Anyone know anything about generators?

We are pretty much in the country where we live now so we have well water. So if the power goes out we also loose our water (not to mention our heat...). We had that icky storm roll through last night and, thank the Lord!, we ended up not getting much. Last winter we were hit with an awful blizzard that knocked out our power. Tressa was just 4 1/2 weeks old when that happened. It was out for over 24 hours and we ended up being evacuated because of the baby.

So yesterday when we were expecting heavy wet snow with wind I got nervous. What I am wondering is if a generator could run our water supply? My dad lives in up-state new york and he has one wired right into his house to run some things; but if I remember right he didn't think an average one would run too many things.

It would be fantastic if we could run the water and the heat! But I'd settle for the water and maybe a room or two so we can have operational phones and run a space heater. Portable gas heaters cause too many fires. With a little one in the house; going without running water is scary to me.

Answer is, yes...but there are a couple things to take into consideration.

1. Do you want gas, diesel, propane, or natural gas? The first 2 options will be the least expensive to purchase but also will need the most maintenance and the cost of running them is higher (they use more fuel to generate electricity). Natural gas and propane generators cost more to purchase but have less work to keep them running and they use less fuel.

2. How it is set up to power your home. In this you have a couple options.

2.1 First off, you could just run extension cords outside to the generator and then plug in the well pump, furnace, a light, etc. This is a fast way to get shocked and also bypasses the breaks in the panel which help protect appliances from overload due to shorts or power spikes.

2.2 Better option is to "back feed" the house. This means you use a 220 line (usually the AC outside) to feed power into the house system. This is much safer when compared to option 2.1 but care needs to be taken to not over energize the system. You will need to through the main breaker on the panel in order to do this. With this system all 110 outlets in your house will work but yo need to keep the load down, ie, only run what you need in order to stay warm and safe.

Both of the above options can be ran off something like this...
http://www.lowes.com/pd_204373-348-3...uantity_sold|1

2.3 Best option (most expensive) is to have a permanent generator installed that has a transfer switch built into the system.

http://www.bsapowersolutions.com/index.php

With a setup like this the generator will be able to scene when you lose power and automatically switch from utility power over to generated power. When the power comes back on, it shuts down and starts utilizing the utility power once again. With a setup like this (depending on the KW rating of the generator) you can live your life same as always...until you run out of fuel.


Also, here is a nifty little chart to help size out the generator that will be right for you,
http://www.mayberrys.com/honda/gener...quirements.htm

I hope this helps

How often you have an extended power outage compared to how often a generator thats actually portable would be useful is a question you have to ask yourself.

If you move, you lost your investment in a giant gas fed system. Few will pay you more than a nickel on the dollar for it.

Also beware true power output, a lot of these no-name chinese brands overstate what they can reliably run at, produce very "dirty" power that can damage your electronics, and are often noisy and when used so rarely are often out of warranty even just on their second use so there is little quality control.

Personally, I went with a pair of Yamaha EF2400iS. One person can lift it and put it in the back of a pickup truck, it runs quiet, is reliable, efficient, and you can daisy chain two together to double output. Its wired into the house, and w/ a modern 2000sqft home (mines built 2010 all energy star appliances and CFL lighting) can run the essentials to get by.

Very true about the resale on big generators and on the questionable quality of some others. I think the best thing for someone to do is start educating yourself on what is out there and what you are truly looking for. Personally, Kara and I are going to have a backup generator for the new house because of how far from town it is, we will be on well water which means if the power goes out we are without water as well, and the fact that we are planning on having 2 deep freezes full of food that would go bad if we lose power for more then a couple hours.

Thank you both for your advice and all the information! I will check out those links and share them with DH! I really do appreciate it!