More generator talk....

[tRidiot]

Yikes.... well.


Looking at some of the prepper-type boards, it seems these old military castoffs are pretty highly regarded, am I wrong? I mean, it looks like a lot of people are going this route as an option to get higher output capability and longer life - these things seem to be rated at many thousands of hours, whereas the big box store units, even the Hondas, aren't usually going to be good for more than a few thousand.

Granted, I don't see myself needing to run this thing for 30,000 hours. At least I hope not. But, if we get a bad storm, I could run up a couple hundred hours' use fairly quickly. And I'm thinking of this adding a little bit to the resale of the house. Not so much in dollars, I don't see it raising my sale price so much as making the house more desirable and selling quicker. I know when I'm looking at a house, if I see it's already got a military-grade generator installed and wired properly to code for automatic switchover, then that's a really nice selling point for someone like me!


Am I totally barking up the wrong tree? As for the questions about capacity, I just don't see I will need 15kw or more. 10kw is somewhat overestimated for me, I think. My house is older, about 2200 sq feet. Gas heat and gas water heater. I'd love to switch to gas stove/cooktop, honestly, but that's in the future. My neighbor (the electrician who's going to install this) is like me, a hunter and gun guy, fireman, thinking ahead to disasters/TEOWAWKI/outages without being all "The sky is falling!" He has a 6500w at his house and his is similar to mine in most ways - size, electricity usage, etc. His genny he says is just slightly too small to run his AC. He can run heat in the winter, but not his central air unit. So... I figure 10kw oughtta get me where I need to be. I could go for a larger one, but I don't see myself needing the extra power and the additional fuel consumption is the downside, as is wedging it in where I'm planning on putting it.

So that's my reasoning. As always, I'm open to advice.



<edit> This is also a bit of a "test" run. I'm thinking if I get this to work out well, then when I sell this place and build my eventual permanent home, the place I really want, with some land, some space, etc., then I'll probably go for one of the bigger 15-20kw units, as it'll be more useful in that situation.

 

[Hobbes]

A military grade diesel genset would probably work just fine.
Diesel is also safer and fuel can be stored longer than gasoline can.

Don't underestimate the cost and complexity of how you will connect the generator to the home wiring.
If you go the conventional transfer switch route there will be the added cost of a good 6 or 8 circuit transfer switch and of course you will have to choose the branch circuits you wish to power in emergencies.
It wouldn't be uncommon to spend more than a $1K on the transfer switch and main panel rewiring.

You could energize the entire service panel and eliminate the transfer switch and gain the flexibility to power any branch circuit you choose.
The two most popular options here are the generlink transfer switch that is integrated into the meter base, or the interlockkit option which is what I chose.
Both are UL listed and approved.

 

[tRidiot]

Yup, my neighbor is going to switch out and rewire my whole panel.

 

[cowadle]

you need to look at how your genset is rated, my 5k surplus MEP 002A is rated at 5000 watts continues. that means it will run a 5K load indefinitely without overloading. it will start and run a 10K load for short periods of time like an hour or so before it starts to get hot. i can run my whole house air conditioner and all continues without any problem. normal hertz for our electricity is 60 and europe is 50HZ. all you have to do is set the rpm slower to lower the cycles or raise the rpm to raise the cycles, it is easy if you understand. some military gensets are 400 hz and you should stay away from them unless you need engine parts . most consumer gensets run at 3600 rpm and are rated at their max load,so lets say you have a genset rated a t 10K that means it will only run about half of that continues for short periods of time. if you want a genset for thunderstorms and such get at least a 10k and plan on turning off some of your electricity and you should be happy because the genset will be small and light. if you want to run extended periods then get something that runs 1800 rpm and is rated for continues duty. hope this helps.

 

[Okie4570]

Should you do a free standing, on demand, make sure the exhaust is piped up above the soffit vents. We've had 3 instances in the last few years where homeowners installed there's and it didn't get exhausted properly. It filled up the attic spaces with CO via the soffit vents, and therefore eventually filled the house with CO. Two of the houses had CO detectors and it was no big deal, but the other residence, fortunately the generator kicked on and was running during the day, they became ill. Good thing that it didn't occur while they were sleeping.

 

[Hump66]

Boom! 10k mil surp right here in OKC. Bid starts @ $25

http://www.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=10205973&convertTo=USD

 

[tRidiot]

Boom! 10k mil surp right here in OKC. Bid starts @ $25

http://www.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=10205973&convertTo=USD

Yes, those are the ones I have been looking at. I'll just need to find someone with a front end loader to put it in place when I get it home.

 

[cowadle]

a 10k military genset is probably more than you need. it will use twice the fuel as a 5k. how many amp load do you anticipate your load will be?

 

[cowadle]

http://www.marcorsyscom.marines.mil/Portals/105/pdmeps/docs/MEP/B0891B0921.pdf

here ya go^^^^^^ uses 1 gallon per hour no load

 

[Hobbes]

Diesel engines can be difficult to start in cold weather.
I would look for one with a block heater or be prepared to install a heat tape inside the housing.

This thread motivated me to exercise both my generators and change out the fuel today.