Does anybody have any info on the Generac solar with battery backup? Will they run the whole house?
https://www.generac.com/for-homeowne...-solar-battery
Generac also makes whole house generators.
I'm old enough that I don't want to mess around hooking and unhooking stuff. We're on South Central Power and our power is very reliable. They do a good job trimming right of way.
Will they run whose whole house? Do the math on your major appliances and add a little fudge factor. I’d recommend being parsimonious with the power and switching the entire house over to LED lighting.Originally Posted by BN
#RESIST
Wanted to drop in to say I ordered a couple Champion 2500 dual fuel inverter gennies, model #200961, and a 30A #100740 parallel kit, today.
Intent is for both mobile/RV and limited home emergency backup use. For the RV part, the parallel kit should provide sufficient power for the camper (the parallel kit offers has a TT-30 30A RV service female outlet) based on my specific equipment needs. I have two 30# tanks. The parallel kit should provide the 13.9 running Amps I need for the 13.5k BTU AC, plus 5.2A DC fridge load, plus some spare for lights etc. if I run both, or just one if we only need the AC. (We're having a soft-start put in the camper to help with the startup current spike of the AC.) Plus, two is one, and all that.
The home part is planning ahead for disaster/hurricane season use. The concept is for us is to power a small window AC, plus the fridge. We'll just shut the door on the one room. This is mainly so we can sleep at night. FL is the pits in August, and having gone through several experiences with no power for 3-5 days, having a gennie is a lifesaver.
Our current little house has piped in propane, and the main accessory outlet for that it just outside on the lanai. We have a small Weber BBQ off of it, but would put the gennies in that location, which is convenient to the MBR. Or I can use 20# bottles is the gas supply is inop.
I looked at Honda but dang prices have gone sky-high. These Champion units are dual fuel already, seem highly rated and should do the job. I previously had a 5,000W Honda gennie, which I gave to our step son at Camp Lejuene. He still has it, seems to be running fine. It was just pretty heavy and awkward. Hence two smaller (39 lb) gennies for us.
I'll post back with how this all ends up working out later this spring.
There is usually a calculator on generator sales sites to help pick which generator, etc. On the Generac website its called the Power Design Pro
Here's the link to the Kohler Generator Selector. that I used when picking the one for our house.
If you go with a conventional generator, you want an automatic transfer switch. I only briefly looked into solar power walls as they were a new thing when we did our generator.
"You can't win a war with choirboys. " Mad Mike Hoare
Rich please update once you’ve had the opportunity to use these. I’m looking at the same generator. I usually lose power every time a chipmunk sneezes. Thankfully didn’t lose power with the snow/sleet storm that came through and I’d prefer to be prepared next time. Primary usage would be for the refrigerator and heating/cooling one room at night, season depending.
So: I have one arrive so far, and the other is coming today, the parallel kit on Monday. I picked up a 30# propane bottle today at Lowe's to break them in here at the house, and to have a way to run them sans the RV.
Question: I did look through up thread but didn't see an hour-meter mentioned. For tracking e.g. oil changes and usage, are there any go-tos for hour meters, or do ya'll just wire one up? I'm familiar with the concept, and can manage to buy and install one, either direct or inductive, but I was curious if there are any "here, order this on Amazon and be done" type of things available these days. TIA...
Will do.
FWIW, the big consumers in our travel trailer include:
Norcold RV compressor fridge, 6.8 cu ft - 5.2A max load
Dometic 13,500BTU RV AC with soft start - 13A running
Since Watts =Amps x Volts, I need around 18.2A x 120V or 2,184W for the AC and fridge, alone. The Champion 2500 is rated 2500W starting / 1,665W, running on propane. With two of those, I'll have a capacity of 2x1,665W, or 3,330W. Hence the paralink cable, the box of which sits on top of one of the gennies providing an RV TT-30 30A female. So for my use case, they will support the hotel load of AC+Fridge, plus some wiggle room for Her Hair Dryer + Her Microwave + Lights + Misc and unforeseen (perhaps not all at the same time, though). Or if all we really need is the AC, I can just (about) run it on the single gennie, and switch off the other circuit breakers on my travel trailer distribution panel.
As to why not just get a single 3,500W: both myself and Mrs. Rich are not as young as we used to be; lugging a 95 lb gennie into the truck is beyond us. But we can (just) manage the 39 lb Champions ourselves. Plus two is one, and all that.
Hope this helps.
I am beginning to research/shop for a portable generator. My first issues is figuring out capacity. Being South FL, I need it to power AC and a well pump, Fridge (as major components) in addition to regular outlets. The house is approx 2700 sq ft.
I found some online calculators, but can't make heads or tails of them. Is the 12KW peak/9500KW peak be sufficient? Do I need to start looking at 13kw/10500 or higher?
I am thinking of purchasing it from HomeDepot. How is Duromax and Westinghouse for brands?
Here are some models I am looking at:
WestingHouse 12.5/9.5
Westinghouse 15k/12k
Duromax 13k/10.5
Best to check the specs on your actual equipment, as some things especially A/C units can vary quite a bit. There should be a label on the outdoor unit with values for the compressor like LRA and RLA. LRA (Locked Rotor Amps) is the current required at startup, RLA (Rated Load Amps) is the max current it could use while continuing to run. Your generator needs to be sized appropriately for the LRA (in addition to other loads).
For example, LRA on my A/C is 60, which would require a generator with starting watts in the 15kW range. Someday I'd like to have a whole-house propane generator capable of that, but my priorities were heat and water, so I sized my portable generator to my well pump. A 1.5hp pump requires about 7500 starting watts.
I am curious if anyone has experience with soft start kits for compressors, such as these, available here. Supposedly reduces LRA by 60% or so. Wondering if there is any downside...why wouldn't the manufacturer just build it that way in the first place?
Can't comment on those specific generators, but if you're not in a hurry I'd suggest signing up for emails at Zoro. A 20% off coupon that works on generators comes around pretty regularly.
I'd be interested, I have been meaning to put some hour meters on the homestead's small engines as I just worked through oil changes on all the equipment.
Also an recommendations on small engine oil? I was thinking about start to buy gallons of AMSOIL to have around.
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