Alarm went off at 4:45 and I thought it sounded funny, turns out power is off and the alarm was powered by batteries that were a little weak. Wife has an early doctors appointment, and I needed to get up and go check on some calves that are being weaned. So, go out to the garage, wheel generator out, hook it up, throw the disconnect on the box so as to not allow the generator to feed back through the lines, and fire it up. While the rest of neighbors are sitting in the dark, I've got power.

My generator is a 8000 running, 13,500 startup, and will run the basics here. I have the TV and computer on, made coffee, used the microwave, several lights on, and the hot water heater is on. I have ran the A/C with it, but don't need it this early.

It's nice to be able to do this.

I've done that many times.

Last big power outage we had lasted 5 days for us, 7 for nearest neighbors.

When our road was cleared the line crew chief came and asked for my connection cord. Said they would not begin work til he had it in possession. He promptly returned it when service was restored.

Eventually I decided to put in the correct service transfer and have had no further issues.

The correct service transfer is a must. It cost me about $500 or so have it installed, but it's worth it, as it's a potential hazard to a line crew if you are running a generator without one.

That 5 day service interruption was 18 years ago. Never had any difficulty with throwing the disconnect and plugging into the dryer outlet.

But I took the guy at his word that it was a hazard, and had the service transfer installed. Longest outage since was 13 hours, but all 13 hours were way below zero temps and having power meant a lot.

On the 5 day interruption we'd have had no water or air conditioning and it was high summer with temps in the upper 90s. We'd have lost everything in the freezers and the fridge.

Pay yo bill it's that simple and you won't get disconnected.

https://youtu.be/U-PQQX4Itzk

Nice to have backup. Especially in long term outages.

Lololol 😂😂

+2
PAY YO BILL
goodzit Slumlord .

I have 2 generators, a small 1200 watt, and a 5000 watt Honda for when it go's out for longer periods of time, usually only when there is a forest fire, which has happened twice before where the power was out for 5 days each time. Just gotta make sure you have enough fuel so you dont have to leave the property to run out and get it.

I use two. One for the water system/well/pressure tank and one for the house and freezers.

I bought a 22KW unit and a automatic switch when I retired. Wife figured that we would mis having a bucket truck parked in the driveway 24/7! Also figured that the response times would increase drastically, and they did. I've had a little trouble with it and I'm not sure if I would buy a Generac again but it has been nice having it.

I had a 36Kw Generac QuietSource unit installed at our house in CO. It has only run a few times, never while we were there, but having it gives me peace of mind.

Wherever we end up retiring, I'm going to have a Generac QuietSource installed if we have natural gas, but I'm not 100% sure that I'd do it if I had to run it on propane.

Reminds me. I need to get ours out and hooked up for a test run before Winter sets in.

Thanks!

All I care about is my freezers.

I have 4 freezers and 2 refrigerators.
If it's deer season, I usually have my walk-in cooler with something hanging in it. Mine or someone else's carcass.

Have to play generator roulette during outages. Let one freezer have power for 4 hours, then switch the umbilical to the next unit. With a dippy 6kw I got at Lowes.

Looking into getting a tractor PTO generator.

t 4:45 am, I could care less if the power is on. 😜. If I need coffee, I have a gas option. I have a generator of course, living in FL, but I have only needed it once in the past 15 years.

Well, about an hour or so after I holed the generator up, the power came back on. But, I had my coffee on time, and by damn, that's what's important to me first thing in the morning. Well, anyway, the generator needed running.

Neighbor across the street has one , runs it on propane, seems to work just fine for him.

5000 watts works good for me in the aftermath of the hurricanes we get here.

That's enough to keep a small window AC , a freezer & the refrigerator going.

Mike

If I were doing things over, I'd have gotten a Generac unit, and it would have to be a propane one since I'm out in the sticks with no natural gas anywhere close. Having said that, our outages are usually brief, the result of a thunderstorm and are more of a temporary nuisance than anything else. About every 15-20 years we'll have an ice storm that knocks out the power for several days. Our electric lines aren't hard to get to, so usually it doesn't take a week or more to fix them, as is the case in some areas around these parts.

About 10 years ago, Tractor Supply put my generator, a Briggs&Stratton, 8000 running watts, 13,500 startup, on sale, and at the same time I had a 15% discount card, so I got it at a good price. I probably have around a $1000-1100 in the generator and the disconnect box. So, I can live with having to drag it out and hook it up every few years, even if only for a few hours. Having to keep a supply of gas is the only issue. I remedy that by using Sta-Bil in the gas that's in the tank, and in the winter I keep 15 gallons of gas in 5 gallon jugs with Sta-Bil. In addition, I keep my hunting truck filled up, even though I rarely drive it. So, I'll have 35 gallons of gas available if anything happens. That's not a lot if the power was off was an extended period, but for a 3 or 4 day situation, it'll work.

I'm sure that it does work fine and propane doesn't degrade for decades, but some places that we've looked have covenants prohibiting large propane tanks.

Someone here in my community painted their 500 gallon propane tank up so it looks like a giant Charleston Grey watermelon.

Take that ya anal retentive neighbors.

Last big storm we got put my boat on the ñeighbors roof. Not much need for a generator. They sound groovy though.

I have a 22kw generac too on a 1000 gallon propane tank. The only problem is the power doesn't go out enough to really enjoy it. It does come on every week for a test and I shut the power off every once in awhile to give it a good work out.

No restrictions out here on tank size and no natural gas within miles.

I got a welder/generator last year. It should run most everything I need to run.



I would definitely consider a PTO generator now that I have a tractor that has a 540E PTO gear. It may be more efficient than running the welder. And I generally have many, many gallons of diesel on hand.

Got ours out and ran the house on it for about 15 minutes. It's a Champion dual fuel. Got it set up to hook into the house's propane and into a manual bypass. A little loud but it runs everything we need.

If you have newer appliances like smart TV's, fridges etc, consider an inverter type generator. I supplemented my 15 year old Troy Bilt with a new Champion 5Kw inverter generator, because I noticed that my fridge wasn't maintaining the temp it was set to using the Troy Bilt. Did a little research and found that smart electronics can sustain damage, and don't always works efficiently unless running on clean power.

I've posted pictures of our PTO 20,000KW generator in the rural section. When you need one they are life savers.

Are PTO generators very expensive[relative to regular gas]?

I bought ours in April of 1975. It was about $1200 then.

When Katrina hit I figured out that fuel was harder to come by than generators. If I had my druthers I’d have a big propane generator plumbed into my 150 gallon tank. I don’t lose electricity enough to justify it though so I make do with a smaller gas one. I have a 12V fuel transfer pump so I can pump gas out of my boat if needed, that’s 60 gallons sitting there.

Not cheap....thanks