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Southeast Overland

Southeast Overland

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The :princess: and I are thinking about getting a generator hooked up to the house in case power goes out. We have a wood stove and fireplace that can heat the entire house but we would like to be able to keep the fridge/freezer, chest freezer, hot water heater, and maybe a light or two on.

I'm eyeing a Honda EU2000i, 2000 watt generator because I could use it for the house and for traveling/camping.

What is involved with getting a house set up so I can plug this bad boy in and have some emergency power?
 
I have a neighbor who set up his house for use with a generator. I think this requires an electrician as there is some danger to linemen if your generator is going and they are repairing the line. I think this is the switch Marshal is talking about. The switch is indoors and the hook-in is outdoors.

That looks like a fine generator especially for camping, but I think you might need a little more "juice" :beer: to power the multiple things in your home that you would want powered full time during an upstate ice storm: fridge, freezer, fan blower if you have gas heat, cable/tv (especially during the ACC tournie), water heater, well pump.

The most appealing thing I've seen is a freestanding outdoor generator (sort of looking like an AC unit)hooked into your LP or natural gas line. That Honda is one gallon of gas, which means frequent refills. It's a big investment that way, or

. . . you can do what I do: I go over to my friend's house (who's done it the $$$ way) and watch his TV and take hot showers.

Neat project!
 
Trollhole said:
You need a transfer switch to do it right.
Click to expand...

10-4

I assume this is something a licensed electrician has to do? I ain't touchin' nuttin' to do with wiring my house. The :princess: would string me up if I burnt the house down.

Turkeypen said:
That looks like a fine generator especially for camping, but I think you might need a little more "juice" :beer: to power the multiple things in your home that you would want powered full time during an upstate ice storm: fridge, freezer, fan blower if you have gas heat, cable/tv (especially during the ACC tournie), water heater, well pump.
Click to expand...

I won't be powering a fan blower or any heat or TVs. A wood stove can keep the whole house warm, TVs will be off, almost all lights will be off, but it would be nice to have the fridge and separate chest freezer running, and maybe hot water. Worse case we can skip the water heater and take hot baths with water heated on the wood stove. I've had that thing up to about 500 degrees! :grinpimp:
 
Call Blue Ridge Electric, my brother in law works for them, they can put a system in your house to meet your needs. It'll be done right and safe
 
you don't need a "certified" electrician to do it...this isn't NYC

my dad put the hook up in their house years ago. When the power goes out he parks the RV as close to the house as possible and runs the house off of the RV generator.

The biggest cost other than the initial install/purchase of the generator is service.

Gas only has a shelf life of about 30 days.

if you don't run her on a regular basis you'll probably be looking at a couple hundred for someone to go out and service/rebuild her carb along with a fuel system cleaning each year.

Diesel fuel lasts longer but is more prone to fungus growing in the fuel system.

If you can get by with just running the basics a portable generator that can also be used in camping trips/fishing trips etc will get both used more and save yourself $$$ on service by being able to take it directly to a shop rather than having to pay an on site repair for one of the larger stationary units.
 
Wife is all over my butt to do the same thing but not on such a grand scale. Looking for about 1500-2000 watts to power fridge/freezer. I also have wood heat with a blower but we could all pile up in the den and let the heat radiate off the heater to keep us warm. The propane units are the cats meow. They also make some that run on either propane or natural gas but mucho dinero!
 
There will definitely be a licensed electrician installing the needed stuff. I don't do home wiring and easily wouldn't catch a mistake. I've had guys do work before on my house that I sub'd out because I didn't have time and got a good price. I ended up paying for those in more ways than one. I should have sent one to jail this year but didn't have the time to deal with it.
 
the gimpey one said:
Wife is all over my butt to do the same thing but not on such a grand scale. Looking for about 1500-2000 watts to power fridge/freezer. I also have wood heat with a blower but we could all pile up in the den and let the heat radiate off the heater to keep us warm. The propane units are the cats meow. They also make some that run on either propane or natural gas but mucho dinero!
Click to expand...

you can make many gas motors run on propane

There are very little differences between the honda GX engines on pressure washers/generators that run on gas and the ones on floor buffers that run on LP



If all you want is 1500-2000 watts you could in theory build your own.

It's easy to find a pressuer washer with a bad pump and good motor (cheap to free)

using the existing frame put a pulley on it to drive a single wire alternator from a GM ($35-45) from advanced.

Then use a power inverter to convert DC to AC

I wouldn't run the TV, lights and fridge at the same time....id run the fridge until the compressor kicks off then unplug for a few hours to run the tv, lights, foot massager...then repeat the process.
 
eventhough said:
There will definitely be a licensed electrician installing the needed stuff. I don't do home wiring and easily wouldn't catch a mistake. I've had guys do work before on my house that I sub'd out because I didn't have time and got a good price. I ended up paying for those in more ways than one. I should have sent one to jail this year but didn't have the time to deal with it.
Click to expand...

i by no means get Joe blow off the street to do it.
 
