Home Standby Generator

friend has one. 30kw drinking from a 500gal propane tank..total run time 22 days running entire house.

in the decade he has lived in that house, he has actually used it twice..total about 4 hours.

I know cause we were JUST having this conversation this week as I was looking into doing it at my house... I just can't stomach the cost..and I'm a cash guy..so wasn't looking to have a loan for this.

my home is 3600sq, 2 story, 3 seperate HVAC units...so even if I take those out of the equation...

bottom line, it's a lot less convenient, but in the 17yrs we've lived here, I've had a total of 3 power outs due to storm..longest one was just over 2 hrs.

my current gennies are not large enough to run the well pump..and that was a choice...going big enough just to have running water meant engaging a gas guzzler.
my main intent is to keep the fridge and freezers going, have some basic lights,TV even during normal outtages.

we keep a half dozen of the blue 7gal water jugs filled, purified,stablized water.
If we know a storm is coming, we fill bathtub for flushable, put a blue jugup on the counter for handwashing, and we have a berky for drinking and there's always a case of bottled water on hand anyway.

there's an inground pool out back to pull water from if needed and with a couple of inland bound hurricane remnants, I filled the water tank on the travel trailer, so if we wanted a couple nice hot showers, we have that option as well.

all this to say..certainly a whole-house system is the great peace of mind and convenience.. I just can't afford it...since we are campers, I've got options...smaller certainly , but effective and efficient..examples include solar recharging of numerous deep cells (2 on boat, 2 on camper) plus a booster/battery 1200w unit for some short term help that recharges nicely from solar panel or car.

optional heat sources include Big Buddy propane heater with adaptor hose to run off larger bottles and that supply of propane has many uses here...firepit, grill, camper, and there's a mid-sized genny dual fuel that's large enough to run the entire camper (AC and all) or to power fridge/freezer/basic lighting during a storm and it'll give me a solid 10hrs on a 20lb bottle at that load.

if I have to crank up the gas unit (lil honda eu2000) then there's a couple 5gal cans always around for the yard rigs, and I can pull from the lawn tractor and the 4wheeler if I'm down to my last couple gallons of gulps for that genny.

all this to say.. I admit, I'm envious of the folks that have whole house systems and can afford them... I've kinda pieced my systems together over the years based on our normal recreational enjoyment and then figured out how those can be resources during a distaster.

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Home Standby Generator