 1 TV on each floor, and then we switch out between HVAC and the water pump. Life is much easier during a lengthy power outage when you have a generator. It took a 5 day loss of power after being on the outer edge of a hurricane that pushed us to buy a generator. We had wired for one several years before (after a blizzard when we had a 3 month old baby in the house and the temp dropped to 45 *indoors*) but we never got around to buying the generator. The hurricane finally pushed us over the edge. I wish we had just put in a whole-house generator when we built the house, but the set-up we have now is pretty easy to get up and running...and far less expensive than the whole-house generator would have been.

May I ask which model generator you have? Sounds similar to what we would be looking for. Our house has two HVAC units. I would only care about running the downstairs HVAC, the fridge in the house and garage, some lights downstairs, tv downstairs, and the wifi. An outdoor outlet sounds fantastic instead of running cords all over.

 

[TiggerTrigger]

We recently bought a solar generator which you can also plug in to charge so it's ready to go when the power goes out. It was a bit pricey but it's amazing - no reliance on gas and it's not loud like a gas generator. I love the versatility of it. We can run anything in the house except the air conditioner with the system we have. I'm considering getting a portable a/c to keep one room cool to sleep in.

Can you share what you bought? I think this would be appealing to my husband.

 

[Cybertruck]

May I ask which model generator you have? Sounds similar to what we would be looking for. Our house has two HVAC units. I would only care about running the downstairs HVAC, the fridge in the house and garage, some lights downstairs, tv downstairs, and the wifi. An outdoor outlet sounds fantastic instead of running cords all over.

I do know that information. I can tell you it was 20kw and cost about 4k all in at the time. I poured the concrete pads for the propane tanks and generator myself. My parents had a well pump (no city water) but only 1 HVAC unit. You can get a setup where only 1 AC unit runs at a time even if both call for power (extra cost at least back in the day). We did not include the oven and dryer (both electric). Lights (especially if you are all LED now like most people) and modern TVs really do not have much power requirements.

 

[AussieFan8]

Can you share what you bought? I think this would be appealing to my husband.

Sure! It's the EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra. We put a control panel for it in our garage next to our main breaker so we can flip the switches on and off based on where we want to use the battery.

 

[Cygnus 2112]

Right after Sandy here in NY I had a Generac 20k standby generator installed. We were without power for 10 days and it was terrible...my 2 young daughters at the time rolled with it but I said "never again". It was pricey (around $15,000 back then) but worth it. Only used it twice for extended periods but between that and the piece of mind I'm very happy. Runs the whole house including the 2 central AC units if need be. Power goes out and 10 seconds later you're back in business. We have natural gas and it runs off of that so no worries about having propane tanks buried in the ground/refilling them. I have a service contract with a company that comes twice a year to do preventive maintenance and will prioritize repairs if need be.

 

[MICKIMINI]

We have had a standby generator for about 25 years at 3 houses. It got us through many blizzards and ice storms including this spring. An electrician wired the connection to the board at all houses in order to be legal and avoid back feeding the line.

Our generator is 7500 watt. It runs the water pump, refrigerator, furnace, microwave and some lights (we minimize what we use). If we needed to run the a/c to cool the house down we would shut off the refrigerator breaker. DH shuts the generator down after about 5 hours to let it cool for about 20-30 minutes and then checks the oil and refills the gasoline tank. He stays home when the power is off as it gets dangerously cold up here (as it is dangerously hot in TX).

We negotiated to have the connection hooked up in our new house so I do not know what the actual cost was. It was under 2K about 10 years ago at another house. Don't cheap out on the generator. Make sure it is big enough to do what you need it to and be dependable. Understand how to set it up and how to use it.

I feel for all of you without power and hope it comes back on today.

 

[barkley]

a few months ago we replaced our generac that ran most of our house with a kohler that will run all of it (including water-we are on a well). i was shocked at how much the cost has increased in the 14 years since we purchased our first but the safety and the security is well worth the cost. ours runs on propane (i rent a 1000 gallon tank and am NOT locked into any horrific rental fee or fuel cost-in fact i pay less than most pay for their bbq tanks and FAR less than gasoline per gallon).

 

[Stratman50th]

Our motorhome has a 12.5kw generator. It runs off of the diesel tanks. We always keep the tanks topped off. I run it every other month. I thought about having a connection to the house but never did. When Irma hit we were out of power for 8 days. We lived in the motorhome and ran only the fridge in the house with an extension cord.
Many of our neighbors have Generac whole house units with large buried propane tanks. (No natural gas to our neighborhood). Mostly to run the AC. Here in Florida, especially in the summer it's kind of a big deal if you lose the AC for an extended period. Not only for comfort but to keep the humidity at bay. Mold and mildew can grow quick.

 

[TippyThomas]

Our motorhome has a 12.5kw generator. It runs off of the diesel tanks. We always keep the tanks topped off. I run it every other month. I thought about having a connection to the house but never did. When Irma hit we were out of power for 8 days. We lived in the motorhome and ran only the fridge in the house with an extension cord.

Same. I use my RV and the generator for emergency situations here. Works like a charm.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Does anyone have any suggestions on generators?

I live in the Houston area, and we just had the hurricane come through that knocked out power to over 2.5 million customers. Luckily we live in a community that has the electricity lines buried underground. Easier to fix than the exposed lines where trees fell on them. We were without power for about 2 days. There are still many people in the city and greater Houston area without power. With that said, it looks like it is going to be an active hurricane season and I think we are now convinced we need to get some type of generator for our house. I have been looking at generators online at Costco. Once they have had time to restock, may try to go pick one up in store. Heck, I guess I could even order online if needed.

First, I really feel for you. I live down in the Valley (near Brownsville), and we were the ones preparing all along for Beryl-but then at the last minute, she decided to take a turn and SURPRISE! Poor Houston got hit! We just lived without Wi-Fi one afternoon, as I understand most of Texas did.
Anyways, we now have a USP 3500 Watt generator from Harbour Freight. DH said it was so much cheaper than anything at Lowe's or Home Depot. And it's done its job-since we bought it way back after Hurricane Dolly (2009?) we've never had to use it. Hope you don't either!

 

[tvguy]

Buy one that will run on propane.

Unless you regularly run a gas generator it will not work when you need it because the gas will have turned to gel in the carburetor and the gas will deteriorate in the gas tank and turn into a varnish.

If you don't buy one that runs on propane or natural gas make sure you run the generator monthly and change out the gas every 3 months.

I agree, with one caveat, if zoning allows you to have a propane tank and how big it can be. That could be an issue in many subdivisions. It appears in my general area you can't have a propane tank bigger than 55 gallons. Generac says their generators use 2.1 to 3.6 gallons per hour depending on load, so you could only have enough fuel for about 2 days. My wife's step-mother lost power for 6 weeks after Rita. Her generator ran on gasoline, and she was able to get enough fuel to run it a week, but then there was no gasoline or propane to be had. There is not natural gas service in her community.