You need that cutoff to the main and transfer to a separate box.
Needs a GOOD electrician.
I love my big ol red throw switch. Prevents MAJOR hassles and dangers.
I'd had this setup for decades. We keep meaning to upgrade since the current
generator will not run the new heat pump.
No biggie, fireplace etc
It will run the well pump, fridges,washer dryer,water heater.


We're thinking of going to big ol gas unit which will run the whole shebang.
Gas storage tank.
Having the oil furnace was NICE when the power is out. It was a minor draw.
Heat pump? MAJOR draw.
 
The problem with a gas storage tank is gas has a shelf life average of 30 days.


You can't fill it in September and assume you will be good to go in January. Especially ethanol fuel which draws water. Not only will a gas engine not run on water but also rust tanks and corrode carbs.


Even with stabilizer treated non ethanol fuel don't expect it to keep for more than 90 days.



Gasoline 10 years ago could be stabilized and stored 6 months.
 
dohcdelsol93 said:
you can make many gas motors run on propane

There are very little differences between the honda GX engines on pressure washers/generators that run on gas and the ones on floor buffers that run on LP

If all you want is 1500-2000 watts you could in theory build your own.

It's easy to find a pressuer washer with a bad pump and good motor (cheap to free)

using the existing frame put a pulley on it to drive a single wire alternator from a GM ($35-45) from advanced.

Then use a power inverter to convert DC to AC

I wouldn't run the TV, lights and fridge at the same time....id run the fridge until the compressor kicks off then unplug for a few hours to run the tv, lights, foot massager...then repeat the process.
Click to expand...

Pretty sure the mafia is only allowed to do something like this.
 
This is super simple.... buy a generator, I got a 8000w constant (10500w surge up) used, with electric start (battery was dead) or pull start, for $450, included a 8' 4 wire 4/0 wire and 4 ends, 2 for 50 A and 2 for 30A service, starts on one pull every time....

You take a wire of sufficient size (4/0 IIRC is big enough) and put two male 50A male dryer plugs on it,,, one goes into your generator, one into the dryer plug... BUT when the power goes out, BEFORE you start the generator you HAVE to turn off the main house-grid breaker.... or else you are back feeding power into the grid.. your neighbors house and lineman...etc.... THEN you have to figure out what is important to run... and add up the watts or amps and do the math... TV and Satellite are great, you do not need heat, refrigerator... maybe, maybe only run it every so often... or put things in coolers on ice/snow.. you might have to disconnect the frig when you turn on the water heater.

OKAY so you have your MAIN house breakers OFF,,, and all the small breakers ( labeled ) and OFF,,, your generator connected to the house through the dryer plug... start the generator, and turn ON the small breakers to make the circuits hot you want to run items off of (assuming you have figured your load and lowered it by about 25-35%) : refrigerator, freezer, water heater etc.....
The hardest part about this is figuring out what breakers go to what circuits,,, but just about every house I have lived in did not have a properly labeled breaker box, and figuring this out alone sucks.

My generator has a briggs 20 hp v twin.. .the gas has lasted longer than 30 days. It would probably last longer if you used Stabil and bought non-ethanol gas. As far as gas vs propane etc, I am pretty sure you can find conversion kits for propane and maybe natural gas, and it cant be that hard, but I do not know if you have nat. gas out in the boonies....

You are smart enough to do this.

Two hots, one neutral and one ground... your dryer probably only has 3 wires, 2 hots and a ground...

hiring someone does not guarantee a good job will be done,, you will either have to do some of it manually IE disconnect the house from the grid or pay for an automatic switch which will be big bucks.. and you will STILL have to turn some small breakers off because the generator you are looking at will be underpowered... and you know y'all will accidentally turn the lights on in the kitchen while under gen. power.., because you forgot... etc..

Buying/connecting a small generator will still mean some human interaction to make it safe,, either by purchasing a costly auto disconnect switch (like ones used by chicken houses around here) or by manually disconnecting the house before the generator is started...
 
Yeah - for someone who doesn't do home electrical besides installing a fan or light - that has plenty of area for me to burn the house down.

I know I can handle the protocol to turn the system on correctly - I just don't want the wife giving me the "you burnt the house down" look after I burn the house down.

I'm not interested in powering the whole house, just a few things.

I'm also fairly set on the Honda EU2000i generator bc I can use it for camping and home use. I don't need two generators. I need to save my $ for guns and blow.

:cheers:
 
The surge on start of the fridge/freezer will just about alone take the entire outpur of a 2000 watt generator, but if that's all you need then you are good to go. I have one in the shop and it is wired as 3 pits suggested, If the power just gliches for a few minutes it's back on before I can burn the house down. Take's me about 15 minutes to dig it out haul it over to the house, unplug the dryer etc. etc. plenty of time to shut off the breaker and isolated it from back load. It's a 6000 watt gas unit way to big for camping but just right for my little place will pull everyting except the elect. heat or dryer, Thank goodness I have a fireplace. I have tried a smaller output unit but I had problems every time the fridge compressor kicked in, but with the 6000 watt and a small home I have had no problem. :) Yet!!!!
 
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