I have had standby generators since the ice storm back in the '80's where we were without power for 4 days just to find out the problem was half a mile down the road where the line men couldn't see the tree damage. Course since then they have better ways to track power.
I had a little 10 hp portable. It worked ok but had extension cords all over and I had to drag it out and put it up. I kept 10 gallons of fuel around and ran out. Couldn't get out to get more.
Then I bought a 16 hp portable, 6.5 kw primarily to run my welder in remote areas but to also use as a house backup. Same problem, having enough gas and dragging it out and the cords.
So we had another ice storm last December and another 4 days. I found that I used the smaller one due to fuel and again I had 2 ea 5 gallon cans on hand and ran out.
So this Feb. I decided to do something about the problem. I got a Generac 11kw permanent installation with a transfer switch and bought a 250 gallon propane tank. Tank fill max is 80% so I can only store 200 gallons.
The generator runs on just over 1 gallon per hour at half power and a little over 2 if I have the full load. Since the load constantly varies, and you can modify your activities when you are on gen power, no telling how long that will last; but it's a far cry better than what I had.
What put me onto the idea and the brand was last winter I was on here and some guy had a new house built and had included a Generac power unit. He showed us a picture. That started me to thinking and the rest is history.
I looked up the brand and found that they have built over 1 million units over the years. Good enough for me. Mine is fully automatic. It senses utility power and if it goes down for 15 seconds the generator automatically is on line, power transfer switch throws automatically and power is restored. When utility power returns, it turns itself off. Once a week it turns on and runs for 15 minutes to keep things lubed and the battery charged.
What's nice about it is that this past summer we had some electrical storms come through and we weren't the least bit concerned about having to do without lights and especially air conditioning. A real peace of mind. Money well spent.
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Today's Featured Article - Third Brush Generators - by Chris Pratt. While I love straightening sheet metal, cleaning, and painting old tractors, I use every excuse to avoid working on the on the electrics. I find the whole process sheer mystery. I have picked up and attempted to read every auto and farm electrics book with no improvement in the situation. They all seem to start with a chapter entitled "Theory of Electricity". After a few paragraphs I usually close the book and go back to banging out dents. A good friend and I were recently discussing our tractor electrical systems when he stated "I figure it all comes back to applying Ohms Law". At this point
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