seaver41 Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 I am going to purchase a generator for our home since last year we have lost power for over a week when storm hits. The amount of money lost in food would have paid for the generator. I have it narrowed down to a few, one is generac. Any one seen any to good to be true sales? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppermint Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 I'm interested in the response to this. I'm looking for anything 3000w and up. I haven't seen any BF sales yet so if any one knows of any, please post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
len_mullen Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 (edited) Cabela's Item Price Champion 3500 Watt Generator Weekender Package (earlybird) $279.99 Champion Weekender 3,500-Watt Generator Kit (with wheel kit and cover) $309.99 Gander Mountain Champion 3500/4000 Watt Generator w/ Free Wheel Kit $324.99 Home Depot Tools: Powermate 3000-Watt Portable Generator w/ Manual Start $199.00 Edited November 13, 2012 by len_mullen missed one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muffycat Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 This in our list. 14 days without power was not nice. I'm looking at 6000 watt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lamb616 Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 great idea of something to grab on BF. It's one of those things I always say I"m going to buy but never get around to it. We don't have Cabelas or Gander Mountain though and the 3,000 at HD won't do much good. I think we need at least 6,000 (2 sump pumps which would be the main thing we want to run) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 I bought my Generac from Amazon several years ago. At that time they had better prices than pretty much anywhere plus free delivery (very nice with something heavy like a generator). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bclvr61889 Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 First my heart goes out to all of those who lost loved ones due to Sandy. Living in Michigan we would lose power frequently due to storms both summer and winter. The last big one we had knocked us out with projections of weeks by our energy provider. That same night someone thought it would be nice to try to break into homes in our neighborhood (including mine). We went to Sears the next day and purchased a 5000 watt gen. It powers everything in my house except the air conditioner. ( we had it hard wired) It paid for itself on the first day. If I recall we paid about 800 for it then. Good luck, God bless you all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose0426 Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 great idea of something to grab on BF. It's one of those things I always say I"m going to buy but never get around to it. We don't have Cabelas or Gander Mountain though and the 3,000 at HD won't do much good. I think we need at least 6,000 (2 sump pumps which would be the main thing we want to run)I picked up a Generac 5500 2 years ago when Home Depot had the Facebook sales during the summer. I think we paid about $350. We never used it until 2 weeks ago with the storm. We lost power for about 15 hours and were able to power our 2 sump pumps, refrigerator and our TV, until cable went out. It's one of those purchases you buy (DH thought I was crazy), but hope you never need to use, wonder if you wasted your money, but when you need it, are so glad you did. If not for our generator, the whole basement would have been flooded again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
len_mullen Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 We routinely lose power for a week of more. I grabbed a hu5000 generator and a 3006HDK from home depot on BF a couple years back. The whole mess was $718 and we are very happy. My six circuits are well pump (2), furnace, kitchen (frig), master bedroom, and a funky circuit that feeds lights throughout my house. Two outlets on the generator feed my TV amplifiers and whatever I need to plug in (a chainsaw last storm). We're clean, warm, fed, and entertained. When the power comes back, I close the fuel line and let it stall, unplug, and drag back into the garage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaver41 Posted November 14, 2012 Author Share Posted November 14, 2012 i am trying to figure out just how much power i need. I'm not going to wash or dry clothes. we have a gas grill to cook. I have two frig's and a chest freezer. we have satellite tv to power. I am not worried about my sump i just don't get that much water to pump. I have oil heat but we have a fireplace for heat. As i read the more confused i get. I really want to stick with generac a good brand from the reviews. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
len_mullen Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Seaver, there are three approaches: 1) run a cord from the generator to an electric appliance, 2) run your whole house from the generator, or 3) run a subset of circuits from the generator. You can have a generator installed that switches on when you lose power and switches out when power returns. Consider propane for this kind of hands off approach because gas goes bad quickly while propane has no shelf life. If you just want to power those refrigerators, you can get a portable generator. Mine has five outlets that can deliver power to 110v appliances via heavy duty extensions. I use a portable generator with a transfer switch to power six circuits in my home -- my well pump (two circuits), my furnace, my kitchen (inc. frig), my bedroom, and a circuit of lights that run throughout the house. Two outlets on the generator power my TV dustribution and amplification hardware which is near the generator plus whatever I need to plug in via extension. It's an expensive compromose that keeps me warm, clean, fed, informed, and entertained during an outage. We do not wash or dry clothes or use out stove. We have a grill plus electric indoor appliances (induction surface, fryer, griddle, crock pot). Use this calculator to determine your power needs. Remember that you are warming your house to keep pipes from freezing. I recommend keeping your furnace powered if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barc Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 len_mullen is right on the money. Transfer switch and separate panel for switched circuits is the way to go if you lose power more than a few hours once or twice a year. A whole house generator is usually headache free. They run for about 10 minutes once a week and run self diagnostics to insure they'll work when needed. With a whole house, almost all will sense a power loss and kick on automatically. Most efficient are propane, then natural gas and then you get into petro products like gasoline, deisel or even biodegradable oils. Portable generators can be almost as heavy as whole house units but are often on wheels and can be carted around. They have the duel use of also being able to use them away from the house when power is needed such as camping, working on the back 40, etc. I recommend that you stay away from Champion generators (or any of their engine products). They are mass produced in China with minimal quality controls and dumped in the US market. Stay with Generac or Honda. You'll pay a little more, but you'll be much happier when you need it to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGoaT Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Has anyone found a deal on anything 5000W or higher? I've only seen the little 3500W ones in the Black Friday Ads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momee2twins Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Newb question on generators...if we got a whole house one, could it be tied in to the natural gas line that we have that runs our hot water heaters and fireplace? