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Power when there isnt any


MrZ2u

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Since that wonderful week in Feb 2021 destroyed my tank I have been doing some research into how to prevent that from happening again.  I thought I would share my thoughts and plans in the event any of you are thinking about this topic as well.

We lost power at 05:00 on Monday and didnt get it back at all till 05:00 on Friday...there was no rolling happening here!  Our furnaces are gas but their blower motors obviously aren't.  I had a genny that was a little over 20yrs old and for the last 6.5 yrs its been stored outside under a canoe on sawhorses...in other words, not the best way.  It was only 3000w anyway so it wouldnt have done what I am going to do with the new one I have now :)  

I wanted a duel fuel that would make at least 5500w running power while using natural gas.  My calculations put running my house as if the power wasnt out during that week at about 4300-4800 watts provided we didnt run the dryer, oven or microwave.  I didnt put a clamp on the mains to confirm this and will but I feel pretty solid about those estimates. 

I landed on this fella  https://www.homedepot.com/p/WEN-11-000-8-300-Watt-120V-240V-Dual-Fuel-Gasoline-and-Propane-Powered-Electric-Start-Portable-Generator-with-Wheel-Kit-DF1100T/307728024

In addition to making the required wattage I wanted it to have a 50amp outlet and dollar per watt this is the best value that met my specs.  Now there is a way to make the price even better.  If you buy direct from Wen and in a quantity of 8 then they are only $700 with no tax and free shipping.  I put out a call on nextdoor for people to join up to buy in bulk and we ordered 12 in total.  

It is dual fuel and I said natural gas above...dual in this case means gasoline and liquid propane.  I have not yet tinkered with running it on NG yet but any internal combustion engine that will run on LP will also run on NG if you can feed it enough.  I'll come back with the particulars on that once I have it worked out.  It could be just a new orifice like it is on a LP grill.  It could also be that a typical 1/2in line that most houses are plumbed with wont make the volume needed.  Lots to consider...work in progress.  Stay tuned.

In any event it will provide me more than enough to run the whole house.  But we need to define "whole house".  For me that means whole house minus the AC's because I suspect those are power budget breakers for this particular genny.  For anyone with electric heating, furnace and/or water, this dings you there as well though not as bad as the AC because they dont have the same starting spike as the compressors do.

Now about that 50 amp outlet on the generator.  You dont run a bunch of extension cords in the house...that not whole house and you cant plug in the furnace anyway.  You are going to need a way to attach to the breaker and back feed your house thru its own breaker panel.  This is pretty easy as it turns out.  Even if you need to do it per "code" and lets be honest, code is just a minimum set of standards.   I bought this "RV outlet" from Lowes and will wire it to my main panel with 6ft of 6ga wire...which exceeds what code calls for.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/GE-50-Amp-Temporary-RV-Power-Outlet/5001461125

I am not putting a interlock on mine, or at least I havent decided that I am...probably not.  What that is for is preventing you from having this outlets breaker on while the main panel breaker is on.  There are two reasons you dont want to do that. One is that if both are on you will also back feed into your service line and that is a safety issue for any linemen working down stream from you by making what they would expect to be a dead wire live.  The other is you waste power and in some situations may possibly overload the genny.

What you want to have is a "RV outlet"   Not a transfer switch.  That nomenclature can mean a big price delta...and possibly a code hiccup as well.

This video explains the process pretty well.  
 


Hope you all find this helpful...

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