OMG! The power's out!! (article)

[TwoTankAmin]

Just a thought here, especially since we are in the process of hooking up a whole house meregency backup generator. There is more involved than just providing electricity to run tank equipment. you may also have to deal with temperature issues. if you lose power in winter when its cold, you tank heaters will not compenstae for house temps that may plummet into the freezing range in an extended blackout. Similarly, power outage in the middle of a summer heat wave may leave you dealing with heat issues without air conditioning to alleviate them.

We ae looking at installing a propane fired 200 amp generator which will put out somewhere between 30 and 45kw of power and automatically come on when powrer is lost for 30 seconds and will turn off when power is restored.

 

[loaches r cool]

Those standby units are really nice - if you experience frequent outages. But round here it isnt very often at all, and I dont have the extra thousands to put into such a system, or make that tens of thousands ! last i checked a 40KWer was round 15 grand or so? Sure would be nice though! But even my 5600W unit can power a hi draw app like my water heater or central air, so long as everything else is kept to a minimum while the they are runnin.

For winter outages, I have also equiped myself with a Big Buddy portable propane heater http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=4382667 which will put out 18,000BTU and with the fan running can keep almost all of my upstairs warm. In conjunction with the fireplace downstairs, I can keep the whole house except for a couple end bedrooms warm in down to around freezing (havent tested it much under freezing though). Now that I have a generator I can also put electric heaters in the hard to heat rooms (or just run the furnace, but I have to do some wiring before I can run the furnace on the gen).

 

[coupedefleur]

Those standby generators could be really helpful if there's a major outage in the winter, for those of us in the north. A major ice storm can knock out enough power lines so things don't get fixed for days. And if that happens, all your plumbing pipes can freeze and burst. And if you've got a boiler with hot water heat the heating system can be ruined as well. When you add up the cost of replacing all that, plus tearing out walls and ceilings to fix 2nd floor plumbing, the cost of those standby systems start to look more reasonable.

And if you're away on vacation when the power goes out, what will you do? We had that happen a long time ago, and I lost all my fish, including some rare f1 krib relatives that I had bred. I had a friend taking care of my fish, but the electric company kept telling him that the power was going to come on in an hour or so. At least running the gas stove kept the pipes from freezing.

I wonder if any homeowners insurance companies give you a price break if you have a standby system? Some give a discount if you have a monitored fire and burglar alarm.

 

[jessicar613]

Just a thought here, especially since we are in the process of hooking up a whole house meregency backup generator. There is more involved than just providing electricity to run tank equipment. you may also have to deal with temperature issues. if you lose power in winter when its cold, you tank heaters will not compenstae for house temps that may plummet into the freezing range in an extended blackout. Similarly, power outage in the middle of a summer heat wave may leave you dealing with heat issues without air conditioning to alleviate them.

We ae looking at installing a propane fired 200 amp generator which will put out somewhere between 30 and 45kw of power and automatically come on when powrer is lost for 30 seconds and will turn off when power is restored.

We lost power for a week a few years ago when we had an ice storm, and we used our kerosene heater. It actually kept our (small) house warmer than our furnace. We even cooked on top of it.

Just a thought; a kerosene heater is cheap, easy insurance for heat problem (not just for fish warmth, for people too). For the not-so-handy among us.