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stowasser Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Newb question on generators...if we got a whole house one, could it be tied in to the natural gas line that we have that runs our hot water heaters and fireplace?our gas hot water runs without power. We just lost power for about 4 hours, the only thing we could do was shower and wash dishes (by hand), I don't think they have electricity to them unless there is some electric starter. Our gas furnace didn't work because the fan is electric..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momee2twins Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 I was wondering if the generator could be tied to the gas line so that the gas would power it to run the fridge, freezer, tv & lights. Our water heater will run without electricity (if pilot goes out, have to light by hand) and we have a gas fireplace that we light by hand. Where we live, usually not a big snow problem, but we get storms every couple of years that knock the state out for a week since they aren't ready for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerfan Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 Yes a whole house generator is one that is tied into a gas or propane and it tests it self 1x a week by automatically switching over from regular electricity to being run by the generator. I am not sure about natural gas but can ask DH when he gets home tomorrow. It stays outside all year on a pad and is always connected to the source. The generators shown about are NOT whole house generators. THose generators are the ones that are pull to start. With those you get a transfer switch connect the items you want to be run by the generator and when you lose power you "wheel it outside" and connect the plug from it to the transfer switch panel. Then you pull start it to get it going. Depending on how much stuff you have to run those generators can run your whole house. They just dont automatically transfer when you lose power. Whole house generators come in different sizes and again depending on what you want to be able to run they can do it. SOme people dont have a lot of electric appliances so a smaller whole house can do the same job for them as one that I would have to get for my house since everything is electric except for my furnace which just has an electric switch but is run by propane. I hope I was able to explain the differences. DH is an Electrician and has installed both types of generators. As a matter of fact we will be getting one ourselves in the spring with our tax return. Our unit I think he said will be 17,000 watts the biggest they have and is about $4,000 for it It will run our entire house automatically as if we did not lose power we wont even notice the transfer. DH will be doing the installation in house and he will only have to contact the propane company to come and connect to our tank. Newb question on generators...if we got a whole house one, could it be tied in to the natural gas line that we have that runs our hot water heaters and fireplace? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
len_mullen Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 That is a possibility. Keep in mind that the emergency that leaves you without power may result in the natural gas lines being shut off. If I were going natural gas, I'd probably go triple fuel. With triple fuel, you could switch to propane or even gasoline if you lost access to natural gas. That said, I'm pretty happy with my portable gasoline generator. It's inexpensive, self-installed, and reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momee2twins Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 I'll have to talk to some of our friends. DH isn't particularly handy, so we sort of need one that is ummm...for the tech challenged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerfan Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 A whole house gives you piece of mind. We have one of the smaller generators (it used to cover our entire previous house) we used it during Sandy to run our fridge and our furnace not at the same time. DH has to be hear to run it since I can't, that is why we are getting a whole house one that will do everything automatically. THat way he wont worry about us when he is not home. You can get a whole house installed and then you wont have to worry about it. I'll have to talk to some of our friends. DH isn't particularly handy, so we sort of need one that is ummm...for the tech challenged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
len_mullen Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 I'll have to talk to some of our friends. DH isn't particularly handy, so we sort of need one that is ummm...for the tech challenged.Starting a portable is like starting a lawnmower. Once you have the switch installed, you drag the generator outside, plug it in, pull the cord, then flip the switch inside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
len_mullen Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 I lost power again for a couple hours as I finished typing the last post. Ironic, no? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laddhorn Posted November 14, 2012 Share Posted November 14, 2012 How does this one sound? http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/campaigns/kube/kubex15.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barc Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 . Our unit I think he said will be 17,000 watts the biggest they have and is about $4,000 for it It will run our entire house automatically as if we did not lose power we wont even notice the transfer. DH will be doing the installation in house and he will only have to contact the propane company to come and connect to our tank.Very good info racerfan. Just one correction: Generac offers whole house units in 5 or 10Kw increments starting at around 10Kw and going up to 20Kw, 25Kw and all the way to 60Kw. If you have large power needs such as two zone air conditioning in a hot climate, unusually large house, and/or multiple fridges and/or freezers, you can get a 20 - 25 Kw and power the whole house. You should be able to get a smaller unit (10Kw) for about $3500 installed and a substaintale mid-range unit (20 - 25Kw) for about $7500 depending on where you live. If you have a spouse who can install them (electic and the fuel supply like tying into the natural gas line main or the propane tank) you'll save a few hundred to maybe even $1000. A 60Kw unit will power a multi-unit dwelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
racerfan Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 Sorry I should have said that the one we are getting is the largest that Home Depot carries. DH checked them out and he says based on our house their largest was fine for us. We have everything electric except for our Heater (propane) with electric start but we mainly use our wood stove with electric blower. DH has been researching them for a while but we never felt the need for one until losing power last year with Hurricane Irene and then again this year with Hurricane Sandy. I refuse to go thru it again so said we are getting one Very good info racerfan. Just one correction: Generac offers whole house units in 5 or 10Kw increments starting at around 10Kw and going up to 20Kw, 25Kw and all the way to 60Kw. If you have large power needs such as two zone air conditioning in a hot climate, unusually large house, and/or multiple fridges and/or freezers, you can get a 20 - 25 Kw and power the whole house. You should be able to get a smaller unit (10Kw) for about $3500 installed and a substaintale mid-range unit (20 - 25Kw) for about $7500 depending on where you live. If you have a spouse who can install them (electic and the fuel supply like tying into the natural gas line main or the propane tank) you'll save a few hundred to maybe even $1000. A 60Kw unit will power a multi-unit dwelling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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