Generator Help

[Parront]

Depending on your set-up and how hands-on you are, you could size the generator to only run 1 frig at a time. We have a guest house, our small refrigerator out there would have to be plugged in, run enough to cool, and unplugged so that we could plug in the big house frig. I have considered moving critical items to the small frig to use less power/fuel. Our furnace has a circuit board that costs $500 to replace. (Don't ask me how I learned this) Heating with propane in an outage.

 

[Chuckie chicken]

Chuckie chicken​

With your 14KW, of power, you can most-likely run your Air conditioning, and be fine. I have a small unit only to run bare-bone essentials.
Furnace, and refrigerators.
We have had power outages winter, and summer. Longest was 3 days.

Yeah, I leave the central air on, no problem. I think our longest outage was also 3 days due to an ice storm 8 or 9 years ago. We've had a few others that were 12 or 14 hours, lots that were 1 to 8 hours. I don't think we've ever adjusted our usage for the generator (other than maybe the clothes dryer which we don't use that often), but we're not really energy hogs to begin with.

 

[Chuckie chicken]

Depending on your set-up and how hands-on you are, you could size the generator to only run 1 frig at a time. We have a guest house, our small refrigerator out there would have to be plugged in, run enough to cool, and unplugged so that we could plug in the big house frig. I have considered moving critical items to the small frig to use less power/fuel. Our furnace has a circuit board that costs $500 to replace. (Don't ask me how I learned this) Heating with propane in an outage.

Exactly. If you have a second fridge that isn't opened very often it will stay cold for a long time. You could easily switch the genny back and forth a couple of times a day and not spoil anything.

 

[cavemanrich]

Our furnace has a circuit board that costs $500 to replace. (Don't ask me how I learned this)

The service thief could have possibly juiced you. PM me and I can help with questions. I worked in HVAC,

 

[Parront]

The service thief could have possibly juiced you. PM me and I can help with questions. I worked in HVAC,

My husband did some electrical, found a plug that had the polarity reversed. Fixed it, then plug in the furnace, suddenly, no furnace. This old place, they guy how installed the furnace probably reversed the furnace to match the circuit, is what we suppose.

 

[Chuckie chicken]

The service thief could have possibly juiced you. PM me and I can help with questions. I worked in HVAC,

$500 fuse on the board?

 

[Chuckie chicken]

My husband did some electrical, found a plug that had the polarity reversed. Fixed it, then plug in the furnace, suddenly, no furnace. This old place, they guy how installed the furnace probably reversed the furnace to match the circuit, is what we suppose.

 

[Parront]

Exactly. If you have a second fridge that isn't opened very often it will stay cold for a long time. You could easily switch the genny back and forth a couple of times a day and not spoil anything.

We have that situation. The big house freezer/frig would get opened more and need more power. In an extended outage, we would move things that have not been eaten yet to to nearly empty guest house frig, only 10 cu ft. to conserve fuel. We have 9 bottles of propane on hand and have not run out, knock on wood. Our house is on the main line for the local utility, the longest we have been out here is 2 days. Hardly even needed a generator.

 

[Brooks_]

Yeah, my fridges are ~26 cf side by sides. Freezer portions are stuffed. I could alternate them, but I feel running them during the day only would fit my needs better. Last major outage was 7 days...lost almost everything from the one (at the time) fridge. Don't wanna do that again. No amount of FEMA food stamps will make up for what I've put in the freezer. There is a plan in place for next week (if Elsa stays on projection). I just need to be prepared for after that.

 

[GC-Raptor]

I have a small conventional generator 3500 watt, 120/240 volt.
I can run my 240 volt well pump, a 18 c.f. fridge, a 5 c.f. chest freezer and a furnace or a 8000 window AC.
I can run my washing machine if I shut off the furnace.
I can run my toaster oven, or microwave, or a 1100w single plug-in burner if I shut off the fridge.
I have a propane hot water tank with pilot light, no electric needed.
My generator has a 4 gallon tank and will run about 12 hours overnight keeping fridge, freezer and well pump running, no heat or AC.
Including heat or AC overnight about 8 hours run time.
I could also run my TV, but most power outages knock out cable.
The longest power outage was 7 days.
I recharge my phone and tablet without a problem.

The generator is very hard to start in temps below freezing and I couldn't get it started when temps were below 20 F. Fortunately power was out for less an hour. It is stored outside.
My next one will have electric start and will be a size bigger, 5500 instead of 3500 watts. GC