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[Roger2561]

But not much.   My younger brother and I went out for dinner this evening.  Great food!  Upon returning home and after dropping my bro off at his place, I was entering my town and something wasn't right but I couldn't put my finger on it right away.  Then it dawned on me, no power in town.  Every home, business and street light was out.  When I got home my house was lit up due to having an emergency generator that automatically comes on when the power is lost.  That's a nice piece of security to have especially when I'm not home.  Roger

[Wood Nutt]

So what kind of generator setup do you have?  I have said for a while I want to do this and will probably be my next project.

[Roger2561]

So what kind of generator setup do you have?  I have said for a while I want to do this and will probably be my next project.

It's made by Generac.  It's a 12KV generator with autostart.  It runs on propane, which is no big deal.  I use propane to cook and dry my clothes.  We had an electrician do the connections for us due to not knowing what we were doing and not wanting to burn the place down.  What I like about it is it has a timer on it.  Once a week at a chosen time it fires itself up for 12 minutes which is long enough for it to do a self check and keep the battery topped off so that when I need it, like last night, it was there and I didn't have worry about it.  If you want the Reader's Digest version of how it works, I'll gladly spell it out for you.  Let me know.

If you're wondering cost, I do not remember for it about 12 years ago that it was installed.  It was installed due primarily to my aging dad being home alone all day.  We worried that if the power went out, he wouldn't be physically able to get the wood stove fired up.  At the time we heated the house and DHW with oil.  It gave my brothers and I a peace of mind and we able to concentrate on our jobs while we were at work.  Roger

[ecc_33]

Just bought a graverly 7500 watt gen yesterday. Now i can have a warm house and showers when the power goes out! Also have lights in the race trailer to work on my go kart at night!

[MattyNH]

Over the summer I bought a 6500 watt Generac generator..Works well..I only have .8 tenth of a hr on it so far lol..

[BoilerHouse]

A lot os us got our generator as we prepared for y2k.  (Still the most over-hyped non-event of the new millenium).  Anyways....generators have come down in price, a lot, since then.  No real reason that any rural person shouldn't have one. 

[MattyNH]

A lot os us got our generator as we prepared for y2k.  (Still the most over-hyped non-event of the new millenium).  Anyways....generators have come down in price, a lot, since then.  No real reason that any rural person shouldn't have one.

Y2K lol..I remember working with a guy in retail that was so nervous about it…He stored food..Had salted ham hung..I remember printing out anything for him that had anything to do with y2k..He had no internet access ..Yeah I agree with you on that..Generators are fairly cheap..Course it depends on what you want

[Roger2561]

A lot os us got our generator as we prepared for y2k.  (Still the most over-hyped non-event of the new millenium).  Anyways....generators have come down in price, a lot, since then.  No real reason that any rural person shouldn't have one.

If I were building a new home, it would be included it in the cost of construction.  Same applies for a heating system whether it be an OWB, pellet boiler; for DHW during the warmer time of year I'd go solar with gas backup for the those cloudy days, heat the DHW in the heating season with either the OWB or Pellet boiler.  Merry Christmas!  Roger

[juddspaintballs]

I have two very large military generators.  They aren't auto start, but even the "10k" MEP-003a will run a lot more than just my house.  It's very conservatively rated and unlike most standby generators, it is made for 100% duty cycle with a 300% surge rating.  I ran my parent's house off of it for over 3 days during Sandy and it didn't even go over 40% capacity on their all electric house.  I could probably run a small town if I had to fire up my MEP-004a...

[oldchenowth]

I'd like to find one like Judd.  Don't even know where to begin finding one. I have a 5500 and am going to invest in an 8000 next year or so.  A 10000 or 12000 would be ideal.

[juddspaintballs]

You can eBay a MEP-003a for about $3k in working order.  They will do 120/240 or 3 phase with the flip of a switch.